June 2008

http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/

All the boats have been away up north this month, seems everyone wants to be at the Mackerel Islands Onslow or Gnaraloo.
I couldn’t resist it either and at the end of the 7.8m boat hire at Gnaraloo I took it over and fished out from Gnaraloo
for 10 days or so with mates Paul & Debbie Youngman, Ashley & Shirley Forde, John Hoye, son Jared and wife Sue.
I have to admit, the fishing was awsome and we struck it lucky with some very good weather!
This month most of the coverage is on the Station.
Gnaraloo Station Trip
Gnaraloo station looking east situated on the escarpment overlooking the ocean

The cabins that we stayed in were pretty basic. There is other accommodation such as the very basic Shearing Shed
Shearing Quarters and the Old Homestead which is still basic but large.

The cabins were just one room with gas stove, fridge, freezer, table, beds and cold salt showers with next to zero water pressure.
Hot saltwater showers with zero water pressure are available at the main ablution block.
Generator power runs from 7am to about 11pm.
You have to be totally self sufficient, but fresh water is supplied in a container and refilled on demand.
There is a small shop at the homestead with few supplies but the shop at 3 mile has a bit more stuff.
3 Mile camp is where the surfies go and is all camping and caravanning. Quite nice but not really for the fishermen.

We caught fish! Triple hook-up on red emperor, and John Hoye got two coronation trout.
Being the first time up for me, it took a bit of searching around to find the spots but we cracked it in the end.
There are now spots on the GPS that we found for hirers use, but we found that: (and this is only my assumption)
a/ If there were fish on a spot one day they were not necessarily there the next
b/ There are no significant lumps, just gradual ups and downs, (10m difference over a km or so).
c/ The red emperor are caught from 45m plus.
d/ The red emperor school up the bait fish during feeding time.
e/ Find the bait schools and drift through them to catch the red emperor.
f/ Not all bait schools have red emperor. The thicker and denser the better. The sounder will show them up near the bottom.
g/ If you find broken ground, resident species such as rankin cod, big red-throat emperor, coronation cod, etc are there.

Rankin cod for John, 10kgs of red emperor for Paul, the biggest for the trip, while Sue out fished everyone catching 7 red emperor.
John got 5 reds, Paul 3, Ashley 2 and I got only 1
OK here is a tip. If you fish Gnaraloo, minimum size hooks should be 8/0s and buy quality chemically sharpened hooks.
Also upgrade everything else, leaders, line etc, the fish are big and the water deep!

The Mackerel were big; son Jared got this 20kg one on a live bait and burnt his thumb on the spool in the excitement!
The bay is a great place to swim and snorkel.
Most of it is a marine reserve but to the east of where Jared is standing you can fish all the way around.

This 31kg mac I got was the biggest for the trip & Paul shows off the teeth of his 22kg fish
The mackerel were caught with a floater out the back while drifting. It tends to get in the way but it
was not out there very long. We also got one on the troll and another using live bait when we thought there was
a shark around and my son wanted to have a go at it!

A first for me this trip was my first decent fish on salt water fly. A small dart made my day!
The beach in front of the homestead is quite accessible only a bit of a long walk. We fished it a couple of times with poppers
catching small GTs, trevally, queen fish etc missing the high tide each time. I am sure the fishing would turn on an hour before high tide.

Sharks were not as much a problem as I expected and came to the boat when hooked. The odd spangled emperor held by Ashley
were a bonus but the red-throat emperor were huge!
The best way to get the boat out of the water is to be prepared! First up make sure you reduce your tyre pressures down to 20lb.
Reverse the trailer and the 4WD so that both sets of tyres (boat and trailer) are on steel mesh. I supplied a set of mesh with each hire to
Gnaraloo this year. Winch the boat onto the trailer and using a second vehicle, with a snatch strap, tandem pull the boat out.
Easy! Works every time. If you do it wrong you’ll bog down.

