Australian world record-holder and fishing tackle innovator Jack Erskine, renowned marine artist Guy Harvey, the late angling historian Harlan Major, and the late Stephen Sloan, world record-holder, author, academician and conservationist are the latest inductees into the International Game Fishing Association’s (IGFA) Hall Of Fame.
A founding member of the Australian National Sportfishing Association (ANSA), Jack Erskine has participated in all forms of fresh and salt-water fishing, nationally and internationally, for more than 40 years. He has a record of fishing in successful teams that have either placed first or in the first three places in over 45 tournaments, and is one of only three Australian light tackle anglers ever invited to fish the prestigious Masters Tournament conducted by the Sailfish Club of South Florida.
In the early 1970s Erskine pioneered the successful introduction of heavy duty spinning tackle for casting live baits to sailfish and small marlin, and he now has over 300 captures of billfish to his credit. These days the use of spinning tackle for both live baiting and trolling for the smaller species of billfish is popular around the world.
Erskine is also the only angler on record to capture eight black marlin on IGFA 2kg (4.4 pounds) line class in one day, setting four consecutive world records at the time. The same year the largest record was again broken while fishing from Bribie Island with Capt. Bobby Jones with a black marlin capture of 74 pounds.
These days Erskine is kept very busy running a successful tackle engineering business, Jack Erskine Precision Reel Engineering, from Cairns.
Website: www.jackerskine.com