Saturday, September 8, 2007

August 2007

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

You always have the last word if you talk to yourself!
Another near full month without the 6.1m boat. It has been up at Onslow, anchored out at
Thevenard Island for 3 weeks. I’m glad the bungs were in tight!
More on those hires below.
Big news is that Adventure Bound, a fishing & adventure TV show, screened a segment
fishing out of my boats at the beginning of the August. I hope you all got to see it.
Due to the great interest they are screening a repeat!
Catch it on Access 31 at 7.30 on Saturday 15th September.

I came across this vast raft of floating weed. If this was sometime between
January and June I’d bet my bottom dollar that it would be crawling with dolphin fish!
Unfortunately it was late August and not a pelagic in sight!

Steve Fowler has been up to Kalbarri many times and has fish two Kalbarri Sports Fishing
Classics, so is beginning to find his way around. Drifting close in for snapper with Ian and
Evelyn Kelly in the 5.3m boat, he took a huge hit eventually landing this samson fish. The biggest
fish he has ever caught, and released, good on you Steve!


Ian picked up a small one; a bit disappointing as he thought he had a good snapper.

Evelyn however kept catching undersize dhuies. (Look how calm it was!)


Bruce Lee brought his wife, Sue and kids Jay and Venissa up to Kalbarri for a week and searched me out for the
6.1m boat. He hired the 6.1m boat a couple of years ago doing very well catching dhuies and snapper.



This time heading south, daughter, Venissa hooked up first drop to this beautifully marked estuary cod.
You made “Bite of the Month” for August Venissa.
The wind dropped right off and so did the fishing. (It does that sometimes) but they went on to pick up a variety of smaller fish
such as cods, tarwhine, lots of undersize snapper



and this respectable flathead for Bruce.

Look at these great shots of dolphins that Venissa took when they cruised up to have a look!
It is surprisingly difficult to take pics of dolphins. These are quite good.


The 6.1m boat was up at Thevenard Island for 3 weeks with 3 different hirers.
They handed the boat over to each other thus saving the towing and a days hire!
The only photos I managed to get were from Martin Bull. He tells the story from here.

Hi Laurie, please feel free to change this around in any way you want. I have 2 other photos that I will send as separate emails as they are quite big. Regards.............Martin

Eric Smith and I visited the Mackerel Islands for a week inthe middle of August. The party included four boats but only two fished on the "Murchison", which of course made it sheer luxury. Despite the fishing being a little disappointing because of strong Easterlies every morning until around lunchtime, which meant that we couldn't catch the best tides, two of the four boats caught their limits.


We managed to catch a variety of fish including yellow-fin tuna, spanish mackerel and various bottom fish (including a double header of reds! - see photo). There appears to be an abundance of cod at the Mackerel Islands including many of good eating size and many that don't even know you have hooked them.

The highlight was a very nice Sailfish that Eric caught trolling a lure on a very old Ugly Stick, eggbeater reel and 20lb line. We estimated it at 80+lb. The photos were unfortunately not too flash as we decided not to lift it into the boat, as it was pretty tired.



The Mackerel Islands are extremely well set-up for fishing folk and they look after you very well, and the "Murchison" handled the conditions beautifully. Martin.
Well-done Martin, that is the first sailfish from the 6.1m boat to date!

Murray Johnson is all the way from Cohuna in northern Victoria. He knows my brother-in-law who put
him onto me. Picking a very nice day he was out with mate Ross Cooke also from Cohuna in the 6.1m boat.
Fishing was exceptionally quiet with only a couple of wrasse, goatfish, and pigfish coming up.
The fish could be seen on the sounder but would not bite. 4 undersize dhuies did bite and were released.
But big surprise was this massive yellow-fin tuna. All was very quiet on the 3 mile when all of a sudden there was a
boil up of dolphins, sharks and what I thought was tuna. We hastily tied on a lure and the hit came as
soon as we passed the frenzy. It looked like a bunch of sharks had got a baby dolphin, tuna or one of their own
and were tearing it apart. Dolphins, tuna and sharks were also cutting up baitfish, it was a mess!
Murray grabbed the 15kg outfit and I turned the boat and gave chase to the quickly emptying reel.
Chasing it down we found that it had rejoined the bait school and was continuing to feed while still hooked up!
This has happened to me before but when we got close we had a glimpse of it before it burst away and
went deep for 40 minutes. We were debating whether it was a shark or not but the early tuna shaped sighting gave
me confidence. In the end it surfaced with the lure front hooks snagged in the gills and the rear hook totally
ripped from the lure in the corner of the mouth!

