Murchison Boat Hire Fishing 2008

December 2008

2009-01-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

www.murchisonboathire.com.au
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE DECEMBER 2008 ELETTER

Well another year gone already! I hope you all had a great Christmas and that the New Year brings you
fame and fortune. It’s been a very good year for the business, especially the popularity of the new
7.8m boat. It has been quite extraordinary considering that my advertising only started to kick in a couple of months ago!
The 6.1m is still the backbone of the business and the 5.3m just adds the cream.
All the boats now have new 4-stroke Yamahas that never miss a beat, so I am all set for the recession.
What recession? I have never been busier!

Cray Season
Every year my mate Bruno and I put our cray pots out. Catching crays is easy as long as you abide by a few rules!
It’s been an awsome season and we had our bag limit each day bar two.
The trick is to wait until the “Run of the Whites” which is usually after the full moon in December.
You can start from the 15th November but it is hard going with low numbers getting into your pots as the crays
shed their shells and hole up without venturing out until their shell hardens. We put our pots in on the Sat 13th December
with the first pull on the Sunday morning. A full moon over that weekend we were not expecting much but were
pleased with 5. From then on it all happened; we got 11, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, and 12 on Christmas Eve.
Most days we did not pull all 4 pots as the first pot would have 9 or 10 size in it, then the next also full so left the last two.
One of the days we counted 19 size crays in the first pot and then went home!

Rule 1/ Put your pots in after the full moon in December.
Rule 2/ Use good quality bait.
Rule 3/ Find rock and reef and drop the pot on the ocean side of it.
Rule 4/ Use wooden pots, the plastic ones don’t catch as well.

Son Jared and Bruno pull the pots while I do the hard work like checking the sounder
for good spots and gauging the crays

A pot full. More than the new daily bag limit of 6 for one person in one pot!

A cray with eggs. (in berry)

and one with “Tar Spot” These have to go back.

Male cray

female

Under water shot of the pots coming up.

Counting

and gauging.

On the last day, with the pots on board returning to the jetty, and a cray being gauged.

Snapper Spawning

This pic was circulated on the internet. It is a school of snapper in a spawning concentration
in Cockburn Sound in Perth. Not often seen but they recon it probably happens quite a lot.
Fishing for snapper in Cockburn Sound is banned during the spawning season.
I can see why!

Dave Tencate lives in Geraldton and got a group of mates and made a flying visit, hiring the 7.8m. The weather was not the best
early December so elected to have a troll for mackerel and leave the bottom fishing alone.

Shane O’Brien told me that it was the first time he had been in a boat big enough to stand up in and had never caught a mackerel!

Shane is the one holding his mac above his head, he was well pleased!

Fishing in Oman
Campbell Munro sent me these pictures. He has been working in the United Arab Emirates and returned
from a fishing trip to Southern Oman. He says the fishing was quite good, if a bit windy and cold. (what’s new?)

The beastie looking bream were hitting poppers, lures and flies

The GT’s were quite good

as well as the tailor.
They caught mackerel, queenies and tuna as well!
I didn’t know there was a fishery in Oman as good as this?

Chrissie Present
Lucky me, this Christmas, I got a Shimano Stella 8000SW!
It was the only gift with everyone dipping in to help pay. So it was on Boxing Day that I shot out with both sons to try it
out. I was hoping for a big fish to really test it out!

Son Ben got the first hook up within minutes, a standard mac around 9kgs on a Halco Laser Pro 190DD King Brown colour.
Then after what seemed forever, my Stella hummed. And boy did it go! There was no stopping this fish even on the 50lb braid and heavy drag. We turned the boat and gave chase, eventually stopping it under the boat after about 20 minutes.

My poor 20 year old ugly stick was creaking and groaning with the pressure.

We got to get a sighting of a +-25kg yellow-fin before it went down again.

You can see my Stella with the spool blurred, it was going out so fast! With the pressure on something had to
give and unfortunately the hooks pulled in the end.

Bite of the month

This months “Bite of the Month” goes to Andrew Martin for his 8kg pink snapper.
Andrew was out late December with girlfriend Bree in the 5.3m boat. Hooking up on a probable monster tuna that bust him off at the end of his 80lb braid line outfit, his other lure was just drifting along when this big snapper came up
and gave him the buzz of his life. Very nice fish on a lure Andrew!
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

A couple of days later I invited Andrew and Bree out for a quick troll to try for one of those
big tuna. The water had turned a bit green around the Sand Patch & no sign of tuna! But Bree had all the luck landing her first mackerel, biggest fish ever & then went on to catch another mac & a small yellow-tail kingfish! Extracting them all from between the 5 other rods that had similar and identical lures on!

Garry Miller got amongst them aboard my 7.8m boat but it was the only one for the day.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club.

The next comp is the Kalbarri Ultra Light Comp. This is on the 24th & 25th January, a game fishing
warm up comp for our major comp the Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic.
The Ultra Light is a game fishing comp with a max line class of 6kg line.
A red hot time of year to catch mackerel and tuna, and great fun on light line.

A good time to be in Kalbarri as the Australia Day holiday is on the Monday and
the town celebrates with a pretty good fireworks display on the foreshore and withouthaving to travel and get stuck in traffic for hours on end!

November 2008

2008-12-06T04:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE NOVEMBER 2008 ELETTER
November is usually very quiet for the boats. The weather is usually a bit blowie & the fish
can be a bit uncooperative, but it has proved not to be so. The 5.3m boat is in Coral Bay until just after Christmas, and the 6.1m boat is currently at the mackerel Islands.
Mackerel and tuna have turned up early, (see story below) and the bottom fishing has been
exceptionally good, with big fish the main catch.
So it looks like it is going to be an outstanding season.
I can’t wait!

A lightning visit from Perth for Damian Robinson only gave him 2 days to decide which one to pick for
his trip out with mate Jason Robins. Hiring the 6.1m boat they picked “South” as their destination due to the early
sea breezes expected. I have to admit that the ocean did not look that good but they stayed out for quite a while,
which is a good sign. Sure enough they came back pleased with their catch.

Damian had a couple of baldchin and a respectable cod.

Jason Robins shows off his catch, and he still had some in the esky!

Top days fishing
Justin Demello, had the same idea as Damian and Jason above, but spending 5 days ensuring a good day out.
They took advantage of the $50.00 boat hire discount by staying in one of my accommodation units
With 6 on board it would have been a bit crowded on the 6.1 so went out in the 7.8m.
I had a suspicion that there might be some mackerel down at Wagoe as rumours had reached Kalbarri, and that is where they went.

First up Shane Demello was onto a very early season mac, quickly followed by the
tuna below. Andrew Ng then got his mac. Caught on the 25th November, the earliest by far that we have ever caught mackerel and tuna here!
Here Marcus Chee fights his tuna. It is the first time he has ever been fishing! This northern blue-fin put up one hell of a fight, and Marcus was pleading for help in the end. He still has a lot of work to do on his “pump and wind” technique! It weighed in at 12kgs.
The following day he was complaining about the small size of the bream he was catching at the jetty. That’s normal fishing Marcus, you’re ruined for life!

I initially called it for a yellow-fin, but it just did not look right in the pictures and on the filleting table
There was a bit of discussion on the Fishwrecked website, the thread follows
http://fishwrecked.com/node/17864#comment-112529

Read what Justin had to say about the trip on http://www.fishwrecked.com/ about the trip here
http://fishwrecked.com/node/17869

A bottom bounce later on produced this great cod for Justin Demello.
I told him to get some Octo Jigs as I was having quite a lot of success with them
and sure enough, second jig and this estuary cod came up with an Octo jig in its mouth.

Only Stan Seow was left to catch a fish. Leaving it till the last moment a big bite on his bait made his braid spooled Riobi Safari outfit groan and sing. After considerable time, this more than a metre estuary cod
glided to the surface. Too big to legally keep we returned it to live another day.
A very successful trip when you consider the smallest fish kept was 8kgs!

