BRENDAN WING aka WINGA
Winga, 40yo father of two wondrous love beasts (Billie 7 and Fin 5) and partner to Justine, is a hardcore saltwater fisho who specializes in chasing big fish around South East Australia. Born in Frankston, Victoria, 1971, he spent his younger years fishing landbased on the shores and many piers around Melbourne’s Port Phillip and Western Port. As a youngster he fished with his Nanna on Western Port and his family holidays were always to Flinder's Island where he further learnt the craft of fishing from his father. He bought his first boat at 17 years of age and to this day still spends most of his fishing time in a boat.
His favourite species are snapper, gummy shark, mulloway and jumbo tuna, but did a lot of KG whiting fishing as a teen and still has a soft spot for the hard fighting Australian salmon. However he targets all the usual cool water favorites these days from Dusky flathead to Kingfish. Brendan help win the Australian Snapper Championship at Whyalla 2004 in the team event and was also recogniised for the biggest snapper in the 2007 Tea Tree Snapper competition – Australia’s largest salt water fishing contest. That fish measured 95cms (10.4kgs) and was released!
Over the last decade he has contributed photojournalism to all the top national and regional fishing magazines and feels proud of the work he did which included several dozen front cover photos. Photography is one of Winga's favorite pursuits. He is also blogs on many of Australia’s largest fishing websites where he spends much of his time interacting with the larger fishing community. He takes much inspiration from the people online. Say gidday at www.facebook.com/youfish
An extended tenure at Australia's largest marine dealer selling, testing and demonstrating hundreds of trailer boats and cruisers gave him first hand experience/knowledge on just about every brand of boat, motor and trailer available in Australia today. He formed strong opinions on all of them.
He also founded Salty Dog Films and YouFishTV which produce ethical sports fishing shows including the films Great Grey Submarines, Secret Silver, Snapper Down Under. Winga's vision is to set high standards in fishing TV and to pioneer new styles of fishing through his work. His first DVD title, although raw, was a best-seller called Great Grey Submarines and helped put gummy shark fishing on the map in southern Australia. He delivered a massively profound message about fishery conservation to the masses with this now iconic film.
Winga also has also worked for several radio shows and regularly shares his knowledge on Sports 927, 97.7fm Fishing Show and the Pulse 94.7fm. Much of this report info is gained first hand or from his network of mates and his business partner and skipper Gawaine Blake who runs Think BIG on a day to day basis on Port Phillip and Western port. You can follow Winga in the Supporters Club and get live on water reports and up to date catch info.
Winga's PB's are: Snapper 13.2kgs, Gummy Shark 30kgs, Mulloway 27kgs, Bluefin 116kgs, Kingfish 18kgs, Marlin 120kgs.