April 2007

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

Another great month with lots of fish caught. The pelagics have been extraordinary, but the bottom
fish have been a bit patchy to be honest. Those searching for mackerel and powerful fighting yellow-fin
have returned from hires with smiles and loads of photos.
Last newsletter I told you about the film crew from Adventure Bound fishing from my boat. The Kalbarri segment
has screened in Melbourne and Sydney but is still to screen on Access 31 in Perth.
Check it out Access 31, 7.30pm Saturdays.

Duncan Shirley was back up after a long spell away. Last time he hired the 6.1m boat he caught
nearly every species and big ones as well. This year he returned early April with mate Gavin and son in law Lee.
Both are from England and lapped up the barmy conditions and great weather.
They just went for a troll picking up their bag limits before lunch.

Gavin with his bag limit of yellow-fin and Lee with his two yellow-fin tuna.

Easter School Holidays kicked in and all the boats were booked solid, but I managed to get out one day
before Easter and took my son out in the 5.3m boat. This is becoming my boat of choice now
that it has the new 100hp Yamaha 4-stroke. Its really nippy and I can get to the Sand Patch, troll
all morning, catch a couple of macs and back refuelled for around $30.00. The fuel economy
is outstanding!

Son Jared picked up 2 macs, this 8kg one and his personal best of 14kg.

We had a short trip up river catching a couple of bream. I tried out my new digital camera!
It is waterproof to 5 metres and I have been experimenting with underwater shots. Here
Jared releases a bream, I need to do more tests, but the water was a bit murky!

Now here is an odd sight! Snapped these pics as this boat was leaving the water.

The boat was then driven onto the trailer.
It is a New Zealand manufactured boat, and the wheels fold up hydraulically when used in the water.
The power to the wheels is by a small 4-stroke generator that powers hydraulic pumps that drive the wheels!
All very nice but seems a lot more to go wrong.

Andy Hall and gang were up again this year. They usually come up twice a year, hire the 6.1m
for a couple of days and spend the rest of the time fishing from Frustration. They
got into some nice fish the first day including the first fish caught trolling for Geoff.

They caught skippy, baldchin, a dhuie, snapper,

a spangled emperor for Michael and blue-lined emperor

Geoff with an XXX sized northern long-tailed tuna. We don’t get them here very often.

Andy with his amberjack from Frustration

and Gill’s Frustration caught mulloway.

Over the last 10 days this month a childhood mate, Craig Friend, that I have kept in touch with
came for a visit. He has lived in Zimbabwe all his life, and we used to fish, hunt and camp together in our
early teens. We both grew up fishing the freshwater lakes around Bulawayo for bream and bass and spent the
odd school holidays fishing for tiger fish on the Zambezi. From reading these newsletters and seeing the pictures
he could not resist and came over for a fishing holiday. He left his wife in Perth with her sister and
we spent 10 days just fishing. I tried to get him as many species as I could.
First up he bagged a good-sized baldchin groper, red-throat emperor, blue-lined emperor and skippy.
Stripy tuna was next and then small yellow-fin tuna. He did get a dhufish but it was unfortunately undersize.

Nice mackerel for son Jared from Wagoe

Craig got a good one from Wagoe as well

and then a thumper of over 15kgs from the Sand Patch. I made him fish
6 kg line class for the macs and tuna so he could get the best out of it. He tells me that 6kg is what he
uses for bass fishing in the lakes.


Big surprise on the last day was this beautiful 6kg dolphin fish or mahi mahi. Up at the Sand Patch again,
bait balls everywhere, we went round and round them with no interest at all. I was starting to do a bit
of soul searching and thought of abandoning the action and join the other boats in the distance when
Craig’s 6kg outfit started to scream. Son Jared also started to scream, “dolphin fish, dolphin fish” as
it leapt continuously out the water at the back of the boat. “ It’s my dream fish,” shouts Jared as he
reels in his fishless Halco 190. A very lucky Craig landed his dolly after a tough fight on 6kg line.
A fish of a lifetime Craig, you made “Bite of the month” on my website for April!

We spent two evenings trying to catch a good tailor. This pic is of one that got away at Chinamans.
Hooked up early evening after 3 casts, Craig got the fish to his feet. One of the biggest tailor I have seen for a
while, it would have gone between 4 and 6kgs and as he was walking it to shore, it jumped off. We would have
let it go but I sure wanted a photo!

The evening before he got a small one from the Blue Holes.


I hooked a shark bottom bouncing off Natural Bridge and gave it to Craig to pull in while I experimented
with my underwater settings. It was quite a big one! And yes I did have my hand underwater


Featured website this month is http://www.adventurebound.com.au/
The film crew’s website with articles, news, gear.

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

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

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


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

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