Good intention bad planning
Mike Kurgan hired the 6.1m boat for 5 days early November. He arrived with his wife, announcing
that he was on his honeymoon and going out in the boat on his own to troll for mackerel!
Two things are wrong with the statement above!
One is that there are usually no mackerel around in November,
Two, no one has the courage to go fishing on their honeymoon!
His wife probably knew this and thought he had other intentions and was planning a surprise.
But no, he went fishing! Mike picked the weather unfavourably and battled the wind each day.
I took him out to a tailor spot one evening, but even the tailor were uncooperative with just
one baby taking a bait. (poppers were not working)

It was still the biggest tailor that he had ever caught!
On the last and best day, I went out with him and tried a couple of my good spots, but
the fish were less than enthusiastic! My baldchin groper came up on an Octo jig, and the red-throats were big when we got a bite but a pretty slow day all round.
Highlight of the day was when Mike announced that there was a shark following out the back!
Luckily I had a shark rig ready to go and a fat mullet was tossed out. Unsure of the species, as it looked quite fat and blue, Mike called it for a mako. Well when it realised that it was hooked up after a few minutes all hell broke loose and it dragged 150m of 80lb braid before doing two enormous cart wheeling leaps.
We chased it down, then it went again with two more leaps twice as high as the boat!
I was stunned! But I got a photo of the splash. 10 mins later the 100lb leader parted
above the metre and a half of wire!

Abalone season off to a good start
The super low tides that we have in November each year really help when collecting abalone.
When this coincides with a low swell picking abs is easy. Son Jared back from boarding school came along to help. We only pick the real big ones and picking them was easy, I did not even get my shorts wet!
Luckily we are north of the Greenough River and the season runs from 1st October to 15th May all day any day.
We are standing on the reef platform between Kalbarri and the end of the Southern Cliffs. There are plenty of abs but finding the big ones needs a bit of reef hopping.
These above were size but we left then as they were not quite big enough, but there were a few bigger ones on the reef above.
They have to be over 60mm; the one above has a lot of algae on it as it came from
a very shaded area under a ledge. You have to look quite hard and under ledges to find the big ones

5.3m Day Trip

Nick Dunn was up in Kalbarri early November and stayed for 5 days or so. He had the 5.3m boat hired for a day
and waited for the best day during his stay to go out. With his brother Tim, over for a short 4 week holiday from
Aberdeen, Scotland, they headed to the Sand Patch picking up 3 snapper. They set a burley trail
expecting a few more but it did not happen, only a few small rubbish fish with Nick trying for
“Bite of the Month” by getting severely bitten by a conger eel!
Keep away from those teeth! They have an anticoagulant in their saliva that makes you bleed constantly!

Bite of the month

This months “Bite of the Month” goes to Stan Seow

A difficult decision this month, Damian’s big cod was going to make it
then Marcus’s big tuna looked like it might knock the cod off,
Then Justin’s bigger cod was looking good until right at the end Stan
got his big bite he was waiting for landing this after an enormous struggle.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 22nd November 2008.
Not much caught during the comp, due to the very ordinary weather and rain on the Friday night.
However Ashley van Viersen landed a few good mulloway from across the river last weekend.
This one went 25ks and he says that he got others at 16kgs, 10kgs and released a few more.
He also got loads of tailor as well, all released!

It makes me wonder?
Last Saturday morning I got up early, dressed quietly, made my lunch and slipped outside to hook the boat up to the ute.
It then started to rain and the wind picked up to 30 knots. I decided that it was not worth going out and admitting defeat
went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed.There I cuddled up to my wife's back, now with a different anticipation, and whispered, 'The weather out there is terrible.'
My loving wife of 20 years replied, 'Can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that shit?'
I still don't know to this day if she was joking, but I've stopped going fishing!

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

October 2008

2008-10-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
It’s the quiet time for me at the moment; the wind starts blowing making it difficult to find a good day to go out.
I get to do a lot of maintenance, and catch up on those jobs that seem to get pushed to the back of the queue.
I have just finished 2 sets of steel mesh ready for the first hire up to Gnaraloo to assist in recovery of
the boat and hirers vehicles in the sand. The first hire gets to take them up in the boat and after using them, to leave them
at the top of the beach for the next hire. They are also used by everyone else, which is fine as long as they are
returned to the top of the beach and not left in the water.
2 pieces weld mesh, staggered & welded together with half inch Rio each side to strengthen it.
There is a building boom on (was) so there is plenty of weld mesh around!

Exmouth Trip
University student Kasey Leong made a short dash to Exmouth during the uni break with 2 mates, picking up the 6.1m boat
at the turn off on his way up from Perth. The first week of October might be a bit late in the year, and that was confirmed
by his comments as to how windy it was. Luckily they had diving gear with them so were able to spend a lot of their time
under water. No wind down there Kasey! The main mission for the trip was to pop for GTs,
however fishing had shut down, although the trip wasn't a complete write-off.
Kasey got a respectable GT from the back of the Ningaloo Reef, out from Tantabiddi, it went about 15-18kg.
He was using a Stickbait, kind of floating popper without the pop part in under 4 m of water.
He says that from 3 days popping only 2 other fish were raised. One was from the back of the Ningaloo, and the other from South Murion Island,
both on his first cast! Both fish were small (under a metre) and were quite shy, only nudging the lures.
Out the back of the reef, the sharks seemed to be very alert, although this coronation trout somehow got through the gauntlet. Diving-wise though, it was worth it, and despite the low vis in the gulf due to the big tides and wind, all involved had a good time.
Here are a couple of pics taken from the Bundegi reef.
We will be going back up again when the winds take a break. Thanks to Laurie for his great service and reliable boat, as always.
Photos complements of Kasey

Big crowds at the Pelican Feeding
During the school holidays big crowds gather at the pelican feeding here in Kalbarri. It still
amazes me, the size of the crowds!

This is just one random day that I stopped in to take a few pics
It’s more of a kid’s thing and kids are selected from the crowd to chuck them a mulie.

A misleading sign. Don’t bring your dog, they won’t feed it!

Another misleading sign

Total waste of time and money erecting a sign like this!

What should it read when they put the lines down????

Bite of the month
This months “Bite of the Month” goes to the GT caught by Kasey Leong
See story above.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

A great day out
A very short flying visit from my brother in law, Peter Barker, over from Cohuna, (The carp capital of Victoria)
prompted a trip out in the new 7.8m boat. Luck was on his side with a very nice day presenting it’s self on cue.

Wife Sue got a double header first drop followed shortly by a dhuie.

Peter then got his dhuie followed by a small shark

Sue got another dhuie, must have been bite time as it had a cray down its throat with the feelers and legs sticking out!

I fished with jigs the whole time not touching a single piece of bait. I did as well as the others,
even landing a size baldchin on an Octojig, and an undersize dhuie on a different brand jig as
well as a nice size dhuie.

We tried to release one of the bigger dhuies, but when they get to this size, the release weight is just not big
enough and we had to keep it. We stopped fishing and came home early.
It’s not always like this, but we saw a big group of whales and went up to see them. I know from
experience that they generally congregate over good ground and kept my eye on the sounder.
There was not much in the way of hard ground but a plume of fish on the bottom near the whales prompted
a drop which resulted in all the above fish caught

Kids Whiting Comp
Every October School Holidays, the Kalbarri Offshore and Angling Club, hosts a whiting competition for kids on each
Thursday of the holidays. It has grown to become a highlight for regular visitors and continues to grow in size each year.
Fishing Western Australia came on board this year as a major sponsor and the prizes were very good.
Kids were winning rods and reels for the smallest blowie, biggest whiting and all sorts of fish. It’s a catch and release comp so anything counts.
We had a record breaking 195 excited kids signing up the first Thursday and 176 the second week.

About 360 fish were caught over the two days in four hours
They caught 13 species of fish, including blue and mud crabs

We had 5 quad bikes ferrying kids to and from the weigh station with their fish.
Each day we finished off with a lunchtime sausage sizzle and prize giving
DPI came up and did a flare demo and let some of the kids
fire off flares.

The new Fishing regulations to come into force in January 2009

PROTECTING OUR FISH FOR THE FUTURE – WEST COAST
New rules for managing the recreational catch of demersal scale fish in the west coast bioregion

New recreational rules from January 2009
Fisheries Minister Norman Moore has announced a revised package of recreational fishing rules to take effect in January 2009,
at the same time that further changes to reduce commercial fishing effort will take effect.

1. Reduced mixed bag limit for high risk fish – 4 per person per dayThe mixed daily bag limit for “high risk” fish will be reduced from seven to four fish in the West Coast Bioregion.

2. Reduced species bag limit for pink snapper – 2 per person per dayThe daily bag limit for pink snapper will be reduced from four to two fish per person.

3. Increased minimum legal size for pink snapper south of Lancelin South of Lancelin, the minimum legal size for pink snapper will be increased from 41cm to 45cm on 1 January 2009 and then from 45cm to 50cm in 2010.

4. Boat limit for “high risk” fish A Boat Limit for “high risk” fish is introduced for recreational boats and licensed fishing tours. Where one to four fishers are on board a boat, the boat limit would be
eight “high risk” fish (subject to individual daily bag limits). Where five or more fishers are on board, an additional two “high risk”
fish per person (over and above the new boat limit) is permitted for the fifth and additional fishers.

