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The Making of the Strike Zone
By Alistair McGlashan
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Capturing the secret life of gamefish isn’t always smooth sailing.
Working as a fulltime
fishing journalist I’m
always on a quest
to learn more about
gamefish. Like most anglers, I wonder
what really goes on under the surface. Do
marlin really whack the bait with their bill?
Do yellowtails turn the bait around and
swallow it headfirst? The problem is that
we only get to see what happens above
the water; the rest is based on conjecture.
A chance meeting with cameraman Ron
Croft changed all this for me. This award-
winning cinematographer, with credentials
from National Geographic, and more
recently films like “Superman Returns”
and “Happy Feet”, was looking for a new
challenge. He was instantly fascinated by
my quest to film predator/prey interaction
underwater. We quickly set about trying to
create the Strikezone video series.
Our aim was to make a series of fishing
DVDs with underwater footage exposing
the secret lives of fish like marlin, yellowtail,
cobia, makos and mahi. “Kind of
like a fishing documentary loaded with
non-stop fishing action and a bit of ‘Blue
Planet’ style underwater footage,” says
Ron. “Most importantly, we wanted to
teach anglers something that will improve
their fishing skills”.
Our ideas looked great on paper, but
when we actually set about fulfilling this
dream we quickly discovered it was no
easy task. The first problem was finding a
camera suitable for the job. After months
of searching we finally realized there was
nothing suitable available commercially.
So Ron, who happened to be a camera
technician in a previous life, simply built
one himself. On our very first camera trial
we tied a live bait directly to the back of
the camera and started trolling. The first
of many problems was that the camera insisted
on running upside down. While we
were busy problem-solving, a 10-pound
yellowtail casually swam up and scoffed
the bait down. The visual was great - we
were hooked, even if it all happened upside
down!
“Strikecam”, as we affectionately named
our creation, would lead us on a very steep
learning curve. That first year of shooting
was full of jubilation and frustration. “We
crashed the camera in to the bottom, trolled
it upside down, broke everything imaginable,”
laughs Ron. “We even tangled it
around the fishing lines costing us more
than a few fish.”
One of the most spectacular “accidents”
occurred courtesy of a mako shark. I was
in the process of dropping the camera
out behind the boat when suddenly the
cable came to life in my hands. I yelled
to Ron to check the monitor. He couldn’t
see anything - the screen was black. This
apparent “malfunction” grew embarrassing,
as there were potential sponsors on
board. It was only when the mako let go
and swam alongside, glaring at the camera,
that we realized what had happened. Our
$12,000 camera had been down the mako’s
gob, and had the scars to prove it! Since
that day we’ve filmed a number of makos
ignoring live baits, preferring instead to
engulf our Strikecam. What’s even more
amazing, and has sparked an interest from
the scientific community, is that all these
encounters have occurred right off one of
Sydney’ most popular beaches.
OF MURPHY’S LAW AND MARLIN
Though we’re very happy with how
the DVD looks now, we had more than
our fair share of stuff-ups along the way.
Getting our first marlin bite on film was a
drawn out series of disasters - funny how
billfish don’t listen when the film director
says, “Action!” During the first year
of marlin filming we caught heaps of fish
on the deep baits, but try as we might, we
couldn’t tempt one to rise up to the camera.
To make matters worse the fishing then
slowed, making it very difficult to live bait.
To top it all off we had to keep a crew committed
to filming marlin instead of catching
them. Eventually when I did manage to get
a black marlin to eat a bait, the tape failed!
On another occasion we were filming
a pod of porpoise ducking and weaving
across the bow. The footage was sensational
until we realized no one had pressed
the record button! While making “Tuna
Time” a huge mahi swam right up to the
boat. We were amazed as the fish happily
accepted sardines. I even managed
to hand feed it. The underwater footage
would have been spectacular but we simply
couldn’t get the camera to work. Only
later did we discover that a tiny but vital
wire had snapped during the run out over
rough seas. Then there were all the days
we smashed our way 30 miles out to sea
in my 18-ft alloy centre console, only to
return home with nothing to but bruises, a
big fuel bill and more broken equipment.
IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED…
In between the failures we also had
sensational successes that have intrigue
anglers and scientists alike. “Much of what
we’ve filmed is the complete opposite to
what we thought happened underwater,”
recalls Strikezone angler George Trinkler.
“Seeing a yellowtail trying to snatch a bait
headfirst and flicking it off the hook in
the process is out of this world,” he says.
Early failures with billfish have also
become a distant memory. A change in
Strikecam tactics has seen us film as many
as ten fish on Strikecam in a single day. Instead
of trying to film live bait we adjusted
the size of the fins and the stabilization
weights on the camera so we were able to
troll the camera at up to ten knots. With
that speed, we started to run teasers over
it. Success was instant. Suddenly we were
filming multiple fish every day. “What is
truly amazing is the number of fish that
we see on the camera that are never seen
on the teaser,” recalls Mick Lyons, one of
Strikezone’s regular anglers.
“Strikecam is giving us a new appreciation
of what’s going on underneath and is
making us better anglers.” When marlin
approach live baits on the camera they casually
cruise up from behind. Alternately,
on teasers and skip baits they race up from
below and then sit behind it. “This is the
point where we often see it from the boat,”
adds Croft.
Strikecam has certainly opened the doors
to a whole new world. It helping us understanding
how predator and prey behave,
and is really making us re-think how we
fish. “Being able to actually film all the
excitement above and below the surface
and then bringing it home to educate other
anglers is almost more exciting than catching
the fish,” laughs Ron. “Well, almost!”
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