December 2006

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE CHRISTMAS 2006 ELETTER
A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone
The cray season opened on the 15th of November but I did not put my pots in until the Monday 4th December (After the full moon) with the first pull on the Wednesday. The run of the whites started early this year and we were into the crays straight away. 2 crays the first day and then, 8, 9, 15, 10,16,16,8,12,10,10,16,12,10,13,7,6. We have done better this year than last mainly as the season started earlier we had longer before the boats get booked solid for Christmas and I don’t have a boat to go out in. Our last pull was the Friday 22nd and the tally was 180 crays over the 17 days. That should be enough to see me well into the New Year.

Bruno and my son Jared pull the pots.

A pot comes up full of crays

At least 8 crays in this pot, they won’t be all legal size but with 4 pots we usually get a fair haul!

Some of the 12 crays we got that day, we were off to Red Bluff for a troll for a mackerel before returning to the boat ramp by 9am ready for work!

Amateur cray licences are available at any post office or on line at http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/. You may have 2 pots and catch 8 crays per day. We have two licences on my boat which is the max so we are permitted to pull 4 pots thus allowing us to catch 16 crays max. We share the crays, bait and fuel.
Some times the days are just too good to go back in so we have a short troll.

As far as I know this is the first game fish of the season out from Kalbarri. 11kgs of hard fighting yellow-fin tuna. I caught it on the Saturday 16th December. Quite unusual for a yellow-fin tuna this early but we did get hits on our lures (without hook-ups) on the Monday and Wednesday before.
The water has been over 22.5 degrees all month so it is not surprising that the mackerel and tuna are here already.

The next day was a good day as well and Stefan DeLucia was out with us helping his dad, Bruno, pull the pots and we went for another troll. Stefan’s best fish until now was a small tailor from Witacarra beach, but soon that all changed with this big hook-up.

Stefan’s first mackerel, an 8kg early season speedster that really gave him a work out!

Luckily I hooked up and got one as well!
Top lure colour for this year? So far when the macs have a choice the king brown coloured lures have been taken. Stefan’s incidentally was taken on a redhead. Halco laser pro 190DD’s are the way to go. You can buy them at the right price, from my Shed Shop when you hire my boats. I got loads of them!

We have accepted an offer on the house, the “Secret Waypoint” and it should settle next year. We are just about fully booked until settlement. But our other accommodation will come on line as from the 9th Feb and is better that “The Secret Waypoint”. The same deal will continue with discounts on boat hire when staying in any of our accommodation units.
Sold already! The new owners say they will be listing it with our accommodation agents so will still be available, but for how long and how much I cannot say.

I have been going out in my 5.3m boat a fair bit to pull the pots when the 6.1m has been booked and am very impressed with the performance of the new 100 4-stroke Yamaha that powers it. It fair jumps out of the water and on the plane quickly. It hits max speed at around 4500 revs so pushing it to 6000 revs makes little difference, thus cruising at 4500 is a real fuel saver. When I collected my pots on the 22nd we had 3 adults and 2 kids aboard plus 4 cray pots and it still jumped up on the plane on the way home. I know that the 6.1m boat would have struggled a bit with that load, as it only has a 115hp 4-stroke Yamaha but the comfort of a big boat is what counts!

Here are a couple of pics of a very lucky Rob Jacobs and mate Ian Brunette. I say lucky because Rob phoned up earlier in the year to book a boat and had a lot of trouble getting accommodation during this very busy time. We hunted around for him eventually coming up with some at the Palm Resort. He then phoned up and cancelled the boat saying that he had bought his own boat! Thanks Rob! Unfortunately when he went to get the trailer registered there was a mix up with the VIN number and ended up having to leave the boat back in Perth. He then came round to me on the 23rd Dec. grovelling for a boat! I say lucky, as the only boat available was the 5.3m on Christmas day. Lucky they also had brownie points stored up and the wives let them go fishing! Lucky they hit the mackerel out from the ever-faithful Sand Patch.

Ian with his Sand Patch caught mac.

Rob with his. Note the Sand Patch in the background. Rob also released a shark mackerel.

Ian got 2 fish as well

A how to catch mackerel and tuna by pictures.

Pick a nice day and get up early, be on the water by first light
Select the right lure and colour. This year the colour is king brown. Halco Laser Pro 190DD is my choice of lure type.
Troll where the fish are, around the cray pots 22m deep from 1km north of the Murchison River Mouth to a couple of kms past the Sand Patch. There is another patch from Red Bluff to Pot Alley.

Drag the lures around at about 4-6knots, (fast walking pace). Wait patiently for a strike. It helps to drag teasers behind in the prop wash as well.

Find the bait schools and working birds and troll around them, not too close as you will scare them away. A tuna or mac will find your lure sooner or later.

When the strike comes, stop the boat, bring in all other lines and teasers and take control of the fish, no need to have a tight drag! Jared is fishing 6kg line.
Be patient, this took 1 hour on the morning of the 28th Dec, before we saw the fish. It was a yellow-fin tuna about 15-20kgs.
Have the best tackle you can afford. We fish Shimano TLD15’s and
Shimano Charter Special 2000’s for 6kg line class. 1000’s for 3kg line. We change the drag washers to carbon fibre washers and get the reel serviced from new and remove the level wind.
Unfortunately the fish bust off after an hour, close to the boat, almost within a gaff shot! I nearly cried, Jared did not feel too good either!

The Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic preparations are well advanced and ready for another successful event on the 2nd 3rd and 4th March next year. I have had a cancellation for the 5.3m boat as well as the house so both are available that weekend. It is the Labour Day long weekend and in the middle of the best fishing months here in Kalbarri. The Classic will be on so it will be very busy and if you are thinking of fishing a tournament this would be a great start. You can download an entry form from the Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club website. Just go to the Kalbarri Classic Sports Fishing page.

Last month I reported on the sinking of the iconic Kalbarri River Queen. Well it's back up and floating again and all fixed up. The skipper is keeping quiet about it but it seems that when he had it out of the water, he replaced the Hamilton Jets Screws and inadvertantly replaced the seals the wrong way round so it was letting water in and not letting it out!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp.

No comp this month, just too busy for everyone!


The caravan park at Port Gregory is under new management and a booking agent for my boats. You can now book a boat and pick it up in Port Gregory.

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.

5-day weather forecasts, http://www.buoyweather.com/ go to virtual buoys, pick the location you want. This is the one I go by!

Big bait – big fish
Laurie

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send me a return BLANK email with the subject line “subscribe” and you will receive one each month.

November 2006

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/

This month is the start of the improving weather, the swell drops, the water warms up and the mornings are usually calm so we have more chance to get out and play. We still get a lot of wind at this time of year but that usually kicks in around lunch. With the low swells the abalone picking gets easier and I have been out with some mates getting a feed.
Picking a low swell and a low tide at the same time is the secret. Roe’s Abalone the kind we get up here can be found in abundance but you need to get out of the easier reached places like north of the river mouth. Rock pools like above hide over size abs.
They are there for the picking, lined up like on a supermarket shelf along the ledges and cracks in the reef.
Some are easy to find but others are hidden away under ledges and are inaccessible. If you turn them upside down they will just about climb out of their shells feeling for something to help them turn over with. Makes them easy to shuck when they do this. There is a fair bit of preparation but real tasty when measured, collected, shucked, cleaned, beaten and pan-fried.

Exmouth Billfish Bonanza
Our trip to Exmouth was disappointing to say the least. A very long drive up, 10 and a half hours from Kalbarri towing my 6.1m boat. We crossed the 26th parallel and the Tropic of Capricorn. Seems to be a big thing as lots of tourists stop and take a picture of the tropic line!

I snapped this pic of the tourists as we went by

We past the multitudes of termite mounds
The whole aim of going to Exmouth was to enter the Betta Electrical Billfish Tournament and catch a sailfish. We have never caught one before and the guys up there showed us where to go, how to do it and generally offered as much info as asked for.

We were given tags, which looked quite big and difficult to stick into a billfish

so we tried sticking one in a rock melon to try to see what it felt like. The tags went in OK.

We stayed at the Pot Shot Resort, $123.00 a night, about as reasonable as you can get in Exmouth and they have emus walking about the grounds and also all over Exmouth town site.

The way we were told and saw other boats doing the same is to head out into the Gulf about 25k north east of the Exmouth Marina to near the “Macky Lumps” or Exmouth Reef and troll around dragging teasers behind the boat. When a sailfish comes up to have a look at the teasers, you free spool a gardie rigged on a circle hook to it. Sometimes they are a little fussy and will only take a live bait,

so we jigged up some baits beforehand and had them rigged ready to go. Well we never got to raise a sailfish so never fed back a bait over the two days! Of the 17 boats in the comp only 7 boats caught fish so I don’t feel too bad but I sure am disappointed. We saw sailfish being caught by other boats so we were in the right area, doing the right thing, just unlucky I guess. So a bit of soul searching, teaser modification and enthusiasm needed next time. I have a waypoint for the sailfish grounds, Dayne, and for anyone else who hires one of my boats and is taking it up there.

The afternoons glassed off. This is us powering back at 45km/h at 5.30pm from the centre of the Gulf. No swell, no wind, no sailfish!
For the record we travelled 265km over the two days and used up 1 litre of fuel per 1.6km travelled.

The cray season has started but I have not had a chance to get my pots in yet and will now wait until the “whites”. That is, after they have shed their shells and hardened up and start to move out to deeper water. It is easy to catch them then. They tend to stay under cover, not moving around or feeding while their shells are soft, so will not move into your pots, hence it is hardly worth having your pots out. It is however when the fishing greatly improves as the snapper and dhuie all move inshore to suck the jelly crays out of their holes. They should start after the full moon so I will be putting my pots in around 5th December.

New Accommodation
As per last newsletter the new accommodation comes on line from the first week in February. It is the “Deluxe Duplex” and both units on the block have an enclosed courtyard at the back with a BBQ. Only one street back from the foreshore right behind the IGA.
Both duplexes have an enclosed back courtyard, carport, aircon, washer, microwave, TV etc, are fully self-contained and each sleeps 6.
Rates have not been finalised yet but will remain much the same as they were and we will still offer the same discounts with the boats for these units as usual. They each sleep 6 but being a duplex can take larger groups, as they are right together. I will be posting it all up on my website soon on the accommodation page .We will repaint inside and out and fix it up a bit and make it more comfortable.


Sad News
This morning, Saturday 2nd December, we awoke to find the “Icon” of Kalbarri, The River Queen sunk to the bottom of the river with just the bow above water! A real tragedy for Tim & Julia Woodcock, the operators of the River Queen that have been plying the river for the past 20 or so years.

With the help of the Shire loaders, grader, and a thick rope that broke a few times, they pulled the boat to the edge of the beach where it stuck fast as by this time the bow had filled with water and it settled on the bottom.