5. Discourage fishing competitions from targeting “high risk” fish.

6. Reduced possession limit at Abrolhos Islands to 10 kilos per person. The finfish possession limit within the Abrolhos Islands Fish and Fish Habitat Protection Area is reduced from 20kg to 10kg of fillets or from 2 day's
bag limit to one day's bag limit of whole fish per person – this possession limit can be transported back to the mainland. The possession limit to remain in
place for at least two years while a review to assess the option of managing the Abrolhos Islands as a wilderness “no take away” fishing area is undertaken.

7. Voluntary logbook program for “high risk” fish Introduce a voluntary logbook program for high-risk fish to provide additional catch and effort information.

8. Recreational Fund review The Recreational Fishing Fund will be reviewed with a view of providing recreational fishing stakeholders more meaningful input
into recreational fishing spending priorities.

9. Research into large-scale closures Further research be undertaken to investigate the appropriateness of introducing large scale fish reserves or closed areas to provide protection for large numbers
of fish or over an area, which is particularly important to spawning.

And for recreational cray fishers

Minister limits recreational lobster take to six.

Fisheries Minister Norman Moore today outlined details of plans to limit the recreational fishing take of western rock lobsters.

“Taking effect from the opening of this year’s season, the daily bag limit for lobsters taken by each recreational fisher will be
reduced from eight to six,” he said.

“There will be a similar reduction in the catch limit per boat from 16 lobsters to 12 and we will impose a ban on the use of power
winches on recreational boats to prevent the lifting of commercial pots.”

Mr Moore said he would also place a personal possession limit of 24 lobsters per licence holder. This will replace the existing
‘unrestricted’ number of lobsters allowed per licence holder - subject to daily bag and boat limits - and will apply State-wide.

“Starting next year, we will delay the current November 15 start of the recreational rock lobster season in zone C (which
extends from Jurien Bay to Augusta and is where 80 per cent of recreational lobster fishing occurs) to coincide with the
November 25 start of the commercial lobster fishing season.

Mandurah Boat Show

I just happened to be in Perth while the Mandurah Boat Show was on so went along to have a look.
I felt that the show lacked a bit of lustre or vibrancy? It might have been my mood as I wasn’t buying a boat this year, but
I did see a few that I would like. There was nothing new and seemed to be same old same old stuff.
They would not let anyone aboard this boat, the biggest at the show, even when I said that I was a serious buyer they did not believe me.
I guess they have a list of people who arrive by helicopter!

Thevenard Island
This year the 6.1m boat spent a lot of time up at Thevenard Island in the Mackerel Islands group off Onslow.
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, Bottom and Beach 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.

Sept 2008

2008-09-28T01:24:00.000-07:00

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

Last time I was out it was quite rough coming back but right in the channel was this kite surfer.
I have to admit he was the best I have ever seen and he was jumping 3m breaking waves just out from Black Rock. I had no worries about running him down in my 7.8m boat as he was travelling twice as fast as me across my bow.
Back into the river mouth.
I pays to heed the Almanac regarding best days, times etc to fish. On this particular day the almanac predicted a poor day with the prime bite times of 3am and 3pm. of course we did not fish any of the bite times and our very poor and embarrassing catch reflected the prediction!
Coral Bay Trip
6 great days were spent at Coral Bay by Brad Nel and visiting South African mate
Cliff Rudolph with my 5.3m boat last week. The weather behaved itself as you can see in the
following pics taken by Brad, and the fish were biting!
The great barracuda caught by Cliff trolling at about 7 knots near South Passage. He was using a Halco Crazy Deep 7 metre lure. “The 5.3m runabout was just the right size to move around in the swell and wind to work with an angry Barracuda” Brad told me.
Finally on board, it added to a good day of a couple of Bluebone, Rankin Cod and Dog mackerel.
You made bite of the month on my website, Cliff, well done!
The Chinaman Cod caught by Brad in 40m plus water took a mulie/occy cocktail and was released.
Cliff took the time to dress his bait according to a good old South African rule.
He used a strip of mackerel and rolled the skin inwards producing a bait that appeared to look like a crayfish tail minus the shell. After a drift towards the breakline he missed a huge strike.
Second attempt he set the hook which started a battle of fish and current verses Cliff and Daiwa Sealine.
Brad told me that the new boat launching facility gives access to both North and South passages and that all their fishing was done out from the South passage. They had a couple of windy days but it did not hamper the handling of the 5.3m boat.
“Only time for caution was the entry back into the passage was when the Northerly blew which did whip up some cross chop across a Southerly swell. Still the boat handled exceptionally. Note transit markers are very clear on opposing land for easy directions through the passage. Worth taking one of Laurie's boats up as the Charters in Coral Bay are very overloaded. Plenty of accommodation and room to store boats on sites”.
Cliff holds one of several Rankin Cod for the trip and
Brad shows off his red emperor caught on fresh rankin cod leftovers over a drop off in 40 metres. “Lots of other fish were caught but the “forgot to take photos happened”. TRUTH”. Yeah sure Brad!!

Each town in WA has some claim to fame and feeding the wildlife is a popular drawcard.
Bunbury and Monkey Mia feed dolphins, here in Kalbarri we feed pelicans. But in Coral bay
they feed spangled emperor!
Some of the largest Spanglies seen can be viewed right in the bay of Coral Bay.

Fish are fed at several times of the day, but feeding and touching is not recommended. Experience these beautiful fish at your finger tips. They are extremely tame and will swim around you hassle free. A must if Coral Bay is visited.
They come right up and smash bread out of the hands of the feeders, muscling each other out of the way
These underwater shots, taken by brad, were in the shallows. He just bent over and held the camera underwater. He has the same camera as mine; it’s an Olympus shock and waterproof, around $500.00 when I bought mine.
No! The camera is not edible!
You are not suppose to feed them but if you accidentally drop a mulie in the water, what can you do!

MENTAL HOSPITAL PHONE MENU
Hello and thank you for calling The State Mental Hospital.Please select from the following options menu:If you are obsessive-compulsive, press 1 repeatedly.If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2 for youIf you have multiple personalities, press 3, 4, 5 and 6.If you are paranoid, we know who you are and what you want, stay on theline so we can trace your call.If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be forwarded to theMother Ship.If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell youwhich number to press.If you are manic-depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press,nothing will make you happy anyway..If you are dyslexic, press 9696969696969696.If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memoryloss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.If you have low self-esteem, please hang up our operators are too busy totalk with you.

Bite of the month

This months “Bite of the Month” goes to South African holiday maker Cliff Rudolph
for his big barracuda caught in Coral Bay as detailed in the above segment.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 20th September 2008.
The comp was nearly cancelled due to the very marginal weather. A forecast of 8-12 knots SE
shifting to 8-12 knots southerly and a rising swell from 3 meters upwards made for a crappy day out. On top of that the Almanac predicted a “poor day” with best bite times for 3am and 3pm I am surprised anyone caught fish at all?
I was out in my 7.8m and despite dropping in over some of my best spots I was too embarrassed to take a photo of any of the few fish we caught. Not to mention one of my crew bringing a banana aboard! The banana felon justifiably paid the price by not getting a bite all day!

Karen did well to land a mulloway in the big swell and Brett had this 1.25kg bream from the river,
tagged and released live.
Cheryl landed 5 tailor in the river while Graham caught an unusual catfish

6.1m Boat Trailer refurbish

I felt it was high time the trailer for the 6.1m boat got a birthday. It has been so busy, in and out
that I have not had a chance earlier. The frame was integrally sound and the bearings were always checked before each trip needless to say, but it was starting to look a bit battered.
I totally stripped it down, and wire brushed the rust spots away. I used a wire brush on a 4 inch grinder.
Don’t do this at home. It is quite dangerous! At one time the grinder brush snagged and ripped out of my hands burying itself in my luckily baggy shirt and stalled but still under full power. I clamped my gloved hand over it and turned it off. I can visualize what would have happened if it had got into my chest hairs!!!

With a bit of primer, 3 coats of 2-pack, new mudguards, new led submersible salt water lights, new hubs and bearings, new tyres,
new winch, new slips, new wiring, it looks like new and ready to go.
Now the boat looks a bit scruffy when on the trailer!

