WATCH: South-west cray fisherman hits the world stage

Mr Ferrier, his brother Harry and their late father William, also known as Putty, started building a boat in the late 1970s but four years into the project, their dad died.

In their father's honour, Harry named the boat Putty's Pride.

Now, Mr Ferrier, who uses the boat to catch crayfish in the Southern Ocean, is telling the story in a new award-winning documentary.

Putty's Pride was released on YouTube on Sunday.

The documentary was filmed by Swinburne University Bachelor of Film and Television student Jackson Hayat and a crew in "rough weather" a year ago.

"It was very cold and it was almost down to a one-man filming session because the rest of us mutinied and went home and said 'we're not freezing out here for you son'," Mr Ferrier said.

The fisherman, and now movie star, said it was exciting for Port Fairy and the Moyne Shire area to be showcased to the world.

"The more coverage Moyne and the colour around it can get, the more chance we've got of meeting people from afar," he said.

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Mr Ferrier said it was a great effort for his brother at age 17 to work on finishing the boat.

"They (William and Harry) did a great job and were very strict with the framing of the boat," he said.

"You had to go through a university course with the old man or if he didn't like what he was looking at, he'd say pull the thing apart and start again.

"He didn't hold any punches because if you build something with the right foundations, you can follow the modelling.

"It's as good as it looks and to those of us that know what we're looking at, it's very impressive."

Putty worked as a school and gummy shark fisherman in Queenscliff before relocating his family to Apollo Bay.

It was during this time he collected blue gum timber from the Otways region from the timber mills to put together the boat.

Now in his 70s, Mr Ferrier has fished for more than 60 years

"It's an elite club to reach because people don't last that long in the industry," he said.

The produce Mr Ferrier catches is distributed within Port Fairy and to Allfresh Seafood in Warrnambool.

He also makes his own craypots.

He has lived in Port Fairy for about seven years citing several reasons for making the move from Apollo Bay.

"To be closer to the services - Moyne Shire has great facilities for visiting yachties and the maintenance of boats," he said.

"Most of the boats used to be made of timber and they were able to be winched out of the water, put up on what we call the hard and the paint would dry out nice and crisp.

"This gave maintenance people, like (boat builder Garry) Stewart any major jobs."

Mr Ferrier said it was Mr Stewart and wife Karen, the Moyne River and the timber boats, that reeled him into the town.

He said he had also been well supported by the fishing community and the department of fishing who assist him with navigating his boat around the region.

"The fisherman really finds out his friends," he said.

"It is a great honour to be around the boating people in Port Fairy, Portland and Apollo Bay."

Mr Ferrier is set to sell his boat - but once its sold he is unsure what his next step in life will be.

"I'm more confused by that then when I decided to become a fisher," he said.

"You get this love of the ocean and once you commit yourself to it for 60-odd years or more, you're literally hooked and it becomes your life."

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