They managed to get it out of the water and onto the davit but we don’t know what the problem was as yet!


Boat Hire Price Rise
The price rise has come and gone and my new brochures are out and about with the new prices on them. The price rise was not very much so it is not going to hurt too bad but on the up side, all my boats now have 4-stroke Yamahas saving you a fair packet on your fuel bill. The new prices are on my website at www.murchisonboathire.com.au/hire_rates2.htm

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 18th November.
I was away in Exmouth for this comp, but some good fish were caught as usual.

Lui with his shark and baldchin,

fine mulloway from the beach and Di with a river caught estuary cod.
We also had our once a year away day at Wagoe last week. We stayed in the chalets and fished the Friday night and Saturday and had the weigh-in and party on the Saturday night.
This 22.8kg mulloway was caught by Karen Palamara on the Sat evening, as were other fish.


The caravan park at Port Gregory is under new management and a booking agent for my boats. You can now book a boat and pick it up in Port Gregory.


Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.


5-day weather forecasts, http://www.buoyweather.com/ go to virtual buoys, pick the location you want. This is the one I go by!


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send me a BLANK email to lasue@wn.com.au with the subject line “subscribe” and you will recieve one each month.

October 2006

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043 http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
The school holidays at the beginning of the month were full on with the boats with the 5.3m boat going up to Coral Bay for 2 weeks. I met Dale Fowler at the Ajana turn off at 10am on the morning of the 1st October. He had prepaid the boat hire and was on his way to Coral Bay after a quick rundown on the boat.

The 5.3m at the Ajana turn off at 10am Sunday 1st October, waiting for Dale Fowler

Dale told me he had a great time catching tuna, spangled emperor and the kids had a ball catching and releasing multitudes of trevally.

The 6.1m at the Ajana turn off at 2.00pm Sunday 1st October with Simon Dutton on his way to Karratha.
I had only just got back to Kalbarri and as pre arranged Simon Dutton phoned to say he was leaving Geraldton and would be at the turn off within the hour. I met him there with the 6.1m boat and he was on his way to Karratha for a week. He told me it was a bit of a struggle towing the boat with a station wagon, but got to Karratha in the end. They utilised their Karratha mate’s 4WD to launch and retrieve the boat and travelled far and wide picking up 20 or so big fish and kindly leaving a couple of marks in the GPS.
If you are travelling to spots north of here and want a boat, remember I will take it out to the turn off free of charge, saving you the drive into Kalbarri. You only have to pay the deposit and the hire prior to departure and ring me when you are leaving Geraldton and we should both reach the turn off at the same time. You will however have to bring it back into Kalbarri on the return.

New Accommodation
Latest development is that I have been lucky to purchase one of the Av-er-rest duplexes that were up for auction late October. It is the “Deluxe Duplex” and both units on the block have an enclosed courtyard at the back with a BBQ. Only one street back from the foreshore right behind the IGA.
Both duplexes have an enclosed back courtyard, carport, aircon, washer, microwave, TV etc, are fully self-contained and each sleeps 6.
There is a long settlement so cannot get access until February 9th but will take bookings now for after that date. Rates have not been finalised yet but will remain much the same as they were and we will still offer the same discounts with the boats for these units as usual. They each sleep 6 but being a duplex can take larger groups, as they are right together. I will be posting it all up on my website soon on the accommodation page We will repaint inside and out and fix it up a bit and make it more comfortable.

Boat Hire Price Rise
Sorry to announce but the dreaded price rise has come. This has been prompted by the new 100hp 4-stroke Yamaha that is now on the 5.3m boat and also we have not had a price rise for 3 years. As from the 1st of November the prices went up. Those of you who paid your deposit will be locked into the old price so you don’t have to worry. The price rise was not very much so it is not going to hurt too bad. All my boats now have 4-stroke Yamahas. The new prices are on my website at www.murchisonboathire.com.au/hire_rates2.htm

Kids Whiting Comp
During the October school holidays the angling club hosts a Kids Whiting Comp each Thursday of the holidays. We had 174 excited kids signing up the first Thursday, 58 more kids than last year, all ready to fish the beach from the Chinamans to the first jetty. Rules of the comp allow any fish to be caught, kept in a bucket and brought to the weigh-in live, weighed and then released. The Volunteer Sea Search and Rescue, Police, and Ashley Van Viersen loaned their 4WD bikes and gave kids a lift to the weigh station saving them the long walk over the sand.
The crowd at the weigh-in

Some of the kids with their fish

We did a sausage sizzle each day and awarded 16 rods & reels as prizes as well as loads of stuff from our sponsors for things like biggest whiting, most fish, biggest blowie, smallest blowie etc. 156 kids the second day, it sure is a fun day for the kids and some of the fish were quite good for middle of the day and the location!
We also gave away a free one-day boat hire as a raffle prize on both days.

Exmouth Billfish Bonanza
Later this month my wife, Sue, and I are going up to Exmouth to fish the “Betta Electrical Billfish Bonanza”. It is a 2-day comp and we are going to try to catch our first sailfish. The guys up there recon they will help out by telling us where the fish are and tips on how to do it! It’s not going to be easy but will be fun trying. Will write about it next month and hopefully have some pics.

