Freedom

Captain Scotty, as he’s widely known, began fishing at an early age. “I lived on the water at Empire Bay with my grandfather, and he was the one who planted the seed,” says Thorrington, who first picked up a rod at age six. “I saw my first billfish in 1981, and I’ve been heavily into marlin fishing since about 1983.”

Thorrington’s primary boat is Freedom, a stable and maneuverable 34’ Blackwatch Flybridge, purpose built for deep-sea fishing and fully outfitted with Raymarine electronics. “We mainly marlin fish during the summer months, and the winter months we spend deep-dropping for kingies, mulloway, trags… good-quality bottom fish,” he says. “And we’ve also got a 6-meter boat we use in the estuary… Hawkesbury River and Brisbane Water. All told, we spend about 250 days each year on the water.”

New Technology

Freedom is equipped with four Raymarine Axiom® chartplotters. “We have two Axiom 2 Pro 12, an Axiom 2 Pro 9 and an Axiom + 7,” Thorrington says. “The 12” Axioms are paired with the Raymarine CP570 Professional CHIRP Sonar Module and an R509 3kW transducer that allows us to find the bottom in 3,000 meters.” Freedom has additional RV transducers mounted in the bow which give the crew access to RealVisionTM 3D and SideVisionTM sonar. “These tools are invaluable when we’re bait fishing in the mornings, and when marlin fishing, SideVision gives us the ability to look 200 meters off each side of the boat. We don’t worry about driving past fish anymore. Quite often we’ll mark a marlin 100-150 meters out to the side, do a turn on him and catch him.” Recently added to Freedom is the Cyclone Pro radar. Captain Scotty is super impressed with the new tech, particularly with the bird mode… another weapon in his arsenal.

Confidence

“Ultimately, Raymarine makes it easier to catch fish and safer running out and coming back. It’s easy” says Thorrington “Now, we go hunting. We don’t hope for a bite, we go and hunt fish… look for them, find them, and catch them.”