This is how not to do it! These guys got bogged, decided to snatch the trailer out from the bog hole and forgetting to
hitch the boat to the trailer snatched the trailer from under the boat! They managed to winch the boat back onto the
trailer but it could have been a lot worse!

The snorkelling was great and the birds friendly.

Pumping the tyres up to bitumen pressures at the King Waves Kill Sign

Bite of the month

I have to award “Bite of the Month” to Paul Youngman for his 10kg red emperor caught at Gnaraloo.
A good fish by any measure!

Jason and Dave Grant picked a great day out to take the 7.8m boat up to the
Sand Patch for a troll picking up these 3 macs as well as a handful of bottom fish.
It was young Jason’s first mac, so he was well pleased.

George and Manwell from Italy struck it lucky when Manwell’s brother shouted them and their 2 kids a trip
out on the 7.8m boat. They have never fished before and told me that the only fish they see
are small trout in the local mountain streams. So it was a surprise for George when this sambo grabbed his line
& headed for the horizon! All the fish caught that day were returned.

I love old 2-strokes
Mark and Neil Tankard are experienced and very keen fishermen and own their own glass hulled Haines Hunter powered by a 200hp Mercury 2-stroke.
They were on a http://www.fishwrecked.com/ forum organised trip up to Onslow with Kassey Leong when they had trouble with their motor. Bum!
With a week still to go on their trip they needed another boat. Luckily my 6.1m was available and Mark towed his 6.5m boat down to the
Kalbarri/Ajana turn off where I met him with my 6.1m boat. I towed Mark’s boat back to Kalbarri and Mark turned around and headed back to
Onslow. That’s about 20 hours! You’re very keen Mark!
They hit some good fish until a very strong high in the Bight just about blew them off the planet.

Kassey and Neil with some very good rankin cod and again with XXX size coral trout

Mark got a couple of big ones followed up with a lot more coral trout making it a very successful trip.


The afternoons glassed off after the strong easterlies in the morning. There were plenty of mackerel around
if you could get them past the sharks!
Their trip was organised over the http://www.fishwrecked.com/ forum website. Four boats were involved & they had a ball.
Have a look at the site, it is well managed by Adam and there are lots of fish pics and you can upload your own fishing
pics and view other anglers trips etc.

Thevenard Island
Last year the 6.1m boat spent a lot of time up at Thevenard Island in the Mackerel Islands group off Onslow.
It is also up there this year.
Helen will take your accommodation booking if you would like to visit. Phone her on 9184 6444
bookings@mackerelislands.com.au
Check out the website: http://www.mackerelislands.com.au/

Gnaraloo Station
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au
Website: Gnaraloo.com.au

Game Fishing Action
These links will take you to Youtube showing some great action video clips taken from
my boats and also a very good mulloway from the beach.
Triple tuna hook-up
Dhuie and snapper
Beach mulloway

Or go to the Adventure Bound website and view them there. Click this link.
http://www.adventurebound.com.au/news/latest/youtube_kalbarri_wa_offshore_episode.html

Noel and Robyn are willing to accept bookings for my boats at Port Gregory
I will deliver the boat down there for 2 or more days hire for free.
& return it to Kalbarri for you.

Remember if you rent our accommodation in Kalbarri 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

May 2008

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MAY 2008 ELETTER

A very busy month for the boats. Every one wants to go north to Mackerel Islands and Gnaraloo. The 7.8m spent a week at Thevenard Island before making its way to Gnaraloo where it has been for most of the month.
I made a dash up to Gnaraloo to service the 7.8m and have a look around, and get prepared for my trip up there
at the beginning of June, the boys were getting into some good red emperor & big Spangled emperor!
I am going up with some mates from Perth to take over the 7.8m boat at the end of the hire.
Saves me the tow up. (I hope they leave some waypoints in the GPS)

7.8m boat trip early May
Merv Hopkins runs a very busy business in Perth and has been trying to get away for a fish for a while.
He eventually made it up here with some mates, but was unlucky with the less than perfect weather
that restricted the fishing. They did do OK considering, and got into some good fish and achieved some angling firsts.
Having the new 7.8m boat helped in the conditions and made for a much more comfortable trip.

