Bluewater Tackle World News for October 9th

Got a 4WD? We're participating in the Convoy for SIDS and Kids Day, October 12th 2008, so if you're not fishing, diving, swimming or snorkelling this Sunday, maybe you can be there too. It's open to everybody with a 4WD, and organisers are hoping for a 1000-strong turnout for the cruise from Joondalup to the Motorplex. See the website for all the details. There will be a couple of $200 Bluewater vouchers up for auction at the end... could be a bargain...

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Our overseas customers should have a good look at what they might like from us this week, with the plummeting Australian dollar making everything we sell suddenly much cheaper to overseas clients, particularly in the United States.

If you're overseas and haven't 'logged in', the prices you see on the site are 10% higher than you will pay, due to our local tax that you don't have to pay. If you log in and change the currency on screen to either $US or Euro, you will get a better idea, though it will rarely be spot on due to daily fluctuations that we don't try to keep up with. However to give you an idea of how that has changed with our falling dollar, today we changed the $US conversion from 0.95 to 0.69 - so everything on our site is 27% cheaper for you now than the last time we adjusted. That's scary for us but a good deal for you. The Euro change was 18% down.

Australian customers can be assured that as most of the product we sell is imported, this does mean we'll be seeing price rises coming in all directions - but they invariably take a few months to flow through.

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Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America and the run on HBOS in the UK, uncertainty has now hit Japan.

In the last 7 hours Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches.

Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived.

Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black.

Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal.

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New WA Fisheries Minister Norman Moore overturned the unworkable parts of his predecessor's West Coast changes this week. All the detail is at the Fisheries website. The bottom line is plenty of tight bag limits, a new sliding scale boat limit, an increasing minimum size on pink snapper and a commitment to research to ensure long-term sustainable fishing practices.

The silly stuff that got the flick was the unworkable summer holiday closure, the half-ban on spearfishing with compressed air, and the unnecessary ban on electric reels. Good on you Norman.

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This week's Bluewater Tackle World special is 25% off YGK Nitlon Trout, which is a beautiful monofilament for freshwater and estuary fishing. See that and all the other specials here.

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Here’s a preview of this weekend's Sunday Times fishing news, with a bit of extra stuff...

PERTH METROPOLITAN

A surprising number of good tailor have featured right up and down the metropolitan coast, the fish keen to hit lures, especially poppers. Boosting the fun for shore anglers is that a patchy run of salmon puts them in the same water as the tailor, so you never know what you might hook. The salmon aren’t big, between 1.5 and 3kg, but certainly worth chasing. Trigg Blue Hole held a few of the tailor, as did North Mole where one fellow, who had caught a couple of good ones, was asked to identify a fish brought in by another angler – it was a salmon. Another place where the salmon appeared was at Floreat. Herring fishing is only patchy. 

Another bright spot is the excellent jewfish action with nice fish caught out from Hillarys and Mindarie, north of Rottnest also fishing well for the jewfish, breaksea cod, harlequin fish and pink snapper included in some bags. Sand whiting make a top target quite close to shore adjacent to City Beach.

Neil Grant tried squidding in Cockburn Sound and nailed 15, the biggest near 1.5kg. Don't forget the annual Cockburn Sound spawning snapper closure is now in effect, so there's no fishing for them for a while.

Bream activity has increased in the area between Ashfield and Guildford, and flathead featured in fishing the flats in the East and North Fremantle parts of the Swan. 

MANDURAH

A few locals took advantage of the jewfish numbers in 30m of water in that region, and there’s been good pink snapper fishing in the vicinity of the Five Fathom Bank. The Dawesville Cut featured juvenile salmon and chopper tailor with Halls Head Beach also working well for those species, with some king george whiting taken from the Cut.

Large numbers of salmon trout turned on heaps of action from Tims Thicket and White Hills.

JURIEN

Matt from Jurien Sea Sports reports that tailor and herring fishing is rewarding along the Jurien shoreline, and the numbers of whiting are improving.

Big swells have brought pink snapper quite close to shore and good catches have resulted, jewfish prominent in 40m of water, along with sweep and breaksea cod.  

KALBARRI

The best news for Kalbarri hopefuls is the boost in tailor fishing, with the town’s main beaches firing for them. Red Bluff and Wittecarra have been special hot spots. The tailor are in good numbers and of good size. The odd mulloway is cruising around, and samson fish made for some exciting angling for a few. Chinamans adds another place to try where tailor and the occasional samson were smashing popper lures.

Coastal gorges turned up a few tailor and odd and sods like baldchin, various cod and sweetlip. Big seas and strong winds made the snapper more active when boats could venture out and a few jewfish were bagged.

The Murchison near town is yielding good yellowfin whiting and bream near Jetty spots, and there has been numbers of “soapie” mulloway a bit further up river. 

EXMOUTH

There's a new Exmouth-only newsletter on the site here, with some tips about spearfishing and a pic of a spaniard taken freediving. Since then we've heard of a heap of people giving it a go, and one spearo scored a whopping 30.5kg spaniard freediving this week. There'll be another newsletter up soon.

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Bluewater Tackle World News comes from Bluewater, 21 Scarborough Beach Road, Scarborough, Western Australia - phone 08 9245 1313 - www.bluewater.net.au

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