Cray Season Starts
The cray season is close to starting again. It will be all go from the 15th November, but I won’t get my pots in until I get back from the billfish comp on the 20th. It will be a couple of weeks after that until the “run of the whites” when it is real easy to get crays. The “run of the whites” is when they shed their shells, wait up in reef holes until their shells harden (still light coloured until properly hardened) and then move en mass out to deeper water. Any pot placed on sand between the reefs is obvious shelter as they move from reef to reef. The fishing really picks when the crays shed their shells as the dhuies and snapper come in and suck the jelly crays out of the reef holes and then hang around to pick up the whites.

For those of you who are planning a trip and want to catch more. Here are a few of my tips for the Midwest area that might change you into being one of the 10% who catch 90% of the fish.

1/ Plan your trip around the Almanac: It is best to plan your trip around the tides & moon phases for the species you would like to catch. Rising moon in the evening for tailor from the beach at night. Incoming tide and dark night for mulloway. Half moon for mackerel & tuna. New moon to three quarter moon with a rising tide in the morning for bottom fishing.

2/ Tackle preparation: Have all your rigs made up and stored where you know where they are and are easy to get at. If you bust off it is no good using up good fishing time tying rigs. Tie a new pre made rig on and get back to fishing fast. Make sure your reel is in good condition and spooled with new line and that the drag is smooth and set correctly. If not get it serviced.

3/ Use the correct knots: I can’t stress this point enough. If your knots are not up to scratch you will loose fish and it is usually the best fish of the day that breaks off! Of all the styles of fishing I do I only use 5 knots, a Bimini Double, Uniknot, Double Uniknot, Triline Knot and Dropper Loop. If you don’t know them get a knot book or have some one show you and practice, practice, practice. The Bimini double is a 100% knot, use it with a Double Uniknot to your leader and then a Uniknot to your terminal tackle, goes for just about all styles. For lighter lines like bream fishing a Trilene Knot to the swivel will do. The following websites have diagrams and drawings.
http://www.fish4fun.com/
http://www.netknots.com/
www.peterfaustdam.com/bimini.asp
www.fishnet.com.au/knotsrigs/knotsrigs.html

4/ Keep it simple: Use the minimum amount of clips, swivels, cross clips, wire and gangs. Too much jewellery and some thing has to give. One swivel is all you need.

5/ Fish where the fish are: If there are no fish where you are fishing you will not catch, so fish on reef structure for bottom fish, over reef or amongst the bait fish for mackerel & tuna, in the snags for bream and generally at the known hot spots, because that is where the fish are.

6/ Use the right bait or lure: Fish are not clever, they are purely instinctive. If they are not biting (and you are in the right spot) it is because they are not feeding. (Check the almanac for the predicted bite time) However changing baits to either a different type, fresher or live often brings results. (To give an example of instinctive behaviour, I was fishing with my wife for snapper on light line when I had a hook up and was about 10 minutes into the fight when my wife hooked up. We both landed a snapper at the same time; it was my snapper that had taken her bait as well during the fight on my line!)

7/ Fish the change of light: Fish keep antisocial hours feeding mainly during the early morning and late evening just as the sun is going down or rising. So often I meet anglers packing up towards evening to get home for tea, just as I am arriving. They say “No fish here mate!” and walk off gloomily. Sometimes I’m into a fish first cast!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 21st October.
Fairly quiet comp this month, with few boats going out mainly due the offish weather.

Some of the notable catches was junior Jack Fernie’s .96 kg bream from the jetty

and Koot Myburg’s 19.8kg amberjack

Daughter Rebecca picked up a snapper, baldchin and shark,

Sue a snapper and I got 3 snapper and a fair size shark that I released.

Not a great catch but the weather fined up later on but not good enough to get to the spots I would have liked but a good day was had by all.

The caravan park at Port Gregory is under new management and a booking agent for my boats. You can now book a boat and pick it up in Port Gregory.

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.

5-day weather forecasts, http://www.buoyweather.com/ go to virtual buoys, pick the location you want. This is the one I go by!


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send me a blank email to mailto:lasue@wn.com.au with the subject line “subscribe” and you will receive one each month.

September 2006

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
www.murchisonboathire.com.au

The month started very well for me! A mate of mine, Paul Youngman, from Perth was up for a weeks rest and had to wait around a few days for a big blow to end but managed to get out with me towards the end of his break. The blow was not quite over and when we got out wide, the easterlies picked up Paul threw up over the side and I had trouble holding bottom even with my new very effective drift anchor out and extra lead! It wasn’t until around lunchtime when the wind calmed a few knots that we started to pick up a few fish. Then on one spot all hell broke loose with a double hook-up. Paul got his in but I could not lift mine from the bottom even with my 80lb braid! It would come up a few metres and then pull drag all the way down again, eventually getting off!

A second drift and Paul was into his second and I landed a very respectable 10kg dhuie.
Paul with his two dhuies.
Third drift and this 13.5kg dhuie came to the surface; I wonder how big the first one was? My personal best dhuie 13.5kgs

Well it has finally happened! The 2-stroke motor on the 5.3m boat called it a day, the pistons were scoured and a rebuild would cost as much as the motor was worth. So we have bitten the bullet and extended a loan and bought a new 100hp 4-stroke for the 5.3m boat.

The good news now is that all my boats have 4-stroke motors giving you extraordinary fuel savings. The bad news part is that the price rise we were thinking of having is now going to happen. We haven’t had a price rise since September 2003, so I don’t feel that guilty. The price rise will come into effect as soon as the brochures are printed which will be about the end of this month (October). Those of you who have already booked and paid your deposit, you are safe and we will hold the old price for you.