Thevenard Island
This year the 6.1m boat spent a lot of time up at Thevenard Island in the Mackerel Islands group off Onslow.
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, Bottom and Beach 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

http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

And from January 2006 to December 2006 with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2006.blogspot.com/

And from January 2007 to December 2007 with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2007.blogspot.com/

And from January 2008 to present with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com/

They are quite long URL’s so add them to your favourites.

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.

August 2008

2008-09-03T05:41:00.001-07:00

www.murchisonboathire.com.au

The Southern Right whale and calf stayed in the entrance for quite a while this month but has since moved off further up the coast. I think she got a bit stressed, with all the boats, jet skies etc buzzing her all the
time so moved away. I got some photos from my dinghy when my wife’s cousin visited us this month.

My wife’s cousin, Tony McEwan and kids, Olivia and Laura whale watching at the mouth of the Murchison.
I tried to get a pic of the whale and the kids but the whale would not come up and the
kids would not go down.
Not a lot to report on this month as the 5.3m boat is up in Coral Bay for 2 weeks and the 7.8 is at the
Mackerel Islands for 2 weeks as well and no reports back from them yet.

Thevenard Island trip
Alan Hagan got hold of my new 7.8m walkabout boat for a 7 day trip up to Onslow and out to Thevenard Island at the beginning of the month.
Unfortunately I didn’t manage to catch up with them after the trip as they handed the boat over to another hirer but

Mark Mofflin emailed these pics of some of the fish they caught and said that the boat was great.
Plenty of room to fish 6 with comfort and it handled the rougher water well and was surprisingly
quiet for an ali boat! Thanks for the compliment Mark.
Look how calm the ocean is, what a day!

Nice fish from Kalbarri

Jeremy Erdmann, holidaying up from Perth caught this 18kg mulloway from the old wooden service jetty on the flick rod shown in the above photo. The little Shakespeare reel was loaded with 5lb braid taking him about 45 minutes to land on the night of Monday 11th August. It was 3 hours after low tide and a couple of hours after the forecast bite time.
Didn’t anyone tell you that it was the wrong time to go fishing Jeremy?
I notice he got a mention in the Friday’s paper as well as the Sunday Times!

Is it worth it?
Some times I am asked if people wreck my boats? Well to be honest, yes there are a few times when the boat comes
back a bit messed up, bumped and scratched. Nearly always it is accidental and usually from
inexperience in boat handling. These incidents pale into insignificance by the majority of the times when the boats return with
very happy hirers and excited kids detailing their stories of how they caught their first mackerel or dhufish or recounting
how many times they threw up but loved every moment!
Looking back over the last ten years I have had the boats, I have loved every moment
& yes I do think I have the best job in the world!

Jake

Brice

Some of the kids pics that make it worthwhile

Stefan

Viaan

Patrick

Jordan

Sarah

Mackenzie?

And the classic pic of “The Pascoe Kids”
All unforgettable fish for them

Bite of the month

Bite of the month can only be awarded to a fish caught on one of my boats.
There have been a lot of hires going up north this month, but unfortunately few hirers send me their pics so it is hard to show the best fish of the month.
However this 8.15kg dhuie caught by Murray Rantall during the local comp this month sure deserves the award.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 23rd August 2008.

One of those rare occasions when a Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club fishing comp falls on a good weather day!
We took advantage of it and having the 7.8m available headed North West a long way.

There was a strong easterly blowing but we kept in close to shore and set a burly trail hoping for a few snapper to appear, but it was a day for sambos with 4 turning up.

They got bigger each time with Murray holding onto the biggest one at 14kgs.

When the wind died down we went out deeper landing a procession of snapper, red-throats, baldchin & dhuies. Murray had the biggest bag and won the individual section.

Son Jared missed out on the big ones but won the junior section.

Paul Maindok fishing out of another boat in the same area as us picked up this 6kg red emperor!

Next door neighbour Paul Thomas runs the local Kalbarri Café and has hired my boats a few times before.
So when his brothers Peter and Martin were visiting up from Perth, treated them to a trip out in the new 7.8m boat.
They went to the same area as we went during the comp and caught a fair amount of fish
but unfortunately busting off a couple of big ones.
The Kalbarri Café is the place to go for a quick snack and get your supplies for your boat trip lunch.

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

July 2008

2008-07-31T06:03:00.000-07:00

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

Some of the sunsets this month have been quite spectacular, this one over Chinamans last week
signalled the start of a very stormy and rain filled week that is still persisting.
The whale that was holed up in the river entrance for 8 weeks 2 years ago is back and has been there for
2 week now and will probably be for the next 6 weeks or so. Easy viewing from the Chinamans lookout.
Gnaraloo Station Trip
Brett Simm and his group have been going up to Gnaraloo Station for quite a while now. They have always done
well and this year was no exception. They had my new 7.8m Walkaround, picked it up from a previous
hire saving him the tow up, loved every moment and caught fish.

Red emperor were on the cards

and the resident big cod that lives in the bay paid them a visit.
When I was up there we looked for it each day even saving some of our catch for it but it
did not show.

Brett with a fine specimen

and a baldchin was part of the catch.

Another hirer up at Gnaraloo about 4 weeks after me was Dave Allen. He had the 6.1m and was lucky enough to
be able to pick it up from a previous hire saving him the tow up as well. Dave and the guys have been there before so
knew the ropes and you can see from the following photos, they did very well.
Dave sent through a short story of their trip, this is how it went.

2008 GNARALOO FISHING SAFARI

During the July Holidays 4 very enthusiastic mates head north to experience the very best types of fishing possible.
They gear up with all sorts of lures and bait techniques in an attempt to be ready for the excitement of Sail fish, spanish mackerel, big
Red Emperor and the fight of the elusive Wahoo.

To put things in to perspective, there were 4 very tired men at the end of the week, all with braid burns and lots of zinging line regathered to
reveal the rewards of good planning and hard work. Things could not have gone better.

With the reliability of Laurie’s 6.1m boat, we had little trouble finding good ground each day. Mornings were spent trolling the many
Tuna schools and reef edges for Spanish mackerel. The thick schools of Mack Tuna and Stripy Tuna are very useful in providing
excellent fresh bait each day. Believe me, you can throw out any lure you want, even dangle a mulie at the back of the
boat while trolling and you can’t miss with these prolific feeders.
The stripy tuna pictured was caught by Frank by sending out a mulie 4 mtrs off the back of the boat. “What the hell are you doing Frank?
That’s not going to catch anything”. ZZZZZZZZZ “Help” Can you believe that? Good work from the engineer. More bait.
A good mornings trolling was usually followed by some bottom bouncing.
We were chasing Robinson Sea Bream, Red Emperor, Baldchin Groper, Pearl Perch, Pink Snapper, Spangled Emperor and Rankin Cod. That’s just to mention a few.
You know what they say, “always have a bait dangling out the back” This is something we always do whether it be a mulie or gardie on a gang, it has proven to be very successfull for us over the years.

This Cobia was a cruising down some swells before it hit a floating mulie. It was a welcome catch for the brand new
Penn 850 reel. At 15 kg it gave a very nice fight taking off four times before being gaffed beside the boat.
We all picked up some very nice Reds; Dave had the biggest at just over 10kg
and Joe had some nice ones too

The Station is a beautiful place and has one of the best bays on the Gascoyne coastline.
Look out for the local resident when launching and retrieving the boat.
If you are lucky you might get to see the local potato cod that would have to be the biggest cod we have ever seen. He loves a mulie or two.
The weather was very kind to us over the 6 days, a little windy at the beginning of the week and a fair swell running.
The swell dropped and was as friendly as it has ever been to us over the past 5 years. The smallest I have ever seen.
We had a fantastic week catching just about everything we were after. I was very keen to target some Wahoo.
We have some good ground about 15—20km out for excellent sports fishing. We had been so occupied with the fishing close to
shore that we did not get the time to venture out to this ground, hence no hook ups with any Wahoo.
On the last day we were heading back to the bay probably about 10 km from home and only 500mts from shore.
Yes, the swell was very low. We decided to throw out a couple of Halcos and a skirt in the middle. We also used a bird and a few
other teasers to great effect. Within about 4mins the Penn 850 that was connected to the skirt was in big trouble as it screamed off many meters of braid.
Dave with his 16kg Wahoo. These things go twice as hard as a Mackerel.

