A day with Vic McCristal

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 Image Attached I had the pleasure of spending a day with Vic McCristal and Barry (Captain.Cranky) at Vic's home in Cardwell during my recent visit to Cairns. 

As many of you may be aware Vic McCristal (McSea) has been hands on at the forefront of sportfishing and hunting in this country for more than a few decades, and through his career as a writer in many prominent magazine publications, and as the author of 8 fantastic books on these subjects. 

Vic is still actively writing today, although is not interested in high tech gadgets like computers. Vic mentioned he still has (and still uses) the trusty typewriter that has stood him in good stead throughout his career.

The photo at the right is one that a relative recently sent to Vic, showing Vic in the early days of his Bow Hunting.

Here's another photo of Vic as a young fella - I imagine he's thinking about fishing right there!

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Vic is probably the foremost authority on Eric moller lures, due to Vic and Eric having been close friends and both living at Cardwell. It was a heddon Tiger Lure that Vic gave to Eric that inspired the Moller Tiger. 

Vic kindly had a look at some Moller lures for Barry and myself and was able to answer a few mysteries, and also looked at some interesting research we had recently conducted (more to come on that soon)  

 Image Attached After chatting for a while Vic nipped inside and asked us to hang on for a moment... A few moments later Vic emerges with a couple of tackle boxes full of lures. As you might imagine talking about the lures in the boxes kept us busy for a while and it was fascinating to listen to the wealth of knowledge Vic has accumulated over the years.

There were quite a few lures that I'd never heard of let alone seen and surprisingly even a few barry hadn't seen before!  

We headed off for a short stroll to get lunch at a fantastic Café nearby to Vic's. Barry was quicker than me on this day and ordered and shouted lunch as I was taking a phone call from Alistair (who I sensed was turning a shade of green when I mentioned that Vic, Barry and myself were about to sit down to a lunch of local seafood delights while overlooking the Jetty at Cardwell)  

 Image Attached After a very enjoyable lunch Vic and myself head off to enjoy a cuppa and chat, while Barry heads off to visit a neighbour. 

Vic also kindly signed the Modern Fishing 1st Editions that Barry had bought along and a few lures, it took a while though as Vic thoroughly enjoyed having a look through the magazine and checking out the photo's and articles of his colleagues working on the magazine at that time! 

Here's a couple of interesting lures that were in the tackleboxes Vic showed us. (hopefully Barry might be able to help add info about a few more when he gets back from the tackle show in Japan)

This one is a very nice Mark Upton Lure that Vic mentions in the article written by Vic titled "Cut Throats, Boomerangs, and Tigers" in modern fishing September 1988.

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Here's a link to the article:
http://www.originallures.com.au/lures/lureDoc/Articles/PeterNewell/McCrystalModernFishingSept88.pdf

Check out this early Leads lure! Vic was doing research for an article to find out where various species hit a lure (e.g. at the head, tail, or midsection)

Note the additional hook hangers Vic has attached to the lure. By changing the placement of the hooks Vic was better able to understand the feeding habits of the target species (in the case of this particular lure it was Fingermark)

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Another wonderfull piece of fishing history that Vic shared with us was this landing net. The handle of the net was made out of Red cedar by Eric Moller, the head of the net was bound on to the handle by Vic (Very nice workmanship I should add!)

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Hey Vic - where's Barry? I though he'd be back by now? Ahh here he is!

As it turns out Barry has managed to visit the neighbour just as the neighbour was getting a call from a bloke who mentioned he has a bunch of lures he used to buy from a bloke in Cardwell, you guessed it - Eric Moller lures - I don't know how Barry does it but that bloke is a fair dinkum Eric Moller Lure magnet! 

I feel honoured to have spent this time with Vic and it was a day I will never forget. Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge Vic, I hope I have the opportunity to visit you in beautifull Cardwell again soon!

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