Bluewater Tackle World News for January 23rd

This is a holiday weekend for us, celebrating Australia Day on the 26th. Our opening hours are here, along with some stuff you probably

didn't know about Australia Day.

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Two Mid West recreational fishers are due to face the Geraldton Magistrates Court, in February, charged with two offences, after allegedly hiding rock lobsters on their boat.

When the vessel the Geraldton men had been aboard was inspected at the Batavia Marina ramp on Monday 8 December, Fisheries and Marine Officers were shown 12 rock lobsters by the fishers, but a closer inspection found a further 22 lobsters hidden on the boat.

The bag limit for recreational rock lobster fishing is six per person per day and a boat limit of 12 also applies.

Department of Fisheries’ Mid West Compliance Manager David Griffiths said the 6.5 metre vessel was seized on the day and an application would be made to the court for the forfeiture of the boat.

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Fish is the most frequently faked food Americans buy.

When Consumer Reports tested 23 supposedly wild-caught salmon fillets bought nationwide in 2005-2006, only 10 were wild salmon. The rest were farmed. In 2004, University of North Carolina scientists found 77% of fish labelled red snapper was actually something else. Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times tested fish at 17 sushi restaurants and found that fish being sold as red snapper actually was mostly tilapia.

"It's really just fraud, plain and simple," says Gavin Gibbons of the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group.

One thing consumers maybe don't need to worry about is scallops. Tales of stingray wings cut into circles and sold as scallops are common. But Randolph says the FDA has never found an actual case of it.

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Bizarre carnivorous sea squirts, large spider-like creatures and an ancient fossilised coral reef have all been found in a voyage into ultra-deep Australian waters.

The scientific examination Chronology of the Tasman Fracture, a four kilometre-deep crack in the earth's crust off the coast of Tasmania's south west, has led to the discovery of creatures never seen before.

"A thing that was really surprising was the diversity of life down there," said Dr Ron Thresher from the CSIRO, who took part in the trip.

Using a remotely-operated submarine about the size of a small car to collect samples and data, the scientists took photos and film at different depths.

At up to 3,000 metres were thousands of sea spiders, creatures about 30 centimetres in diameter that look like land spiders but are in fact unrelated.

At 3,500 metres were millions of sea anemones, Dr Thresher revealed.

"They had never been described before. They had never even been observed before," he said. “The entire bottom was covered in these things as far as you can see."

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

PERTH METROPOLITAN

Rottnest waters are the place to be for some hot action on decent size fish, yellowtail kingfish rampant around the West End, samson fish jigging expeditions fruitful and the FADs already producing dolphin fish. Joff Weston and Johari Rochfort, Bluewater Scarborough staffers, worked the FADs where they had fun catching and releasing dolphin fish on light gear, the mahis ranging from four to six kilos. Peter Harvey and Graeme Stewart were at the FADs at the same time and were also into the mahi mahi action, later heading a touch further offshore to boat a good jewfish and a red snapper. Weston and Rochfort headed to Rottnest’s West End where they had some fun on the yellowtail kings, again with very light line. Weston reckons the dolphin fish are a touch timid so you need to be stealthy.

Paul Swart caught a whopper shark mackerel of 11kg near Transit Reef, Rottnest. The increasing water temperature is expected to result in exotics such as wahoo and tuna turning up soon, spanish mackerel too. A couple of old hands, Mex and Baden are dining on their cray successes, pulling some big males from the south side of Rottnest. 
 
Doug Jones caught more than he bargained for at the back of the Three Mile Reef, releasing a small tuna, catching heaps of skippy and a harlequin fish. Scarborough staffer Josh Thompson threw small plastic flick baits with success on pink snapper also behind the Three Mile.   
 
Tailor are widespread, Cottesloe and Two Rocks notable, with no shortage of herring amongst the tailor at Two Rocks. City Beach Groyne has been best late at night for  tailor, good size ones coming from Stragglers and Mewstone, while Rockingham/Safety Bay squid numbers are on the improve. Safety Bay is a great spot to catch sand and yellowfin whiting from the shore.
 
There are plenty of chopper tailor in the lower parts of the Swan and flathead and flounder are lurking there too, nearer East Fremantle, Chidley Point best for the flathead. Bream are hitting large soft plastics in the Bassendean region.
 
MANDURAH 
 
Neil Grant needed only 40 minutes and six nets to collect his bag limit of crabs, working the middle parts of the estuary system. Despite the algal blooms many black bream are being caught, especially in the Murray above Ravenswood where there are less blowfish and lots of cobbler around.
 
Tailor are firing right along the coast but there are many small ones so you need to watch the size. San Remo and Singleton yielded small mulloway. One lucky fisher scored three pink snapper about eight kilos each when working water at Bouvard Reef.
 
HARVEY/WAROONA DAMS
 
Neil Grant and his brother in law Dean Darlington used deep diving lures and soft plastics to snare redfin from rock walls, catching four all near 750g.
 
KALBARRI
 
The Murchison is turning on good bream action, with fish up to 40cm common, quite a number of small mulloway there too, blue manna crab numbers slowly improving while mud crabs, although plentiful, are mostly undersize.
 
Surf beaches are terrific for tailor, Chinamans, Syphons Road and Back Beach among better spots, mulloway scarce nearer town but quad bikers are bringing a few back from well to the north. Poppers have enticed tailor throughout the day, mulie baits okay early morning and evening.
 
Boat outings were hindered by strong winds in the area, although a couple of fellows hit a pink snapper school, catching four fish in five minutes, the snapper around 6-7kg.

EXMOUTH

Last week's Exmouth-only newsletter is on the site here. There'll be a new newsletter up on Monday.

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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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