The fish had gone a long way away from the boat and the thoughts of a big Mack were in our heads. I had taken the rod as
being the skipper of the boat, you have to be quick to beat everyone else. Joe maneuvered the boat a bit closer to the fish which
helped me regain a bit of line. The fish had come to the surface and we could see it was something quite decent.
After about 10 mins, I had the fish alongside the boat, “Wahoo, it’s a Wahoo” with the yells and yahoos the fish decided to take off
again on one of it trademark runs. It went on 4 big runs before being brought into the boat for some great photographs.
Now the week was complete, a 16kg Wahoo to add to the week’s unbelievable collection of species encountered.
The Penn 850 on a jig stick did the trick again. Wahoo so close to shore was a real treat. As it happens another boat had an encounter
with 2 more Wahoo in the same area earlier in the day.

Joe with Dave’s Cobia. One of three caught for the week. The other two were released.
Sabby, making the 8kg Pinky looking as big as he can.

It is amazing to see the many Cobia swimming under the boat most days and not taking any baited hooks or lures.
Then send down a squid or fillet with no hooks to see the Cobia engulf the offering.

We would like to thank Laurie for his professional attitude and advice. We look forward to booking the boat in the future.
Dave, Sabby, Joe and Frank

Nice fish from Kalbarri
I have written quite a lot about “Same Shirt Andy”, Jeff, Gill and the guys and told you last newsletter that they
had bought their own boat now. Well their maiden voyage was here in Kalbarri at the beginning of June. I was
in Gnaraloo so did not catch up with them but Jeff sent trough these pics of the fish they caught.
Mainly fishing for mackerel they bagged out most days.

They tend to troll a garfish behind the lures and this
big pink snapper took the slowly sinking gar when that had stopped for a mackerel strike!

And Jeff holds up a very nice dhuie caught before the Sand Patch.

Bite of the month

This months “Bite of the Month” goes to Dave Allen for his great wahoo catch.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 26th July 2008.

Di Stewart caught the biggest bream for the year with this 1.3kg fish

While Gavin Penn won the game section with this 7.65kg yellow-fin on 6kg line in my boat.
I got a tuna as well but it was 50 grams smaller!

But I won the bottom section with 6 fish including
this 9kg dhuie a smaller one and a couple of odd fish.

Murray Rantall pulled this snapper past me
claiming the biggest snapper caught in the local comp this year to date.

Nic Bramwell landed this mulloway on a broken rod at frustration to win the beach section.
It went 20.25kgs! Also the biggest this year.

Now for something completely different
The wife and kids were tired of fishing holidays? Yes it was a surprise to me too?
So they picked a skiing trip! I’ve never been in snow let alone skied so I was well out of my comfort
zone when we arrived at the top of Mt. Buller in northern Victoria.

It snowed quite a lot and we had a couple of days of sunshine after the snow, which was quite pretty.
The wife and I hired skis, boots, pants ect, and the kids elected for the snowboard stuff. I had a very short basic lesson the first
day and then I was let loose. Take it from me, it is pretty slippery stuff and very awkward with oversize chop sticks bound to your feet!
Trying to co ordinate this gear, rushing down hill amongst another thousand equally incompetent first timers is down right terrifying!
It was the same for the kids; we all spent most of the next two days with our bums on the ice, but by the third day we felt that
we were ready for an assault on the summit.

Up to the snowy summit in the chairlift

and both sons in an unusual upright position.

The summit was terrifying but we made it and then did a couple of other runs which were just as difficult.
I am sure I would have done better if I wasn’t so exhausted from falling and picking myself up again so often.

Ben making a snow angel,

and about to fall from his snowboard.

In the ski lift going to the summit.

The summit in the background.

I have to admit it was a lot of fun, but expensive. They really know how to charge over there. With car hire, ski gear hire,
accommodation, meals etc, they get you at every turn. (Cheapest menu item: Pie and chips $16.00)
I has made me realise how reasonable my boat hire is and how cheap accommodation and tours are here in Kalbarri.

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

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

June 2008

2008-06-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T05:36:00.000-07:00

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

April 2008

2008-05-05T03:14:00.000-07:00

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

lasue@wn.com.au (08) 9937 2043

Another run of mulloway at the beginning of the month! The river had another small squirt of dirty water and it
really brought the fish in. 20 or so mulloway were caught the first evening with multitudes the following evenings.
The mackerel went ballistic just out from Black Rock in the dirty water with some locals saying they have never
experienced it as full on as it was. Guys were getting their 2 mackerel each within 50m of trolling just past the rock.
It was busy at Chinamans when the run was on as shown in the above pic, but everyone got a mulloway.

If there were no spots left on the beach they went out in their dinghies and anchored on the entrance.

To prove a point yet again, here is Joel and twin Daniel Fimognari. They were fishing at Chinamans
and casting a mulloway rig baited with a mulie more into the river than the entrance.
The big surprise result was this estimated 18kg mackerel!

The mackerel persisted out the front for a couple of weeks, now it is back to normal
with mackerel all over the Sand Patch and beyond.

Mackerel, mackerel, mackerel!
Lance Sav, Lou Parker, Reto Abplanalp, Richard Harding, Carmine Barbato, Quint Martin and
Brice Parker in the front had a great day out in the new 7.8m boat
It was Brice’s 10th birthday and he was lucky enough to land the biggest mackerel for the day!
It is his first mackerel too, so well done Brice!

The group caught 7 mackerel, 1 tuna, 1 snapper, 3 skippy, 3 dhuies, but only one was size
& a baldchin groper making a very successful day out.

Brice shows his first mackerel caught on his 10th birthday.

Nic Harch is not really an angler but a short sunset/sundowner trip out late evening on a calm day
saw Nick land this chunky baby yellow-fin just off Rainbow Jungle in 25m of water.

First and biggest fish for Nick! And a clean release as well.

XXX size snapper
Now look at this for a snapper!
Paull Weber has been booking my boats for a few years now, coming up with his father in law, Peter Roach, for a quiet fish.
Unable to get his usual boat, the 6.1m, had to settle on the 5.3m. First day the weather was a bit off with a big swell
made for a difficult day but the next morning dawned a good one. Heading to the old Kalbarri favourite, the Sand Patch,
they anchored along a cray pot line in 18m of water. The fish were about half an hour apart but they were good ones!

4 pinkies, a big surf parrot fish (caught by the tail!), sand snapper and tailor made up the catch.
Paull holds up the biggest snapper that went 9kg!!! and he caught it on the little flick stick shown in the pic!!
Its 10kg braid but the little reel and light rod groaned and complained all through the extended fight.
Peter Roach holds one of his. Your jacket is pinker than the fish Peter!

Did you know?
The new 7.8m boat is licensed for 10nm offshore and 6 persons. Puts you out on the red emperor spots
if you are so inclined.

Theory
During a recent bottom bouncing trip (see above pic) I noticed a disproportionate hook up rate of good fish
to the anglers that had the lumo squid soft plastics just above the baited hook.
Could this have been the difference?
Lumo squids are available from Ranger Outdoors Bentley; ask for Brendan, he will tell you about them!

Frequent hirer bonus
A trip out in the new 7.8m was a treat for frequent hirers, Colin, Andy, Jeff, Gil and Caroline.
Being able to travel that bit further with the bigger boat and being licensed to 10nm offshore,
made sure they were able to get into some top fish.

Colin was about to win the “Bite of the Month” with this baldchin groper but got knocked off by some better fish a few days later! “Same Shirt” Andy with his double header! I had a short fish and showed them how!

Gil was well pleased with the size of his red-throat emperor, and Caroline got a mac on the way back to add to the other
two caught on the way up. The odd coloured lure on her rod accounted for a lot of macs during their trip!

Another amazingly calm afternoon, powering it back at about 3pm in the 7.8m boat

2 superb days on the 7.8m boat
(Written by Ben Malton)
Anzac day weekend for the crew from Ranger Outdoors in Bentley will be one which will be remembered
for a while to come. The crew drove up in convoy from Perth, leaving at first light making it to the pub in
Kalbarri just in time for the footy, a couple of counter meals and a few beers later and it was time to head home, there was business to be done in the morning. The first day was off to a slow start with a troll for macs produced nothing, even if the boys were
looking the part with the ‘Berkley Gulp” and “Penn”shirts all round; so it was time for a bottom fish. The conditions went from good to
even better as did the size of the fish which were produced. A large baldchin and a superb dhufish
from Lunty were in the mix with about 10 red throat weighing up to 2kg. Damo’s red emperor which weighed
in at 8kg had “bite of the month” for about an hour before management, “Spoon” stepped up with an awesome 9kg red emperor, the biggest from the boat to date.

Damo with his red emperor of 8kg Spoon trumped him with a beauty of 9kg

Spanner with one of the large red throats Lunty’s dhufish was up there, about 6kg
Damian Lunt, Brendan Mitchell, Ben Malton, Steve Spencer & Damon Driessen
each with their two best fish for the day.