Peter Thompson was up with Derek early in the month having booked the 6.1m boat for 2 days a couple of months before. He split the days giving himself the best chance of striking a good day and with luck picked 2 fine days. The fist day out was a bit of a disappointment only picking up a few undersize snapper and a couple of breaksea cods, (I blame the full moon) but they made up for it the second day landing a dhuie on the first drop, snapper and this huge cod that was released all down south of the river mouth out from Natural Bridge. You made “Bite of the Month” Peter!
Derek with his honky snapper,

the big cod and Peter’s dhuie.

They also landed a couple of these, big black stingrays. Boy do they put up a fight!
And who was the bunny who had to lean over and release them???


Early morning on the Murchison River and the result.


Number 2 son was back from boarding school with a mate Matt Baker and we had a fish up river in my dinghy. The “low high tide” did not help but there were plenty of baby 200mm mulloway around to keep them busy and the odd black bream. Again this must be another hatching as the last swarm of mulloway were around 300mm 4 weeks ago. There sure is going to be a few good mulloway years to come!

During the school holidays my brother-in-law, Kim Burnell, from Melbourne came for a visit with his wife Jo (My wife’s sister) and two kids Patrick and Sarah. Itching for a fish I took Kim and son Patrick out for a shot at a tailor. First up Kim lost two fish on two casts, (not sure what to expect I think) and then Patrick hooked up on a nice one. Quite a long fish but a bit skinny but would have pulled the scales down to about 3.5kgs. Quick photo and release. Kim then made up for his early misses with a small fish as shown and it was also released.

The next (Grand Final Day, go the Eagles!) we made a quick trip out in the 6.1m boat between a couple of fronts. The swell was up and the southerly was early and the fishing very quiet. It happens sometimes, but a small samson and shark made an appearance to make his day. (They don’t catch much in Victoria, or win grand finals). And back for the final at lunchtime.

A couple of days later another shot at a tailor and this very respectable fish hammered his gardie bait at Black Rock. Estimated at 4.5kgs, it was also released.

A trip up river resulted in a few mulloway and bream for Sarah and Kim

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 23rd September.
Such crappy weather, we cancelled the offshore section so Sue and I went for a fish up river. A total of 19 bream were brought to the weigh-in all alive and were released. I had 3 bream but not big enough to beat Gary Ivey who had 3 as well with one a weighing 938grams.
Gary Ivey with his 938g fish

“The caravan park at Port Gregory is under new management and a booking agent for my boats. You can now book a boat and pick it up in Port Gregory.

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.

5-day weather forecasts, http://www.buoyweather.com/ go to virtual buoys, pick the location you want. This is the one I go by!

Big bait – big fish
Laurie
If you would like to recieve these newsletters each month just send a blank email with the subject line "Subscribe" to lasue@wn.com.au and you will recieve one each month

August 2006

www.murchisonboathire.com.au

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE AUGUST 2006 ELETTER

Just coming to the end of the best of the dhuies. Between June and August they school up close in and are easy to catch. The Murchison River is alive with undersize mulloway at the moment. They are all about 200mm – 300mm long. One local, Jamie Waite, tagged 27 undersize mulloway on Wednesday night 23rd August from the wooden service jetty, while the Monday before Steve Wiseman and Steve Guilders tagged 18 fish in an hour, fishing by the dredge outlet where the Sand Spit use to be. Hirers have been reporting catching and releasing 10 – 20 fish each evening with the kids from the jetties. There has also been a lot of people keeping and killing them as well, what a waste when you know what they grow up to be. We think that there has been an unusually high amount of spawning in the river or high survival rate this year because of the flood. The mulloway are all the way up the river as well

Lou Parker is a local here in Kalbarri and when his brother Matt and mate Bevan dropped in for a visit he couldn’t resist the temptation to take them out and show them how to catch fish. Lou has been fishing these waters for many years now and often comes out with me so you would expect him to catch some decent fish. With time pressing as the crew had to be back in Perth that day they slipped out early in my 6.1m and were back with fish like this by lunchtime.

Lou and Matt Parker show off their catch.
Lou fished his spots, which are close in, and only just past the Sand Patch picking up this very nice baldchin and a double header of dhuies for Matt amongst their bag of skippy, breaksea and snapper.

Big baldchin were the flavour of this month. Darren Lamont was up with 4 mates, Wes Godridge, Rooboy, Mala and Scotty. They hired the 5.3m boat as I had the 6.1 for the day and followed me up north just past Baldface.

Rooboy’s double-header

and the gang with their fish.
It must have been a bit crowded on the 5.3m boat with 5 on board but they did well landing snapper, skippy, baldchin rankin cod, red-throat emperor and a dhuie.
Bite of the day was Rooboy’s double-header of this 6kg baldchin and 4kg rankin cod. You made “Bite of the Month” Rooboy! On the way back to the boat ramp they came across some dolphins and birds crashing a big ball of baitfish. They decided to put a couple of lures out even though there was little chance of any pelagics around as it is now late in the season. However the lures got smashed by something that destroyed them on their 80lb braid and Penn Internationals. They got one of the fish to the boat but still could not sight it and ended up busting them off??? Could only have been very big tuna!?

The big one went 8.5kgs
They couldn’t wait to get out again but had to wait 4 days for the swell and wind to go down again before heading out for a 2 day fish in the 6.1m boat. Blanking out on the first day with only a couple of snapper they made up for it the second day landing three dhuies and a good baldchin. They trolled for a bit but could not replicate the first day’s bust-offs.

