murchisonboathirefishing2010

December 2010

2010-12-29T05:49:00.000-08:00

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE DECEMBER 2010 ELETTER
Another quiet month due to the demersal closure but it is open now.
Big news in Kalbarri is that the Murchison River is in flood, and as from yesterday, Monday 27th, the river mouth and boat ramps
are officially closed. The conditions will be assessed periodically and will open when it is safe again.
When this will happen I do not know, but all my boat hires are going out from Port Gregory now.
I was in Port Gregory yesterday and we used a tractor owned by one of the locals to launch and retrieve the boats.
Stephen very generously does this for me but it costs me or the hirer a carton when pre arranged!
Cray Season
The cray season opened on the 15th November, but there is not much point putting
the pots in until the “whites” appear usually after the full moon in December. However the full moon this year was
on the 22nd November so it all started early this time. Rumours abound that the white had started late
November so we put our pots in on the 29th. I fish with Bruno DeLucia and son Jared comes out with us to help pull the pots.
First day out we got 0 crays. We use wooden pots as they just catch a lot better than the plastic ones, but they do need to
soak or bubble out before they catch, hence the 0 score the first day. After that was a bit better with 5 the next day and improved to10.
Then we got 6,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12,12, 12,12, 12,12,12, and 12 again on the 20th when
we ran out of bait and felt that we had caught enough!

A pot coming up with crays in it.

Most days we only had to pull one pot to get our 12, rotating to the next pot the following day.
It has been the best season that I can remember. We share the fuel costs and crays.
Fisheries regulations state that you may have a max of 2 licences aboard a boat and catch a max of 6 crays per license.
I give quite a few away to friends and the wife also hands out more than I would prefer, but we eat well!

Most of the crays were well over size and 2 buckets of 6 crays.
The crays go a bit quiet after Christmas, but seem to come good March onwards.

Family trip
Wednesday 22nd was a great weather day; too good to miss the opportunity, so I went out with wife Sue and son Jared
to some of my distant spots to pick up some good eating fish. The plan was to get 2 good fish each before returning home.
Paul Seamer and Christian DeRan had the 6.5m boat and followed us up north to my spots. His story is below.
We had a troll at the Sand Patch picking up a small tuna, a second troll at another spot further north, with no luck and then
hit my spots by 6.30am. It was a very hot windless day as you can see from the pics, and we bagged out by 10.30 with
snapper, red-throat emperor and pink snapper. Released 4 dhuies,

one probably the smallest I have ever seen caught.

Son, Jared holds some of the fish we landed, and the tiny dhuie
Being such a hot calm day, Jared decided to go for a swim, and took the underwater camera with him. Here are some of the
shots he took of fish coming up and of the boat from water level.

On the way back we were met by the Murchison River emptying out a swollen muddy discharge from
all the inland rain that flooded Carnarvon all the way down to the Overlander Roadhouse. There is
still more to come from Meekatharra way, so it will flow for a few more weeks yet.
Just great for the holiday period!!!!
However it really turns on the mulloway and mackerel so there is good fishing to be had.

First Fishing Trip

Hi Laurie
Attached photo of Jak Taylor catching his first fish. His first fishing trip with the boys (his dad and uncles)

Thanks to Murchison Boat Hire for making our expedition to Coral Bay a memorable experience. We’ll be back again next year.
Justin had the 5.3m boat for a week this month, a perfect size for Coral Bay.

Regards
Justin
Last minute trip
Patrick Honeyborne and Richard Yates met while travelling around WA. Patrick is from Melbourne and rang late one
morning wanting to go fishing. I suggested we go straight away before the wind came in. So I quickly prepared the 7.8m and
welcomed Patrick, Richard and their two boys, Nathan and Drew aboard. We set the lures out and trolled down to Red Bluff with a couple of very
excited young kids. Richard and Nathan are from England and a mackerel to them is about a foot long at the best, so it was a big

surprise when the first lure went off and the reel screamed. Nathan was surprisingly quick to grab the rod and the 45 minute fight was on!
A tangle round a cray pot float was sorted out, and a pump and wind technique developed,

and this 16kg mackerel
eventually burst to the surface. A very good fish for Kalbarri waters.
Well done Nathan! You made “Bite of the Month” on my website. See the link below.
Nathan put on his Christmas hat for the occasion!

