About

I grew up in Queensland chasing whatever would eat a bait. Then I started moving. And every time I moved, I had to learn how to fish all over again.

That's the story. That's why this brand exists.

The long way around

I'm Captain Baker. Airline pilot for a living. Father of two boys, Harley and Hudson, whose names sit inside the name Harson. Outside the cockpit, fishing has been the constant thread of my life, even though almost everything around it has changed.

First it was Queensland. Bream off the rocks, flathead in the estuaries, the kind of all-rounder coast that teaches you the basics. Then we moved to Coral Bay in Western Australia. Suddenly nothing I knew applied. We were targeting reef fish I had never heard of and free-diving for crayfish off the ledges. New rules, new gear, new species. I started over.

From there it was Broome and the Kimberley. Barramundi country. Threadfin salmon, cherabin in the rivers, fish that didn't exist in my world before then. I started over again.

Perth was next. The Swan, Cockburn Sound, the metro beaches. Squid jigs over weed beds. Blue swimmer crab nets in the inlets. King George whiting and snapper in the Sound. Different gear again. Different timing. Different knowledge. Started over.

Then Tasmania. The cold-water university. Flathead on the sand, calamari at the lights, bluefin tuna out wide, freshwater trout in the highland lakes. Cray pots and abalone and scallop diving in water that ought to make you think twice. I started over yet again.

Now I'm back on the Sunshine Coast. Closer to where it all started. And guess what? The fish I grew up with have moved on without me. The techniques have shifted. The gear is different. I'm learning the place all over again.

The pain point

Six moves, six fisheries, six restarts. Every single time, the same problem. The information is locked up. Some of it is in the heads of the locals who don't share. Some of it is buried in forum threads from 2008. Some of it costs a $200 guide trip just to get a starting point. Some of it you can only learn by burning a whole season trying to figure out where the fish actually are.

I used to think I was bad at fishing because every new place felt like starting from zero. I wasn't. I was just running into the same wall every other newcomer runs into. The wall is built from gatekeeping. Tackle shops that talk down to first-timers. YouTube channels that assume you already know what a "jig stroke" is. Local clubs that protect their spots harder than they protect the fish.

The thing is, Australia has some of the best fishing in the world. We have estuaries you can wade out of your driveway and oceans full of fish that don't exist anywhere else. And we keep losing newcomers because nobody made the front door easy to walk through.

What we're building

Harson Outdoors exists to fix that. One brand, one mission. End the gatekeeping.

Every product we make tells you, in plain English, what fish it catches. Where. When. How. No assumed knowledge. No tackle-shop intimidation. No jargon that hasn't been explained the first time it appears.

Every guide we write is built for someone who has never caught one of those fish before. State by state. Species by species. We tell you where to start, what to buy, and what to do when you get there.

The brand carries my boys' names because I want them to inherit a fishing culture that welcomes new people instead of shutting them out. The healthier the community, the more anglers care about the fishery. The more anglers care about the fishery, the more fish there are for the next generation. That's the chain, and it starts with knowledge being shared.

What you can expect

We are starting with lures and species guides. Bass, flathead, bream, Murray cod, and a long list of others to follow. Over time we will expand into the gear, the soft goods, and eventually the camping and hunting categories. Same accessibility-first thinking through every product we put our name on.

We are a small, family-run Australian business. There is no investor playbook here. We are not trying to be the biggest. We are trying to be the brand newcomers trust to get them on the water for the first time, and to keep showing up for them after that.

If any of that resonates, you are in the right place. Welcome.

Captain Baker
Founder, Harson Outdoors

Built for the long way home.