Shane Mensforth   
Shane Mensforth is one of Australia's longest serving freelance contributors to fishing and outdoors publications. Always a fanatical angler, he began relating his fishing experiences via the print media in the late '70s and has since contributed hundreds of articles to a wide variety of magazines, both here and overseas. 'South Oz Round Up', his monthly column for Modern Fishing magazine, kicked off in 1984 and is still going strong.
Born in Adelaide, Shane followed a natural path into fishing behind his father and grandfather, both of whom were local angling icons. He spent many of his early years chasing snapper and mulloway in home waters, racking up an enviable list of giant South Oz reds and jewies. He was taught well and his since gone on to fish in more than a dozen countries in both Hemispheres.
Recognised by the Australian National Sportfishing Association as a Master Angler, Shane spent a lot of time chasing big fish on thin line. He racked up an impressive pile of State and National records on such species as southern bluefin tuna, snapper, kingfish, salmon and mulloway and this was the era in which he learned much about the technical side of fishing.
Keen to travel, Shane saw a lot of the world in the 1980s. He fished extensively through the South Pacific in locations like Fiji, New Zealand, Tonga, Vanuatu and Lord Howe Island and even ventured to Scandanavia to do battle with huge trout, pike and salmon. It was during this decade that he also discovered the wonders of barramundi, pursuing them in Queensland, the Northern Territory, the Kimberley and New Guinea.
In 1985 Shane became co-owner of the popular 'South Australian Angler' magazine, one of the country's oldest regional fishing publications. He opted to reduce his teaching commitment to half time and began to look toward a full time career in outdoor journalism. In 1988 he resigned from the Education Department, formed a media company and began submitting material to publishers around Australia and overseas.
Shane also authored and co-authored several instructional books, including 'How to Fish South Australia', 'How to Catch Australia's Most Popular Fish', 'The South Australian Salt Water Angler' and 'How to Fish Kangaroo Island'. All were hot sellers in his home state.
His appointment as Boating Writer for Adelaide's morning newspaper, 'The Advertiser', in the mid '90s further enhanced Shane's journalistic credentials. His weekly boating and marine page is very popular, earning him an award from the Boating Industry Association of SA.
His first television experience came in 1993 on Channel Seven in Adelaide, when he was contracted to present a weekly fishing segment on the popular 'Am Adelaide'. This exposure, along with regular appearances with Rex Hunt, provided the opportunity to make a pilot episode of a local TV show, which has since gone on to become extremely popular. 'Fishing and Boating South Oz' is currently in its sixth series and, as well as its local popularity, now attracts a national cable audience via Austar.
Unlike most other mainstream fishing programs, 'Fishing and Boating South Oz' is quite broad in its appeal, featuring boat tests, marine tips, holiday destinations, tackle tips and, of course, plenty of angling action from all around SA. Shane has been principal presenter since day one.
Shane was responsible for much of the early exploratory work done in our offshore waters, venturing many miles from the coast into often turbulent waters in search of new ground. He found huge samson fish, sharks of many varieties, snapper, yellowtail kings, kilo-plus whiting, bluefin tuna, giant blue groper, blue morwong and monster nannygai.
He has recently expanded his fishing guiding and now takes groups into remote waters south of Port Lincoln, Kangaroo Island and offshore from western Eyre Peninsula. This is true adventure fishing, where clients are never really sure of what's going to latch on to their bait next!  
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