Bluewater Tackle World News for September 5th

A marlin that Geoff Moyle tagged off Exmouth in March this year - and that may well have featured in one of our Exmouth newsletters back then - has been recaptured five months later by a commercial fishermen at Pondicherry, which is south India to most of us. The fish was estimated at 30kg when Geoff released it from his boat Reel Boss, and was reported as 45kg when recaptured; which is a possible growth rate for the species.

The distance travelled was approximately 2,830 nautical miles, or a little under 20 miles per day in a straight line.

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In learning about that, we also found out Geoff Moyle and John Fraurud and some friends fished aboard Chad Mills' Blue Lightning charter boat, during the second week of August at the Monte Bellos Islands. One day was spent targeting billfish. The group tagged and released five marlin and five sailfish, all in the spate of five hours! Most were caught by switch baiting with pods of sailfish and marlin at the back of the boat.

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A powerboat that recently set a new round-the-world record time of just under 61 days, met its match during a visit to the UK's Torquay, when officials said it was breaking health and safety rules by carrying invited passengers.

Now the skipper of the powerboat, which has endured attacks by Colombian bandits and punishing high-seas storms, has admitted defeat in the battle with red tape.

Pete Bethune, the boat's New Zealand skipper, said the people of Torquay had been very helpful to his crew by offering refreshments, and to say thankyou, he gave a few people a trip on her.

Because Earthrace is not a registered charter boat, it is not allowed to receive payment from passengers. 'We couldn't even take the harbourmaster out because he'd given us a free berth, which could be seen as a payment.

'We've been to more than 100 countries but this is the first time we've had this happen,' said Mr Bethune.

It's a fairly speccy biodiesel-powered trimaran - see more at the Earthrace website. The boat is for sale, $1.5million, though we're not sure if that's NZ, Australian or US dollars. They also need a skipper to bring her back to Australia over the next three months, via the Caribbean. Sounds like a good gig if you have the time.

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This week's Bluewater Tackle World special is on a couple of Plano's Rack Systems tackle boxes; save $10 on a 1354 at $39.99, or $15 on a 1363 at $49.99. Great boxes with lifetime warranties. See those and other specials here. This special is also available in-store.

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

PERTH METROPOLITAN

Offshore groups have done well, with some excellent bags coming from waters 30 to 40m deep. Anthony Kane, his cousin Ben and Tony Vine did well with jewfish, releasing many. Bluewater Mindarie staffer Kane boated the best fish, a 19kg jewfish. The smallest jewie caught by the group was eight kilos, baldchin groper, breaksea cod and king george adding to the catch, the king george responding better in the 30m deep water out from Mindarie. Another experienced hand brought a terrific bag in to Two Rocks, pink snapper to nine kilos, baldchin and a good number of king george among his catch.

Beaches are quiet aside from a few herring, some skippy at the likes of Mindarie Marina, just before sundown best for those. Brendan Gilmore caught and released a number of skippy on soft plastics at Mindarie, Brad Brown and Mark Petruzio also into the action there. In another session, lasting a hectic two hours, Brown and a mate, Simon Darthwaite, fished just a few hundred metres out from Mindarie to haul in plenty of quality sand whiting, fish between 20 and 30cm, the average around 25-26cm, the odd flathead there too. There are heaps and heaps of skippy on and at the back of the Five Fathom Bank.

Quite close to the beach on South Mole proved one spot herring fishing was reasonable, the odd squid there but time and effort is needed for them. Not so Cockburn Sound where squid are a terrific target, some about reef and weed country in northern waters. The north wall at Hillarys is holding some tailor but you need to watch their size.

Bream are better upstream, Maylands and Bayswater territory productive.

BUSSELTON

Chasing the heaps of crabs and squid in Geographe Bay is a popular pastime, the region’s good supply of king george whiting another feature, the whiting biting quite close to shore but active throughout. Herring are the major species available for jetty fishers.

The Four Mile is turning up a few pink snapper, nice size skippy and the occasional samson fish about. Boating parties able to venture to the Cape and north are finding the occasional jewfish, while trolling for good size snook is productive near Cape Leeuwin, well to the south with Hamelin and Flinders Bay (Augusta) notable.

KALBARRI

The local monthly competition demonstrated the versatility of Kalbarri waters, bream the mainstay of the river section, Gary Ivey, Cheryl Eley and Di Stewart all weighing in live bream for release immediately afterwards, Brett Bain adding four whiting to his four bream to win that section.

Lou Palamara brought in a 2.75kg snapper and some whiting, Karen Hartig a 4.1kg snapper but both lowered their colours to Ashley Van Viersen, whose pair of mulloway won him the beach competition.

Craig Gibson took his boat south of the cliffs to bring back five fish, including the largest of the season 4.55kg baldchin groper. Graeme Black and Paul Maindock had a red-letter day with a double hook up on cobia, in addition bottom fishing to catch snapper, red throat emperor and an excellent red emperor for Maindock, new club member Black winning the small boat section with his 21kg bag.

Stalwart Laurie Malton took his new over 7.5m boat “Bamba Zonke 2” to the north of Kalbarri and stayed close to shore with a strong easterly blowing, samson fish providing entertainment before an easing wind allowed them offshore to encounter baldchin, snapper and jewfish, Murray Rantal, Sue and Jared Malton finding plenty of activity. The 5.2kg pink snapper Laurie caught is the biggest for that species for the year so far.

EXMOUTH

There's a new Exmouth-only newsletter on the site here, with a very colourful pic of a black spot tuskfish. There'll be another newsletter up next week.

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Got a 4WD? Please join us on Convoy for SIDS and Kids Day, October 12th 2008 - see you there!

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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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