This year marks Creek to Coast’s 20th Anniversary. Since 1999, we have been bringing you the best of the best when it comes to all things boating, camping, fishing and four-wheel driving. We have had the absolute pleasure of taking you the length and breadth of this country of ours and even further afield! From New Zealand to Vanuatu, America, and even Norfolk Island!
Over the years we’ve had some of the most knowledgeable presenters as part of our show. We had the great JC keep us up to date with all things surfing, Martin Bowerman showed us the best of the bush, and of course our original Bush cook extraordinaire, Tommo. Roger Vickery, Andrew Mirosch, Gary Howard and the lovely Liz Cantor have been on the team for over a decade, and more recently we’ve added Sammie O’Brien, Olivia Degn and the great man John Rooth.
Scotty initially appeared on the show as a nervous North Queensland boy fishing for nannygai off Lucinda in Creek to Coast’s first year on air. But it wasn’t until a couple hundred episodes down the track that the big man stepped into the hosting role.
Now living on the Sunshine Coast, Scott still holds North Queensland close in his heart. He raised his kids there, worked there, even ran a fishing charter there. He reckons the fishing diversity up there is second to none. From chasing big pelagics out wide, to bottom-bashing for nannygai, trout and big red emperor — and even heading up the fresh water to have a crack at jungle perch and sooty grunter. With all these amazing fisheries firing up north, we thought: what better way to celebrate our 20th anniversary than to head up there and share the experience with two viewers from our audience?
Ben and Larissa Shaw love their fishing. Every spare minute they get they’re in the tinnie, heading out to Jacob’s Well or Jumpinpin to chase whiting, bream and flathead. We ran a competition on our Facebook page asking who was the better angler in the relationship, and Ben and Larissa — being classic competitive anglers — sent us a cracker of a response.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and we put them on a plane to meet Scott for a weekend of the best North Queensland fishing we could manage.
We chased queenfish off the Lucinda Sugar Jetty and barra up the Hinchinbrook Channel. Scott even got stuck into a couple of beautiful sooty grunter up a secret creek.
There are a couple of people we have to thank for this amazing experience. Firstly, BCF. The team has always got behind all of our fishy stories — and trust us when we say, they are just as mad keen as we are. A match made in heaven.
Al and his crew at Hinchinbrook Resorts looked after us magnificently. They have comfy villas right on the channel, or if you’re bringing a couple of mates, why not look into one of their impressive houses?
Finally, our mate Meady helped us out on the barra front. Andrew has decades of North Queensland fishing experience and he likes to share it via his charter business, Aussie Barra Charters. Give him a bell if you’re heading up that way for a fish.
From all of us at Creek to Coast, it has been nothing short of incredible to bring you the show for the past 20 years. We look forward to the next 20.
Read more: Creek to Coast winner has unforgettable day on the water – ‘I had a ball’
