How it all began

My fishing life didn't start with a 'Silstar' (yes, they were a reputable brand when I was a kid) spoon in my mouth. Like many young kids, I was gifted a glorified toy as my introduction to fishing; a $12 plastic combo, complete with floats that didn't float, hooks with misformed eyes and spooled with slinkey-esque mono. You know the type:

In spite of its many faults, this gear still got me hooked on fishing, and indeed into a number of fish, before inevitably the reel catastrophically died during standard, run-of-the-mill use; the drag nut popped off into the water due to a very poorly formed thread, rendering the reel useless.

All was not lost. I had a piggy bank in which, once I counted up all the 1c and 2c pieces, had the roughly $15 to buy a replacement Jarvis Walker something-or-other (Vector maybe?) from Big W. It was the cheapest reel I could find. It didn't boast of ball bearings, a long cast spool or even its gear ratio.

At this time (early 90s), with Rex Hunt on the screen talking about quiver tips and Baitrunners and fly fishing, I was nonetheless happy with my 'toy' rod and ultra-cheap Jarvis Walker reel. My dad would take me to Mordialloc Pier, where I would catch the occasional mullet or tiny salmon, or if I could convince him to take me there at nightfall, flathead and pinkies. Dad didn't fish, so he usually read books; with me if it wasn't windy, or in the car if it was. I didn't catch many fish, but I still loved every minute out there.

As I approached 10 years old, I begged mum and dad for an inflatable boat. They were only $25 in the department store catalogues, including oars, and I was convinced they'd be fine for fishing. I was right. Instead of spending hours on piers, dad and I would get up at dawn on Saturday morning and check the wind. If it was calm, we'd load up the Falcon wagon, stop at the garage on South Rd (Moorabbin) to pump up the boat, then launch off Brighton Beach.

I had no concept of how dangerous this was. I don't think dad really did either. To begin with, we were about 100-150m off the shore of Port Phillip Bay in a vinyl pool toy, the only propulsion method being dad's rowing with the supplied plastic oars. Add to that a couple of fishing rods (we'd been given another one for dad to use) with twin hook paternosters, a knife and inevitably a nice feed of spiky flathead, and you'd be forgiven for thinking us to be lunatics. One time, we were looking around for a replacement for our 'blow up boat' at a boatyard. We asked the sales assistant if he had any 8 foot or smaller tinnies, and explained our current equipment. He forthrightly stated that even if he did have one, he wouldn't sell it to us for our own safety.

The one I had was called 'Atlantic Blue II'. In its honour, my actual, real grown-up boat is named Atlantic Blue III

In spite of our lunacy, we persisted with the pool toy for about 3 years, until I became self-sufficient in transporting myself down to Mordialloc on the train, and more than proficient enough to bring home at least a feed of fish every trip.The same toy fishing rod and Jarvis Walker reel lasted the whole journey, having not a problem with even some of the larger fish we'd occasionally encounter (snapper, KG whiting, barracouta, big blue-spot flathead etc). Both finally died; the rod from being closed in one too many car doors, and the reel from a broken anti-reverse spring.

To fit in better with the retiree and dole bludging crowd at Mordialloc, I saved up and bought myself a 'pole'; they were all the rage for the growing coarse fishing scene thanks to Terry Sheppard's emergence on the fishing scene in Australia. In case you're wondering, it was a whole $20 from the Compleat Angler on Nepean Highway, which was then staffed by (most notably) Adam Royter. That pole lasted me another decade or so, until it eventually snapped while setting the hook on a tommy ruff; it was a sad moment, though I'd long since bought a back up and a few other rods to boot.

Oh yeah! What a beast! I have no idea why, but this guy made coarse fishing seriously sexy!

Twenty years on from the heady days of the 'blow-up' boat and toy fishing gear, I've developed a bit of a curiosity about cheap fishing gear once again. I've moved to the Torres Strait, where both the fish and the climate push gear to its limits. Most of my gear was already at the point of replacement, having around a decade of frequent use around Canberra and the NSW South Coast. It's time to buy some new stuff, and I'm thinking 'why not'? Why not do some proper testing of some really cheap gear?