It wasn't until his early teens that he was introduced to gamefishing for sharks in Victoria's Bass Strait. Narooma and Bermagui in NSW became the next fishing hot spot with his family, in the never ending search for the elusive gamefish.

In his late teens he was lucky enough travel to New Zealand's Bay of Islands twice. Fishing in the Yellowtail Kingfish tournament aboard Lady Clair on his first trip and Waimea Star on the second. Not long after that, David made his first fishing trip to Airlie Beach in Queensland, light tackle fishing for tuna and billfish.

He continued to fish the Bermagui region and every couple years would try to get back to Queensland to fish. During one of these trips to Airlie Beach, he also found time to acquire his PADI dive certificate.

David was married in his late 20's, when his soon to be wife suggested going to Vanuatu for their honeymoon, he couldn't say yes quick enough. It just happened to be at the same time that Marlin magazine was doing a feature on fishing Vanuatu. So off they went, two days fishing aboard Shogun, out of Port Vila and a day fishing Havannah harbour with some locals, a little scuba diving, some honeymoon stuff and 9 months later, you guessed it a baby girl.

Fishing had started to slow down and a year and a half later baby number two was born, a boy. David was entering The Wiggles/Bob the builder stage of his life...

Eventually he made it to Cairns for the black marlin season and spent 4 days fishing aboard Capt. Ken Bryant's Marlin Blue in 2002. On the final day he hooked a fish estimated at 1100lb, but after a short fight the fish won its freedom before it could be tagged. He was disappointed but glad he'd felt the power and seen a fish over the magical 1000lb mark.

Fiji was the next destination, fishing the clear tropical water around Plantation Island for wahoo and other light tackle species.

Married with 2 young kids, a home extension underway and living in Melbourne meant that fishing trips were becoming rare. The next best thing for David, was to let his mind wonder and create images of the fish he'd like to catch. The first piece completed was Parting Company, inspired by the 2002 trip to Cairns.

I hope you enjoy these lifelike pieces as much as David enjoys creating them. New artwork is added regularly, so please visit again soon to see the latest updates.