Some of you may get the TV channel Access 31. We don’t get it up here so have not seen the fishing show filmed by Cam Munro, Peter Ryan, Artie, Paws and crew, but they were in Kalbarri having a look see as to what the fishing was about.

Artie with a 4.2kg skippy, the biggest from the boat to date.

Cam and Artie show off their dhuies. Cam’s fish was caught on soft plastics.
I took them to a couple of spots just north of Baldface in about 25m of water, as they wanted to use soft plastics. Well from the moment we held anchor it went off. As soon as the soft plastic got near the bottom it was snatched by a skippy, and the soft plastics were out fishing bait! There was no real difference as to the colour or type, as everything presented got munched. For the record, paddle tail shapes took a lot longer to get down than the straight tails, other than that there was not much difference. The first day was nearly all skippy and we struggled to find other species, but on the second day

Artie with a beautiful spangled emperor caught on soft plastics

and Cam with his biggest dhuie, a 9kg specimen taken on bait.
fishing the same spots we struggled to get anything other than dhuies! It was mainly undersized dhuies on soft plastics and bait to start and then later in the day the bigger ones turned it on. We ended up with 5 good dhuies and an assortment of other fish.

The days catch of dhuies and one mulloway.

Peter Ryan’s soft plastic caught Murchison River bream.
The last day was a bitch of a weather day so we explored up the Murchison River fishing the snags on a rising tide. We did not have much time and the tide was dropping by 8am, but we had an early start and managed to land a few respectable bream before they turned off with the dropping tide. It is quite critical to fish the rising tide in the Murchison for two reasons. One the fish only seem to bite during the incoming and the river is so shallow that any boat will be left stranded at low tide.

One of the soft plastics caught dhuies, the softy well down its throat.
These guys were using Rapala Squidgy Braid, Shamano Twin Power 4000FBs on “T” Curve rods. Very nice outfits, and I had a bit of a fish with the gear myself. I have to admit I was very impressed with the feel and performance of the Rapala Squidgy Braid and especially the “T” Curve rods. They had the rods in different line classes and the feel and performance was spectacular! Expensive gear but, hey, if you fish a lot, enjoy it!

You might have heard that the river is silting up again. This is true and the usual route out is no longer possible, however you can still get out by going around the Three Sisters (The three rocks in the middle or the channel) There are some orange markers on the rocks showing a safe passage through. The dredge is here now and currently cutting a channel through the sand and reclaiming the beaches and the Sand Spit. By the end of August it will have cut through and access will be easy again.


These pics were sent to my by Geoff Bradbury who hires my boats each year around April. He was holidaying in England and snapped these pics of a fishing trip poster in Plymouth where they brag about catching rare “Spanish mackerel” I know it is probably a different species but makes you laugh considering some of the “prize fish” shown in the photos!



Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 19th August
Our local comp this month fell on pretty ordinary day weather wise but with a NNE wind and low swell early in the morning it was not too bad until about midday. As we got to Baldface we encountered baitfish and birds so we dragged a couple of lures but nothing happened! A bit further north on a spot I know to be pretty reliable as a mackerel spot we found more birds and bait, again the lures went out only to hook up immediately on nor west blowies! But the second sweep of the area resulted in a solid hook-up for Sue on her 3kg outfit landing an 8.2kg mackerel. We dropped a few more and bust off something big and later on I picked up this 8.5kg yellow-fin from a mulie under a balloon out the back of the boat.

My yellow-fin on 6kg line

and Sue’s very late season game section winning mackerel
This is very late in the season for game fish. Mostly the macs and tuna are gone by mid July at the latest, but it has been a very strange year, very little rain and a very big river flood.

Daniel Tarasek won the land based section with this 19.9kg amberjack from the cliffs

Ian Lecke’s about 12kgs (released)

Lou Parker’s about 9-10kgs (released)
Look at these fish, not the sort you would associate with Kalbarri! Lou Parker and mate Ian Lecke went north in just past the Sand Patch to one of Lou’s spots mid August, in Lou’s dinghy, on what looks like a good day. These two species of trevally made their day for them and big ones of the species also. We recon the one Ian is holding a brassy trevally and would be as big as the species goes, while Lou holds up a very respectable golden trevally. It has been a very strange year!

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.

5-day weather forecasts, http://www.buoyweather.com/ go to virtual buoys, pick the location you want. This is the one I go by!

Big bait – big fish
Laurie

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send a blank email to lasue@wn.com.au and you will receive one each month.

July 2006

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JULY 2006 ELETTER
The mackerel run continues to the end of July!
I managed to get out at the beginning of the school holidays and went out with my son Ben, back from Uni, and Gavin Penn, from the Kalbarri Palm Resort. As the weather was looking particularly good a couple of local guys hired the 5.3m boat and we went north together to have a crack at some mackerel. It turned out very well catching 7 mackerel between the two boats. We then went to a spot I suspected might have some dhuies on it as I had caught them there same time last year and was right! 3 dhuies from one spot together with a few snapper and odds and ends. Made for a great day out.

Paul in the 5.3m shows off one of the three mackerel they caught.

Gavin and Ben display the huge chunk of coral encrusted limestone that came up with the anchor. The anchor pull was so hard it took 2 of us in shifts with the help of the swell to get it up. Then we had to gaff and rope it off to get it up enough to get the anchor off. I was so exhausted I nearly threw up! Proof that we were on good ground!

One of the seven macs was a good one, 16kgs, equalling my personnel best.

Gavin holds his first mac and first dhufish ever caught. Last time he was out with me he caught his first ever yellow fin tuna!

