May 2010

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MAY 2010 ELETTER

A very busy month for the boats, most of the hires have been extended trips up north to locations such as Exmouth, Gnaraloo
Shark Bay and Carnarvon, so anglers pic have been hard to come by. This means it’s fairly quiet for me as when the boats are away,
not much to do. There is however quite a lot to do to ready a boat for the next hire after such long hires. Lots of minor repairs,
bearings greased, tail lights fixed, motor servicing and minor electrics to contend with and then the boats are out again.
Catches in Kalbarri have been quite marginal as there just has not been a very strong Lewin current this year, which is
probably why the weather has been a bit off as well. Mackerel and tuna have been scarce, but the bottom fish have held their own.
The above pic was taken on a calm day out from Tandabidi on the west side of Exmouth. See the story below.
Exmouth marlin trip
Our second annual marlin trip to Exmouth at the end of last month was a success again, although
we did not get as many to the boat as hoped. The weather was not as good as last year, and for a few days,
the water was not that blue, blue indigo that we would have liked to see.
We stayed at the same place as last year; all the details of the trip, gear, techniques etc were the same
as last year and the newsletter relating to that trip can be found on my Blog: http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com/
Just page down to the May newsletter and any changes to our techniques are explained below.


Ashley Van Viersen got his first billfish, quite a big sail; it took a trolled garfish bait in 500m. This year, trying to avoid the smaller
black marlin that are normally in the 70m to 100m marks, we trolled between 300m and 500m, hoping for a bigger blue marlin.
We seemed to get more strikes with lures than bait this year, even though we caught and rigged small tuna as well.

Ashley shows the small tuna we were using as baits, to no avail, and a dolphin fish that were quite pesky at times.
The first couple of days were full on with small black marlin. Daniel Jenks landing his first bill fish, and my small fish.
After being told by the guys at Bluewater Tackle in Exmouth, that the bigger marlin were out deeper, we went out to the “Steps”
It drops down from 100m to 500m over a couple of kms here and right on about 500m Daniel gets this big blue marlin.

Estimated at around 100kgs+ it made his day.

Swimming the blue just before release, and one of the lures we used, Hawaiian Breakfast.

A selection of the lures we used.
Last year we did not have outriggers. I now know why they are used; it makes a lot of difference to the lure spread and with lures gives
that vital drop back before the drag comes up tight, and with bait, holds the tension when the reel is in free spool.
Invaluable, and is an optional hire with the boat if required.
We landed 4 marlin and one sailfish; we caught tuna and dolphin fish. We also had around 15 marlin hook-ups that were
lost, some small and some very big. It’s hard to understand how they get off considering we use razor sharp hooks, outriggers
that drop back slack line giving the fish time to turn, 8kgs drag and 8 knots forward speed. Surly this is enough to ram the hook home?

One small striped tuna taken on a marlin lure had this fresh wound. I suspected it was from a cookie cutter shark.
This was confirmed with a little bit of research when I got back. Cookie cutter sharks are found world wide, with
two species recorded. They bite circular chunks from fish, whales, sea lions and just about anything that
moves, leaving tell tail bite marks like this. Thankfully they don’t grow much bigger!

Great day out for the Ludewig Family
Shane & Marelise Ludewig called in last week hoping to get out for a fish fix. Shane was not confident to negotiate the mouth
himself so I took the family out, consisting of the two kids, Karl and Dieter with Marelise’s father, Peet. First up was to get a mackerel at the Sand Patch,
and the mackerel duly obliged with 3 strikes which unfortunately were lost due to pulled hooks, unusual events and mistakes.
It was then that I casually asked if there were any bananas in their lunch!
It was at this stage that the banana was thrown over board!
With no more strikes due the banana contaminated area we moved to a lump that I know to produce good fish,
it wasn’t long until everyone on board had a small mulloway. I know it looks like the
same fish, but it is true they all got one with 9 year old Dieter extremely pleased with his, the biggest fish he has ever caught.

Dieter went on to land a good sized skippy, Wayne got a size dhuie and 5 sharks were brought to the boat. The sharks were all
the same size, which makes me think it was just one slow learner shark!
On the way home this 10kg mackerel sliced up a trolled garfish, making it a great
day for Shane.

Bite of the month
Bite of the Month has to be this 100kg blue marlin that
Daniel Jenks caught and released on our Exmouth marlin trip
early this month.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Saturday 29th May
After a cancellation the week before due to real bad weather, the 29th was quite calm.
Some good fish were caught as show below.
Daniel got 5 fish with these two mulloway the best of them, while Nic got mulloway and snapper on 3kg and 6kg line
and Paul did well with a 9.8kg mulloway and 5.7kg snapper.
Sue and I fished for line class snapper with Sue landing this pinky on 2kg line, and I picked up
this 13.1kg mac on a floating gardie on 4kg line.
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 if you would like to visit. 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 6.1m 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.