Ross and Murray hold up the fish, Ross also had a session with it and both were exhausted in the end.

Weighing in at 26kg, this is a fish of a lifetime.
As this fish was caught early September, it does not qualify for August “Bite of the Month” but I am sure it will make September’s.
Well-done Ross & Murray!

Never ever fart in your wetsuit!!!!!!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 18th August.

I was in Perth for this comp, so missed out and the weather was perfect after so many bad ones. Damn!

They caught some nice fish from the beach and river. (Photos, taken by Cheryl Eley)

http://www.youtube.com/v/USYbtyXxhvY
Short video clip of a double hook-up of big yellow-fin tuna from my boat in Kalbarri.

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.

Adventure Bound fishing shows are on Access 31, 7.30pm Saturdays.

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

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send me a return BLANK email with the subject line “subscribe” and you will be added to my mailing list.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

July 2007

email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
Never, ever, ever take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night!
A very difficult month to report on anything as all the boats have been out of town nearly all month! The 5.3m boat has been on hire in Port Gregory for 3 weeks this month and the 6.1m is currently at Gnaraloo Station after being up at the Mackerel Islands (Onslow) & a week in Kalbarri. No one sent me any photos after promising they would (Except Kevin Hick, thanks Kevin) and the kids from the Port Gregory hire took the camera sand boarding only to return with it clogged with sand never to work again! However the fishing has improved remarkably with good catches from the beaches. It has been rumoured that someone caught a 1.05m tailor from Black Rock over the school holidays. That is a seriously big tailor! No photos available that I know of so might just be a rumour!
Mackerel & tuna are still being caught but that won’t last!

Adventure Bound fishing shows are on Access 31, 7.30pm Saturdays.

Here is an unusual pic. Took this two weeks ago. Some sort of inversion. Cloud or mist flowing
over the Sand Patch and out to sea on a very gentle easterly. I know I should have been out there!

A spectacular sunset over the river from the dinghy boat hire. There have been a few good ones this month.

During the School holidays we luckily got a free day and I shot out with my two sons on a
relatively nice day. We went searching for new spots and came upon some nice looking ground
south of the cliffs.
First drop resulted in a double hook-up of rankin cod and estuary cod for me, followed
by a nice baldchin groper for son Ben. It went very quiet for a while and then the wind shifted swinging the boat on the anchor.

Both Ben and I hooked up at the same time with both of us landing these big estuary cods!
Both of them were over size (longer than a metre or more than 30kgs) so we had to release them. Mine went down easily without problems, but Ben’s struggled. Release weights are just not heavy enough and in the end we had to puncture it’s air bladder with a spike and it swam down itself.

Ben trying to release his cod. We could have used the spare anchor to lower it down but
I feel that by the time we set it all up the fish would have died.
I feel that spiking the air bladder may be fatal but there is not much you can do!
We need to be more prepared, but we don’t catch fish like this all that often.

Close up of the eerie green eye. What are they thinking?

Ben went on to catch one of the biggest sand snappers that I have seen.
They are actually called Painted Sweetlip after the very ornately coloured juveniles.

Whales are around in numbers again this year and they will be here for a few more months yet.
Last year we had a mother give birth in the estuary entrance and she stayed around with her calf for about 6 weeks.

Kevin Hick sent me the following details of his 7-day trip up to Gnaraloo Station at the end of July.
This is his story.
7 Days of Madness and Mayhem.
The sixth annual trip to Gnaraloo Station was better than ever in July 2007. Ten keen fishermen, all members of the Gnarly Gnobs Fishing Club escaped the wild Perth weather to wet a line just south of Coral Bay. Those on the trip were: Kevo, Macko, Micko Roberto, Bobbo, Collo, Davo, Krisho, Jeffo and Chappo. I know, not original.
The first 3 days resulted in great catches and the reds were abundant and good size.

The best red of the trip was Roberto’s 10.5 kg monster.
We needed a good solid fishing platform and Bulawayo Boy proved it was up to the task, as the swell was up to 4 metres on some days. This fishing is not for the faint hearted, as Gnaraloo Bay can be tricky to navigate through when the swell is up and there is a high tide. The “washing machine” as it is affectionately called, lived up to its name.
Species caught were red emperor, spanish mackerel, northwest snapper, rankin cod, spotted cod, baldchin groper, spanish flag and golden trevally. Friday was a complete wash out which allowed the boys time to ease the aching muscles and
lubricate the throat.
Saturday and Sunday resulted in further good catches so with our bag limit reached we headed home to count the number of sleeps until Gnaraloo ’08.
These are his photos

Getting there was wet, good thing they had a boat! The Gnarly Gnobs Club at the Blowholes Sign.
It was mostly reds, reds and more reds says Kevin, the biggest being 10.5kgs
Filleting and photographing the days catch.