Scott Davies landed a fine 11.5kg mackerel. First fish on a lure. (Didn’t think they actually caught fish he thought)

Followed up with the biggest fish he has ever caught, a +-15kg sambo that was released.

Brian Duke was well pleased with this 14kg yellow-fin tuna taken from the dirty water off Red Bluff.

Huge sand snapper for Merv, big 6.25kg snapper for Norm Davies (Biggest he has ever caught) and a sambo for Merv again.
Merv and crew stayed in our accommodation units and picked up the boat discounts that go with the package. See http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/accommodation2.htm for the great discounts.

Business trip to Gnaraloo
Seeing as the 7.8m boat had been at Thevenard Island for a week and then at Gnaraloo for another week I felt
that it probably needed a service so shot up there last week to case the place out and do the said service.
I hope to bring you pics of some of the best fish from those hires.

We skirted the southern edge of Lake McCleoud

Got the tourist pic at the “King Waves Kill” sign

Entered Gnaraloo Station. Take note here, my 7.8m boat is too high to get under the sign:

Use the gate on the right to get through!

The girls at Gnaraloo Station clean the shacks and remove the garbage with this handy vehicle

XXX size tuna
Ritchie Kirk, John Slattery, Rob Slattery, Mike Stacey, Ray Graffin, Ricky Cottingham, Des Hewitt, Lindsay Hughes,
Geoff MacEwen, & Peter Jones were part of a group of guys who come up every year & have been
for the past 25 odd years! They have been hiring the 6.1m boat for at least 6 years and target mackerel mostly.
Following are some pic of some of the better fish they caught this year.
Ritchie Kirk recons they did better this year than they have for a while.

21kg yellow-fin for John

Ray Graffin’s tuna, Ray was over from Queensland and is a avocado farmer over there and recons he has never caught a fish before other
than a whiting or something he says. Mike Stacey’s 19kg Mac the biggest for the trip!

Paul Ashton and family, all the way from Cairns in Queensland were over doing a tour of the west coast.
He was after the 6.1m boat but as it was up at Gnaraloo he had to settle for the 5.3m boat.
It did not stop him getting amongst the fish just past the Sand Patch.

Skippy, morwong, a small dhuie and an uncommon gold-spot trevally

Bite of the month

I have to award “Bite of the Month” to Norm Davies with this beautiful pinky caught on a floating mulie
out the back of the 7.8m boat. They don’t come much better than this Norm.

You would have come across “Same Shirt Andy” before; He is part of a group of frequent hirers and have taken the step to
buy their own boat. Unfortunately the boat was not ready for their trip so had to take a last hire with the 6.1m.
They all got into some fine fish and one big mackerel by the looks.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 24th May 2008.

Brett Bain had 4 bream to win the river section (All release live back into the river) and Paul Maindok got a 10kg estuary cod.

Thevenard Island
Last year the 6.1m boat spent a lot of time up at Thevenard Island in the Mackerel Islands group off Onslow.
It is also up there this year.
Helen will take your accommodation booking if you would like to visit. Phone her on 9184 6444
bookings@mackerelislands.com.au
Check out the website: http://www.mackerelislands.com.au/

Gnaraloo Station
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au
Website: Gnaraloo.com.au

Game Fishing Action
These links will take you to Youtube showing some great action video clips taken from
my boats and also a very good mulloway from the beach.
Triple tuna hook-up
Dhuie and snapper
Beach mulloway

Or go to the Adventure Bound website and view them there. Click this link.
http://www.adventurebound.com.au/news/latest/youtube_kalbarri_wa_offshore_episode.html
Noel and Robyn are willing to accept bookings for my boats at Port Gregory
I will deliver the boat down there for 2 or more days hire for free.
& return it to Kalbarri for you.

Remember if you rent our accommodation in Kalbarri 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