Meet Our Regular Contributors
The wonderful and talented team that are the driving force of our content.
Please click on each name to read about our terrific contributors.
Shane Mensforth
Born in Adelaide, Shane started fishing at age three and has never stopped. His working life began as a teacher, but by the time he was in his early 30s he knew there was something better on the horizon. Shane wrote his first magazine feature story for ‘Modern Fishing’ in 1978, and from then on began to forge a career in outdoor journalism. He became a partner in SA Angler in 1985, and eventually took over sole ownership 20 years later.
Being heavily involved in the fishing media has enabled Shane to travel extensively, both within Australia and overseas, to catch all manner of exotic species — from marlin and big tuna in several oceans, through to chinook salmon in Alaskan rivers. There’s no doubt he’s been lucky in that regard!
As well as his magazine work, he has written 13 books — mainly on fishing, but also several sporting biographies — and has been a regular fishing and boating contributor to newspapers around Australia (The News, The Advertiser, NT News, West Australian).
Shane is starting to slow down a bit these days, but still grabs every opportunity to catch a decent fish — and write about it!
Matt Rohde and Matt Gillespie
‘Rohdey and Dizz’
All the Gear but No Idea: The South Australian Fishing Podcast
Having grown up with a love of fishing, Rohdey and Dizz took their passion to a new level in Febuary 2020 when they launched ‘All the Gear but No Idea: The South Australian Fishing Podcast.’ The fortnightly podcast includes interviews with guests from the fishing community, giving an excellent understanding and insight into all things fishing in SA.
Rohdey and Dizz target a wide variety of species across the state, from chasing feeds of King George whiting around the Yorke Peninsula to Victor Harbour tuna, diving for crayfish, bottom bouncing for nannygai and socially fishing the fresh water. Highlights of their fishing calendar include taking their Stabicraft 1850 away to Kangaroo Island or the Eyre Peninusla to explore new ground.
They look forward to continuing to work with SA Angler and sharing their knowledge and fishing adventures!
Charity Selleck
Charity is fun loving, spontaneous and enjoys a frothy with mates. She grew up in Port MacDonnell with her dad ‘Gaz’ on a dairy farm. She then went to Flinders University in Adelaide, where she studied her Undergrad/Masters in physiotherapy. Whilst studying, she spent time on the Yorke Peninsula with her ‘jack knife adventures’ fishing mates. Recently Charity has located to Port Lincoln with her black labrador called Butter Chicken, where she now spends every spare moment fishing the Eyre Peninsula with her partner, Auzzie.
The love for fishing and diving has been engraved into her, thanks to her dad. It is something she’s very passionate about, mainly advocating catch and release. Charity is lucky to have spent many hours with rod in hand chasing and landing various species such as, but not limited to squid, whiting, flathead, salmon, mulloway, sharks (schoolies, bronzies, makos), tuna, groper nannygai, snapper, morwong, samsons and kingfish.
Writing for SA Angler is one of Charity’s most exciting achievements to date and she is grateful for the new platform it provides to highlight women in fishing!
Steve Hunt
Steve’s first article (Port Hughes) was published in SA Angler magazine over 40 years ago. As a mad keen 17-year-old fisho he was simply ecstatic that it had made the grade. Over the ensuing 40 years he had had hundreds of articles published in the magazine.
Steve enjoy all types of fishing, from the smallest creek, out onto the wild blue yonder, offshore on the Southern Ocean. With a wonderful group of mates with similar interests, he has explored and written about much of South Australia's magnificent coastline.
These guys first fished the wild West Coast together over 25 years ago and their exploits in SA Angler were well received, particularly the amazing catches of salmon, snook and whiting at Fowlers Bay. Then it was on to the legendary mulloway beaches of Yalata. Big mulloway, sharks, snapper and the odd tailor always kept them entertained.
I also love fishing the bluewater, especially for Bluefin tuna. They are the ultimate sportfish, and one I will never tire of. To this end I have just purchased my new boat to chase these ballistic missiles of the ocean. A magnificent Surtees 650 Gamefisher, with awesome Garmin electronics and a Yamaha 200hp with the game changing Helm Master EX.
I look forward to keeping readers entertained for many years to come.
Cheers Steve Hunt.
