murchisonboathirefishing2011.blogspot.com

December 2011

2011-12-29T05:36:00.000-08:00

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE DECEMBER 2011 ELETTER

Lasue@wn.com.au www.murchisonboathire.com.au

A very merryChristmas to everyone, and a peaceful New Year. This coming season is going tobe a good one; I can feel it in my bones.

We got mackerel andtuna at the beginning of December and the water temp has been up over 22.5degrees all month.

There have been loadsof snapper around with some thumpers hitting the decks, and just yesterday, 28^thDecember Frederick Heydenrych

& his crew got 10small yellow-fin tuna out on the 3 Mile between 10am and 2pm. So no shortage oftuna schools this year.

Cray season, however,was a bit slow this year.

We put out pots in onthe 13^th December, expecting it to be like last year with 12 everyday but it ended up like this.

12 on the morning ofthe 14^th, then 12, 11, 5, 10, 7, 7, 5, 6, 9, and 2 on the 24^thwhen we pulled our pots in and retired them for the year.

We were not the onlyones to be down on our catch, with some getting non in their pots for a fewdays on the trot.

Dayle’s Anticipated Trip

Dayle Serfozo andpartner Janelle came all the way from Boulder. Dayle is keen as mustard for afish and had the 6.1m for 6 days, mid December.

I have to admit, theweather was not in his favour with fresh southerlies from early morning. Hiscray pots turned up a blank most times

but the experiencewas what mattered. There is a fair learning curve when fishing new locationsand he did his apprenticeship the hard way.

However the resultsstarted to show with a fair bag of snapper in the end and a good one forJanelle and tuna on the troll for Dayle.

The mackerel eludedDayle, and everyone else for that matter! It just did not happen that week forsome reason.

He’s coming back inMarch, It has to happen then!

Shark Bay Adventure

Nick Crettenden madea lightning trip up to Shark Bay with the 6.5m boat a few mates. 4 days is notlong enough but they sure packed a lot in!

Picking the boat upthe evening before in Kalbarri, they tried to make the Overlander beforeclosing at 11.30pm.

They never made theOverlander in time but took the risk and pushed on to Denham, just making it onthe fuel I gave them.

Here they are parkedin the main street the first morning.

Nickwrote about his adventure and this is his story and pics.

It started with a bit of a worry because the Overlander Rroadhousedidn’t want to stay open to fuel our needs. But with a little deliberation

and with a bit of a vote, wedecided to push on to Denham and surprisingly made it through thanks to Laurieand Sue for the desperately

needed extra fuel, to camp just outside the town, where we earned somewell needed sleep.

The next day we made great haste to get ourselves and this vessel whichwas a lot bigger than we were expecting, thank god as we had somehow

managed to pack what seemed like everything we owned. Out to SteepPoint to find out what all the rave was about. So we punched out!

With a bit of shaking around, water on the windscreen, smiles on ourfaces and rods at the ready.

When the swell and chop decided to drop away we sighted the alwaysexciting flock of gulls and terns hitting the waters surface and a

few good splashes and flashes coming from the abyss we thought it bestto throw out a few lures and see if we couldn’t jag a

few nice spanish mackerel to start the trip off. Following the patchesof birds around, we only managed a couple of school mackerel

and a horrible northwest blower fish. Bored with it all, and not wantingto waste the nice weather we decided to continue the journey to Steep Point.

Nothing had prepared us for the magical experience that awaited. As wegot deeper into the bay around Steep Point,

we were surprised to notice this dark creature that was moving with easeand elegance through the water.

The initial reactions were “have a look at the size of that tiger shark,it’s near on 20 foot long” Spearfishing looked like it had gone

out the window for a while, when the senses come to, and we realised itwas a whale shark, there was an immediate hustle and bustle

to get the hell off the boat and to be the first person in the waterwith the amazing creature!

With nothing short of twenty metres of visibility, the beautiful creaturetook our breaths away, as it moseyed on through the crystal waters of SteepPoint with ease. With all our efforts, we swam with the magnificent beast,keeping our distance and our fingers on the camera buttons. We were absolutelyloving life, especially the two Canadians girls with us that hadn’t even heardof a whale shark before! We exited the water. A whole lot of high fives,yelling and carry on preceded even the comment “that was one of the bestmoments of my life” was put out there.

Once the massive hits of adrenaline that the whale shark had caused,slowly wore off we decided to jump in the water

again and try our luck with the spearguns. Turns out it was a great ideaas with the water being unbelievably clear,

the aquarium below us was the perfect opportunity for us to get ourheads under and push into the second atmosphere

to see what mother nature had waiting for us and hopefully our dinnerplates.

We were not disappointed, as always the west coast turned it on. As soon as we put our heads under the water there were reef fisheverywhere.

As we investigated the reef a good solid 20kg kingfish and a couple ofsambos started tearing around us, too flighty to get a shot off unfortunately.

After a bit more of a swim we came across a nice little bombie in aboutten metres of water, after only a few descents we had a big bald chin groper

and a north west snapper on boardand with the interest of only one little bronzie. So we were straightback down there and the fish just seemed

to get bigger with each dive, The trigger fingers were working overtime. We were absolutely devastated we hadn’t got a cray licence as the

ledge was loaded with massive western reds anywhere up to 40 of them, ohwell we couldn’t exactly complain about life at

this stage, the esky was starting to fill and the sun was shining.

With such an amazing day behind us we decided to head into the sandyshore and try to find one of those comfortable camping spots

where we could celebrate the days triumphs. So sure enough, with thesmiles spread across our faces we drank to the day and the fish

we were about to eat. Once we had indulged in a feast of bald chingrouper we were all still very excited about the day that had been so

into the esky it was and somehow managed to demolish two days worth ofgrog in the one night, shame on us!

The next morning we pushed through the throbbing headaches only to begreeted by rising swell and the wind quite rapidly freshening!

We didn’t have much choice except to push it slowly back to Denham,which I’m sure even though nobody said it, it was

a good thing as we were all looking forward to a shower and a sand freemeal!

After talking to a few of the locals of this windy town, they directedus to none other that Monkey Mia, where perhaps we would

receive the wind protection we so much desired! The Canadian girls werepleasantly greeted with the smiling faces of the famous

Monkey Mia dolphins, which they were quite excited about as they hadnever seen one of these curious creatures in the wild!

Us boys on the other hand, were notinterested in hungry faces of porpoises, but more of what lay beyond, andbeneath.

What we found though was not what we hadhoped for. Shallow waters, sand bars and bad vis was all Monkey Mia had tooffer us with the gusting 30 knot winds.

The lures were again placed in the water anddragged through a few nice looking gutters with little result apart from a few

small spotted mackerel. We dropped thepick in a nice looking part of the gutter and baited the hooks in the hope of afew blackies, but were again denied a feed!

Beaten by the sand banks and shallows ofMonkey Mia, we decided it was time to head back for the day! Thankfullythe resort restaurant did an

unreal feed and their beers were cold so weall still had smiles on our faces!

As the sun cracked the skyline we shook offthe hangover again and made our way down to the vessel, the bay was oily calm,

huey must have really had it in for us thistrip as we only had a couple hours before we had to pack up. So we threwthe biscuit out the back

and let the pleasantly quiet 150hp yammy whipus around the ocean until we couldn’t hold on any longer, we really do leadhard lives!

The boat loaded and cleaned it was back toKalbarri to unfortunately return her, it was extremely tempting to drag it toPerth as it would

look really good in my garage! A quickfeed at the Kalbarri pub and we were off to dodge the roo’s for the next

6 hours arriving safely home a 3am for somemuch earned shuteye!

All in all, the trip was a success, with oneday of great diving, constant sunshine, cold beers and unbeatable company, whocould complain.

A special thanks to Laurie and Sue who madeit a hassle free week away, with their flexibility with times, affordable prices,reliable vessel

and that little extra fuel that wedesperately needed. Hopefully we can do it all again sooner rather than later.

Merry Christmas and happy fishing from Crutchy, Cretty, Seagz, Sarah andAlly

The Kids Get A Couple

Matt Retallack has hired my boats a few times now and thistime got the kids into some fish.

Again a bit of a blowie day, but that is normal forDecember, but the 7.8m boat can handle it.

Jesse got a dhuie andalso picked up an undersize snapper and a big blowie, while Brooke holdsMatt’s, snapper but got an undersize dhuie a blowie and

unfortunately aserious bout of seasickness. Andy got his baldchin which made him smile.

WAIntroduction

David Zhang has hiredmy boats a few times now and has been unlucky with the weather, seasick crewand uncooperative fish

Nearly every time hehas the boats. This month was much the same with fresh southerlies most morningsmaking it decidedly

uncomfortable. This year he brought his parents with him whohail from Southern China. They speak no English so all the communications

were through David.Luckily for David, that his method of fishing is to anchor over a spot, burlyup and fish it all day, so the

weather did notmatter too much and that his parents don’t suffer too badly with seasickness.

They caught a fairnumber of fish with his Mum landing all the big snapper and his Dad a shark.

Both were superimpressed with the ocean wildlife, and remote scenery.

SharkAttack

Some photos of a shark attack on a marlin off thecoast of Mozambique!

It is a big marlin, how big was the shark!

The head from the marlin thatgot eaten by sharks last month.

We estimate the weight of thefish around 800lbs.

This portion was 108kg. Pitysuch a nice fish.

Kind regards,
RICKY JACOBS

Bite of themonth

Not exactly a bite, but experience of themonth perhaps.

Ally swims with a whale shark near Steep Point,Shark Bay.

An experience of a life time, keep it withyou forever Ally.

