September 2007

www.murchisonboathire.com.au/

Very very quiet month, not many hires, mainly due to the weather, so not much to show I’m afraid.
Anglers that have been getting out have struggled for a fish, but that is usual for this time of year.
It does not last and the fish will start coming back. Snapper are being caught again close to shore and as soon as the weather improves the fishing picks up.
This gold painted boat came into the river mouth late this month. Obviously unaware of the way in
promptly hit rocks a little south of its present position. It backed off and tried again getting stuck on
the sand. The dinghy that you can just see along side went out and showed them the correct way in.
The usual way in and out is completely silted up and we have to use, what is known as
Secret Passage. I have been out and placed a whole lot of yellow markers to show the way.
This Secret Passage between the reefs only became possible when the Sand Spit got washed
away in the big flood. This is what we are using at the moment until the dredge arrives.

Oddly enough there were still a few tuna around as I hooked up on a big one during the local comp on
22nd September. We saw dolphins and birds working and thought we might have a go.
Heaviest game gear we had on board was 6kg and I got a hook-up within the first 5 minutes!
After half an hour it bust off without a sighting. I think we were a bit optimistic using
6kg at this time of year as they are usually well over 25kg!

I know I sent everyone a reminder to watch Adventure Bound on Access 31 as they were going to screen
the segment shot in my boats. Well sorry but I have to apologise, they pulled it again!
Something to do with avertorial content?
So in the end they won’t show it so you can watch it on Utube. Great snapper, dhufish and tuna.
These are the links
Triple tuna hook-up
Dhuie and snapper
Beach mulloway
Or go to the Adventure Bound website and view them there. Click this link.
http://www.adventurebound.com.au/news/latest/youtube_kalbarri_wa_offshore_episode.html
“Bite of the month” goes to Murray Johnson who caught this 26kg yellow-fin tuna at the beginning
of the month. He featured in last month’s newsletter so you have heard the story.

The 4.3m boat is still for sale, but the great ground breaking news is that I am going to replace it
with a 7.8m walkaround. Powered by twin 115hp 4-stroke Yamahas, giving you 10nm offshore.
This will be a very popular Gnaraloo boat, not to mention all the other places you can go with it.
Being built by Kevin at Preston Boats, it will look something like the 7.6m below.

I had a look at a lot of boats at the boat show and some of the fishing space on some boats was
so small I hade to leave the deck to change my mind! This one is built for space, it will have
a small cabin, walk right around and hopefully licensed for 7 persons (depending on the stability test).
Built with a beam of 2.5m, which still allows towing at night and without oversize signs.
Check them out at http://www.prestoncraft.com.au/
I don’t have all the hire rates worked out yet but it is already booked out for 3 weeks at Gnaraloo next year
and for 3 days over the Kalbarri Classic. I am still fishing the Kalbarri Classic but in the 6.1m as I have to
defend my title of Champion Game Boat under 7 metres!

Now to pay for it all I have sent my wife to drive haulpacs! Well actually it was her idea!
She has been trying to get a job driving them for 2 years now and has just cracked it.
Working 2 weeks on one week off, 12 hour shifts, first week day shift, second week night
shift and then home for 1 week. Hard, lonely work but the pay will get better with experience.

Loading dirt with about 3% Zircon in it. Gives the gloss to paint, ceramics
and believe it or not, Smartie shells etc.


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


Dinghy for sale
So the dinghy is still for sale.
Unfortunately after the flood last year, the river is just too shallow, so I have had to stop
hirers taking the dinghy up river to avoid damaging my new motor. Therefore hires have
dropped off and it makes sense to sell it.
So it is on the market. It is in Perth, so if anyone wants to buy it, you can view it in
Glen Forrest, just ring my mate John Hoye on 9298 9177 or 0409 098 568 and he will show it off.

New motor less than 20 hours, 25hp Yamaha 4-stroke, 2 x orange hand held flares, 2 x red hand held flares,
2 x parachute flares, epirb, fire extinguisher, 4 x life jackets, anchor, 27meg radio, sounder, spare prop, boat cover.
All for only $12.000 and built to survey, so a very strong safe boat.

Here’s a common albatross that visits the boats during the winter/spring time. Very graceful in flight.
Real name, yellow-nosed
albatross, (yellow stripe on top of bill) not nearly as big as some of the other ones.

This is one of the bigger ones, a juvenile black-browed albatross.
(Pale bill with black tip, greyish neck)

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 18th August.
Good fish again during the comp.
Nic Bramwell with 2 dhuies from his dinghy and Daniel Tarasek with mulloway and 7kg snapper
from the beach. He claims to have lost a bigger snapper before this one!

After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blog.
I have made two blogs; you can view all of my 2005 newsletters with photos at

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

And from January 2006 to December 2006 with photos at

http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2006.blogspot.com/

And from January 2007 to present with photos at

http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2007.blogspot.com/

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

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.

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.

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.