My son’s girlfriend Rhea was up from Geraldton with parents, Mike and Siobhan. They have never been fishing before and done very little boating so when a whale-watching trip was organised I felt a bit apprehensive. It all went very well and luckily it was a very nice day but no whales showed themselves and a troll for mackerel failed to get a sniff so we went to a nearby spot that I knew produced a lot of fun-to-catch skippy. Well, on the bite time as predicted it was snapper after snapper (most undersize) and then the skippy came on so thick that every drop was hammered. It all went quiet and I realised that the wind had changed direction and we had swung slightly off the spot. It is that critical to be on the spot. We reset the anchor and it was mulloway one after the other! They all caught one and then started to release the rest! You made “Bite of the Month” Rhea!
Mike with his mulloway

& skippy.
Rhea got the biggest mulloway.
Rhea ‘s second mulloway and a skippy for Siobhan.
Siobhan’s mulloway.
This is the first time that we have caught mulloway from this spot and first time that I have caught mulloway from the boat other than in the river mouth. Hirers have quite frequently got them and I have wondered how, but it seems to be just luck and at the right spot at the right time.
Max, Rob Tenaglia and Frank Tenaglia. The bigger mac went 13kgs.
Now these are very happy guys. They took a 2-day hire and the fishing gods smiled on them. two great weather days combined with the fish going off resulted in them catching 6 nor’ west snapper, 12 pink snapper, a dhuie and a mackerel the first day and 4 mackerel, 2 tuna, 1 dhuie and 8 pinkies the second day! I doesn’t get much better than that! Where did they go? I don’t know either but it was up past Baldface somewhere!
Knowing that the snapper were going sick in the clear water north of Baldface I shot up the next day with my son Ben, mate Lou Parker and his mate Nathan Pearce from Kalamunda. Now Nathan gets seasick but he dosed himself up with dangerous amounts of Quell and luckily stayed right all day.Lou Parker’s mac and Ben Malton holds his yellow-fin and dhuie.
We trolled up 2 macs in short order followed by a couple of yellow-fin tuna and then went to have a go at the snapper. But as fishing goes, we could not get a bite; we weren’t even loosing our bait! We struggled on all day but luckily the weather held and just on the 4.00pm bite time it all happened.
Some of you might recognise the landmarks behind Nathan!
A couple of dhuies came aboard, then this good one for Nathan. Just as I was taking this photo of Nathan's dhuie my rod took a big bend, I reluctantly let Lou grab it while I put my camera away, and grabbed it back when he said he thought it was a dhuie! After a while it felt like a sambo, then a shark, then a dead weight as I found out when I reeled in the head of a big dhuie.
This big blue mako shark followed the dhuie head back in and we had a chance to take these photos and a video while it munched on the head beside the boat.
We recon that the dhuie must have been 10-15kgs! What a waste!

Rob Tenaglia phoned the next day, he wanted to do it all again! He had had so much fun catching all those snapper that he, Max, and Frank took the 5.3m boat out and shot up to his spots up north. Now they must have better spots than me because they bagged out (four each) on good-sized snapper again!

Have a look at these fish. This is only half of them!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 22nd July
Pretty average weather meant we didn’t go too far, and not many boats went out but still got into some nice fish.

My son Jared won the junior section with this little sambo,

while Di Stewart landed this beautiful 1.46kg bream in the river to win the river section. (The bream was kept alive then tagged and released, so it is still out there guys!)

I picked up the senior under 7.5m boat with a few skippy and a small sambo.

Dave Hugill won the senior over 7.5m section with this 3.3kg pink snapper.

Lou Parker and I went up the river last Wednesday, turned out to be a nice day with very little wind. There was an incoming tide up until lunchtime which gave us time to get up river, have a fish and get back down without too much trouble bumping rocks and shallow sand bars that plague the river at low tide. We fished the snaggy areas that we could find catching and releasing 6 bream and of course dropping a few!
As soon as the tide turned they shut down and we never got another bite despite being on a spot where we could see at least 6 just size and a couple of thumpers just holding out in the snags. We dropped our best-presented river prawn baits on their noses but they would not take!

Lou Parker with an average one

and one of mine that must have been close to a kilo.
You can see the snaggy country we are fishing in and we even had to park the boat and walk the bank to get to this spot.

7.5kg Niloticas Bream
Here is an interesting photo, sent to me by a mate in Zimbabwe. The fish is a species of Tilapia that is common in Africa and is now fish farmed in cages in Lake Kariba on the Zambezi River. The fish escape from the aquaculture cages and become feral in the lake. The world record for this fish is 6.5kgs. This one though 7.5kg was not recorded, but a big fish for a freshwater species.

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.


5-day weather forecasts, http://www.buoyweather.com/ go to virtual buoys, pick the location you want. This is the one I go by!


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send a blank email to lasue@wn.com.au with the subject line “Subscribe” and you will receive one each month.

June 2006

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JUNE 2006 ELETTER

The mackerel run continues into June with everyone getting their bag limit when conditions are right. What are the right conditions? Well, it seems to be when the swell has been down a couple of days and the water clarity has picked up. If the water is green with flecks in it you won’t catch mackerel but green and clear there is a chance, better if the water is clear and blue! It seems that the swell stirs up the bottom and lifts particles into the water column. Also water temp should be over 22.5 degrees but can be lower if conditions are really good.
A lot of big snapper about as well, if you are at the right spot at the right time they will really turn it on for you.