See all theprevious Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island

Island Manager: 91846444, Drew Norrish &Traci Nathan

This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked forThevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in thisgreat place.

bookings@mackerelislands.com.au

Check out the website: www.mackerelislands.com.au

AshburtonResort

Nikki and Scott Daganare the new managers of the new Ashburton Resort. Phone 9184 6586 email:admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au

Website: www.ashburtonresortonslow.com.au

GnaralooStation

Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:

Barbara: 9315 4809

Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au

Website: Gnaraloo.com.au

Game, Bottomand Beach Fishing Action

These links will takeyou to Youtube showing some great action video clips taken from

my boats and also avery good mulloway from the beach.

Tripletuna hook-up

Dhuieand snapper

Beachmulloway

ArchivedNewsletters

After a lot ofeffort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.

I have made sixblogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com

And from January2006 to December 2006 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2006.blogspot.com

And from January2007 to December 2007 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2007.blogspot.com

And from January2008 to December 2008 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com

And from January 2009to December 2009 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com

And from January2010 to December 2010 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com

And from January2011 onwards with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2011.blogspot.com

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

Rememberif you rent our accommodation in Kalbarriyou get big discounts on our boats.

Havea look on my websitefor the details, and check out the savings.

5-dayweather forecasts, www.buoyweather.com go to virtualbuoys, pick the location you want.

This is the one I go by!

Bigbait – big fish

Laurie

November 2011

2011-11-29T22:38:00.001-08:00

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

Well what a month!The weather has been surprisingly good, the water temp has been up to over 22degrees since the

beginning of themonth and mackerel and tuna have been caught already! We have had an awesomerun of big trevally,

just in time for thedemersal closure, and it looks like it’s going to be like last year’sphenomenal run of mackerel and tuna.

The cray season islooking good already with reports of good sized crays, but lots with eggs andtar spot at the moment.

I will be putting mypots in after the full moon in December, and expect it to be just as good aslast year with

a daily catch of 12crays per boat and 2 licences.

Advance boat andaccommodation bookings are way up from last year, so get in while there isstill a boat available.

PaulLong’s Day Out

Paul hired one of our6.5m boats last year and was back with sons Jake and Mitchell late last month.Heading out to a

couple of spots Irecommended they landed an assortment of fish. Sitting on anchor with a burlytrail out the back

was the mosteffective and the fish found them.

Mitchell got into a few fish as well as thissmall shark

while Jake found it

monotonous landing atrevally like this one every drop.

It was still in theclosed season for category one demersal fish so these snapper caught by Jakehad to go back.

In fact most of thefish they caught over the three days were released.

They did however keepa few of the better fish such as these gold-spot trevally.

Innovative Reel Design

I have been trailingthese new innovative spinning reels.

They have anintriguing adaptation to a standard design.

Thereels come 3 colours and in 2000 to the 5000 size the biggest. A few differentmanufacturing styles

of all aluminium oraluminium spool and graphite body and are reasonably priced for what I see sofar.

The innovative partto these reels is that the spool is on a cam and by rotating the spool anticlock wise, you can offset it.

This enables you towind a lure with the reel speeding and slowing the retrieve automatically. Whenhooked up and the

drag unloads thespool resets to the centre again. Clever idea!

American Website: www.striketechreels.com.

Rob left a 5000 sizewith me to tease some fish with and see how it handles fish from my boat.

I spooled it with 15lbbraid and put it on a Fishing WA soft plastics rod.

And tease them I did!I was at my trevally spot and it was a fish a drop! These club-nosed trevallysure give

a bit of curry whenhooked. I was using a double snelled hook arrangement with a no 3 bean sinkerright down to the hook,

3 metres of 60lbleader and 15lb braid on the reel.

After a couple offish on a very heavy drag, (I was told to go hard on the reel and give it areal work out), the clicker/ratchet

on the spool brokeoff. Once removed from under the skirt, the reel behaved very well with asmooth drag.

The fishing style didnot lend itself to trying out the offset spool, but a few casts and trialretrieve imparted all the

action that thespecifications suggested.

Now to try it out onthe mackerel that have turned up already!

Ok, so it was only aspotted mac, but got it I did.

I followed up on anice coral trout

and snapper on the reel just to prove a point.

Rob Sackmann andWayne Matthews came out with me that day and are witness to the catch as wellas getting their fair share of the fish.

They unfortunatelydropped 3 mackerel strikes but landed 2 spotted macs from a floating mulie outthe back.

All the snapper and coral trout had to go backdue to the category one demersal closure that is still in effect.

Re opens 15^thDecember.

This pretty juvenilepennant fish joined the party. We are getting some strange fish up this waylately.

Probably due to thehigher than normal water temps we have been experiencing this year as lastyear.

KalbarriOffshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.

26^thNovember 2011

We all got stuck intoa few good fish during this months local comp. The weather was less thanperfect so I decided to fish just past the Sand Patch.

We anchored over aspot I know and a procession of fish came over the side.

Sue was first up witha gold-spot that gave her curry

and they just got bigger and bigger! We taggedand released 7 snapper,

with one of minemeasuring 70cm!

Frank Rystenburgended the day with a nice mulloway among his bag.

My 70cm snapperthat had to go back

and junior Max did well catching 7 tailor off the beach

andthe biggest bream this year weighedin at 1.27kgs for Gary!

Bite of the Month

Frank’s mulloway pulled out from amongst aschool of trevally earns him Bite of the Month

Caught during the last Kalbarri Offshore& Angling Club monthly comp.

Frank was well please with his personal bestmulloway to date.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island

Island Manager: 91846444, Drew Norrish &Traci Nathan

This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked forThevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in thisgreat place.

bookings@mackerelislands.com.au

Check out the website: www.mackerelislands.com.au

AshburtonResort

Nikki and ScottDagan are the new managers of the new Ashburton Resort. Phone 9184 6586email: admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au

Website: www.ashburtonresortonslow.com.au

GnaralooStation

Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:

Barbara: 9315 4809

Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au

Website: Gnaraloo.com.au

Game, Bottomand Beach Fishing Action

These links will takeyou to Youtube showing some great action video clips taken from

my boats and also avery good mulloway from the beach.

Tripletuna hook-up

Dhuieand snapper

Beachmulloway

ArchivedNewsletters

After a lot ofeffort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.

I have made sixblogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com

And from January2006 to December 2006 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2006.blogspot.com

And from January2007 to December 2007 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2007.blogspot.com

And from January2008 to December 2008 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com

And from January 2009to December 2009 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com

And from January2010 to December 2010 with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com

And from January2011 onwards with photos @

www.murchisonboathirefishing2011.blogspot.com

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

Rememberif you rent our accommodation in Kalbarriyou get big discounts on our boats.

Havea look on my website for the details, and checkout the savings.

5-dayweather forecasts, www.buoyweather.comgo to virtual buoys, pick the location you want.

This is the one I go by!

October 2011

2011-10-27T22:37:00.001-07:00

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

A slow month, mainly due the category one demersal closure, but those who have been out and fished,
all caught good fish, released the category one fish had fun and kept the allowable species. The closure ends on the
15th December, just in time for the best cray fishing to be had. Around the beginning of December the crays moult and hide in
rock crevasses and under the sand until their shells harden. Then after the full moon in December they start to move about.
This is the best time to set your pots. If it is anything like last year we will bag out every day until Christmas.
The mackerel will be back mid December or sooner as the water temp is well up from usual,
closely followed by the tuna schools.

Mohamed’s red emperor
Mohamed Al Hameli hails from Abu Dhabi in the UAE and studies in Perth. He fishes a lot in the Red Sea,
& when a couple of mates arrived for a holiday decided to show off a bit of WA to them. He arrived in Kalbarri
& took the 5.3m boat out for a spin on Grand Final Day.
He and 3 mates headed north with their bait and hand lines drifting along some of the pre programmed spots on my GPS.
They landed a few, mostly undersize fish, a couple of small sharks and then this 8.8kg red emperor for Mohamed.
A great catch Mohamed, you get “Bite of the Month” on my Website.

School Holiday Fun
Ben Lee and wife Lilian with their daughter Kayelin had a couple of days out in the 5.3m boat during the school holidays. Weather was
not the best but they managed to get stuck into 5 snapper just past the Sand Patch.
Well done Ben, you are getting more experienced and it is starting to pay off.

Local Fishing Comp
Local club comp day on the 22nd was panning out to be quite nice weather wise and the wife Sue could not make it this month,
But I managed to scrape up a crew. Frank Rystenberg who has fished with me before and Paul Allen, who usually fishes the river
came out with me. As the category one fish, 2 month closure is still in effect, we had to target fish like skippy, morwong
sambos, yellow-tail kings, mulloway, tailor etc. The best way to get these is to anchor up and set a burley trail.
We started to catch fish right from the first drop. I was using a small Octopus lead style jig, and I had 3 fish on board
before the bait guys had anything! Paul managed to get some fish on bait in the end, but the above fish, pink snapper and cod
had to go back as there are category one fish.

Frank was very happy with his big baldchin groper but it also had to go back. Next up he hooked a fish that took him under the reef. He tried
to get it off without luck but we told him to let it slack and sometimes the fish swims out and then you get a second shot at it.
Anyway with a lot of patience and persistence he announced that he had got it off and was now reeling in the fish! It turned out to
be this rock. See, persistence pays off Frank!

Another occy jig caught fish which was great going, until I lost both my jigs to fish. Paul had to return his baldchin groper as well.
We ended up with 8, 6, and 5, keepers mainly club-nosed trevally around 2kgs, bludger trevally, and a just size yellow-tail king.
My bag of 15.8 kgs was enough points for me to win the individual and we got most points for the boat that day.