Out from Gnaraloo Station in red emperor country.


One of the golden trevally at the filleting tables

Patrick Heroux emailed me regarding a trip out fishing in one of my boats. He is from Canada and has been working here in Australia for the last couple of years. A visit from his dad and mate both French speaking Canadians, but also spoke quite good English, spent a week waiting for the weather to clear. They stayed in my accommodation and took advantage of the discounts on boat hire when staying there. They managed to get two days out in the 6.1m boat
and the 5.3m. First day they went south and totally blanked out! Second day heading north the water as a lot clearer and they were into fish straight away. Nothing big, no dhuies but a splattering of baldchin groper, breaksea cod, samsonfish, tarwhine, silver drummer, wobbegong, pink snapper and a surprise mackerel for Patrick!

Silver drummer for Daniel Nadeau (fight like hell but no good to eat)

and Denis’s samson fish

Patrick Heroux with his baldchin groper

and August 5th, surprise mackerel

We catch these now and again. They are called grinners, Saurida undosquamis, and grow to about 45cm. They have this enormous mouth, capable of eating big prey for their size.
This makes the 61st species photo that appears on my website page “Species you are likely to catch” Have a look, all are caught in Kalbarri; there are some bizarre ones!

Great Skua. They are a bit of a pest but entertaining to feed. They can make your day miserable by stealing your drifting bait that is carefully positioned under a balloon at the back of the boat.
So it is best not to feed and encourage them.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 30th June.
Weather was a shocker again and no boats went out. I had a fish for tailor at Chinamans, but just on dark the rain started to hammer down, I’d had no hits and feeling like a drowned rat went home. Daniel turned up 10 minutes after I left and nailed these two with the biggest at 4.95kg or 80cm! I know I should have stayed! But there was beer and pizza at home!

http://www.youtube.com/v/USYbtyXxhvY
Short video clip of a double hook-up of big yellow-fin tuna from my boat in Kalbarri.

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

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send me a return BLANK email with the subject line “subscribe” and you will be recieve one each month.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

June 2007

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
A good month this one with some good fish being caught! But not much to report towards
the end as all boats are up at Gnaraloo Station and Tamala Station. July is going to be worse
as the boats are away for most of the month at the Mackerel Islands and Port Gregory!

Andy Hall and mates had a ripper of a trip at the beginning of June, landing mackerel and good
bottom fish over their 3-day hire with the 6.1m boat.

Andrew shows off his big baldchin groper and Jeff with some of the catch.


Jeff tells it via an email and enclosed photos.
“Go south young man” was our approach (again) over the long-weekend and we did reasonably well – despite a persistent
north-easterly (which was at its worst on Sunday).
Our fishing party was Andrew Hall, Jeff Bradbury and Andrew’s two mates Eddie and Bevan.
We did try the Sand Patch and 3 Mile on Friday morning to no avail. We then headed to familiar ground down
Natural Bridge way and returned with 3 nice Baldies and 3 Pinkies. Andrew’s Baldie went 5kg (see attached photo).
The plan on Saturday morning was to head straight to Wagoe and troll for spanish mackerel.
The first Mack (10kg) was gaffed at 7.24am and we had two more Macks (12kg each) in the boat by 8.20am.
All three were caught on Gardies. A fourth one was ‘dropped’ soon after hook-up (on the ‘dog turd’ lure).
The water temperature was 20.8 degrees – but the water colour was great.
I will send photos of Eddie and Bevan with their Macks via a separate email.
After the Mackerel run was over, we headed to our usual spots
(staying in reasonably close to get some protection from the nor’easter).
We picked up another 3 Baldies and 3 Pinkies and a couple of Breaksea Cod.
We also had some fun with a school of big Skippy, all of which we released.
I found out the hard way how hard a Spanish Mackerel’s head is. A violent head shake (whilst laying on the deck)
connected with the back of my right hand, splitting open the middle knuckle and leaving bruising
and swelling as if I had been hit by Brett Lee!! There were subsequent benefits though, as the injury
prevented me from assisting with anchor pulling duties on Saturday and Sunday (but it wasn’t bad enough to stop me from fishing)!!
On Sunday the weather was not great. The forecast was for a 23 knot ENE and it did not let up.
The swell was also up to 2.5 – 3.0m. Anyway, we followed the same routine as per
Saturday and returned with a Rankin Cod and one Pinkie. That’s fishin’ …and that’s why we can’t wait until April 2008!!!
Cheers,
Jeff Bradbury


Bevan with his gardie caught mac, (note the end of the cliff south of Kalbarri)

Eddie with his, trolling at the end of the cliffs


Rangers burning off in the Kalbarri National Park. It looked quite spectacular in the evening light so couldn’t resist a photo.


