‘Salty’ started it

Glen Saltmarsh discovers the barrels of Bass Strait

Kelly ‘Hooch’

Hunt

Herman’s Hermits wrote a songI’m into something good. It’s about a girl, but if you were to change it to southern bluefin tuna it might be the song for Salty - Glen Saltmarsh. It starts like this:

Woke up this mornin’ feelin’ fine There’s somethin’ special on my mind

Last night I met a new girl in the neighbourhood, whoa yeah Somethin’ tells me I’m into something good

In this day and age it is unusual to watch something new in fishing evolve. It is 2021 and you would expect that most of anything worth doing has already been done. Well someone forgot to tell Glen Saltmarsh. Glen is a family man, a tradesman who grew up on a farm in Meander. He has made the coastal town of Devonport on the North West coast his home and what a ‘fishing’ mark he has stamped on the place.

Glen is a modern-day trail blazer of the same ilk as Sir Douglas Mawson, Strzelecki and Abel Janszoon Tasman. If ole mate Mawson listened to the doubters about it being too cold Antarctica wouldn’t be the place we know today. If Strzelecki was told the mountain is too high Mt Kosciuszko would not have been conquered and if ready willing an Abel had not set out courageously Tasmania wouldn’t even be a thing !

So well done to Glen Saltmarsh for not listening to the doubters and the “why would you bother” brigade. He wasn’t the first person to catch a snapper off Devonport, but he was instrumental in making it a reality for a great many of the mainstream anglers across the coast. His advice and keenness to share his triumphs has led to a significant increase in people not only trying, but having great success in finding some red gold.

Another endeavour he was first in doing that can not be overstated is southern bluefin in Bass Strait. Glen Saltmarsh got a strike and boated a 100kg southern bluefin tuna within 12nm of the Devonport River mouth. Glen thumbed his nose at all the knockers and headed to sea - intent on finding tuna. This is the modern day version of rounding up a heap of camels and deciding to traverse the continent from the South to the North just because you can. Ok …ok… bad example as Bourke and Wills made the trip North but stumbled on the return trip and pork pied… Bit of a fail, but not our Glen.

The story goes that after being out on a snapper mission he noticed an insane bird feed one day prior to that big day on 14th July 2020, but more on that later. Glen had a lure out trolling for what he thought might be kingfish or big tailor and bang. He had a strike and was spooled lickety split - totally smashed. That event got him thinking and now we are back at the Burke and Wills moment.

Heading back to sea, Glen was loaded up for an expedition that was unheard of in Bass Strait. A designated tuna mission with outfits designed to take down Thunnus maccoyii. Wikipedia describes SBT to be found in OPEN southern hemisphere waters, but they may have failed to tell this fish. They go on to say they can grow up to 2.5m in length and weigh up to 260kg. Glen steamed from the Mersey River and I doubt he thought he was after much more than a decent school sized fish, or did he. Something special was about to happen.