Another strong Leeuwin Current
I was surprised by the water temp when I was out last; it was up around 20.1 degrees. About 1 degree warmer than usual at this time of year.
Indications are we will have another strong Leeuwin current next year making it another spectacular mackerel and tuna season.

Tri Pham’s Day Out
Last Thursday turned out to be quite a nice day, the kind of day Tri Pham and mates, Troy, Thomas and Ann, had been waiting for.
They shot out in the 7.8m boat to a known hot spot, set a burley trail and the fish went ballistic from the first drop.

Tri landed a nice golden trevally and Ann holds up one of about 10 club-nosed trevally she caught.
The category one demersals were on the bite but had to go back, Troy with a snapper and Thomas, his first
ever dhuie, a 65cm fish returned as well. They were coming aboard two at a time for Troy.

Troy with another club-nosed trevally and Ann got a small Yellow-tail kingfish as well.
They would have released 20 or more fish, keeping less than one bag limit, had a great time and were back by lunch.

Bite of the month
Great fish for Mohamed El Hameli who hired the 5.3m boat early this month. Mohamed and mates were drifting around
some pre programmed spots on my GPS with their hand lines when they decided to reel them in.
It was then that Mohamed felt this 8.8kg red emperor which they wrestled into the boat.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
22nd October 2011

The beach guys did well all landing mulloway between 6 and 10kgs. The tailor were not bad either!

The river fished well with a 900 gram bream for the winner which was part of his bag of 8 fish and the little tackers got into them as well.
Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
Island Manager: 9184 6444, Drew Norrish & Traci Nathan
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
bookings@mackerelislands.com.au
Check out the website: http://www.mackerelislands.com.au/
Ashburton Resort
Nikki and Scott Dagan are the new managers of the new Ashburton Resort. Phone 9184 6586 email: admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Website: http://www.ashburtonresortonslow.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

I have made six blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

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

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

And from January 2008 to December 2008 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com/

And from January 2009 to December 2009 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com/

And from January 2010 to December 2010 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com/

And from January 2011 onwards with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2011.blogspot.com/
Big bait – big fish
Laurie

September 2011

2011-09-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

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

Things are slowing up now that the end of the season approaches. The mackerel and tuna have left Kalbarri waters
for warmer northern climes. The demersals have done their spawning aggregations and dispersed to their territorial areas.
Early sea breezes are starting to waft in making boating uncomfortable, so it is just a matter of waiting it out
over the demersal ban which comes into force from the 15th October to 15th December.
Next big thing is the opening of the cray season and if it is anything like last year, it will be extraordinary again
with big catches in the pots each day. If you are after crayfish be here after the full moon in December, that’s when it all starts!

Kalbarri Still Firing
Matt Hyland and mate Chris Hall arrived in Kalbarri on a very stormy and windy Friday early this month and
enquired about a trip out. I didn’t hold much hope for them and told them to forget it as I did not think it would
clear up over the weekend. Strangely, Saturday dawned fine and calm so they rang back querying my judgement.
Sure enough the Sunday forecast looked good so we went out. Good thing we did, look at the fish they caught!
First up after a few snapper just north of Bald Face,

we anchored over the spot and Matt hooked up on this 6.5kg coral trout that gave him
a lot of curry trying to get it up from the bottom.

Chris Hall was up next with a chunky little samsonfish that was released and then a move to a spot just north of the Sand Patch he

hooked up on this 8kg mulloway. Notice he is wearing his wedding ring with the sambo and not with the mulloway?
Well unfortunately, while he was washing his hands after releasing the sambo, the ring slipped off into the blue depths.
Losing stuff overboard is quite common. Mobile phones lost from top pockets, and sodden from wading at the boat ramp, wet cameras etc.
Expect the unexpected!
They ended up with their bag limit of demersals each as well as skippy and other stuff.
Nice fish guys.

Exmouth Gulf Trip
After a cancellation of my much anticipated trip to the East side of the Exmouth Gulf a couple of months ago,
we managed to reinstate the trip and eventually got there. Paul Youngman, John Hoye, Dan Jenks and my self took
the 7.8m and towed two dinghies over to the East side of the Exmouth Gulf. We camped on an island for 4 days.
We did have a shot at getting a big GT out from Onslow. We found the spot however the weather and tide was not at its best so failed in that department.
We were lucky to be able to trial out two of the Fishing WA Series rods. We used the 24kg 7’2 Popping Stick.
I was casting one of those giant poppers a long way into 25 knots wind which the rod handled with ease.
They are very nice rods, with good quality guides and very reasonably priced.
Available from most tackle stores and you can see the full
range on this link http://www.fishingwa.com/content.php?firsttierid=446&id=446&section=FWA%20%20RODS

It was a long tow: with the two dinghies and all our gear we managed to travel at around 8-9 knots.

John Hoye “planking” on the bait board
to kill time and the dinghies towing in the background.

Our camp site was good and we just had the bare minimum due to space on the boat.

Unfortunately our only window was during the full moon, which I am sure did not help the fishing,

but the nights were calm
& without sand flies and mozzies.

We fished the mangroves without much luck, but I think we were there at the wrong times, and should have been
fishing them during the run-out and near bottom tide. Tide times did not permit us to fish the creeks at the right time as low tide was late afternoon and getting stuck
up a mangrove creek over night would not be pleasant!

Most of the action was around the bommies and reef areas and again only
during the run-out tide. Nothing happened until the tide turned!

There were plagues of small GTs, (We had to cast to different spots to get away from them),

and cods of all kinds:

John holds an average size cod that were very prolific.
It was a fish a cast at some spots at the right time. We caught cods, GTs, small mackerel, small barracuda, spanish flag, golden trevally, spangled emperor, long toms,
bream, blue salmon, queenfish, tarpon, and a wolf herring. We also got bust up by big unknowns!
We only used lures and soft plastics. By far the soft plastics caught most of the fish but the lures were more
successful hooking but not necessarily landing bigger fish.
It did not matter the colour or what soft plastics were used, if they were soft and plastic they got munched!

John got a nice GT on a trolled lure

and I landed a very nice golden trevally on soft plastics with my bream gear.

A close up of the golden’s blubber lips with the soft plastic that was the most successful.

A nice queenfish

and small golden trevally both on soft plastics made my day.

On the return trip we loaded the boat and waited for the tide to give us enough water for the 7.8m boat.
I am standing knee deep among the rays, bull sharks, flounder and starfish that litter the bottom.

Harry Tucker’s Billfish Bash
Here is Harry’s story.
Last year in September, Michael Wells and I had some fantastic luck, while fishing off Tandabidi at Exmouth, to land our first marlin andsailfish. Coming from a landlocked country and not doing a heck of lot of blue water fishing this was something both of us had never dreamed about. Over the last year we've bragged and boasted to all of our mates, and told them all of the incredible feeling you get when you heara reel scream and a fish dancing away from the boat. Then we heard about the "Billfish Bash" a fun little competition being organised between mates with 6 boats and knew we had to go. Shane "Sheep" Kelly our token Kiwi and Greg "George" Gardiner another Zimbabwean quicklyjoined the crew and we booked a boat through Laurie and Sue at Murchison Boat Hire. He kindly gave us the suitably named "Bulawayo Buoy" and dropped it off at the Kalbarri turn off; saving us a couple of hours on our long haul drive to Exmouth.

We slept in the boat on the roadside on the way up before checking in at Yardie Creek Homestead Caravan Park,and gearing up. Here we were met by Arnie Slabber who also joined our crew.
The tournament ran for 4 days after a practice day,

and over thistime we boated an incredible 7 Marlin in tournament time, as well as plenty tuna, bonito, mackerel and mahi-mahi. The boat worked perfectly
and let us stay out a bit longer than everyone else once the winds picked up in the afternoons, and having the 200 litre fuel tank meant we hadmore fuel to play with which gave us the edge over most of the competition.

Unfortunately we lost out on first place to another boatwith 8 Marlin once time was up on the final day, but claimed biggest fish with Greg's beast. It took him an hour and half to fight the fishin and after 4 attempts we wired him, tagged him took some photos and successfully released him. Over the whole week of fishing we boated 10marlin, 2 more than everyone else and had the magic of both a double hook up of sailfish and of marlin, but struggled with the sails.

All of our fish were tagged and released successfully. The trip was an absolute pleasure, and I know there are 3 new sufferers from "BillfishFever" and we will most certainly be back next year.

Bite of the month
This big blue marlin gets “Bite of the Month” on my website for Greg Gardiner, caught out from Tandabidi on the West side of the
Exmouth peninsular. Taking him an hour and a half on stand-up tackle; a great fish from a small boat.
Well done Greg!
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.
Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
Island Manager: 9184 6444, Drew Norrish & Traci Nathan
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
bookings@mackerelislands.com.au
Check out the website: http://www.mackerelislands.com.au/
Ashburton Resort
Nikki and Scott Dagan are the new managers of the new Ashburton Resort. Phone 9184 6586 email: admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Website: http://www.ashburtonresortonslow.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

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

August 2011

2011-08-30T00:36:00.000-07:00

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE AUGUST 2011 ELETTER
Well looks like the end of the pelagic season is nigh. I doubt there will be many more mackerel and tuna
caught from now until Christmas, so it is a long wait until then. This month has been quite good with great pelagic action
together with a lot of dhuies and snapper on the bottom. It’s about now that we start to see some big tailor caught
out at Black Rock and at the Chinaman’s. Blue Holes and Red bluff are also top spots for a crack at a jumbo tailor.