Archie Coote
Archie has been fishing since he can remember, and is particularly passionate since coming back to South Australia after a stint living in Hong Kong. Mainly fishing on the coastline of the Eyre Peninsula, he enjoys the challenge of lure fishing with light tackle.
Archie’s first article was published in 2019, talking about how to chase kingfish from the shore, and becoming SA Angler’s youngest-ever contributor. He owns a tinny, dubbed ‘10%’, because as we know, 10 per cent of fisherman catch 90 per cent of the fish. Being young and skipping across glassy water on a calm day with his dad by his side is something he will not experience forever, so he makes the most of it while he can.
Archie’s year revolves around the species of fish in season. Summer is the season of kings —King George whiting and kingfish. Then it’s autumn, when the big cephalopods gather around the jetties. Late autumn and winter is flattie season, which is certainly his favorite, flicking plastics at any structure he can find, in no more than knee-deep water.
Year on year, this calendar will become busier, so there is still, plenty of fishing to come for Archie.
Lubin Pfeiffer
Lubin Pfeiffer is a freelance fishing journalist living in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. Lubin has represented Australia at World and Commonwealth fly fishing championships six times, winning the individual gold at the 2020 Commonwealth championships in New Zealand. When not competition fishing, he fishes for all manner of species, fresh and salt, and is currently the host of The Full Scale Fishing Adventures.
Lubin is a regular feature writer and columnist for SA Angler.
Stephen Grindle
Born in Cardiff, South Wales, Steve emigrated to Whyalla in February 1982 at the age of 11 and quickly took up fishing, calling the town jetty and shipyard marina home. With the family’s three-year commitment to BHP ending in 1985, Adelaide became their new home. At this time Steve became an active member of Noarlunga Sportfishing Club, participating in AAA and the popular ANSA conventions of the day.
A chance meeting with then editor, Greg Irving, whilst undertaking work experience at Denny Hodgson’s tackle shop in Christies Beach, saw Steve write his first article for the magazine in the April/May 1986 issue.
Amongst Steve’s fondest angling memories are the landing of a nine-foot bronze whaler single-handedly from Marino Rocks at night, and travelling to Christmas Island in August of 2014 as part of a South Australian contingent of anglers, to chase bonefish and giant trevally.
Overseas destinations high on his wish list include the Louisiana Marsh to chase redfish on fly tackle and New Zealand’s Tongariro River and the South Island canals to chase monster trout.
A passionate photographer, he enjoys sharing images and experiences with friends, family and readers.
Brett Mensforth
Brett has been obsessed with fishing for as long as he can remember. His father taught him at a very young age, and he feels very privileged to have had him as his teacher.
Brett has lived in Adelaide for much of his life, but has spent a few years living in Port Lincoln, on more than one occasion.
Brett’s family spent most of their holidays over on the Eyre Peninsula, where the fishing options seemed limitless. He has fond memories of fishing with his brother from the pontoons inside the Lincoln marina. They would set off at sunrise, spending the entire day learning to tie rigs after getting busted off by 3-4 kilo silver trevally — again and again and again. They must have hooked over a hundred in their younger years, to have only landed a handful.
Brett’s passion and love for the ocean grows stronger each year, and he now has a family of his own, who enjoy the coastline and the ocean just as much as he did as a youngster.
Growing up, Brett absolutely loved targeting big fish like yellowtail kings, samsons, tuna and sharks, but his love for land-based lure fishing is where he concentrates most of his efforts nowadays. A few injury setbacks in recent years mean that larger fish now pose more hassle than they’re worth. Thankfully, flicking lures on light tackle for flathead, bream, mulloway, salmon etc really suits Brett’s fishing style to a tee. He’s in his element with rod in hand, lures packed and a beach well off the beaten track.
Brett’s obsession for fishing and photography is only growing stronger, as he grows older.
Jamie Crawford
Jamie was fortunate to be introduced into fishing at an early age by his dad, and a passion for fishing and the outdoors soon developed. He grew up south of Adelaide, but moved to Port Lincoln in 1998 to study aquaculture. He fell in love with the Eyre Peninsula, with its beautiful coastline and extensive fishing opportunities, and has lived here ever since. Jamie now has a family of his own, and really enjoys taking his four children fishing, and seeing the enjoyment that recreational fishing and spending time as a family can bring.