You can see the muddy water in the Murchison, a few days later the river rose higher and the river was closed.

Later a double hook up of small tuna resulted in Drew landing his biggest fish to date, while the second tuna was sharked.

Quick trip fast fish
Paul seamer and Christian DeRan have hired my boats before and were planning a flash trip to Exmouth, but the flooding
put an end to that so they changed their plans to Kalbarri.
Here is Paul’s story
I had planned a quick ''hit & run'' three day Exmouth fishing trip before Christmas; however the Carnarvon floods put paid to that.
My fishing mate, Christian, suggested we hit Kalbarri and try our luck even though there was a full moon in action.

We left at 2pm on the Tuesday, overnighted at Laurie’s holiday accommodation, picking up the boat hire discount, hired a 6.5m for two days,
and hit the ground running at 4.30am Wednesday morning. We followed Laurie and headed north for 40kms near some of
Laurie’s favoured waypoints, and the trip was perfect with flat seas.

First we landed a 6kg Dhufish and returned a couple of undersized
pinkies, then we trolled up three tuna around the 4-5kg mark,

and then managed a surprise Mahi Mahi!
With the wind starting to pick up slightly, we called it a day at 3pm and headed home.

The next day, Thursday, produced slightly stronger winds, however we were still determined to head north once again at 5am. By 7am we had landed another

6kg Dhufish and an average sized Pinkie. With the wind picking up we decided to go to trolling and immediately picked up two
double strikes,

with three tuna around 4-5kgs and Christian boating the biggest tuna for the trip at 15kgs.
With the swell and wind rising quickly, we headed back at midday taking 2 1/2 hours to return.
We left Kalbarri with the Engel full of fillets at 4pm that afternoon and were back in Perth with the car unloaded before midnight.
Paul Seamer & Christian DeRan.

6.1m boat renovated
The 6.1m boat is finished now.

It has been completely stripped, cracks welded and corrosion cut out,
resprayed, rewired, new windscreen glass, new seats and new signs.
The trailer has been renovated, new tyres, mudguards, hubs.
All ready for the season!

Before
After
Biggest fish ever
Paul Sheedy hails from Cork, Ireland, and is touring WA with girlfriend Sabrina from London. The were going through to Monkey Mia but with
the flooded road had to stop in Kalbarri. They are glad they did as they had a great day out in the 7.8m.

Trolling along the cliffs, they first picked up 2 shark mackerel, then this mackerel, followed by a small tuna for Paul and then a double hook up of
more small yellow-fin tuna. Before this Paul’s best fish was a respectable blue trevally caught on a popper in the Maldives.
Sabrina & Paul hold up the biggest fish they have ever caught.

Land Backed Wharf
Construction continues on the land backed wharf that is being built between the old wooden service jetty
& the cray boat pens. It is being built to stop the congestion of the cray boats unloading crays
& refuelling at the old wooden service jetty.

Almost completed

Disaster!!!!
The big low that caused all the rain in Carnarvon settled over Kalbarri and caused
an extraordinary high tide that breached the earth bund around the works, completely flooding the area in minutes.
How they are going to fix it I do not know, but then the river started to flood and it is eroding the earth walls
away as I type this. The water level is up to the top of the wooden jetty!
If the river rises any higher, the whole lot will go, 2 million dollars of work!

While the dredge was in town, the Shire commissioned them to dredge around the boat ramp.
It is nice and deep now, but the gradient could be a lot better.

Upcoming Events
The next major comp for Kalbarri is the Kalbarri Ultralight comp. A gamefishing comp for lines up to 6kg.
Will be held over the Australia day long weekend Sat 22nd and Sunday 23rd January.
There will also be an Australia Day fireworks on the foreshore in the evening. Just walk down from your
accommodation, have a beer and watch the 30 minute display. No traffic jams or fighting the crowds.

