Thank you to all our customers who have stuck with us throughout this awful COVID period. As you can imagine the impact on our business, just like many other businesses in Australia and around the world, was dramatic. We lost 90% of our business in one fell swoop; with Gavin’s guiding and the overseas trips all cancelled. We offered everyone every cent of their deposits back, it just was the right thing to do. We have kept in touch with our Kiritimati Island and Nonouti guides, they are doing ok but as you can imagine they are doing it tuff too.
The Shop
An additional blow for us was having to move the shop. This was not fully out of choice but necessity. Although Gavin had paid his rent on time for 27 years including and throughout the COVID lockdown, the new landlords who bought the shop 2 years ago wanted to increase the rent significantly enough to make the shop unviable for us to remain in that premises. We looked around and found our new shop on the Corner of Rex Terrace and Glen Court in Marcoola. We were able to buy the shop, due an injection of cash from our pension pots and partially due to the governments help to small businesses. So now we are our own landlords. The space is bigger has more natural light and is close to the beach for Gavin to nip out before or after work to go for a surf. It is also closer to home so I can cycle there.
The new shop has been well received by our customers and suppliers, its not your average tackle shop, but it is a proper Fly Fishing shop. We have increased our range of clothing with; Simms Sun Hoodies and tops and Sage and Simms caps etc… We have invested in an increased range of Rods; we now stock Scott, Primal and Sage as well as our usual Echo, Hardy and Innovator. And of course, not forgetting we are the only retailer in the world to offer Mako fly reels to our customers.
Our Website
We are still working on getting all our products onto our website, so bear with us, if you cannot find what you need on our online store, simply call us, or email us.
Guiding
Gavin has almost booked out his Hervey Bay season, early November to early December, which is great news. I have started to take bookings for his Summer and Autumn season here on The Sunshine Coast let me know if you want to book a date with Gavin.
If we cannot leave Australia to fish, we think we should support all our own great Australian guides, so let us know if you have a destination in mind or a fish you’d like to bag and we can hook you up with guides all over Australia, just give us a call.
Again, thank you for all your support, tight lines or as they say in Sweden ‘Shitty Fishing’….