Kalbarri Fires Again
Fred Heydenrych has hire one of my boats before experiencing an awesome time and returned early this month
for another shot trolling for mackerel and tuna, his favourite style of fishing.
Fred tells it as he saw it.
“Our first trip to Kalbarri in May was one to be remembered. Sharing fresh cut fish fillets at the fish filleting station with fishermen and families less fortunate than us.
It was a memorable trip made more memorable by the man nicknamed by our crew as “The Guru”, known by others as Laurie from Murchison Boat Hire,
who gave us the right boat; put us on the right spots, with the right gear. All WE had to do was hold our beers and relax, trolling,
while we waited for our reels to scream. So the prospect of such good fortune for a second time, later on in the season (august)
when the fish have retreated north with the currents, and with questionable weather, was enough to make any reasonable man decide to stay home.”

“Nevertheless, the unquenchable lust for tuna, the optimism of a true fisherman, as well as the Guru on our side, we decided impromptu to give Kalbarri another crack. The events that proceed blur one into another. Our reels did sing! “

Justin with his sambo taken trolling

and Fred with one of many mackerel

and the group, Johnno, Seaton, Fred, Clayton myself & Justin.

“Fish after fish after fish, of all shapes and sizes: macs, sambos,

yellow-tail kingfish, emperors, dhuies,
and even a few mother fat late season tuna that got away!”

We struggled to get a dhuie but on the last drop of the day we got a quadruple hook-up and landed 4 dhuies!
We kept the 2 biggest and returned the other two that went down well with the release weight.
“The weekend came and gone, we left with eskies full of fillets,
sunburn, line cuts and maybe slightly poorer, but with memories that will bring us back again, next time to hit up
some large tuna and maybe even some Exmouth sailfish.
Thanks Murchison Boat Hire, the Guru Laurie, and Sue for another memorable fishing expedition.”

Not firing at Quobba?
Tu Pham and mates Jayme, John and Ken spent a week at Quobba Station spinning from the rocks. They were very disappointed
as they had not caught a thing? Unusual for Quobba, but when the water turns green there is not much you can do.
They spoke with Andrew Doan from The Tackle Shack who suggested they drop into Kalbarri and hire one on my boats.
They arrived late in the evening and jagging a very good weather day to be out in the 7.8m boat.

The trolling went off with fish after fish

& then on the bottom,

landed dhuies, snapper

and even a good mulloway among other things.

More pics from George Raffa’s trip

George Raffa sent these pics from another camera. They had an awesome trip up to the Mackerel Islands last month.

Lightning Fast Weekend
Andrew Doan has hired my boat many times now and was up late this month for a flying trip. Arriving late
Friday, and taking the 6.5m boat for Saturday and Sunday and back to Perth on the Sunday evening, was a bit of a lightning trip.
Andrew and his 5 mates had a ball catching a variety of fish just past the Sand Patch mainly on knife Jigs!
Here are a few of the fish they caught!
Photos by Andrew Doan - West Oz Anglers.

There were

sambos and amberjacks

and even double hook-ups on jigs!

Dhuies on knife jigs as well.

Snapper

and even a flounder took a jig

and a nice mulloway among all the fish.
Andrew took advantage of our boat and accommodation package, getting a discount on his boat hire,
and convenient accommodation decked out for anglers.
Just ask me about it or have a look on my website, CLICK HERE

Best Wildflower Season!

This year with all the rain that we have had has brought on the best wildflower season we have had for a very long time.
So if you want to see them, now is the time to come to Kalbarri.

Encourage your partner to come and see them, and you might be able to get some fishing done while you are here.

Best ways to see them are on the local quad bike tours. They operate out of Murchison House Station, where they take
you up river along the flood and sand plain areas. The show is spectacular and quad biking great fun!
The Kalbarri Wildflower centre has guided walks with a wildflower specialist who will point out the
flowers and tell you all about them, it’s only $10.00. They do a good Devonshire Tea as well.
Drive to the gorges and stop along the way and have a wander in the bush.
The flowers are everywhere and the best shows will continue through to late October.
Need somewhere to stay?
We have holiday accommodation in Kalbarri and you get big discounts on our boats.
Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.

Bite of the month

This month’s, Bite of the Month goes to Tu Pham for his big bite.
He had been fishing at Quobba Station early this month without much luck, and decided to change tactics and hire
a boat out from Kalbarri. His luck changed dramatically, landing mackerel first up and then this mulloway
on the bottom among other fish.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
Nicki and Scott are the new managers of the new Ashburton Resort. Phone 9184 6586 email: admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Island Manager: 9184 6444, Drew Norrish & Traci Nathan
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
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

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

2011-07-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JULY 2011 ELETTER
It has been quite a wet July for us up here in Kalbarri, and the fronts going through have produced some big swells
making it uncomfortable for those out in the boats. However, most of my hires at this time of year are for trips up north to
fishy destinations such as the Mackerel Islands, Gnaraloo, Exmouth etc, where the fishing and weather has been spectacular.

Onslow trip
George Raffa has just returned from his trip up to the Mackerel Islands out from Onslow. He has made quite a few trips
hiring the 7.8m boat each time. The group seem to do extremely well each time, probably due to their experience and knowledge
of the area. He was up with family and friends, Ric, Dave and Paul.
Pics of their fish can be seen on their album on this link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65665902@N02/sets/72157627290883278

Kalbarri Workshop
Jeff Hitchins and son Steve featured in last month’s newsletter catching lots of fish at Coral Bay out of
my 6.1m boat. Their next trip is to Thevenard Island next year. Jeff felt that he needed a bit of fine tuning
with regards to reading the sounder and general fish catching tips so spent a day with me in Kalbarri.
He says he learnt a lot, saw how I interpreted the sounder, worked the GPS and waypoints and caught fish.

We nearly bagged out on snapper and dhufish. (We had to let a big dhufish go and released lots of just size snapper waiting for a bigger one)

Afterwards we went for a troll and just as we were approaching a well known mackerel spot, the lures went off.

For the next half hour
we caught 5 gold-spot trevally, 3 yellow-fin tuna, 1 yellow-tail king and 5 mackerel!

A couple of mackerel and tuna were kept and the
rest released.

Kalbarri Trip
Scott Darlow and partner Jacqui Claus had the 5.3m boat mid July and asked me to launch it for him, no problems,

I will launch and retrieve when requested.
The easterly was fair pumping, but he stayed in close and enjoyed the day spotting dolphins and

some local wildlife.
He did not catch much and felt that the wind was pushing him along too fast, and not holding bottom.
Probably correct Scott, you have to have your baits right on the bottom.

The answer is to hire a drift anchor from me @ $10.00/day. It will stop the boat to .5 of a knot allowing your baits
to reach bottom. Here is the one I use for the 7.8m boat drifting out from shore, and the result.
(OK it is only a baby snapper but it works)

End of financial year
My wife was doing the books the other day to get them ready to take to the accountant to do our tax assessment.
I asked her if we had made enough money this year for me to buy another Stella 20000.
She gnashed her teeth and said that I was financially incompetent and naïve!
Boy, I can’t wait to tell her that I have won the Nigerian lottery!

First Ever Fish!
Frank Rystenberg, a mate of mine who has returned to town with his new wife, Shelbie is a keen angler and I took them out on a trip with me.
Charlie Messena and partner Janet Schwarz also came along.
Shelbie has never caught a fish before, and I was expecting a bit of sea sickness to ruin her day,
but we put a spread of lures and skipping garfish out and it was not long before a lure went off.

Charlie grabbed his rod that was unloading braid at a rate of knots while we all reeled in the other rods, but I kept one
outfit with the garfish on to slowly sink down into the strike zone. Charlie dropped his fish and as he did the garfish was snatched so
I handed it to Shelbie. A long and protracted fight took place but with a bit of coaching in the pump and wind technique,

this 15kg mackerel came to the gaff at last. First fish she has ever caught!
After a bottom bounce that saw Shelby catch a snapper or two and a dhufish

she trolled up this yellow-fin tuna!
Charlie kept dropping fish on his braid outfit, which is not the ideal line to use trolling, but he did not expect
to be doing any trolling that day. The trick is to add a long mono leader to the braid to give it stretch, fish a loose drag with a light rod.

Frank eventually got to get a hand on a rod landing this chunky mackerel.

Coral Bay trip
John Houwen had a successful trip to Coral Bay and handed the boat over to another hirer at Carnarvon saving a lot of
towing for both groups.
He said that there was a lack of big mackerel around but they made up for it catching a few big tuna.

Looks like a good sized northern long-tail.

Kalbarri Trip
John Hoye, my mate and competition fishing buddy popped up to Kalbarri over the school holidays with his son Jack.
Jack is a keen surfer and spent some time in the surf at Jacques Point. On one of the good days, raining but no wind we
shot down to Wagoe in the 6.5m boat to try for some mackerel.
We trolled all over the place, in shallow, out deep, skipped gardies, speed up, slowed down, drank all the coffee in the thermos,
ate all the food in the esky and still no fish! So we stopped and tried for snapper in 12 metres on the edge of the reef with soft plastics.
I was using my Stella 8000 with 50lb braid but matched to a Fishing WA rod that has a great action but way under gunned for the reel.
Rated at 8-10kg it is a lot softer than you would expect but imparts good soft plastics action.
The 1 ounce jig head and 7 inch plastic was hammered by something that took a hell of a lot of line on a fairly tight drag.

It took 15 minutes before we saw what it was and another hour to get it to the gaff. A 12kg very fit yellow-fin tuna.

Any more drag pressure and I felt that the rod would break, and getting it to the boat with the whippy rod
was exceptionally difficult. But hay! I got it. Expect the unexpected!

Bite of the month

First fish Shelbie has ever caught - a 15kg mackerel! A well deserved Bite of the Month,
Well done Shelbie, see your pic on my website, link below.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
July 23rd
A few good fish caught during the competition this month.

My wife beat me again gamefishing, landing a 10kg mackerel on
6kg line

while my 7kg shark mackerel was a bit of a surprise.

