May 2008

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MAY 2008 ELETTER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We skirted the southern edge of Lake McCleoud

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

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

Use the gate on the right to get through!

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

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

21kg yellow-fin for John

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

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

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

Bite of the month

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

April 2008

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