The big Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic is on over the Labour Day long week end 4th 5th and 6th March.
It is a bottom, river and gamefishing competition. Entry forms are now available, just ask me and I will send one to you.
Bite of the month
11 year old Nathan Yates had the bite of his life when his dad Richard & friends went for a quick fish
in the 7.8m boat. Trolling a Elton john Laser Pro 190 DD, he was at the rod before anyone and fought this
16kg mackerel for about 45 minutes. It got tangled in a cray pot rope and was sided
hooked making it even more difficult to land. He wore his Christmas hat for the picture!
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

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

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

November 2010

2010-11-29T05:20:00.001-08:00

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE NOVEMBER 2010 ELETTER

Very quiet month again due to the demersal fish ban on at the moment but that is due to be lifted from the 15th December.
I have been kept busy doing a lot of maintenance, getting things ready for the season. Fishing wise there
has been an early warm current pushed in and it has brought lots of yellow-fin tuna with it. They are a good size
this year, around the 8 to 12kgs and most boats are picking them up. The mackerel should not be far behind, but there
have been reports of Spanish mackerel already being caught and we got 4 spotted mackerel last Saturday!
I am looking forward to a really good year!

Pelagic Action
Davo Ryan rang me last week looking for a trip out for some action. His son Pete is part of the
Adventure Bound film group who were over here a few years ago shooting footage for a Melbourne TV station.
He was with his mate Ian Biggs and Ian’s son Nick. They are all from Melbourne but Nick is presently working in
Geraldton and was showing them around.

Ian Biggs with his 8kg yellow-fin tuna and Nick Biggs with his 10kg fish.
Trolling at the Sandpatch we spotted a few bait schools and began a troll past them. It was not long till we had a quadruple hook-up
on the 15kg outfits with Halco Laser Pro 190’s!
While holding my rod I gaffed Ian’s fish first and passed him my rod that still had a lot of line out.
Nick was next and his 10kg tuna came aboard. By this time, both Ian and Davo were shouting that they were running out of line!
Davo’s fish was east and Ian’s fish west, not much I could do but Ian had less line so I edged the boat towards his fish.
Unfortunately Davo’s hooks pulled and he got his lure back, so we chased Ian’s fish and got all the line back.
Not long after the fish came up and we could see it was a big shark! Ian fought it to the boat but we could not
get the lure back, so it was cut off and the shark released. I assume that Davo also had a shark by the way it was fighting.
2 yellowtail kings took lures later in the day to round up a very enjoyable day out.

One of the bait schools that we trolled

Abalone Season
The abalone season started at the beginning of the month, but has been difficult as we have not had many really flat days.

It looks worse that it really was,

but we got a few as you can see.

6.1m Refit, Respray, Rewire.

4 weeks of sanding, sand blasting, grinding, welding and restoring and the boat is ready for the first coat of primer.

It is good to do these things now and again as I found corrosion in vital places and cracks
where there should not be any. All fixed up now and I am confident that it will be as good as new
when finished.

The primer is now on and the white 2-pack will soon follow.
I will then rewire and refit it out like new, new sign work and renovate the trailer. You won’t recognise it after!

I had to get a temporary shed to do the white 2-pack. Spraying outside was just too difficult.
The easterly in the morning would sprinkle it with dust, leaves and insects and when the wind died
down the hull heated up so much that the paint would boil! So for a carton or two I managed to get his shed
for a couple of weeks to finish off the white 2-pack.

First they dump sand in the river to push the water back

Then dig it out to form a dam to keep the water out.

Then pump the water out from inside and keep it dry by pumping out
any water seeping in through the earth dam with these poly pipes.

The wharf wall will be going in the trench down the middle.

Kalbarri Quad Bike Safaris
Kalbarri Quad bike Safaris recently sold and a mate, Martin Roger & Ellen Nightingale bought it.
I was invited for a try out! I was a lot of fun.

Kalbarri Quad Bike Safaris is the only bush based tour in WA. All
the other ones follow the beaches. This one goes up river along the multitude of tracks and takes you
to the best spots along the river

and up Little Red Hill.