Brett landed a club record coral trout and a dhuie.

Ken also got a club record for this 20.8kg cobia

and junior winner Martin landed this mulloway from the beach.
Club records have to be caught during a monthly fishing comp.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
Onslow Mackerel Motel, Phone 9184 6586
Island manager: 9184 6444, Drew Norrish & Traci Nathan
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
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
Archived Newsletters
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.

I have made seven blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

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

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

And from January 2008 to December 2008 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com/

And from January 2009 to December 2009 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com/

And from January 2010 to December 2010 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com/

And from January 2011 onwards with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2011.blogspot.com/

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

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 2011

2011-06-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JUNE 2011 ELETTER

Another busy month for the boats, with most of them on their annual trips up to northern destinations.
Gnaraloo station was again very popular with multiple groups going up there. Where are all the photos
you were going to send me guys??? When the weather has been good, the catches out from Kalbarri
have been quite extraordinary. Since two of the three charter boats stopped operating the fish have
come back to the nearer spots that I would normally bypass.
Gnaraloo trip

I was lucky this month to get 7 days up at Gnaraloo with Paul Garner and mates, Peter, Alan, Eddie, Shaun and Frank.
We had the 7.8m boat which I towed up from Kalbarri and met the group at the station.

It is imperative to stop at the “King Waves Kill Sign”
and deflate the tyres on the trailer and your vehicle to 35psi. This will give you a better ride over the rough road and corrugations
for the next 70ks of dirt road. The Gnaraloo Station sign is too low for the 7.8m boat to get through, use the gate to the right to get through.
The weather was very crap for the first 3 days, but as Shaun was only there for 2 days we had to get him a fish.
He got one all right, a very good rankin cod and followed up with a good baldchin groper. Paul Garner landed this big rankin, winning
the biggest fish in the betting stakes of biggest fish, first fish and biggest red emperor daily jackpot.

Peter had a burster of a trip winning the biggest red emperor, landing a good sized spangled emperor
and Paul and Eddie hold up their reds caught going over a patch where we pulled
10 red emperor from, on one of the better days
The mackerel were going off while drifting over my “mackie lump”. Drifting with a garfish out, these mackerel, 18kgs for Eddie and 19kgs for Frank kept them busy while we caught bottom fish.

Frank and Shaun with a pair of rankins, while Frank holds up 2 reds which were part of his catch on
one of the days that we caught 7 red emperor.

I got to fish as well, landing my personnel best rankin at 9.5kg and a p.b. red going 9.5kgs.
Next time we are up grading to 100lb leaders, we had lots of bust-offs using 80lb, it’s just not heavy enough!

Accreditation

Murchison Boat Hire is now an accredited tourism business!
It has taken a bit of work and a bit of time but now we can use the logo on all our stationary
website and signage.
So what does this mean to you guys?
Well not much really, you will still get the great service and back-up from me.
You can still be assured that we have all the necessary procedures in place such as
insurances, public liability, maintenance schedules, bookings, refunds, etc all documented
and described.
I guess it is just a recognition that we are doing things right.

Kalbarri Trip
Darryl Friend and mates Ross Jerrard, Stewart Northcroft and son Trey, complete with all the family were up in Kalbarri to have a look around
and get some fishing done. The Saturday was blown out so only the marginal weather Sunday was available.
I took them out in the 6.5m boat as the 7.8m was up at Gnaraloo. First up on strike was Ross, and he dropped 2 mackerel to unusual circumstances, (so he says)
before Stewart took his turn landing this 11kg mackerel setting the standard for the day. It was the first mackerel and biggest fish he had ever caught!
We than had a few drifts over some of my better spots but it took until lunch time, before the fish turned on. A succession of small
dhuies came aboard until, Darryl landed a size one. A very keen angler, 11 year old Trey Northcroft, caught and landed the biggest dhuie
for the day all by himself. Well done Trey!
They got their bag limit which included snapper, cods, a yellow-tail kingfish and sweetlip.

Coral Bay Trip
Hi Laurie,
Here are the pics from our awesome trip to Coral Bay.
The 6.1m boat travelled beautifully behind the 4wd ute and was easy to launch and get back onto the trailer.
Deck wash on the boat was FANTASTIC to use, easy to keep the boat clean.
As you can see from the photos, we had a great time catching spanish mackerel, wahoo, mahi mahi and cobia.
Have recommended the boat to several mates, why would you buy one when you have such a great facility.
Looking forward to coming up to Kalbarri in July and will be booking the boat for next year’s trip with my boys.
All the best
Jeff Hitchins
Looks like it was all pelagics and they had trouble with sharks!
Nice fish Jeff!

Cycling and fishing around Australia!
Hi Laurie,
Guess you will get this when you are back from Gnaraloo so hope you guys had a good time and got some good fish!
Been getting some decent tailor on the lures and still trying for the Mulloway!
Maybe you can include in the newsletter the following.
I'm in Australia for two years cycling and fishing around the country. Previously I cycled from UK to India, fishing along the way
so this trip is a continuation of a world tour on a bicycle. Laurie was kind enough to take me out on his boat in
Kalbarri for a session after spanish mackerel. Apparently conditions weren't perfect for the mackerel but we hoped for some
action all the same! And as it happened it wasn't too long before one of the trolled lures was taken and line screamed from the reel!

A lovely yellow-fin tuna of 5kg was the result! Happy with this fish, I smiled even more when the other rod arched over and the reel
screamed for the second time of the day. This time it was a more solid fish that easily took line from the clutch. Laurie and
I were both hoping it was what we had come for and as it happened it was! A lovely spanish mackerel of 10.5kg and new
PB for me! It couldn't get much better than that! Thanks very much Laurie, much appreciated,
Scott.

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

Tip #1: Forget the cycling, just do the fishing!

Exmouth trip
My cancelled trip to the east side of the Exmouth gulf is back on again, but in September now.
We are going to go out of Onslow now and as one of the group, Paul, will be delayed getting up there we will be killing time trying for big GT’s for a couple of days around Long Island, a known haunt for big GT’s. When Paul joins us, we will head round the corner into the Gulf and flats fish for queenies, trevally, jacks, and hopefully bonefish, tarpon and permit on fly!

Bite of the month

Peter Callisto has been the Bite of the Month before with a red emperor caught out from Kalbarri
But he gets it again this month for this near 10kg red emperor from my 7.8m boat caught at Gnaraloo this month.
He had a great trip landing lots of good fish, in less than perfect conditions.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.
WTF

This was caught up at Gnaraloo this month. A bit of a strange looking snapper.
The book identifies it as a long-finned snapper. Argyrops spinifer
It was about 350mm long.

Look at the size of this stout longtom! Caught in Kalbarri this month, 1.4m long!
See all the fish species on my website www.murchisonboathire.com.au/fish_species2.htm

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
June 18th

I was still in Gnaraloo so could not fish this comp. Pity, just look at some of the fish caught!
Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
There are new managers at the Onslow Mackerel Motel, Colin and Rosa will now look after you on the mainland.
Rosa will take your accommodation booking for the Onslow Mackerel Motel if you would like to stay. Phone her on 9184 6586
Colin will sort you out with a lock up storage area for trailers and your vehicle when you are at the island.
Island manager: 9184 6444, Drew Norrish & Traci Nathan
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
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

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 2011

2011-06-01T03:32:00.000-07:00

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MAY 2011 ELETTER

A lot of good weather this month meant lots of fish caught out from Kalbarri, I don’t have pics of every trip
But all did extremely well, even those who were inexperienced landed good fish.
The mackerel were patchy but the bottom fish exceptional. Some hirers saying that they were releasing
10 dhuies each day, and getting their bag of big snapper on top!
All the great bottom fishing is due, I think, to the reduction from 3 charter boats to one, and that one does not go
far from the river mouth. All the fish are coming back, and the best is still to come with the start
of the breeding aggregation of dhuies for the next couple of months.
Weekend break away
Robert Yamil fished with me last year with a large group of guys and this year came with his mate Henry Tumewa.
Henry lives in Indonesia and made the trip especially to fish with Robert. Robert is also from Indonesia where he owns a holiday
resort south of Jakarta, but also lives in Perth. We had a couple of great days fishing, the mackerel were absent, but the bottom went off!

Robert and Henry show off a couple of good baldchin gropers

and Robert a very good coral trout.

The red-throat emperors were big; it was a top new spot we found!
These were just a few of the great fish they caught.

Gnaraloo trip
Peter Holtfreter’s trip was a success landing good fish from the 6.1m boat this month. Peter is a regular
and has been fishing out of Gnaraloo a long time.

They caught good baldies

Red emperors and they even caught a sail fish! Just look at the conditions!

Boat Rescue from Gnaraloo

Peter Holtfreter rang me from Gnaraloo, 6.30pm the evening before they were to leave. The 6.1m trailer had a broken spring and
broken U bolt. Nothing else to do but get another trailer up there and bring it back. Now this did not give me much time!
I launched one of the 6.5m boats in the dark and put it on a mooring and set my alarm for 1.30am.
The above pic is dawn at the blowholes; I was in Gnaraloo at 7.45am.
We changed the 6.1m boat onto the 6.5m trailer and made the old bust up trailer safe enough to tow back on its own.
I am now frantically building another new trailer, but this time beefed up to the max.
The under carriage has now been built from 14” Landcruiser axles, hubs and bearings, it can now be classed as “off road” as it is
grossly over engineered for the size of the boat!

Kalbarri Trip
Mick Thompson got hold of the 6.5m boat for 7 days, scoring fine weather, (except for a bit of unusual rain) and did well most days.
I dropped in on them when organising a survey for the boat, and they showed me their catch.