The Second day’s focus was on game fish, as we left the mouth the weather was looking average, the new 7.8m boat
however got us out past sand patch in no time, sitting comfortably on 60km/h, what speed! The fishing
started slowly and it didn’t look good until suddenly there was boiling water everywhere, the tuna were
here! Within a few minutes we had a great tuna session which saw a double hook up. In the excitement
Damo’s tuna, the biggest of the day estimated at 6kg, was released without a photo. After a mad panic to get the
casting gear ready Spanner had a few small tuna under his belt.

After we were all sick of catching tuna, bottom fishing was on the cards. Another possession of red-throat and blue-line emperor was followed by
Brendan loading his rod up with the “Dhuie Slayer rig” which seemed to consist of lumo squid soft plastics above his bait, it did not disappoint,
two dhuies within 30 minutes of each other nearly landed him in the water swimming home. Lunty and Laurie then provided the entertainment with a double
hook-up with two large Samson fish which would have gone 15kg each.
Luntys Sambo tested his new gear Brendan’s Dhufish the larger going 11kg

Fishing for whiting down in Perth will never be the same again, an unforgettable trip that will hopefully be repeated soon.

Gary Rossiter had the 6.1m for a week over the holidays. The crew did well with mackerel, tuna and bottom fish.
Here they are powering it back home after fishing north of Kalbarri at about 3pm.
Look how calm it is! Another great day out, not so sure about the brown-eye from Gavin though! They all caught fish as shown below.

L to R Gavin & Dominic O’Malley, Garry, Brendan & Jake Rossiter. Garry Rossiter landed this 10kg yellow-fin tuna.

Dominic O’Malley shows his first mackerel and some bottom fish from Brendan Rossiter.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 19th April 2008.

No juniors had weighed in for the bottom boat section for the whole year, so all my son had to do these school holidays was catch a fish bigger than 35cm to win for the whole year. He was ready and willing, this was his chance!
Steven Eley also a junior asked if I had room. Sure you can come! Well Steven had 6 skippy in the boat before son Jared had his first! All over, the fat lady has sung for Jared!
Nik Bramwell did well with 4 snapper one of them, shown above, he landed on 3kg line that went 7.5kgs!

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
I will be up at Gnaraloo Station for 10 days or so in June trying out my new 7.8m boat.
I take over the boat from Brett & Roger Simm who will have it the week before me.
If anyone wants to take the boat after me, I will finish with it on Sunday 8th June.
It will save you the tow all the way up.
The 6.1m boat will also be up there and the hire finishes on the 28th May if you want it after then.
It will save you the tow up as well.
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

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

March 2008

2008-03-29T23:20:00.000-07:00

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

The fishing has been great with plague numbers of small yellow-fin tuna with a couple of
mackerel amongst them. The river has stopped flowing but the water out the front of the mouth is still
very dirty making the mackerel fishing difficult, but the tuna are making up for it. The big run of
mulloway has stopped as the river is slowly clearing up but still the odd one is being landed, all good sizes too!
When you see the birds sitting on the water as shown above, that means that the tuna and mackerel have
shut down and the bite is over. Turn your attention to bottom fishing and pick up a snapper, dhuie or something.

Ian Steve Pickering, Brian McGinnis, Andy Coles show off their catch from the 6.1m boat
earlier this month. They were here just as the river had stopped flowing.
You can see the dirty water in the background.

On one of the evenings they anchored just off Black Rock and soaked baits for mulloway.
The major run of mulloway was over but there was still a chance.
The only bite for the evening came for Ian landing this beautiful coloured fish.
Theory
A couple of weeks after the river flooded there were thousands of these oyster, scallop, bi-valve sort
of shells washed up on the beach. It made me think! I suspect that the fresh water killed them all
and it is these that the mulloway and sharks that are so plentiful at the river mouth are probably
gorging themselves on. As they die they come loose from the cracks in the reef and are an
easy meal for all sorts of fish???

Bite of the month
Daniel Kwek comes up every Easter, usually booking the 6.1m boat but couldn’t help himself and took the 7.8m
for the 4 days. He comes up with different friends and regulars, always picking up good fish.

Day 1, dhuie, snapper and baldchin. Day 2, mackerel, baldchin, tuna among others

Day 3, tuna, tuna, tuna Day 4, dhuies, coral trout and snapper among others

Tony’s dhuie weighed in at 13kgs, while Daniel’s coral trout, at 5kgs is the biggest caught from any of
my boats was the fish of the trip. I have also put you up as “Bite of the Month” Daniel.

Triple hook-up on tuna. Tony shows the new garfish teaser that they were using. Big bait big fish.

These guys take their fishing seriously. They catch fish. The reason that they catch fish is that
they use only the best gear, best bait, best lures, best teasers, and dare I say it, best boats.
Above is a couple of shots of their gear, 2 x Salt Water Stella 20000’s, Ryobi Safari, 2 x Van Staal’s, Accurate spinning reel,
Shimano jigger, 2x Penn 50TW’s, 2 x Saltiga spinning reels. Nothing under $800.00 each and some little change
from $2000.00. The rods were all off the shelf but quality stuff. They bring their own bait up from
Perth, human consumption quality squid, mullet and mulies, kept in top condition.
They start early, do the miles, fish hard and pray, it seems to work!

Did you know?
Trolling small “skirts” and “bullets” at high speed (10+knots) is a very effective way to get into the tuna.
You cover a lot more ground and you can keep up with the tuna schools if they are moving fast.
Blooded the 7.8m Walkaround
Sometimes I get out to fish myself. I did just that just before Easter in my new 7.8m boat when Sue was back from the mines.
We shot out to the 3 mile and there were tuna all over the place! They were so thick that in one spot
after a hook up and release the tuna were jumping all round the stationary boat. I grabbed my 6lb braid flick stick
and shot out a chrome slice, hooking up immediately. Sue had a go and she can’t cast far and made a mess of
it but still came up tight!

Sue watches the line peel off the 6lb braid outfit, and the result.

I struggled with one that might have been bigger than the rest and got bust off, but this very pretty and chunky striped tuna was a bonus.

7.8m Thunderbolt Walkaround
My new 7.8m boat is proving to be quite popular with bookings for Thevenard Island, Exmouth, and
Gnaraloo where it will be operating over the next couple of months.

I have worked out some rates and they can be viewed on my “Hire Rates “ page

You don’t have to catch a lot of fish to have a good time! Here is what Peter Hughes had to say!
Laurie,
It was a great weekend. Despite not feeling 100% and being the
worst fishermen to visit the region, we had a lot of fun. Thanks for all your help.
The following is a short paragraph on the fish and the weekend…
Well we did it. After threatening to head north from the ‘mind numbing’ drone of the
big smoke for some time, we finally took the plunge and headed for the sanctuary and promise of
where the big fish play amongst the majestic coast line of Kalbarri. It was worth it.
Despite the fish coming away with the bragging rights, young Stuart Bain from Geraldton,
landed a nice pink snapper just as the sea and the wind suggested we turn the
‘Roller’ back to quieter waters and awaiting iced cold beers.
It was a miracle we got away with that fish however, as just as he started to wind it in,
the reel decided to give up the ghost. Some quick hand line work and a handy new net helped save the day.
Anyway, much to talk about over a cold one in the local as the sun bled away the day’s proceedings into the big blue.
It was a great weekend. We have vowed to return and have already started the count down,
but will ensure we come armed with a couple of decent reels…
Stuart Bain with the only fish for the day.

My next door neighbour and his father in law were out in the 5.3m picking up a
couple of fish. Nice one George!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 22nd March 2008.

