Trying to get international celebrities onto a few fish can be a mission far and above your average fishing outing, but the journey alone is always lots of extra fun.
I recently dropped everything to get Wiggles Anthony Field and Jeff Fatt out on the water while a short breather in their hectic schedule coincided with a good patch of weather around their home base of Sydney.
After meeting the lads and sharing a few laughs on Camera, we headed out off Botany Bay with Dean Popovic of Sealord Charters.
Picking the right boat was half the battle. I have some great contacts up that way, but few had a boat big enough or fast enough for the job required.
The Wiggles Really Big Fishing Trip: L to R. Anthony Fields, Rob Paxevanos and Jeff Fatt ham it up on the set of Fishing Australia.
So, after much homework before hand, I found that Dean runs what looked like an amazingly well set up custom built 40’ Sailfish Cat. Thankfully the pictures matched the real thing.
What also attracted me to Deans operation in the first place, was that the pics on his web site were of fish that you can expect to catch-not just the once in a lifetime whoppers that most people post up on their site. Now don’t get me wrong, my contacts tell me that Dean gets as many big fish as anyone across the year, but him being up front about what’s realistic in one outing makes for a much better day for all.
It was also evident early on in the piece that his standards matched the quality of the boat-I can now rank him as one of the classiest charter boat operators I have ever been fishing with!
Dean has all his own gear, but I love using and testing my own, and in this case I took 12 rod and reel outfits-my biggest stash ever. Let’s face it, I had to cover everything from light tackle sports fishing on lures, to reef fishing and game fishing.
As I carried this gear through the hotel lobby the receptionist smiled-‘I take it you’re going fishing tomorrow…’ Yes I had enough tackle to start a shop.
It is worth noting that I would never use all the gear in one trip, but fishing on the telly, especially with celebrities, and especially with a short time frame in hard fished waters, is all about being ready for whatever turns up.
When it came to the crunch things got a little more hectic- as it turned out Jeff and Anthony only had about an hour’s actual fishing time up their sleeve. This put the pressure on Dean and I big time.
With this super short session in mind we targeted what we hoped should come quickly- inshore salmon, bonito, kingfish etc on the troll around the headlands.
We all dread the day when fish have mouth wide shut syndrome, and after 15 minutes that thought was starting to creep into my mind, especially given the high over head sunshine, and the run out tide!
But we stuck to the plan and it worked-we were soon hooked up and the lads lifted yet another gear as rods bowed and ratchets sung.
Bites, Camera Action!
We landed one hefty aussie salmon around 3 kilos, lost one at the boat about the same size, got three or four obligatory bonito and a rat king.
Anthony had to get home mid afternoon to start writing a new series for the ABC, so we charted a course for home happy we had done really well given the scenario.
A fish plays up near the boat
Despite being hugely entertaining, the lads showed a real interest in learning about sustainable fishing, and were as genuine and nice as the characters they are famous for portraying. Is it any wonder they are such a big hit with young and old across the globe-it really was my pleasure having them aboard.
More on my ‘under the pump’ lure choice soon, should get a chance to pen this tomorrow.
See you on the water
Rob Paxevanos
I LOVED THIS ARTICLE. I love the Wiggles…!;-) They are great guys!