August 2010

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE AUGUST 2010 ELETTER

Things have started to quieten down now as we drift into the off season. Weather is the factor now as
the southerlies start to pick up making it uncomfortable offshore when the afternoon sea breeze pushes in.
The dhuie aggregations start to disperse as we head into the 2 month demersal closed season from
15th October to 15th December. It is the time when I get a lot of maintenance done.
This year I will be completely stripping the 6.1m boat and repainting, rewiring, etc and
bringing it up to new conditions. The trailer will also be done as well as the last 6.5m boat trailer.
So I will be busy, even if the boats are not.

A Successful Thevenard Trip
George Raffa sent me these pics from his very successful trip to the Mackerel Islands late August. Last year he took my 7.8m boat
& repeated the trip again this year. Staying on Thevenard Island and striking great weather, George and the crew
consisting of Ricardo Raffa, Paul DeBoni, and Fernando Gutierrez got into some great fish. This year George was set to
get a bill fish and hired my outriggers.

They did the job and landed this great little black marlin.

George told me that they released nearly all of the 30 odd species of fish they caught, only keeping 6 fish that
they ate while they were there.

The queenfish were prolific and good sized
They caught mackerel, tuna and cobia


Some big ranking cod


Coral trout and trevally


The new refuelling system on the island looks a lot easier than it was before.

New 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
or the Kalbarri site @
http://www.kalbarrivirtualtours.com/

Two great days out from Kalbarri

Matt Sims had a couple of the best weather days we have seen in Kalbarri for a while. Hiring the 6.5m boat for
2 days, he fished with mates mainly around the Sand Patch and some of my marks just north of it.
The glassed off conditions allowed him to get onto a few fish

such as this dhuie

and skippy.

A few snapper and finding a spot that produced loads of tarwhine.

Big dhuie
On the same weekend as Matt had the boat, and seeing the weather forecast I could not resist and went
out in the 7.8m. Inviting Ian who used to own a tackle shop in Midland where I bought my first rods and reels.
(We go back a long way) and Mal Mazalica, who was staying in my accommodation and Murray Johnson, who is from
Victoria and just called in to say, hello, as he had hired one of my boats a few years ago, and luckily got invited.
It was a very slow day, but stopping at a likely spot these two dhuies hooked up one after the other with
Murray’s the biggest. I released one the size of Ian’s and we released 4 other under size ones.

Another marlin to the score board
I keep a record of marlin and sailfish landed out of my 7.8m boat. I have just added George Raffa’s
marlin catch bringing the totals up to 8 marlin and 6 sailfish.

Bite of the month

Murray gets bite of the month with this great dhuie caught at the end of August
well north of Kalbarri. Murray was lucky to be invited when a mate of mine pulled out from
the trip & Murray just happened to drop in to say g’day. Caught in 16m of crystal clear water
this brute put on a hell of a fight.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Election Day, Saturday 21st August.

Not a lot caught during this comp. The weather was less than perfect restricting the distances that we could go.

However I managed a small dhuie but not enough to win my section, beaten
by 8 smaller fish of 4 species. There are extra points awarded for species.

Weigh master Brian Beales, releases the live bream caught from the river.
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, or assistant managers Jamie & Jessy
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

Past 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/

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

July 2010

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JULY 2010 ELETTER

The boats have been quite busy this winter, with most boats going up to Gnaraloo.
Coral Bay, Thevenard and Exmouth also featured a bit. A few trip reports below.
Weather has been a deciding factor her in Kalbarri and with the water temp down, the pelagics
have been a bit slow. The good news is that there seems to be a big increase of the number
of dhufish around, which is encouraging.

New 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
or the Kalbarri site @
http://www.kalbarrivirtualtours.com/

School Holiday Excitement
Phil Hayles passed through Kalbarri during the July school holidays after a trip up to Tom price, Denham and Karajini
and took advantage of some great weather. Hiring the 5.3m boat, he took his kids, Jacob and Daniel and brother
Lawrie out for a fish. Heading up past the Sand Patch they picked up a few fish, but it was to be young Jacob’s
day when trolling past the Sand Patch on the way back, got a big hit on his redhead Halco Laser Pro.

It looks like he is in full control in the photo, but it was by far the biggest and best fish he has ever caught and was extremely pleased
with himself.