Paul Maindok landed a nice 11.9kg dhuie, while Kylie Martino holds her 5.45kg mac caught on 3kg line.
The first mac she has ever caught! All the bream caught in the river are tagged and released.
New Bag Limits and Closed Season
The newly released draft paper of the new bag limits and a closed season recently released by Fisheries Minister
Jon Ford has prompted a lot of debate among anglers here in Kalbarri. Cutting the bag limit of snapper to 2 and
increasing the size to 50cm is going to make a difference helping to increase stocks of pink snapper but closing
the fishery for 4 months is not going to make much difference. The resident dhuies, snapper & baldchin are still
going to be there waiting to get caught when the season opens again. You can still go out fishing during the closed
season and catch other fish such as mackerel, tuna, cods, red-throat emperor, blue-lined emperor, red emperor,
trevally & sharks etc, but I think a lot of the tourism will now head further north or put more pressure on other species.
You can still hire one of my boats & tow it north so it won’t affect me too much, & it is still a draft paper
& you have until the end of April to send a submission to the minister & tell him what you think!
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
I will be up at Gnaraloo Station for 10 days or so in June trying out my new 7.8m boat.
I take over the boat from Brett & Roger Simm who will have it the week before me.
If anyone wants to take the boat after me, I will finish with it on Sunday 8th June.
It will save you the tow all the way up.
The 6.1m boat will also be up there and the hire finishes on the 28th May if you want it after then.
It will save you the tow up as well.
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

Last year's bloggs

http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

And from January 2006 to December 2006 with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2006.blogspot.com/

And from January 2007 to December 2007 with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2007.blogspot.com/

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

February 2008

2008-03-06T20:28:00.000-08:00

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/

Very busy month due to the Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic last week end. I have been under
the pump with helping to organise the proceedings, but we got there in the end.
A big scare was that the river started to flood a couple of weeks before the Classic and was due to

peak on the Wednesday before. Fortunately it wasn’t a big river and everything went to plan.
The good thing about the river flooding is the great fishing that it creates.
As long as it is not too much of a flood, the bream turn on and the mulloway go ballistic.
This year everyone was catching up to 10 mulloway a day each. They were releasing them, but a lot were caught.
The mulloway fishing started to slow by the Classic and was nearly over by the Sunday.
Average size was quite good around 7 – 19kgs as opposed to other years when they were all soapies.
It is all but over now but two ways of catching them were to cast from the Chinamans at any time of day
& hang on, or anchor a boat just out from Black Rock & hang on. There were a lot of sharks among the
mulloway but when the sharks went quiet we all caught mulloway.

Steve and Bob Fowler were up mid February for a pre Classic practice run as they had entered in the new 7.8m boat but
unfortunately the boat was not quite ready, so had to down grade to the 6.1m!
There were birds everywhere, but the fishing was slow?

Bob holds up an early morning yellow-fin, followed by Steve.
They did pick up a couple of nice little yellow-fin and a mackerel for Steve on 4kg line

Local Steve Wiseman holds up his first wahoo, caught early Feb. We don’t get them here very often.
Might have come in with the warm current that brought the 100kg marlin that was caught out on the 3 mile this month!

Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic
The following are a few pics from the Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic held over the Labour Day
Long Weekend. We had all our boats booked with the 7.8m crewed by Paul Youngman, Bob & Steve Fowler,
I had the 6.1m with John Hoye, my wife, Sue, and son, Jared fishing as a junior. The 5.3m boat was
skippered by James Scovell, with crew, Andrew Wooley and Joe Abberton & Brett Maloney.
Congratulations and well done to all as all the three Murchison Boat Hire boats won their categories:
Champion Boat Game under 6m, 6-7m and over 7m!
Paul Youngman also picked up Highest Point Scoring Mackerel for his 13.1kg mackerel on 4kg line.
He also won the Highest Point Scoring Game Fish for the same fish, while Steve Fowler won the top prize: Champion Angler Game. My son Jared also cleaned up and won: Champion Junior Angler Game
A great success for the boats. All will be back next year!

The winning 7.8m team

Champion Junior Angler Game. Jared & John Hoye with tuna on 3kg line

Champion Junior Angler Bottom: Mitchell Westland.

Heaviest dhuie 9.1kg Josef Duff

A shark got one tuna! Just the head left. River mouth mulloway, Jared was runner up junior bottom.
Josef Duff with his river mouth mulloway & Champion Angler Bottom, and “Top Gun” day one.

Ken Nylander holds his Baldchin. Heaviest Snapper 8kgs Josef Duff.Highest Point Scoring Mackerel
& Highest Point Scoring Game Fish 13.1kg on 4kg line to Paul Youngman.

Howard Blair had a successful trip at the beginning of the month landing a couple of macs, but it took him a couple of days to find them & made sure when he did.

Brian Townsend was in Kalbarri showing his Dad around WA and dropped in for a fish in Kalbarri for a few days in the 6.1m boat before taking it up to Shark bay for a couple of days.

Look at the size of this amberjack he trolled up!

Here is his story,
My dad was over from Zimbabwe on holiday and we were up in Kalbarri, we went out and were trolling for mackerel and tuna.
We had two 15kg outfits with hard bodied lures and a 10kg spin outfit with a skipping gar which accounted for
3 of the four spaniards caught that day. We were about 10kms past the sand patch and there were lots of working birds.
We trolled through them and the 10kg spin outfit began to scream and with only a few coils of line left on the spool
I told my dad to put the boat in reverse, he did and I managed to get some line back. After about half and hour we boated a 20-25kg
Amber Jack and had a Penn spinning reel with a burnt out drag...

Look forward to the next trip

Thanks for the great tips and GPS points

Brian Townsend

7.8m Thunderbolt Walkaround
At Last, I have the new 7.8m boat completed. I have been out a couple of times, but was unable to blood it myself. (That was done by the crew during the Classic)

At Hillarys Boat Harbour for the Stability Test by D.P.I.
In Kalbarri on the flooded choc milk river.
I was hoping for some great photos for my new brochures, but I will now have to wait
until the river cleans up!
Built with a beam of 2.5m, which still allows towing at night and without oversize signs.

Powered by new twin 115hp 4-stroke Yamaha’s giving you 34 knots or nearly 60km/h with close to the same economy as the 6.1m boat, about 1.4km/litre.
Licensed for 7 persons to 10nm offshore & plenty of deck space and with walk around hull.

Fully enclosed cabin, you won’t get wet! Lockable cabin that sleeps 2.
Electric “Stress Free” anchor winch. I chose this one for the speed of retrieval.
Some of the other ones are so slow that you may as well pull it up by hand!
Full electronics: Koden colour sounder, GPS and the new Yamaha gauges that have fuel management.
They will accurately tell you how much fuel you have used as well as litres/hour and km/litre.
Built by Kevin and sons Greg & Shaun of Preston Craft
Check them out at http://www.prestoncraft.com.au/
I have worked out some rates and they can be viewed on my “Hire Rates “ page

The 5.3m boat dipping and diving on anchor out from the river mouth during the Classic.
(It was very windy)
The 7.8m is in the background. There were a lot of mulloway and sharks around.
We hooked up on 3kg line and pulled anchor and chased the fish out into the ocean, had the leader up
3 times but in the end the 60lb leader chaffed through. Shark or mulloway?

The 5.3 guys also had a fish on for an hour or so on 4kg line, eventually busting off.
Shark or mulloway?

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 16th February 2008.

Brett Bain releases the 19 bream that were caught, tagged and released after weighing.
He also shows an eel type fish he caught in the dirty flooded river during the comp.

Tracey Ivey had the biggest bream for the day

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
I will be up at Gnaraloo Station for 10 days or so in June trying out my new 7.8m boat.
I take over the boat from Brett & Roger Simm who will have it the week before me.
If anyone wants to take the boat after me, I will finish with it on Sunday 8th June.
It will save you the tow all the way up.
The 6.1m boat will also be up there and the hire finishes on the 28th May if you want it after then.
It will save you the tow up as well.
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au
Website: Gnaraloo.com.au

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

January 2008

2008-02-03T05:21:00.000-08:00

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JANUARY 2008 ELETTER

Marriage is society’s way of stopping people fighting with strangers.

Big month this time with lots of content as I have had to include Christmas.
The mackerel and tuna are back in vast numbers, and just this week the ocean has been boiling with
loads of small yellow-fin and bait fish. The tuna are fast growing and won’t be long until they are
a healthy size.
I am looking forward to the big Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic at the end of the month. If anyone wants
to come up and fish it, you are welcome, just email me and I will send you an info pack with entry form.
Unfortunately no boats available, all booked for that week end including the new 7.8m.
I am fishing it in the 6.1, got to defend my title again this year!

Guy, Carl, Awhina and Honk were out in the 6.1 just before Christmas and were hoping for a mackerel or
two. The hits came just past the Sand Patch; a double hook up saw Carl grab a rod and unfortunately bumped
the release leaver while trying to untangle himself from everyone else resulting in a big birds nest and resultant
bust off. The other lure hung on and we settled down to watch Awhina fight the fish in. She struggled and struggled
until we realised that the fish might be bigger than expected. Well it turned out to be a shark about 5 foot long.
After about an hour she managed to bring it boat side with one of my hired 15kg outfits, but with all the
thrashing and gnashing boatside the shark shook free, bust off and disappeared with the lure.
They continued trolling without more luck while my other boat the 5.3m already had 3 fish aboard
while the 6.1m was fighting the shark!
Bottom bouncing was a waste of time as usual with a full moon looming, but a big bait out the back
under a balloon went off with Carl grabbing the heavy 80lb braid outfit. The shark was easily visible
but did not look big until it realised it was hooked! Then all hell broke loose. Chasing it down in the boat recovered
a couple of hundred metres of line and then they sat it out until it came alongside.
A quick unhook, photos and release. Big fish Carl!
(Photos compliments of Awhina)

Guy with his small samson and Carl got one slightly bigger.
On the way back a couple of small samson fish came up to the lures, a bit unusual
but the guys on the 5.3m also had a small yellow-tail king.