The bikes are Can-Am 400hp 4-strokes and are used in 4WD.

Tours are 1 hour, 2 hour and 3 hour

with a tea and bickie
break at Nanny Goat Well.

You do not need any experience but you have to be over 18 with a drivers licence to drive but the bikes are
twin seaters so kids and passengers can go on the back.

You can book direct on 9937 1011 or visit them on the net http://www.kalbarriquadsafaris.com.au/
Email: quadbookings@westnet.com.au
A recommended tour, this is a good one!

Bite of the month

Nick Biggs got more than he expected this month landing a very respectable
yellow-fin tuna out from the Sandpatch late this month. Trolling with his Father,
Ian & Ian’s mate Davo Ryan they got a quadruple hook-up that caused a bit of chaos
on board but they landed two tuna, released big shark and lost the forth. Nick’s
yellow-fin went 10kg on the lie detector.

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

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
20th November 2010

With the demersal ban on at the moment nearly everyone in the comp targeted mulloway.

They were caught in boats, beach and up river. The demersal ban ends on the 15th December.

The river produced these little mulloway.
I was out game fishing with wife, Sue, and we got blown away on 6kg & 3kg line to what we did not
know until I saw the tuna landed by Nick, Ian and Davo above, so it must have been big tuna or sharks!
But I managed to land a very pumped up 4kg stripy tuna on 3kg line out on the 3 Mile.

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
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 @
wwwmurchisonboathirefishing2009.blogspot.com

And from January 2010 onwards with photos @
wwwmurchisonboathirefishing2010.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!

October 2010

2010-10-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE OCTOBER 2010 ELETTER
Things have quieten down a fair bit with the 2 month demersal fish closure on at the moment, but it gives me
time to do much needed maintenance on the boats and trailers. The closure reopens on the 15th November,
the same day as the cray season starts. The abalone season opened this month but the swells have
kept most of us off the reef, but the younger guys with snorkels are getting a few.

The whales have been great this year

The whales have been very cooperative and friendly this year, ooh and aaaring
a lot of hirers!

Exmouth Trip
Ian (Bruno) Brunette and Rob Jacobs hired my 5.3m boat for a trip up to Exmouth.
The trip was particularly special for them as it represented 3 generations of the family fishing together for the first time.
They stayed at the Lighthouse Caravan Park and launched each day out of Tanatabiddi.
Winds were particularly strong for them especially the first few days (30 plus knots)
but always dropping off in the afternoons. Staying mostly inside the reef and targeting bottom species they managed to catch
a number of different species of fish including baldchin grouper, sweetlip and spangled emperor, fingermark,
trevally and the ever present charlie courts.

Josh above landed some nice fish such as this tusk fish and released some for next time.

On the last few days they were able to get out wide and target billfish and Grandpa (Graham Sansom) boated his first ever marlin.
Good friends of Bruno’s (the Ringrose family) were also up there on holiday and their eldest sons (Jarrod & Jordan)
Went out for the day and boated their first marlins whilst Ken (dad) landed his biggest marlin to date after a great battle!
All marlin were caught on Richter lures.

One of the tuna that they hooked was speared by a billfish – now that’s unusual!!

Travelling around Australia
Rick Burke and partner, Kelly, from Queensland were travelling down from up north on a long trip around Australia
and stopped in for a fish. Rick is originally from Geraldton and wanted to show the kids around and get them into some fish.
Heading south along the cliffs the fish came from close in towards the end of the cliffs.

They all got into undersize pinkies, some size blue-lined emperor

A gold-spot morwong and a couple of just size pinkies to take home. It was a good day out seeing dolphins and some late tuna
but unfortunately the two kids not shown here were too sick to stay upright for long.
Luckily the bananas packed for lunch were spotted before heading out too far and disposed of before they put
a big damper on the day, as they did last week for a group!

Gift vouchers
Stuck for a Christmas gift this year?
We can give out gift vouchers to be redeemed for a boat of choice when ever they want.
Just call me on 9937 2043 and get one sent to you.
What a good idea!