Billy Thompson had a very good baldie

while the group, Alan Wiseman, Mick Thompson, Billy Thompson and Jason Loverage
hold up their catch for the day.

Another day they went north and landed another great bag which included a red emperor for Alan.

Nice fish saves the day
Hi Laurie/Sue,
Just and update of our trip to Kalbarri and the boat hire for the day.
"Having a 4.8 meter glass boat my wife was a bit bemused as to why I wanted to hire a boat from Murchison Boat Hire.
Needless to say bigger is better. I decided to hire the 5.3 meter (smallest in the fleet I believe).
My father in law and I left pretty late in the morning and headed south along the cliffs hugging the shoreline.
The current was pretty ferocious and we were not able to bottom bounce in the depth we wanted to (20+ meters) and as the swell
was pretty high we couldn't anchor either. So we decided to head back to the river mouth in shallow water and see what was on offer.
We then anchored about 500 meters out from the mouth. After a few nibbles I thought I was snagged on the bottom as
I tried to lift my line but no luck, that was until I was almost pulled over the side of the boat.
I knew that this was a good fish and fought it for a while until I saw the mouth pop out of the water just below the port side of the boat.
Gob smacked, excited, and just plain stunned (with completely numb forearms).
My fist mulloway, and what a mulloway it was. I didn't have a scale that could lift this weight,
but I judged it at over 20kg's.
I would highly recommend you hire a boat from Laurie and Sue, their knowledge, experience and just plain old good customer service is second to none.
And the prices, well you will NOT find better. For four guys I would suggest to hire the big beast (7.8m) as this is truly fantastic value for
money and you can head out as far as you like with no problem to worry about. Those four stroke engines sniff petrol
and the fuel bill should not even be a concern."
I WILL be back…...
Erich DeBruyn

Weekend fish fest
Michael Mac Shane was up again for his annual trip, this time bringing a large group. He took advantage of the boat and accommodation package,
saving himself and the group on the cost of the boat hire. He took two boats and both accommodation units over a weekend this month.
They had an awesome time with lots and lots of fish, here is his story.

We took two Murchison boats out again this year and a third private boat. The water was a lot warmer than last year so we had our fingers crossed the Mackerel were going to show. The first day arrived with strong easterlies and overcast, all day, and then it rained! We fished The Sand Patch and north of Bald Face but found the mackerel were quiet. The other boats headed further north and did well, bringing home nice bags of mackerel and a few snapper. One boat scored a 10kg barracuda and decent Samsonfish.

The mackerel were averaging 12kg plus. We got among some nice snapper in close and had a play with some of the
many schools of Tuna, boating about 7, managing to finish the day with a lone mackerel of 20kg. Everyone got among some good fish, big hits and the occasional bust-off, a great day.
The next day was almost identical to the first, overcast and windy. We all fished north of the river, looking for some good bottom ground.
Our boat raised a few smaller mackerel and a tuna but couldn't get the bottom fish to fire like yesterday. One of the other boats had a great day on Snapper, bagging out and catching a few mackerel as well, whereas the third boat had a quiet one.Another fantastic year, good fishing, the boats did their job well and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Thanks Laurie, see you next year!

Exmouth trip
My much anticipated trip up to the Eastern side of the Exmouth Gulf had to be cancelled at the last moment.
It was a pity we were all set and quite excited about it. My mate Paul Youngman decided to come up to Kalbarri
from Perth anyway and fish out from here. The first couple of good weather days, Paul went out in Daniel Jenk’s boat,
Daniel was to come with us on the Exmouth trip and they headed south to the end of the cliffs, bagging out each day with mackerel.
The next good day I suggested we challenge ourselves to the max and try for one on 2kg line!
We got them, but it took over 45 minutes per fish, quite an achievement!

They went 9.1kgs and 9.3kgs, serious fish for 2kg mono line!

WTF

This odd looking gardie jumped/flew into the boat, while on hire this month.
The big book shows it as a long-finned garfish. It is another fish added to my fish species picture
gallery on my website www.murchisonboathire/fish_species2.htm

Bite of the month
Robert Jamil boated this big coral trout while out in the 7.8m boat early this month.
Fishing in 50m of water north of the river mouth, the big bite came with a thud.
It was part of a double header with a big red-throat emperor on the bottom hook.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
May 21st

Not a lot caught this month, due to the less than perfect weather. Few boats went out
And not able to get to their spots, caught few fish. Daniel Tarasek landed this mulloway at the Chinamans Beach.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
Onslow Mackerel Motel managers, Colin and Rosa will look after you on the mainland.
Rosa will take your accommodation booking for the Onslow Mackerel Motel if you would like to stay. Phone her on 9184 6586
Colin will sort you out with a lock up storage area for trailers and your vehicle when you are at the island.
Island Manager: 9184 6444,
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
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

April 2011

2011-05-01T05:55:00.001-07:00

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE APRIL 2011 ELETTER
A very busy month, with great weather compounding on a strong warm Leeuwin current resulted in extraordinary
good catches of fish this month. So busy was it that I seldom had time to glean info from all excited
anglers as they returned the boats. Everyone caught fish and hirers like Aaron McDonald told me that they caught
12 mackerel before 9am. Details are a bit sketchy so I have left it to the pictures to tell the stories.

Lochie’s Dhuie,
On 26th March, my family and I hired the 6.1m boat from Laurie. We went out through the river mouth to do a little bit
of trolling but we had no luck. So we decided to do some bottom bouncing to the north of the river.
When Dad picked up some lumpy ground on the sounder, we decided to drop our lines over.
We drifted for a little bit before I got snagged on the reef. Dad managed to get my line off the reef
and handed it back to me. Just then I thought I was snagged again but realised I had something big on the line.
I pulled and pulled but it just kept on swimming to the reef. I wound in the line so the fish came up to the surface.

Dad got the net and it was my first dhuie, 63cm!
by Lochie Lindemann (age 9 y.o.)

All fired up
Wayne & Marelise Ludewig were back for a second trip and picked the right day.
Kids Karl and Dieter were with them as well as Marelise’s father, Peet.

Wayne got himself a tuna

while dieter did well with a dhuie

and tuna

Marelise landed 2 baldchin groper

and a tuna while Peet got his share as well as this tuna.

Trailer refurbishment

Before

and after
The last of the 6.5m trailers has now been totally upgraded and has already made a few trips the Gnaraloo
On that very rough and rugged road.

Weekend break away

Miguel Grima rang to say he wanted to get away, have a fish and let his wife Christine get onto a fish or two.

Well it did not take long and Christine was onto her first fish, second fish, third fish etc.

Miguel also got his fair share, but it was Christine who out fished him on the day!

Gnaraloo trip
Anthony Macri and mates hired the 7.8m boat for seven days in Gnaraloo and had a ball landing plenty of tuna and mackerel.

The highlight was a small marlin that hit one of their trolled lures.
Unfortunately it would not go back so they had to keep it.

Fun day out
Dan Brandenburg and daughter Jess spent a day out with me last year, but did not do too well, and was back to have another go.
This time things were different! We powered to an area that I knew was fishing well for tuna and mackerel, pulled up
and sent the first lure out. I then picked up the second rod to let that lure out and the first lure took a strike!

Hook up within 15 seconds! Jess took the rod landing this chunky yellow-fin tuna. Dan got one as well.
After that it was full on fish after fish after fish. They went on to catch and release 15 odd tuna.
Jess also caught and released her first mackerel.
It was even getting monotonous! I suggested that Dan have a shot with my light spin gear and he cast to a boiling school
of tuna instantly hooking up. A memorable catch on light gear.

Annual Kalbarri Trip
David Brest is a fly in fly out worker and can’t wait for his annual Kalbarri trip with mates, Henry and father in law Max.
This year the weather was a lot kinder making the 5 day hire with the 7.8m boat very comfortable.

There were mackerel, there were tuna, David holds them up

Henry got his fair share, and then went on to the light gear casting to the schools. They sure gave him a work out!

A pretty good mackerel for Henry and Max did not miss out either.

A bottom fishing day scored Max a dhuie and David landed his first dhuie, among a bag of snapper & big red-throat emperor.
2 days of full on fun
Mark Tooby and I go back along time, we used to fish Quobba Station 20 or so years ago and
played in the same squash teem. He called to see if he could get a boat just before Easter and luckily scored the 7.8m

Mark’s mate Glenn joined us and got stuck into tuna and mackerel.

A second bottom fishing day out made Glenn’s day catching this big cobia, while mark shows of the sambo
he caught and released. We bagged out on snapper & red-throat emperor, before returning midday.

Gnaraloo trip
Peter Holtfreter is a regular hirer, making multi trips to Gnaraloo. He knows his spots as you can see from the pics.
They got into big mackerel, and some good reds.

A chunky mackerel that took a drifted bait while bottom fishing, and Peter holds his double header of cobia and red emperor.
He could see the double header coming up and thought the cobia was a shark after his red, so he nearly ripped the head
off the cobia and red getting them up and into the boat!

Some of the great reds landed during the trip.

Easter Frenzy
Andrew Phillips hired a boat last year and was back again with a bunch of mates to have another crack.
It all went off in the good conditions, there were fish after fish,

mackerel and tuna,

double hook-ups,

splashes, sharks,

tuna,

and some of the better fish

Bite of the month
Ishka Smith hold up his 18kg yellow-fin tuna for bite of the month. Fishing with mates, Isiah Pedler, Eden Willis,
Liam Sanford and Stephanie Pool, they spent the day in the 7.8m boat catching tuna, one after the other.
On my advice they took a spin rod and Ishka cast a lead baitfish pattern to a school of big
tuna crashing around the boat. Luckily he had an outfit spooled with 15kg line, but it still
took him 40 minutes to land it.
They ended the day with 2 other tuna around 7 kgs and released lots of undersize snapper.