Now here are a couple of guys who struck it lucky. Michael Ford and mate Dean have been fishing together
For a while now, going to different places in search of the big bite. They are from Point Lonsdale in
Victoria and have been to various States lucking out on fish and weather. Picking WA this year they came
across my website, saw the boats, fish and accommodation all in one package and went for it.
Hiring the 5.3m boat for 7 days, which is ideal for the two of them, they started slow and then came home with the
goods on the second day.

Dean landed his first mackerel

and then followed it up with an 18kg fish a couple of days later.

Michael Ford also got himself an 18kg specimen, releasing two others that day

Dean and Michael show off their pair of 18kg mackerel.
They also released three others that day and released 5 the day before.
You guys made “Bite of the Month” check it out on my website


My underwater camera captures Michael’s biggest snapper he has ever caught.

They really really wanted a decent sized tailor, so one evening when conditions were right
We had a short fish in the entrance.

Michael picked up this fish on a Roosta Popper, and
Dean dropped one at the same time.

I estimate that it went about 4kgs, easily the biggest he has ever caught!

Dean was well pleased with this one, easily the biggest he has ever caught but shame on you, Dean, and it’s only a baby!
Good thing we released them all to grow bigger!

Keep well clear of the pointy ends of mackerel; wait till they stop kicking before you try to remove the hooks!
It’s also the reason we use wire trace.

I have had a lot of family and friends visit this year, and so it was again with my sister arriving in town for
a 10-day flying visit from Chicago, Illinois. She brought her daughter with her who has never been to
Australia before. They are not into fishing much but said that they would like to have a go!
I took them out sure that we would be back sooner than later with them all sea sick, throwing up over the side.
But surprisingly not! We had a troll at the Sand Patch on quite a stiff easterly, when a mac ignored
the 4 lures and hit a trolled gardie at the back. I handed the rod to niece Gabbi while the rest of
the crew (Sue, Jared, Rebecca) got the teasers and lures in and watched as Gabbi battled a 13kg mackerel to the boat.

First, biggest, best, only, fish Gabbi has caught!

A couple of days later we went south. 15kg plus big-eye tuna were going ballistic just off Red Bluff.
We trolled for a couple of hours, watched another boat land one, but we failed to hook-up!
We then headed in under the cliffs and set a burly trail.

A short cast into the trail out the back of the boat with my
14lb light flick stick and this sambo hammered the squid bait. My sister Barbara had her
work cut out for her spending half an hour battling this 13kg fish around the boat twice, doing
a very good job eventually bringing it to the boat for a quick photo.

I took them crabbing up river only to find the crabs were around the marina!
It took Gabbi a bit of time to get her head around catching, killing and eating them.
Where she comes from everything comes out of a plastic bag, packet or tin!

We visited the Coastal Gorges.

Trekked the River Gorges at the Z Bend


Went 4WD down sand dunes (They crapped themselves).

Went sand boarding
They fed the pelicans, saw some dolphins up close, visited the seahorse sanctuary, watched the sunset most
evenings and were surprised the sun came out each day! (They are from a cloudy-cold-snow-rain type climate)
They went to Geraldton, Port Gregory and Ajana.


Wilson’s storm petrels picking up bits of burly at the back of the boat

Sea lice, they live in the nose cavity of dhufish and samsonfish and crawl out when the fish is removed from the water. Look awful but they have a place in the ecosystem.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 30th June.

Real crappy weather forced a deferment of the local comp to the following Saturday but it was not much better and only the river and beach anglers fished.

Of note was the two nice mulloway caught by Daniel Tarasek from Frustration.

Featured website this month is http://www.youtube.com/v/USYbtyXxhvY
Short video clip of a double hook-up of big yellow-fin tuna from my boat in Kalbarri.

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

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send me a return BLANK email with the subject
line “subscribe” and you will be added and recieve one each month.