Various groups of people have come south - hunted me down, and shackled me to the computer to report on my fishy doings over the last few months. Life seems to be passing at a blinding pace but I am having fun so I guess that must be OK.

I might as well start with the STC Gippsland bream comp because it was a hoot. The size of the black bream caught and released was a real eye opener, especially to the locals. Scotty Towner and Mango fished a blinder on soft plastics to be narrowly pipped at the post to take second place and Andy Howard and Ross Lamotte showed what can be done with hard bodied lures to win the event. Keep an eye out for some up-coming TV footage of the event.

Yours truly managed to get the front page of the local paper before the event which was just as well because when the pressure was on I crashed and burned with only two fish for the tournament. My partner Bretto caught the bigger fish of the two so I was pretty much a dud for the whole comp. Believe it or not I love to fish comps and one of the reasons is because it takes away the bullshit component of fishing. Anyone can talk a good fish but the comps really sort the men from the boys. If the fish aren't in the live well at the end of the day there is nowhere to hide. I like that - if you go well you earned the glory and if you fail you have to wear that as well.

The Mega Bucks bream comp at Foster is always fun and this year I fished it with Chris Wright. This was a better comp for me and our team managed to take home three thousand dollars for a third place on the first day and I got lucky with the biggest bream over the course of the competition. There seems to be a fair bit of competition at the moment in the tournaments as far as soft plastics is concerned and the two main players are definitely Berkley and Squidgy. In the STC the Berkleys did very well even though the comp was won on hard bodies, while in the Mega Bucks Squidgy wrigglers took out first and third place on the first day and first place on the second day. The biggest fish worth two thousand dollars was also taken on a bloodworm wriggler. There is not much hype attached to a little bloodworm wriggler but it has a lot of runs on the board including the biggest ever bream taken in a comp in Australia at 1.99 kilos.

I fished another invitational comp at Gosford recently and was fortunate enough to have Andy Howard as my partner. Andy is a genuine bream legend and he carried our team into second place and fifteen hundred dollars.

This was an interesting comp for me because I had just picked my new Skeeter I class boat without having any time to learn how to tow it through city traffic or even how to drive it on the water. Andy will probably recover from my learner driving attempts and after counseling he may even get back in a boat again one day. Apologies to Mango and Scotty (the comp winners) for filling their boat with my rooster tail. Some say I was an out of control menace during this comp but I doubt I was that good!

Other boat users will be relieved to hear that I have just spent a few days on the Gippsland Lakes learning to drive my new rig. What a blast. I would be the first to admit that a 20 foot Skeeter and a 225 Evinrude E Tec is a complete overkill but it is just a lot of fun to drive and to fish from.

I have to say the outfit is just pure silk. I will go into more detail as I work my way into the project but even after a couple of weeks my impressions of the boat and motor might be worth noting.

We might as well start with the hull. The Skeeter is fully imported from the states as a competition bass boat. It is a one trick pony designed to go as fast as you want between spots and to allow anglers to efficiently fish with lures while using an electric motor.

I can already see that the boat does this in luxury and comfort and just driving the boat is a ton of fun. I guess I should run through a few of the features to show you how much thought and design has gone into this boat. All hatches are waterproof and the boat has central locking of all hatches through a touch pad on the dash.

All hatches have lights inside. The livewell has an underwater light so you can see your catch in the dark! The rod locker takes twelve rigged rods. The tackle hatch comes with twelve plastic tackle boxes in a rack. There is a line spooler on the boat.

The boat comes with a comfy fishing chair and a leaning post that both screw into the deck. The boat comes with a 101 pound thrust electric motor complete with gas strut to ease it into the water.

The batteries charge with an inboard Guest charger - all you do is run the lead to the boat and everything happens automatically. Your driving and passenger seats work on gas struts for a softer ride. I could go on but I guess you are getting the picture - this boat is very well appointed. It is also a pretty quick boat that is rated for a 250 Hp motor. With my E Tec the boat has done 75 mph and in fishing trim with plenty of fuel, fishing gear and two anglers it still does 70 mph.

I must say that my E Tec Evinrude motor has been a bit of a revelation. I guess everyone has heard the message on the latest generation two stroke outboard technology. If anything the claims just sound too good to be true - quieter than a four stroke - less moving parts than a four stroke, so lighter for a given horsepower. Great fuel efficiency. Less emissions than a four stroke, hence a clean smelling environmentally friendly engine. And there is one thing that hasn't changed with a two stroke - the extra power. As a bit of a clincher these E Tecs don't even need a service for three years.

I'm certainly no outboard mechanic and my needs with an outboard motor are simple - I want it to start first turn of the key - I want it to be quiet so I can travel without an irritating whine in my ears - I want it to get me there and back, preferably quickly - and I don't want to spend time and money pissing around with servicing when I could be fishing.

I guess it is early days yet but my E Tec starts every time I turn the key - and I mean instantly - it is just uncannily quiet for a big motor - it has incredible performance and torque that suits my high performance boat to a tee - and it is good on juice. I guess we live in rapidly changing times - wooden aeroplanes were good not so long ago - add some cutting edge technology and now we fly aluminium and carbon fibre marvels into space. Two strokes were once noisy, smelly gas guzzlers - add some technology to iron out the bugs and now they just might be the fastest, cleanest, most fuel efficient outboards on the planet.

The new boat has also given me a chance to up-date my electronics. This thought was actually a bit scary because my FURUNO gear has been a big part of my fishing success for a long time now. My sounders show me everything I need to know under the water and they have never been back for a service or any problem at all even though they are covered in dust and saltwater in an open boat for most of their lives. I had to ask myself the question - could the new digital gear possibly be any better? On my first trip out with the new gear I found schools of bream and mullet in shallow water and I was wrapped with the clean crisp images on my screen. I saw fish - I caught fish and the only buttons I pushed were the auto button and the on button. I am the first to admit to being an electronic dunce but with a FURUNO sounder on auto you will get a clear picture of the bottom and whatever fish are under you - end of story. I guess I shouldn't have doubted - FURUNO have been building sounders for a long time and they haven't forgotten how to do it. I can't wait to give the new gear an extended trial so watch this space.

I might only be a fisherman and I don't really know much about technology in boats, sounders or outboards but I am driving around in a Skeeter with a giant E Tec on the back and a couple of FURUNO sounders humming away - and I'm smiling! Keep your eyes on this space - eventually I will update the adventures of Skeeter and E Tec. Right now, you guessed it - I am going fishing.

Bushy.