See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
There are new managers at the Onslow Mackerel Motel, Colin and Rosa will now look after you on the mainland.
Rosa will take your accommodation booking for the Onslow Mackerel Motel if you would like to stay. Phone her on 9184 6586
Colin will sort you out with a lock up storage area for trailers and your vehicle when you are at the island.
Drew is still the Island manager: 9184 6444,
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
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
Archived Newsletters
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.

I have made six blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

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

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

And from January 2008 to December 2008 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com/

And from January 2009 to December 2009 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com/

And from January 2010 to December 2010 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com/

And from January 2011 onwards with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2011.blogspot.com/

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

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 2011

2011-04-01T06:14:00.000-07:00

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

The unusual weather persists with calm windless days. The awesome run of mackerel came to an end at the beginning of the month and is back to normal with the odd mackerel being trolled up in the usual hot spots and mainly right in front of the river mouth where the clean and dirty water mix. The Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic went off very well but the river flooding peaked at midday on the Saturday and all boats were sent back in.

The floodwaters upper reaches of the Murchison

These photos are of Bilabalong, Meeberrie & Yallalong stations taken in late February showing the masses of water still to come down the Murchison. This is the upper boat ramp at the height of the flood. It was knee deep in the car park.

Chocolate milk rushing past the jetty out to sea.

That’s Black Rock out there at the entrance to the ocean.

Hey Laurie and Sue,

Want to say thank you again for providing us with an awesome boat and pleasant accommodation. Everyone warned us not to go up to Kalbarri because of the cyclone but we decided to listen to Laurie that everything is gonna be ok. So we made our way up to Kalbarri only to end up with car problems and being stuck on the side of the road with no reception. Told Laurie we would be there by 6pm and the clock has ticked way passed the ETA. Thank goodness Laurie and Sue are the sweetest people on Earth and stuck around waiting for us. Finally got to Laurie's place and there they had everything ready for us and even left the aircon on so that we could enter the Nemo Pad in comfort. First Morning out in the 6.5m boat the weather was just beautiful and the seas were calm only 30 mins on the boat with 4 Halco's that Laurie recommended and we were onto a first fish. After a good 10mins of a ripper fight that nearly led to my girlfriend getting pulled overboard.the yellow-fin Tuna was landed into the EHZZAH. Another few hook-ups after that with spanish mackerel and a couple more tuna it was time to head back. We came back to Nemo Pad where we chilled out and relaxed in the courtyard and fired up the BBQ that was provided. Overall it was an awesome weekend and I can’t wait to go up again... Laurie, Sue you guys are amazing hosts,

Love your service, Love your boats

Thank you again,

Andrew Doan

All fired up

Shane De Mello and Stanley Seow has had a few trips out with me on the 7.8m boat now and brings along the same fishing group, There were plenty of tuna and we stopped on a lump where they dropped soft plastics and jigs. Stanley landed a yellow-tail king on soft plastics and Bernard got a nice tuna casting a chrome slice on a flick rod. That was a lot of fun! Leon struggles with a yellow-fin tuna that gave him grief and the group with Shane holding his dhuie caught on soft plastics.

Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic.

We had a big turn-out for the classic this year with 41 boats competing. The river was flooding as it was a bit hairy going out the entrance but no one had any problems. By Saturday lunch time the Dept. of Transport closed the river mouth and called all boats back. So we tallied the scores from one and a half days fishing and had a relaxing Sunday before the presentation dinner. Some of the fish caught are shown below. A red emperor that was not the biggest, there were plenty of bream in the muddy water and juniors did well and Kylie holds the biggest bream that went 970grams. Biggest cod Greg Horsman 8.78kg, biggest dhuie went to a junior, Mitchell Westlund 10.7kg, biggest samsonfish 26.25kg Paul Parks. Highest point scoring tuna, me, 187 points, Men’s Meritorious: Ron Neumann 4.89kg coral trout, Meritorious Bottom: Beau Ivey 8.65kg red emperor. Thumping big painted sweetlip, and Sue with an undersize red emperor brought up from 28 metes on 2kg line .

Great Weekend

David Alsworth was up over the Classic week end but did not enter the comp. On the first day, they went to some of their own spots and found very good snapper. They also trolled the edge of the dirty water but had no luck. Sometimes it just goes off and other times nothing. Nigel & Steve hold their good snapper

2 days of full on fun

Paul Garner has hired my boats a few times now and seems to be just that bit unlucky with the poor weather one time, big swell and green water the next, but this time it all happened. 2 days in the 7.8m boat ensured a mix of species. The first day they went down to Wagoe for the mackerel. On the way down to Wagoe, the tuna were going off. A few trolls through the tuna and all aboard, Peter, Alan, and son Zane, Eddie and Paul all had a fish under their belt. The mackerel refused to co-operate so went back to catching a few small tuna. The second day dawned with great weather and they went to my distant spots north of town and drifted around in calm conditions each landing their bag of category 1 fish. Paul got a nice dhuie and Peter Callisto landed a very pretty red emperor which made his day!

Bite of the month

Peter Callisto gets bite of the month for March, landing this red emperor from my 7.8m boat in 50 metres of water north west of the river mouth this month. Fishing with mates he was well please to have the best fish of the day, knocking off, Paul’s, dhuie right at the end of the days fishing. See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp. 26th March 2011

Mackerel and tuna were caught on light line during the comp, with Sue winning outright on points with two mackerel and two tuna. I had a go but dropped 2 tuna while out with the guys above catching tuna down at Wagoe. The juniors all did well catching plenty of bream.and tailor were back in the river after the flood.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island

There are new managers at the Onslow Mackerel Motel, Colin and Rosa will now look after you on the mainland. Rosa will take your accommodation booking for the Onslow Mackerel Motel if you would like to stay. Phone her on 9184 6586 Colin will sort you out with a lock up storage area for trailers and your vehicle when you are at the island. Drew is still the Island manager: 9184 6444, This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place. 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

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 2011

2011-03-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

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

An awesome month it has been! An ultra warm current has been flowing out there, and some days it has been 27.3 degrees
according to my sounder. Usually it is 23.5 degrees, so 4 degree above normal is mind blowing. And with it came all
sorts of fish! The tuna have been in plague proportions and quite annoying, while the mackerel have been on the
bite throughout the day. Big mackerel to 18kg have been around the dirty water at the mouth of the river, while schools of
smaller macs around 4-5kgs have been in the clean water between the mouth and the Sand Patch.
On top of this the last 3 cyclones have produce extraordinary calm glassed off conditions with minimal swell.
It has been great!
The Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic starts in 2 days and all is prepared. We will be fishing in the
7.8m boat this year and there are already 26 boat registered with more to come.
www.fishingwa.com.au

Harry from Fishing WA has a holiday home up here in Kalbarri and is a sponsor of the Kids Whiting Comp that the
Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club holds on the foreshore during the October school holidays.
I have got to know him over the last few years and he does not have a lot of spots up here, so on one of the
good weather days early this month I invited him and mate, Dan Jenks out in the 7.8m boat.
We caught a few mackerel and then went for a bottom fish where Harry used soft plastics and gave me a few tips on
the action needed. Harry landed several nice pinkies before we all bagged out and were back by midday.
It is the action in the rod, you need quite a soft tip, to impart the lift and drop of the soft plastic to entice a bite.
I had quite a hard rod and did not get nearly as many hits as Harry, using his Fishing WA rod.
When Harry left he kindly left his rod with me!

One of the new Fishing WA rods that he imports and are for sale at most tackle shops.
This is a perfect soft plastics rod with plenty of grunt and soft tip. It will also cast well.
FWA Series 8-10kg 7 foot Lure weight 10-40g

Very nice feel, quality guides and light. Look for them when you next need the perfect rod.

Family day out

Brian Mosely (on the left) has a holiday home here in Kalbarri and is a member of the Kalbarri offshore & Angling
Club, but lives in Perth. He is mainly a beach fisherman, but wanted to treat the family, son in law, John
& grand kids. I took them out for a troll and a bottom fish where they all got mackerel, tuna and a dhuiefish for Brian.
Yes the conditions were pretty good!

What comes around goes around

Mick Payne runs the Seahorse aquaculture business in town, it was open to the public and well worth the visit, but he has
closed it down and sold off most of the gear and does consulting work now, allowing him to get some time off for a change.
I am in the process of setting up quite a large salt water fish tank and was round getting advice and trying to buy any leftover
pumps, filters etc that he had. I got some gear and offered him a trip out which he jumped at and brought mate John along.
We caught and released 12 mackerel and tuna, and were back at the ramp at 8.30 in time for John to go to work.
Western Angler Weekend
http://www.westernangler.com.au/
The weather was so good and the fish so plentiful last week that Jamie Waite from the Seafront Villas rang Scott Coghlan, editor of
Western Angler Magazine, and told him to get up here and experience the phenomenon! Scott dropped everything, packed his
kayak and brought Steve Hart with him. The first morning I took them out in the 7.8m boat and started a troll half way to the Sand Patch.
It was going off! Mackerel, tuna, schools of sharks, all crashing baitfish balls around the Sand Patch. Forget trolling, we just cast to the bait ball
& we were pulling tuna, cobia, and the occasional shark nearly every cast on lightish gear. It was a blast.
We then got tired of tuna, mackerel, cobia and sharks and went for a bottom fish. Just past Baldface we landed snapper, skippy, cods, dhuies
etc on soft plastics, Pirates jigs and Bay Rubbers.
Check out the videos and photos we took on this link on the Western Angler forum website.
This takes you to the video page but look through the other pages for photos and more stuff.
http://www.westernangler.com.au/forum/topic?id=1641&p=6

The following day I took their kayaks out and set them adrift a couple of kms out from the river mouth where the trolled
& cast randomly for mackerel. It was not long till Steve hooked up to a mackerel.