The yellow-fin tuna looks about 8kg, well done Jacob, a good fish on medium spinning gear.
Good to see the kids getting into a few fish on these pages for a change

Brother Daniel landed a nice little snapper rounding off a great day for the family.

A Trip Report from Gnaraloo
Dave Allen is a Gnaraloo veteran, he has been there 7 times before so knows a thing or two about the place.
He was up there this month with my 6.5m boat. Here is his story.

Hi Laurie
We have just returned from our latest trip north to Gnaraloo Station. After picking the boat up from you at the
turn off we had a very easy drive up. The boat towed very well. On arriving at the station we were given the good news
that we had been upgraded to one of the new cabins. New bathroom, cooking facilities and new mattresses.
It was more like staying in a hotel, we felt like we were cheating by Gnaraloo standards. The cabin was excellent and
we have already booked the same one for 2011.

As usual we had enough fishing equipment for 20 people; little did we know that we would need it all.
We have been going to Gnaraloo for about seven years now and have had a good run with gear up until this year.

The first few days we were greeted with a solid southerly with very little swell. We love our trolling and as usual,
spent the first few hours trying for a few macs. We set the lures just past the marine park pole and trolled over a few lumps
in about 20m of water. Within a few mins we were on to a double hook up. Dave S grabbed one of the rods (he sat on it for the
whole week) and started to have a little play with what we were hoping would be a mac. This is where our bad luck with the gear began.
Both rod clamps broke which meant the reel was now spinning around the rod. Eventually Dave got things back together and
continued to fight the fish. Then the mac started jumping out of the water and jumping and jumping then smack, shark, he took the lot,
lure and all. One for the sharks, none for us. This was our first fish on the first day in the first ten minutes and the first time
that we have been sharked at Gnaraloo. Unfortunately, it was an indication of things to come.

After having three good hits and two macs taken by sharks we decided to head out to some of our spots.
We trolled high speed jets everywhere we went sticking to 10 to 15kn. To our surprise, the jets were amazing and we did very well on
northern blue-fin tuna. Definitely the best sashimi I have ever had.

Andrew with two of the typical long tail tuna caught. We did very well throughout the week.
The bottom bouncing was hard work the whole week.

We found lots of really good schools, some of them the best we have seen up there.
The fish were just not that hungry and we would only pull a fish or two from each spot. We did well on pink snapper to
6 kg, pearl perch and robinson sea bream (my fav), spangled emperor and baldies.
We only got 4 reds for the week a few rankin which was unusual.
Sab with a typical pearl perch

and Dave A with a typical snapper for the week caught on a snelled rig.
We were lucky and all snapper caught throughout the week were 5kg plus.
We were really happy with the amount of tuna in the water. The strippy tuna were going off as well which we used for bait.

Dave S with two nice strippy tuna. Again, hooked while trolling with the high speed jets. These little guys really go quite hard
for their size. We had a lot of fun with the different species of tuna the whole week. One of the stand out catches came on the
fifth day. Andrew had sent down an occy jig on his Penn outfit. He had left it dangling half way up in about 20 mts of water
when the rod bent over and the line went out in a hurry. Calls of shark, mac, cobia sang out. Andrew was in a really into
a good fight and eventually got the fish to the boat to reveal a very nice mack tuna.

Note the glassy day. A bit of rain but no wind, it was amazing. It did not last long and it was in fact the calm before the storm.

There were many firsts for us in our week. The first time we have been upgraded, first time we have been sharked while
trolling, first time we have caught a tuna on a jig and first time we have caught a spanish mackerel on a jet lure,
caught, not landed, as soon as we had the fish close to the boat, the wire snapped, which made it the first time
we have had the wire break on us ever. On closer inspection, the wire was old and the only one we did not change
for the trip. It broke right at the crimp where it had rusted from a previous year.
Let me say there was some less desired video footage of the incident.
We had a great week at Gnaraloo, the whales were everywhere and the bay was as beautiful as ever.

The boys had fun fly fishing late in the bay, trolling, using jigs and soft plastics.