Boat Ramp Mats Laid
At last, the shire has laid the long promised concrete mats at the northern boat ramp.
The big excavator is in town constructing the land backed wharf between the jetty and pens.

Lifting the mats into place.

The finished ramp. Now we will be able to pull the boats out without worrying about spinning tyres
& digging up the ramp.
Land Backed Wharf
Construction has started on the land backed wharf that is being built between the old wooden service jetty & the cray boat pens. I haven’t seen any plans so what it is going to look like I have no idea. It will however
stop the congestion of the cray boats unloading crays and refuelling at the old wooden service jetty.

Bucks Weekend Away
Leon Sykes was up with 10 mates to celebrate mate, Ryan’s, bucks night. Unable to get in before the 15th October
demersal fish closure, (reopens 15th Dec.) decided to just catch and release and have a good time. They booked both 6.5m boats and
unfortunately pick a very windy week end. They caught fish though and had a great time.
Leon tells the story via email.

Hi Laurie,Thanks again for the use of the boats ! They are fantastic and I’m sure we'll be back soon. Just might wait till we can actually keep the fish tho!Well the first day we didn’t have much luck and the sou westerly kicked in early and hard, but the Saturday was a little different in that the
day started off south easterly, and after a few small bites to the north, we started heading back towards the river mouth to save a rough trip back
coz the wind was starting to swing south west. After trolling for a bit outside the mouth we saw a small 4 foot hammer head cruising the surface,
& after a couple of attempts we lost him in the wind swell. So we anchored & spent about 20 mins on the bottom before Ryan caught the first pinky,
& then my brother, Daniel landed an 81cm snapper & then one every 20 minutes or so!It was great to get some nice fish in the boat, and so hard to throw them back! Thanks again mate and I’m sure we'll be getting in touch soon!Leon

Daniel Sykes holds his 81cm pinky that had to be released.

Ryan Mouritz with his 60cm fish
Jess got the small one
Daniel Sykes sent an email as well and this is his story
Good morning Laurie,
I just wanted to write you a quick email and send you some pics of our recent weekend in Kalbarri.
The weather was less than perfect fishing conditions with a 3 meter swell and wind gusts pushing the 30 knot mark
made for some fun in open water. This said the two boats we had handled the conditions very well considering as we were trolling for pelagics.
This returned no results and the decision was made to come in closer and anchor for a little bit of bottom fishing.
We were in about 8 meters of water and although it was a little bumpy it was not too bad and after about 10 minutes Ryan’s
reel came alive as the bait was taken. After a short fight the fish was brought on board and we were all
excited to see it was a nice size pink snapper weighing in at just on 6 kilos.
The boat came alive with everyone now keen to get a little piece of the action. Jess was next with a small pink snapper
& more yells of excitement. Other species were caught and released then it started to quieten of a little,
even the ocean seemed to back off and calm down, we were all saying that we thought they may have gone off the bite but
then my rod came alive and was heavily bent over with a fish that was very keen to stay on the bottom.
When we got it into the boat we all just sat there and looked at it then at each other, it was one of if not the
biggest pink snapper I had caught let alone seen.
The fish weighed in over 12 kilos and measured 81cm.
With there being a full ban on demersals, photos of all fish were taken and then they were returned to their blue home for another day.
All in all it was a great weekend away and I would recommend it to anyone.
Thanks again Laurie and we look forward to see you again soon.
Daniel Sykes

The dredge is working full time in the river, which I think, is attracting snapper and mulloway to the river mouth.

6.1m Refit, Respray, Rewire.

After 11 years poor old Bulawayo Buoy was a bit worse for wear, so it is time to give
her a full refit. I have pulled everything out, removed the motor, and am presently
sanding the whole boat back ready for a full respray. I will then rewire and refit with
it out like new, and renovate the trailer. You won’t recognise it after!

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/

Bite of the month

Daniel Sykes got the bite of the month landing this 81cm snapper from my 6.5m boat just out of the river mouth
this month. Caught during the 2 month demersal closure, he had to let it go. It will be waiting for you
next time you come up Daniel!
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Saturday 23rd October.

