North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

RIP former NT fisheries minister Mike Reed.

It is true that the CLP's Mike Reed had a vision for recreational fishing and got the ball rolling with gill net closures. Labor's Kon Vatskalis subsequently expanded the closures, and removed all the nets from Shoal Bay and Darwin Harbour, not the just barramundi nets.

I'd like to thank Mike Reed for giving a me a valuable lesson about how politics works.

When I started my business and was putting the first FISH FINDER book together I organised a meeting with him because I had an issue with the tourist commission and couldn't get a fair resolution.

I hoped Mike might be able to help. Instead, he passed on what I was doing to a business competitor.

While it may seem petty to mention this now, it is sadly the only interaction I had with Mike Reed, and I say this having written a weekly Sunday Territorian fishing page for 20 years or so, and published NT fishing magazines, yada yada.

Thankfully the CLP's Shane Stone subsequently helped resolve the issue I had with the tourist commission, for which I was grateful.

Mike's passing reminds me of the many people that helped get the NT's recreational fishing to the brilliant place it is in now.

Superb Top End fishing is something young folk might take for granted as they did not see what it took to get there.

Good on you Mike Reed for getting the ball rolling.