I will finish with a story about Andrew’s first spanish mackerel. We were trolling about 20km south of the
bay in about 20mts of water late one afternoon. Both pink skirts were out and we were heading home after a good
day on the water. After seeing a couple of tuna schools go by we had a huge double hook up on the skirts. The poor
Penn was just about spooled and lucky to have the fish drop off. The other one was well hooked and giving the
TLD a run for its money. “No hurry Andrew, take your time” said Sab, “don’t muck around
Andrew, get the bloody thing in before something eats it” yelled the skipper (Dave A).
A few minutes later the big mac was quite close to the boat when the water started to bubble and splash,

Whack! The shark left us with a head this time. It weighed over 4kgs on the new digital scales. Bugger.
Sab with the head, a big mac eaten by a big shark.
We will continue to go to Gnaraloo year in year out. It is a magnificent place.
The beach was so good we did not even need to use the grids. A big thanks to Laurie and Sue, you do a great
job and the boat was excellent all week. We came home with some good fish in the esky and some great stories to tell our kids.
One things for sure, we all cannot wait to go back.
See you there next year.

Dave A and the boys.

Thanks Dave, great write-up and good pics

Another Trip Report from Gnaraloo

Peter Holtfreter reports on his 8 day trip to Gnaraloo with the 6.1m boat.

Ronnie Marangon with a small mackie taken while trolling in from out wide,

Daryl Clark with a good Rankin
Laurie, sorry to take so long to get you some notes and photos of our trip but we enjoyed great weather although the breeze did come up a
bit in the arvo's. Our catch was primarily made up of gold bands and rankin cod etc but conspicuous by their absence for the whole week
was only 2 Reds raised and no Baldies or Pinkies. The highlight would have to have been the day it glassed off and we headed for the
100m line and encountered one of those rare days when the Black Marlin just turned it on. We weren't even fishing for them, just enjoying
catching gold bands while drifting around and on 2 occasions our floating mulies on a gang of 3x 5/0 tarpons and a small wire on 15kg braid
were monstered in spectacular fashion by these majestic fish 15m from the back of the boat! As you can imagine the fight was short and sharp but
what a marvellous sight just watching them jump clear of the water so close to the boat! Then on the way back to the bay we decided to
throw out a couple of lures and yes you guessed it, we hooked up to another one only a couple of km's from the bay on a skirted high speed lure.
One boat who was targeting them with all the right gear told us back at the bay that they had notched up 13 releases for the day.
They were in heaven.

Peter Holtfreter with a cobia and Greg Baxter holds another nice rankin cod.
Regards Peter Holtfreter

Chinaman Tailor
Nathan and brother Dale Deery and a couple of mates had the 5.3m up at Gnaraloo as well and had a great time
landing numerous species but limited a bit with the smaller boat and less than favourable weather. As a
winter storm started to roll in they decided to leave early and fish out of Kalbarri for a few days.

First day out they surprised themselves landing 4 mackerel, a few tuna and some bottom fish, making
for a better catch rate than Gnaraloo! That evening I showed them where to catch some tailor and
right on queue,

as the sun set these little tailor hammered their garfish baits.
They were the biggest tailor that they had ever caught: I’d like to see their smiles if they actually had caught
the normal common size a bit bigger than these!

Big shark

This pic just does not do justice to the actual size of this beast! During the last Kalbarri Offshore
& Angling Club comp day, this bronze whaler circled the boat for an hour or so. It occasionally
had a go at biting the boat, probably thinking it was a dead whale. We caught fish pulling them up past
it’s nose without it taking them, which was a surprise! Later it disappeared and when my wife, Sue, hooked a good
fish it was taken by this shark, rising to the surface and biting her off. It then cruised past the boat, turned on its side,
giving her a severe eyeballing, as if to say, “Don’t do that again!” before leaving!

Bite of the month

This month the biggest bite goes to Andrew who was on the trip to Gnaraloo with
Dave Allen. It was a big hook up and the first mac Andrew has ever hooked. A big one at that,
but unfortunately it was sharked before he could get it to the boat.
The remainder shown here held by crew member, Sabby, weighed in at 4kgs.

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

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Saturday 24th July.
Some good fish again this month, mainly due the to the good weather, enabling the boats to get away from town to the better spots.

Daniel fished the beach landing mulloway and snapper,

while Lui got a big dhuie
& coral trout,

and Paul had a nice snapper from their boats.

Young Luke caught a dhuie

and a snapper just down the cliffs,

while junior angler Tahlia got quite
a big red-throat emperor from my boat.

Wife Sue picked up a 2.5kg red-throat emperor, the biggest for the year so far

& then went on to land a 3.5kg yellow-fin on 3kg line to win the game section.
I got a dhuie and snapper but no one offered to take a photo!

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, or assistant managers Jamie & Jessy
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

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