The seasons have changed now and the whales are back. Today there were whales in the bay near the mouth of the Murchison and a baby whale (born already!) breaching half way to the Sand Patch. The whale population is increasing by 10% a year and now there is an almost guarantee of seeing whales every day from now until late October.
Soon the fantastic wildflowers will be out and the bush will be transformed.

James Scovell picked it right with a 2-day hire with the 6.1m boat over the long weekend at the beginning of the month. With an easterly all day flattening the swell, it all happened at the Sand Patch on the first day with the group catching 7 mackerel and releasing another 2.
James and crew of Andrew Woolley, Alison Robertson, Steve Tomsic all caught their first mackerel ever.

Alison’s bigger of the two she caught. James shows off one of his.

Andrew picked up 2 big ones to 12kgs

and the group with all the macs.

They then went out a bit deeper to the 35m mark to try for a tuna but to no avail, so headed a bit further north for a bottom fish. It was a bit slow at first but picked up towards the end of the day when James and Andrew each got a dhuie and Allison picked up this beautiful big pink snapper.
Alison’s big pink snapper

and the dhuie pair.
Second day out the swell was rising but the fish had turned the lights out and gone home! 3 missed strikes from mackerel and one skippy from the bottom, funny how it goes! It would have been a big ask to have bettered or even equalled their first day!

On the same day, 4th June, the 5.3 went out with 4 fairly inexperienced anglers, Adam Fowler had experience with a boat but Jake and Marc Harrington and Chad Swan were pretty new to the game. They also headed to the Sand Patch on my instruction and I expected them to catch quite a few mackerel. They had the right gear; a couple of hired rods and two lures the right type and colour from me, but only managed one mackerel. It was not their fault, the fish had shut down as they had for the other boat! After trolling for quite a long time they tried a bit of bottom bouncing just off Red Bluff with Adam getting the bite of his life and landing this monster 7kg snapper!

Adam Fowler with his 7kg snapper and Jake Harrington very happy with his mackerel.
You also made bite of the month Adam!

Kalbarri boat ramp now has a very nice Finger Jetty down the middle of the ramp. It only took 2 days to install and makes launching and retrieving a lot easier. Loading the boat up with gear and getting aboard is a breeze now!

35m long by a couple wide.

The 6.1m boat at the Finger Jetty.

Also early June a couple from Queensland dropped in wanting a boat. The 5.3m was available and just what they needed. They followed me out as I was also going out for a look-see, and headed south. They had a great day, as the following email from Niki will testify.

Dear Laurie and Sue,

Doug & I, (Niki), hired your 5.3m boat on 6th June 2006. This was our last day, on a 3-week holiday, to enjoy some fishing before driving to
Perth & flying home to Brisbane the next night.

Firstly thanks for spending time with us explaining everything, making
you late for your fishing, and setting us up for a great day out on the
water it was much appreciated.

After getting over that bar - 1st time over any bar for me, which wasn't
as bad as I thought it was going to be - we headed south did a bit of
trolling before anchoring up. A bit of chop and swell made it a bit rocky, I hoped fishing would take my mind off it. Quite a few bites but
nothing to get excited about to start with. So as Doug kept fishing, I
tried to stop thinking about feeling crook when we noticed some
Humpbacks passing by about 200m away. They decided to stick around and
put a show on for us for about 45mins before moving on. Fantastic to
watch!
Back to fishing. We decided to drift; as usual we found the best spot
about 2 hours before we we're due back in. Doug caught a nice Pink
Snapper, Black Snapper and a 16kg Samson Fish, which he tried for 30 mins
to re-swim but the fish had had it. I caught a nice Blue Morwong and
Rankin Cod.
All in all a great day out that wouldn't have been possible without all
of your help.

We both can't wait to come back, but this time we're staying for at
least a week not 2 nights!

Kind Regards
Niki & Doug


Niki’s rankin cod

and Doug’s 16kg samsonfish

There was a bit of a gap in the bookings of the 6.1 this month so took the opportunity to put the 6.1m boat on a mooring in the river and take the 6.1m trailer in to Geraldton. I stripped it down into many pieces, got all the rust sand blasted off, re primed and painted, new bolts throughout, new LED lights and wiring, new wheel bearings and mudguards. It is a good as new and will last a few more years yet. So those of you taking it up north to Gnaraloo, Exmouth and Thevenard etc can have confidence that it is going to get you there and back!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 17th June
Some nice fish this month, big baldies, mulloway and sharks were caught from the beach and rocks. A hirer, Matt Aldridge and mates caught good fish around the Sand Patch from the 5.3m and weighed in for the comp only to be knocked off by unexpected very big snapper by Koot Myburgh. My wife sue picked up a little coral trout among her bag of skippy.

Simon Tarasek’s monster 4.85kg baldy from the rocks

and Matt Aldridge with his 2.6kg coral trout

Sue’s little coral trout from Wagoe

while Koot Myburgh holds his 8.25kg snapper, the biggest one of a bag of four!

Featured website this month is http://www.koac.fishingaustralia.com.au/ the all-new Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club’s website. Contains all info about the club, comp reports, committee, comp info, photo gallery, events calendar and lots more. It is hosted by the associated website http://www.fishingaustralia.com.au/.

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.


Check out http://www.oceanoutlook.com.au/ and go to the Geraldton weather for local weather conditions

5-day weather forecasts, or http://www.buoyweather.com/ and go to virtual buoys, is not a bad one!


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

If you would like to be included in these newsletters just send a blank email to lasue@wn.com.au with the subject line “subscribe” and you will receive one each month.