But for all his technical wizardry, Jack is primarily an angler: one of our finest light tackle specialists. A founder member of the Australian National Sportfishing Association, he has participated in all forms of fresh and salt-water fishing, nationally and internationally, for more than 40 years. Whether it's billfish on fly off Cairns, barramundi at Tinaroo or tarpon in Costa Rica, he's done most of it.

 And, if tournament credits mean anything, then he has a record of fishing in teams that have either placed first or in the first three places in over 45 tournaments; as well, he is one of only three Australian light tackle anglers ever invited to fish the prestigious Masters Tournament conducted by the Sailfish Club of South Florida.

 
In the early 1970s Jack pioneered the successful introduction of heavy duty spinning tackle for casting live baits (pitch baiting) to sailfish and small marlin, and he now has over 300 captures of billfish to his credit. Not a bad effort for a method of fishing that some doubting Thomases said couldn't be done, going so far as to unkindly label it 'stunt fishing'. These days the use of spinning tackle for both live baiting and trolling for the smaller species of billfish is popular around the globe.

Jack is also the only angler on record to capture eight black marlin on IGFA 2kg (4.4 pounds) line class in one day, setting four consecutive world records at the time. The same year the largest record was again broken while fishing from Bribie Island with Capt. Bobby Jones with a black marlin capture of 74 pounds.

Despite the wealth of experience, and a willingness to help, there are still people around who refuse to be told. There's a story about a fly rodding competition where a group of high profile anglers were having trouble getting a hook-up. These guys raised plenty of marlin but, when it came to getting the point of the hook home, it just wasn't happening. One of the tournament game boat skippers went over to talk to the luckless crew. He suggested they might want to have a word with Jack to see if he couldn't work out what they were doing wrong.

The response was a curt: 'One of our guys has caught 16 billfish on the fly and he knows what he's doing.'

To which the skipper replied: 'Well, I've got Erko on board, he's caught 28 marlin on the fly and says he still doesn't know what he's doing!'

When told of the incident some time later, Jack simply smiles, says 'Oh yeah' and changes the subject. He avoids conflict and controversy, and he cannot tolerate fools. If someone comes on strong with a statement Jack knows is wrong he doesn't argue. The only trace of dissent is a mischievous grin and a gleam in his eyes, followed by a simple 'Yeah, okay buddy. We'll see'. It's the difference between being a pretender and sitting on the throne. Credibility is about results and ability. To quote an Erskinism:  'Why tell people you know 50 per cent of something you only know 25 per cent of?'

While a fine angler, Jack is also an artist. He doesn't create images or statues, he moulds the internals of reels, particularly drag systems and gearing, the way a sculptor manipulates and pushes clay. Jack's tools of art are mechanical: a lathe, vernier, micrometer, spanners and screwdrivers. In modern art, perfection is difficult to quantify as much of it is in the eye of the beholder. In Jack's case, his work has to be experienced to be appreciated: it is the purring sound of a reel yielding line under extreme load as smoothly as if it was in free spool.
 

Moving deceptively fast for a man of 60 years, Jack is a man of many facets - from his distinctive gait to his smooth, super sharp one liners. Working him out is akin to trying to solve Rubik's cube: just when you think you've solved the puzzle, a different pattern emerges.

When I told people I intended doing a profile on Jack, the response came back something like: 'I hope you've got a couple of large nails to pin him down with.' On land, Jack is always on the move, and he goes like a Sydney taxi in rush hour. On the water though, Jack is single minded and focussed. The change that comes over him is like the difference between a Spring Tide and a Neap Tide.

Like most self-made men, Jack has lived through his lows. Firstly, the tragic death of his first wife Liz. A cancer victim while still a young woman. Then a business venture that left a sour taste in his mouth. Bransford's Tackle Shop underwent a few changes after George left, with Jack and two partners taking over in the early 1980s with the name being changed to Jack Erskine's Tackle Shop. Jack got out of the shop in 1993; he had inherited some partners who made his tenure uncomfortable so he quit.

The stress of that setback combined with his years of hard work without a break brought on some health problems that could only be solved with a long rest. It was a down period for Jack who was ill for a couple of years, but a time when he found out who his true friends were.

The thing that astounded everyone close to the professor has been the vigor with which he bounced back. It was the Erskine of old: chirpy, visionary and explaining some technicality with such speed and insight that you wish you were carrying a tape recorder.

A turning point in his life came at the end of 1994 when he went to the US and worked for Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops fame, for about a year. In a consulting role, he helped Morris set up his Offshore Angler operation. Bass Pro is the world's largest retailer of fishing tackle. In floor space alone, their American mid-west headquarters covers several hectares, including an indoor waterfall. Although visited as a national shrine by millions of anglers annually the bulk of their business in a marketplace that's 80 per cent fresh water comes from mail order and Bass Pro put out a catalogue that's the size of the Yellow Pages.

However, Jack found big business on the US scale wasn't always to his liking: 'Having been my own boss since I was 22, I found it difficult to cope with the US corporate business structure,' he explains.

During his period in the US, he lived at Springfield, Missouri, Atlanta, Georgia and Pompano Beach, Florida. In Florida, after leaving the Morris camp, he started working two weeks a month for reel company, Fin Nor where he was in engineering and working on product development of drag systems and a new spin and fly reel series. The other two weeks a month he worked for a major US line company, Sufix. A year later, he was appointed US national sales manager for Sufix fishing line and stayed for two and a half years.

Since 1974, Jack had also worked on a consultancy basis for Penn Reels and in 1998 the company and its Australian partner, Jarvis Walker, approached Jack to return to Australia. 'They wanted me to come back and develop fishing line and an exclusive line of Jack Erskine products including reels,' he says. 'My work is about product development and concepts for rods, reels and lines.'

Since then, there have been some serious upgrades for Penn Internationals and some new products including Jack Erskine's Penn Pro Power Braid and Pro Power 10X monofilament. Unmarked boxes on his shelves hold reels and other products this writer was not privy to.