Scott, takes under water shots of the mackerel,

and Steve holds it up for a pic.
The following day they did it all again with Scott landing a bigger fish from his kayak, which is the one shown on the video link above.

While this was going on, Sue and I were trolling around catching and releasing more than
I can remember as well as this chunky little yellow-fin.

Great Weekend
Bill Lonsdale brought a crew up from Perth for a fish, getting right into the great mackerel run that is still persisting.
Ryan Mitchell, Craig Lonsdale and Derick Ko, were into the mackerel from the first day and also landed dhufish, pink snapper,
nor’west snapper, sweetlips etc, but improved their catch rate when they trolled more lures on the last day.
A bit short of pics but the day was cut a bit short when Bill took a few hooks in his hand when
trying to unhook a green mackerel with a pair of pliers. Best to wait until it stops kicking and then wait some more!

The last days catch

and the biggest held by Derick Ko .

We have finally done it
It has been long time coming, but we have finally done it. The weather was perfect
the mackerel were the right size, the water was crystal clear and very warm.
We got out our 2kg outfits, put small lures on and dragged them around the hot mackerel spots
between the river mouth and the Sand Patch. We got our bag limits of spanish mackerel
& Sue picked up a spotted mackerel as well to beat me on points during the local fishing comp!
Mackerel on 2kg mono, and it did not take as long as expected, probably 15 minutes per fish!

Bite of the month
Short of any big fish this month, I have to give it to Sue
who fished extremely well during the last Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club comp day.
With perfect conditions, Sue trolled small lures on 2kg mono line landing a narrow-barred
mackerel and then a bonus spotted mackerel, enabling her to land another narrow-barred,
which she did, to make up her bag limit of narrow-barred, and went on to win the game section.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
19th February

Even the juniors were getting into the game fish. James with a mackerel on 6kg line

The bottom guys got some good fish as well.
Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
There are new managers at the Onslow Mackerel Motel, Colin and Rosa will now look after you on the mainland.
Rosa will take your accommodation booking for the Onslow Mackerel Motel if you would like to stay. Phone her on 9184 6586
Colin will sort you out with a lock up storage area for trailers and your vehicle when you are at the island.
Drew is still the Island manager: 9184 6444,
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
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
Archived Newsletters
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.

I have made seven blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

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

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

And from January 2008 to December 2008 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com/

And from January 2009 to December 2009 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com/

And from January 2010 to December 2010 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com/

And from January 2011 onwards with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2011.blogspot.com/

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

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 2011

2011-02-01T20:37:00.000-08:00

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JANUARY 2011 ELETTER
The flooded Murchison River has now stopped flowing, but the remnant muddy water continues to disgorge
out into the ocean on low tide. This has kept plague proportions of small yellow-fin tuna around the edges of the dirty water.
Surprisingly though the mackerel have been sporadic with just the odd one now and again.
Bottom fish continue to hold their own but a good weather day is needed to get to the spots.
Murchison Boat Hire 60 second promo clip
David Belfield was up in Kalbarri recently shooting video for inclusion on a website showing
Virtual Kalbarri where you can click on a business, tour, attraction and a 30 or 60 second clip will screen.
You can watch mine on this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OCInsmMweM

Big day out for the kids
Scott Scriffignano was holidaying in Kalbarri for the Christmas break and had the 6.5m boat for 2 days.
Stunning glass-off conditions rewarded the anglers who made the most of it. Scott and his kids got into
some nice bottom fish as well as trolling up & casting to shark mackerel.

The kids show off some of the fish caught by the group.
Looks like they had a great time!

Port Gregory fires again
Brian Soer treated his sons, Wade and Brad and their friends, Dillon and brad’s girlfriend Stacey to a trip out during the school
holidays and found to his dismay that when he arrived in town, the river mouth was closed to all boating!
Not to worry we towed the 7.8m boat down to Port Gregory and went out from there. We fished a couple of
spots 10km south of town picking up fish every drift. We released a few dhuies until Wade got one big enough and

Brian got a double header of coral trout and nice sized dhuie.
Brian was the only one not to get seasick,

and Wade Soer stood up long enough to hold his dhuie for a photo!
He looks fine now but spent most of the time throwing up! The rest of the crew lay about the deck hoping to die.

After the flood
Gavin Kensitt and a group of friends managed to get out after the river was opened and spent the morning down
Natural Bridge area where Louise Williams had her arms pulled off by a shark.
Nicola Shea caught a nice size red-throat, a pink snapper

and this small tuna on the way back at the 3 mile.
Elena Podinic enjoyed driving the boat while
Brett came along for the ride!

Compounding Problems
David Zhang has hire my boats a few times and is still in a steep learning curve. He does well and his enthusiasm is infectious.
Hiring the 6.1m boat for a week and staying in my accommodation thus picking up the boat hire discounts put him on the right track.
He was set for a big week, cray fishing, trolling and bottom fishing and I took him and his girlfriend Tansy out the first day
to set his pots in the right spots, and had a short troll at the 3 mile but no luck. He dropped me ashore and went out to his usual
spots landing a couple of snapper and a skippy. Out early the next day he got one cray but failed in the fish department and was back early
with a very seasick tansy. She did not want to go out the following days which left David crewless.
With the cray pots still out there and me unable to go out due to work and a trip to Gero, he sat around very patiently!
On the fourth day he came out with me and my son Jared in the 7.8m boat.
This is his story and the pics.
I started my trolling experience from a charter boat in 2008 on an Exmouth trip, I got 3 mackerels from my “lucky lure”.
After that, I always want to try the trolling by myself, I keep trying to get a mackerel in Kalbarri using Laurie’s boat, but didn’t get anything until this year.
We went to the sand patch and start trolling, same rules, same lures, nothing tricky. It was a beautiful day, nice weather and almost no swell.
We put 4 lures out the back. I will say it was a really terrible day for the mackerel family. We got 4 mackerels.
After that we try the bottom fishing, only half hour, 5 pinkies and 1 baldchin groper, we already reach the limit and heading back, however, we also want some tuna on the way back.
Bingo, 2 times triple hook-up for tuna. Laurie lost 2 lure because of the shark and third plastic lure was bitten and only half left.

Bagged out, 2 demersals and 2 mackerel

A seasick recovered Tansy holding one of the mackerel
Happy ending fishing 2011, I really want to thank Laurie’s help.

Kalbarri Marlin
During the Kalbarri Ultralight over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd, Jeff Higgott was out for some fun with mate Paul Truman and son Jack his own boat.
They were not in the competition but thought they would go out and catch a couple of macs. After trolling for about 2 hours
& only getting a couple of tuna, they were just about to call it and head back in when Paul’s Rod went off.
Jack and Jeff started pulling their lines in when to their surprise this black marlin jumped out right in front of them! What a sight.
Paul Truman could not believe his luck, up on a little break from Perth, he had a smile from ear to ear.
He has only caught a couple of mackerel and tuna before so this was pretty special for Jeff and Jack as well. They spent the next hour playing it.
Paul was completely stuffed so Jeff a bit work to do as well, especially getting it on board for a few snaps. Paul was a bit worried about his knot tying but they held.
Caught it on a Halco Laser Pro with 25kg line. The marlin was released and swam away nicely.
Team effort
Jeff Higgott, Paul Truman Jack Higgott

Family Day Out
One of the rare occasions I get out for a fun fish. This week the whole family was up for a short stay, Rebecca with her new husband Julian,
From Melbourne, and Ben who lives in Perth. Youngest son Jared and Sue all joined me out in the 7.8m for a quick fish yesterday.
When I say quick, I mean, the weather was pretty ordinary so it had to be an early start and back in by 8.00am.

We left the ramp at 6am and hit small tuna by 6.30am. Julian has never caught a fish before so got plenty of instructions
from his wife Rebecca landing this small tuna.

We caught 8 tuna releasing them all and dropping about 6 more

They varied in size from very small to not too bad!
We were back at the ramp at 8.15am!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Kalbarri Ultra Light Comp

The Ultra Light Comp held on the 22nd and 23rd is a warm-up comp for the Classic and the multitudes of small tuna set the style.
The marginal weather conditions did not help much but the tuna were on the chomp.
Maximum line class is 6kg and Sue used this to good effect landing an 8.5kg mackerel the first day to put
her in the lead in the 6kg line class. Jason Agrela did well landing fish on 4kg line and 2kg line while lee Ivey
got his 4.1kg tuna on 4kg line to win that section. Son Jared was the only one to land a fish on 3kg line to win that section, while
Sue went on to land a couple of tuna on 2kg line to win the 2kg section, 6kg section and the overall for the second year running!.

The river section fished well with big bream and cod.
Paul Parks landed this 25kg samson from the bottom section. It took a small hooked fish
as he was winding it up from the bottom!

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
There are new managers at the Onslow Mackerel Motel, Colin and Rosa will now look after you on the mainland.
Rosa will take your accommodation booking for the Onslow Mackerel Motel if you would like to stay. Phone her on 9184 6586
Colin will sort you out with a lock up storage area for trailers and your vehicle when you are at the island.
Drew is still the Island manager: 9184 6444,
This year the 6.5m and 7.8m boats are already booked for Thevenard Island but there are still spaces available for adventures in this great place.
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
Archived Newsletters
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.

I have made six blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2005.blogspot.com/

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

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

And from January 2008 to December 2008 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2008.blogspot.com/

And from January 2009 to December 2009 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com/

And from January 2010 onwards with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com/

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

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