Garry Millar was up over Christmas hiring the 5.3m for 6 days. Striking it lucky with great
weather managed to get out each day except Christmas Day. He was with mate Peter from
Geraldton but they found it hard to get past the nor west blowies bottom fishing but had a ball
catching 3 mackerel and 2 yellow-tail kings on the troll and this nice snapper during a late evening fish.
(Sorry no pics of the mackerel)

Zimbabwean and South African immigrants have made up a fair proportion of hires over the years & Derek, Mark,
Carl and Horst make no exception, all ex Zimbabwean, (except Horst who is over on holiday & has to go back)
were out in the 5.3m over the Christmas/New Year break taking advantage of the great fishing we have here in WA.
Mark holds up the catch of the day, the big baldchin, caught by Horst who is not featured in the
pic as he was home recovering from a bout of seasickness, but still managed the baldie & breaksea!
The weather was awful with a stiff southerly, but employing an old tactic of anchor and burley,
they brought a succession of fish to the boat, albeit widely spaced during the day.

John Van Der Sluys tells his story,
On a warm day in early January 5 of us decided to hire the 5.3m boat from Murchison Boat Hire. With some good advice from Laurie we set out early to try trolling in about 28m of water along side the Sand Patch.
Within 30mins we had our first strike and 10mins later we had a 1m Spanish Mack in the ice box, courtesy of a
Halco lure. 40mins later we had our second, slightly smaller. With a 3m plus swell and strong winds we
decided to take our sea sick mate back inside the river mouth and try our luck there.
We got a bream, some small tailor and the poor sea sick bloke was beaten by maybe a shark or large
mulloway on 30 pound braid! A great day out for the rest of us!!
John.
Still wondering what the fish in the river was! You say there was the glimpse of silver?
Can only have been a mulloway as sharks are brown all over?

7.8m Thunderbolt Walkaround
The 7.8m walkaround is back from the paint shop and in the final stages of the fit-out.
It will be powered by twin 115hp 4-strokeYamahas, giving you 10nm offshore.
This will be a very popular Gnaraloo boat, not to mention all the other places it will be very
handy like Exmouth, Mackerel Islands and Karratha.

Back from the paint shop
It should be ready around the second week February.
Built with a beam of 2.5m, which still allows towing at night and without oversize signs.
Built by Kevin and son Greg of Preston Craft
Check them out at http://www.prestoncraft.com.au/
I have worked out some rates and they can be viewed on my “Hire Rates “ page

Did you know?
If you book a boat to take north of Kalbarri, I will deliver it out to the Kalbarri/Ajana turnoff
for you fee of charge. You only have to book, prepay the hire and ring me from Geraldton
& I will head out to the turnoff and we should both get there at the same time.
It will save you the 1 hour each way.
You will need to return the boat to Kalbarri on your way back, unless handing it over
to someone else north of Kalbarri.

During the school holidays there is sometimes an unbooked boat and the weather is just too
good to not take advantage if it, and so it was on the 9th Jan, I shot out with no. 2 son Jared for
a quick troll around the Sand Patch. We were there by 7am and had the first mackerel on by 7.15am.
Jared fights the first mac to the boat on 6kg line; it would help if he pulled his pants
up and put a bend in his rod!
Note the lure & colour, Halco Laser pro 190 DD in
Chrome Silver Multi R21 in the catalogue.
We went on to keep two, release 4 and we dropped at least 4 in a session lasting
2 hours. We were back by 9.30am before the wind set in!
The other lure that did the damage was the King Brown, H70.

A very effective rig is the skipping garfish. Rigged up on a 4 x 6/0 VMC gang, hooked up
through the belly with the top hook through the chin and out the top of the beak, covered
with a 10 inch squid, stops it breaking up.
Tow it behind the lures with the rod in the top rod holder, and it is usually the first to go off.
If you get a strike on the lures just reel the other lures in and leave the garfish to sink slowly
down in the strike zone, the hit will come soon after so keep an eye on the rod while fighting
the lure caught mac.
Skipping nicely, making a splash
Just irresistible to a mackerel!

Just to prove a point, with the above pics: when jack Chambers, a builder with a project here in Kalbarri, expressed
his wish list to include catching a mackerel, and I wanted some slab mesh, an arrangement was made and the next
good day went out with Bruno, Jack and son Jared. Jared got the first hit but dropped it, second bit of action saw a
triple hook-up for Jared, Jack & myself. Jared dropped his, Jack held on, then the skipped garfish went off.
I grabbed the garfish rod only to land this nice 5kg snapper! Later Bruno landed a mackerel & Jared then dropped
another on a garfish rig by the boat.

Jack Chambers with his just size mackerel and my catch of the day.
You can see the garfish rig with the occy skirt in the pics above.
I doubt this snapper would have taken a lure, but without the garfish rig we would never have known
about this pelagic snapper swimming with the mackerel school and feeding on the leftovers.
This is only the second snapper taken like this over 9 years with the boats!

Blue Holes becomes a Fish Habitat Protection Area

Jon Ford, W.A. Fisheries minister recently signed off the above area as a Fish Habitat Protection
Area. This is fine with me and most people in Kalbarri as it protects a sensitive fish habitat
close to town with near zero sport fishing potential. The area only covers the flat shallow
reef area where it is good to snorkel and swim and not much else. The main tailor fishing areas are
not included which is just south & north of the sanctuary. You can plainly see the reef break
offshore north of the boundary & the inner gutter created by this reef which is a top spot.
This now stops the unethical incidents of mainly “kids” who snorkel and shoot every little
reef fish they can see with a gidgee.

Kalbarri Return

Derek is a past hirer and was back up in Kalbarri with Lloyd, a keen angler also from Zimbabwe.
(We seem to get a lot of them hiring the boats) Derek has gone from hiring a boat to buying
2 boats and now back to deciding to sell his boat and go back to hiring as he says he just does
not use it enough to justify having it!
They caught tailor for the first time
Mulloway at Red Bluff beach as well as loosing two others that were much much bigger they say.
And a day out in the boat was a burster with a couple of mackerel each.

Best trip yet to Kalbarri!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club local competition 26 & 27th January
Kalbarri Electrical Services Ultra Light Competition
The annual Kalbarri Ultralight over the Australia Day weekend was a great success again this year.
We run the local comp as well and above are some of the fish over the two days.
Steven Eley brought in this 1.3kg bream alive to be weighed and then released it.
Daniel Tarasek had two mulloway the first night and then a 19kg one the next night!
The game fishing was superb with OK weather that did not get any worse during the day. I was out in the
5.3m boat as the 6.1 was up at shark bay. I landed a 5.90kg yellow-fin on 3kg line but daughter
Rebecca got a 6kg one on 3kg line and followed it up with a couple of mackerel on
3kg line the next day to win the 3kg division and the overall! I took a couple of bust offs on 2kg line. (I tried).

Stan Sutherland did well and held onto this 3kg tuna on 2kg line to win the 2kg division, while son Jared landed tuna and mackerel on 3kg line to win the junior division.

The weekend was rounded off with fireworks across the river! We walked down, watched the show
& were back home in a mater of minutes. A lot better than the 4 hour drive home in Perth that I remember!!!

Thevenard Island
Last year the 6.1m boat spent a lot of time up at Thevenard Island in the Mackerel Islands group off Onslow.
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
I will be up at Gnaraloo Station for 10 days or so in June trying out my new 7.8m boat.
I take over the boat from Brett & Roger Simm who will have it the week before me.
If anyone wants to take the boat after me, I will finish with it on Sunday 8th June.
It will save you the tow all the way up.
The 6.1m boat will also be up there and the hire finishes on the 28th May if you want it after then.
It will save you the tow up as well.
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au
Website: Gnaraloo.com.au

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
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.
I have made four blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

And from January 2006 to December 2006 with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2006.blogspot.com/

And from January 2007 to December 2007 with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2007.blogspot.com/

And from January 2008 to present with photos at
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com/

They are quite long URL’s so add them to your favourites for later.

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