A few fish caught during the comp were Gary’s 2 mulloway from the river and a beach caught one for Colin.
Only one boat went out and caught whiting, the demersal fish closure affects everyone.
The 2 month closure reopens on the 15th December

September 2010

2010-10-04T05:51:00.000-07:00

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE SEPTEMBER 2010 ELETTER

Early morning light on the moored boats at Thevenard Island
An eventful month for me, starting with my trip up to Onslow for the Mackerel Islands Game Fishing Tournament
& the boats being surprisingly busy. It is now school holidays and the weather continues to
be reasonable, but the fish are not cooperating as well as they should be!

LeisureCat Mackerel Islands Tournament
850 odd km from the Kalbarri/Ajana turn off lies Onslow, our destination for the Mackerel Islands game Fishing Comp.
It took us 11 hours to get there towing the 7.8m boat with my Landcruiser Ute.
Overnight in the well appointed Onslow Mackerel Motel left us plenty of time to explore the town before launching and making
the crossing to the Island. A Salt exporting town with a long conveyor belt jetty loads the salt onto the ships.
Colin and Rosa, managers of the motel, looked after us and Colin drove us back to the launch ramp after we locked the vehicles
& trailer in their lock-up and we set off around lunch with the easterly waning. On arrival we were met on the beach
by the friendly staff who unloaded our gear into a 4WD and drove us to our accommodation.

We stayed in the cabin on the left and the filleting tables on the beach.
I was there 17 odd years ago, and things have changed! Fully self contained cabins overlooking the ocean
are clean and tidy. Our cabin had 5 rooms and we shared with the Fishing WA guys who were up there doing some filming.
You can take all your own food and cook in the cabin, but we opted for the $75.00/day eat in the restaurant. This is good value, with
fully cooked to order breakfast, very good packed lunch for the boat and waitress served dinner.

The usual weather pattern set in with windy mornings and calm afternoons and we chose to have our lay-day the first day
so that we could see what everyone else was catching, and where they were going and have a bottom fish as well!
I got a nice coral trout and John a rankin from a spot 12m deep not far from the island that was already marked
on my GPS from another hirer. Thanks who ever that was? We moved out deeper looking for a red emperor but
only managed more rankin cod. John’s double header put a lot of pressure on his outfit.
It took us awhile to find the spots but when we did we got into the mackerel with John winning the Biggest Mackerel Trophy. Sue did well
landing a series of 4.5kg mac tuna and striped tuna on 2kg line, giving her big points, but not enough to beat the other lady angler who won
Champion Angler Female.

Paul got a couple of tuna on 2kg line and added to the score with this mackerel on 6kg line. We resorted to the heavier line
due to the sharks, getting them in quicker. We found that if you reved the motors, this tended to keep the sharks at bay, but not always!
My yellow fin was a surprise and I got my first wahoo of 7kgs. I also won the runner up highest point scoring mackerel.

Paul’s mackerel coming up to the side of the boat and some of the gear we used.
Refuelling at Nanutarra, a have to stop place and the most expensive fuel at $1.75.9 litre. You even have to wait for the
attendant to fill your tank, just in case you spill some of the precious liquid!

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/

First time fishing
Dan and daughter Jessica Brandenburg, asked for a day out with the request to see some whales, dolphins & maybe have a fish.
They have never fished before but caught on very quickly. Well the whales were very absent? No dolphins turned up so we went for a fish.

Dan was onto a snapper first, but Jessica had all the bites, landing a small cod, an undersize dhuie

a size snapper and then went on to catch a 4th species, a blue-lined emperor!
Well done Dan and Jessica!

