Al McGlashan - Journalist, presenter and mad keen fisho'!

‘My gut feeling is in the future when the history of Australian angling is written this young man, Alistair McGlashan, will stand amongst the elite’.

Rex Hunt forward to The Complete Fishing Bible

Al McGlashan is passionate about fishing and all things outdoors. A mad keen adventurer his love of fishing ultimately steered him away from the corporate world and into a career as a photojournalist and presenter.  A decade later he is now Australia’s biggest fishing profile and according to Al never has never had to work a day in his life! ‘If you love what your passion will make it a success’.

A 39 year old father of two Al spends more than 200 days a year on the water successfully combining his passion for fishing, conservation and photography into a viable business. Despite no formal training in journalism (in fact his English teacher still doesn’t believe he writes for a living!) Al now contributes to magazines around the world including Modern Fishing, Outback Mag and Club Marine. Al is also Australia’s biggest exporter of fishing images and his work has graced the covers of  major international magazines including Marlin Magazine (USA), Saltwater Sportsman (USA), New Zealand Fishing World, Voyager De Peche (France), Ski Boat (South Africa). Al is also the only Aussie to have his images exhibited at the IGFA Headquarters in the USA. On top of this Al’s weekly column in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph is the largest fishing column in a major paper and reaches close to a million readers every Friday.

He has authored several books including the The Complete Fishing Bible, which is a 450 pages best seller and is now in its third edition. Even his better half Rach has written her first cookbook - Dinner with the fishwife selling out its first print run .

The step into television was a natural one and Al has appeared on a number of fishing and travel shows as well as playing host. He produced the infamous Strikezone DVD range, which in turn lead to the ground breaking StrikezoneTV. In his spare time he even find time to be a regular on radio!

Al’s fishing exploits are famous and he has received worldwide coverage from the filming the great white sharks aggregation near Sydney, as well as catching a monster bull shark in Sydney Harbour. More recently he landed one of the biggest tuna ever seen after an epic 7hour battle that was a leading story for the nightly news. However his crowning achievement was to be the first to ever film a massive mako attacking a marlin underwater right in the danger zone. If that wasn’t enough the amazing encounter with a shark eating a giant squid which went viral with 6.7 million views!

Based in Sydney Al is heavily involved in the community dividing his time between fisheries research and as a government advisor promoting sustainable fishing. In an effort to do more for the environment and promote research he has started up the Pelagic Foundation (www.pelagicfoundation.com.au) which is all about getting researchers and anglers working together to unlock the secret lives of pelagic fish. he has even been awarded as a Champion of Fishing for all his work.

 

Fearless Al has caught crocodiles, hand fed sharks and swam with marlin all in the name of science to capture the best footage!

Young and passionate (well youngish!) Al works tirelessly promoting fishing and outdoors education with regular fishing seminars and even visits schools. He has even entered the political arena as a federal candidate for the NSW Senate scoring more than 90,000 votes - not bad for someone who went fishing on the day!

 

With more than 3.5million anglers in Australia fishing is becoming big business in this country. Al has developed an international reputation and has strong relationships with major companies like Honda, Caltex, Shimano, Evolution Boats and Club Marine just to mention a few. He has also developed Strikezone branded lures, tackle and even boats!

It has been a long hard slog to build up a reputation in the fishing and boating industry, but Al would have it no other way, especially when he gets to do what he loves most - fish and then tell everyone about it!