Jamie enjoys all facets and styles of fishing, and earnestly believes that variety in fishing helps to maintain the excitement. He enjoys bread and butter fishing inside his local bay, lure fishing for flathead, freshwater fishing for natives, surf fishing for mulloway and salmon, and blue water fishing for reef fish and pelagic species. He is a member of the Adelaide Game Fishing Club, so he does spend a bit of time targeting certain species for tag and release.
Jamie started writing for the SA Angler in 1999 and really enjoys outdoor photography and writing.
Oliver Wood
Oli was born in Melbourne in June of 2001, but has spent most of his life in Adelaide. The majority of his experience has been on the beautiful Fleurieu and Yorke Peninsulas.
His passion for fishing stems from his youth, whether it was bait fishing estuaries and flats for species such as flathead and whiting, or targeting the humble calamari off our jetties.
However, it was one of these species that has always had Oli’s interest — the southern calamari. Over years of targeting these critters, he has managed to gain some fantastic experience, such as using the correct technique when working squid jigs or finding and fishing the ideal conditions. However, he has learned many techniques from his nonno and nonna (grandpa and grandma) that have proven effective.
Oli’s debut article in the 2022 January/February issue of SA Angler touched on catching calamari from the shore, with some simple methods to help improve catch rates. He is excited to give you an insight into the amazing pastime that is fishing, and hopefully teaching you a thing or two about the world of squidding.
Jack Laidlaw
Born 1958, Jack grew up in Brighton no more than 300m from the jetty, but made the end of the jetty home. Brighton set the mould for his fishing future, as he was always chasing sharks, snapper and eagle rays, so grew up wanting to stretch his arms on big critters.
Jack retired at 54 and has spent the ensuing years travelling around Australia fishing, camping and growing older and greyer. He’s been lucky enough to catch a lot of fantastic fish, but there are still lots of challenges waiting to be fulfilled. A decent dogtooth tuna still eludes him!
Jack has been a committee member of the SA Game Fishing club and a founding member of the Adelaide Game Fishing Club. He now lives on Yorke Peninsula right on the beach front, which sort of proves that the 'apple never falls far from the tree'!
Jack is retired, happily married, proud father and grandfather, so life's good!
Chris Pucknell
Chris is an accomplished commercial charter skipper and writer, with a strong passion for fishing and our South Australian waters.
Chris cut his teeth as an angler fishing in the estuary environs of the Port River and West Lakes chasing bream. Sneaking out early before school to catch a bream or two was just a normal part of growing up for Chris. From there he developed his passion for surf fishing chasing salmon, mulloway and sharks from the beaches of the Fleurieu Peninsula and West Coast of South Australia.
Boat fishing was the next logical progression and as the years passed, the fish caught and the boats themselves became bigger. Chris has fished the South Australian waters extensively, catching an array of impressive fish, from the shallow gulf waters to the open blue water of the Southern Ocean.
Having spent 30 plus years working in the corporate sector, Chris changed work streams by setting up DownWind Charters. This allowed him to spend more time on the water and pursue his fishing obsession. As someone who earns his living in the fishing space, Chris is passionate about sustainability and fisheries management and does not hold back when things are not right in and around the fishery.
Chris has been a regular contributor to SA Angler for the past 12 years.
Peter Nicholls
Peter Nicholls comes from a broad church of half a century of sportfishing. He started with salmon trout and mullet as a boy in the Coorong, eventually progressing to world flyfishing competition. Peter fished the Port River hard, going on to take a 56-pound mulloway on saltwater fly — believed to still be the biggest on fur and feather. His love for flyfishing grew and he became the first person to take a samson fish on fly.
He scored numerous ANSA line class records while spending five years in WA. His years creating a weekly prime time TV segment saw him fish much of this state with some of our best anglers. He was introduced into Flyfish Australia competitions, representing Australia three times, including the world titles, before a family terminal illness led to him standing down.
He is currently the dams co-ordinator for the SA Flyfishers Assoc. Peter lives with his wife on Goolwa Channel, just up from the Murray Mouth.
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0415 049 933
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address
PO Box 1155, North Haven
South Australia, 5081
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