SHOP LOCAL: Complete Angler has operated in Nedlands for more than four decades

COMPLETE Angler owner Brian Marshall says his staff’s knowledge of fishing helps capture customers at the owner-operated store that has run for almost four decades at several locations in Nedlands.

“You can come in and see what you can purchase, and the staff, who all fish, will tell you about the product, why you should buy it, how it should be used and where to go, because it’s like being personally fitted out with the right gear,” Mr Marshall said.

Complete Angler is one of the remaining owner-operated fishing shops left in Perth after the double impact of generic outdoor chains and internet shopping on the retail industry in the past decade.

It has been serving western suburbs fishers since its first incarnation as Complete Fisherman near the Windsor Cinema since the mid-1970s, before moving to Bulimba Road for three years, and then to its current location for the past 14 years above Taylor Road IGA on Stirling Highway.

“We’ve got a large boat fishing market here because of the number of boats in the yacht clubs,” Mr Marshall said.

His store’s range of rods, reels and tacklereflects changes in the sport’s equipment and methods, including less use of bait.

“We now have metal jugs, soft plastic lures, hard body lures, fly fishing and game fish rigs, and without all these new products you wouldn’t have a retail recreational fishing industry because you can no longer survive just selling bait and hooks,” Mr Marshall said.

There is also specialised equipment at the store for new fisheries, such as casting surface lures for giant trevally, deep sea jigging reels and many tiny lures for ever-popular bream fishing

Mr Marshall said the combination of staff fishing knowledge, a diverse tackle range and seeking out new methods and tackle to introduce to fishers had landed the store some very long-term customers.

“Some still come in from the days we were Complete Fisherman, more than 30 years ago,” he said.