Raymarine helps top skipper win the Interclub

We need to premise this reworked press release with two salient facts. The first is that in this world of paid brand ambassadors and social-media influencers, it’s hard to sort fact from fiction. Second, the competitive marine electronics market is rife with advertorial and sponsored commentary from fishos getting free kit.

Now, we will also add that we have known professional skipper Scott Thorrington for more than three decades. When it comes to winning game fishing tournaments and catching marlin, jigging kingfish on remote deep reefs, saltwater fly fishing and bottom bashing, this skipper has the runs, respect and tournament wins on the board anywhere from his home port Terrigal to Lizard Island and the Top End.

The long-time charter skipper and champion game fisherman lives by a simple motto when he's out on the water: "There's no such thing as too much info when you're hunting for fish," he says.

As a Raymarine ambassador, he’s also got that brand’s electronics wired to the point he’s regularly finding and catching more fish and often where others fail to find them. See the second photo with this story of a very clear Raymarine grab of a marlin feeding on baitfish.... and now wearing a tag.

RAYMARINE FOR THE WINNING EDGE
Captain Thorrington, who operates Haven Charters from the NSW Central Coast, has relied on Raymarine's sounder technology for the last few years. With that he’s come up trumps again at the 2017 NSWGFA Interclub, a feat that led to this Raymarine press release.

High-pressure tournaments like the Interclub tend to sort the wheat from the chaff, especially when the conditions are testing. The 2017 marlin season has been one of the toughest in recent memory, with fish scattered along the coast in unusually low numbers.

It's at times like these that professional game skippers like Captain Thorrington rise to the challenge. As the results in this year's Interclub attest, Captain Thorrington can find fish like few others. But he's the first to admit that it's his Raymarine sounders that give him the info he needs to succeed.

The respected skipper says the use of Raymarine’s latest fish-finding technology during the past three years has vastly improved his tournament and general fishing results.

"I used to place regularly in the top five or 10 in the various tournaments I fish," Captain Thorrington says. "But since I've come onboard with Raymarine I'm now consistently placing in the top one or two."

PORT STEPHENS MARLIN ACTION
Fishing from his Blackwatch 34 Freedom, as part of the Central Coast Game Fishing Club's Tag & Release Team 1, Captain Thorrington and his crew amassed 49,000 points with blue and black marlin on 15 and 10kg tackle to propel their team to a winning position.

Tough conditions made the fishing hard for many of the boats fishing the 2017 NSWGFA Interclub, which is supported by Raymarine. Now in its 55th year, the Interclub ranks high on the game fishing tournament scene, each year attracting hundreds of competitors to its home base of Port Stephens, in the NSW Hunter region.

Captain Thorrington's strategy during the 2017 Interclub was to use his Raymarine CHIRP sounder to find the bait. Once the bait is found, the sounder then reveals the information that a skilled and experienced skipper like Captain Thorrington needs to separate the trophy fish and get a bite.

THE FISH-FINDING COMBO
Captain Thorrington runs a top-of-the-line CP570 high performance sounder, pinging 2kW of power via a through-hull transducer for his deep-water work.

The CP570's advanced CHIRP transceiver is said to provide best-in-class target separation and high resolution sonar imagery, which in turn provided Thorrington with the ultimate tool to hunt down deep bait schools and find lurking predatory marlin.

Closer inshore, Captain Thorrington utilises a CP100 DownVision module networked with a CP200 SideVision featuring a custom made mounting block for its CPT-200 transducer.

The CP100's wide beam angle provides Freedom with the ability to find the "holes" and "edges" in a bait school that signify a hunting marlin is nearby.

The SideVision provided by the CP200 gives a unique perspective of bait schools on either side of the boat, allowing the skipper to position his teasers and baits with pinpoint precision.

CHIRP FOR MARKING FISH
"Raymarine's high-definition CHIRP images allow me to see how the bait is reacting. CHIRP doesn't just show a red 'blob', it shows individual baits. And you can tell from those images exactly how those baits are reacting to any marlin that are around. That allows me to work out how to catch those marlin," Captain Thorrington says.

You can find out more about the marine electronics and cutting-edge technology that top skippers like Captain Thorrington rely on at Raymarine.