No, we don’t get seasick!
Shane DeMello organised a trip with 3 mates, but as he gets seasick stays on shore to fish the beach. The rest of the crew
headed out in the 6.5m saying “We don’t get seasick”. Ron Nevis was keen to try out his new Stella 4000 with soft plastics.
It was not long before all three aboard were gurgling, spluttering and spitting overboard, but they battled on despite feeling so bad
& came up with a few good fish. Ron got his dhuie on soft plastics, and Joel Lee got the biggest fish he has ever caught, a
fair sized samson fish.
As the wind picked up we moved in close to shore and set a burly trail. The water was very clear and we could see
fish under the boat in the trail. They would not take anything presented to them so we changed
to a light flick rod and a very small unweighted hook baited with a bit of burly and drifted down with the next handful.
It was not long till hook-up on one of these very tough fighting silver drummer.
Taking about 15 minutes to get to the boat, we landed 2 out of 4 hook-ups on the tiny flick rods.

Another good day out
David Zhang took the 6.5m boat out for a spin while I was up in Onslow, (I have a mate who looks after the boats)
David is not featured this time, unfortunately not landing a fish, but his crew did well!

Susan got a small red emperor, not knowing what it was returned it. It was just under 40cm so under size, so good that it went back.
Sam loaded up his rod with a nice baldchin
and lots of undersize snapper were landed and released and a breaksea cod

Soft plastics
While I was up in Onslow the Fishing WA guys were using, almost exclusively, soft plastics from the McCarthy stable.
They were raving about them and I must say that after seeing them and feeling them I felt they meet all the
specifications that I had been looking for. Big and chunky, soft and floppy but robust and in colours that fished well.
Just by coincidence, this month, hirer Rob Jacobs returned from Exmouth with my 5.3m and told me that he was the importer of these
Soft plastics.

He handed me a bunch to try, and I will be reporting on their success.
You can also get the big weighted heads that fit the biggest soft plastic in the pic which is 10 inches
& the smallest is 5 inches. The big soft plastics shown are dynamite for dhuies.

The website is http://www.mcarthybaits.com.au/ but you can only buy from retail outlets.

Paul Garner had a short stay in Kalbarri allowing himself & mates one day out in the 7.8m picking up a couple of dhuies,
releasing 3 more and picking up breaksea cod, sweetlip and snapper.

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/

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

August 2010

2010-08-30T03:47:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-01T03:14:00.000-07:00

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.

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

June 2010

2010-06-28T18:01:00.000-07:00

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JUNE 2010 ELETTER

Another month flying past but plenty of action to go with it. Most anglers reporting successful trips out
from Kalbarri, catching mainly yellow-fin tuna, occasional mackerel and bottom fish. The Gnaraloo guys
all had good trips but in most cases the weather was less than perfect which resulted in lower catches for them.
2 days 9 guys & a girl
Jeremy Tan booked the 6.5m boat for a trip out with a big group. Too many to accommodate in my two units, they booked
into the horse ranch that has dormitory style accommodation. Luckily striking two great weather days, the lures were
out first thing in the morning.

It was not long before a few small yellow-fin were landed and released,

and a 9kg northern long-tail
tuna for Wai Lun.

Nathan Sztermula got this chunky 11kg northern long-tail

and Esther landed her first snapper.
Esther later took a big hook-up that required us to follow in the boat. I called it for a big shark but they
elected to fight it to the end, which took 2 hours! All taking turns we eventually got it up on one of my hire
rods and reels with15kg line. A bit of a sluggish shark which did not look like a whaler, and I thought it might
be a tiger shark, but it had no stripes. Not having a very good look at it before it bust off, I am still not sure what it was!
But at around 2.5 meters long, it was quite big!

Nice weather? Go fishing
And so it was, the weather looked good for Thursday 10th June, so I invited Ashley Van Viersen,
Charlie Messina and his friend Janet Schwarz for a fish. We went a long way to some of my top spots and
uncharacteristically put the anchor down in 50m of water. I normally drift these spots but that morning
the easterly was blowing us all over the place, so decided to sit it out till the wind dropped.
There were a fair few fish around and a steady stream of just size snapper, baldchin, big red-throats & sambos,
etc were released while we waited for the “big ones”.

When it did come it was on Ashley’s line. A thumping 13.2kg dhuie!
They don’t get much bigger than this around here.
I expectantly awaited the second dhuie but it did not turn up.
We went on to drift another spot completing our bag of 2 demersal fish each for a very rewarding day out.

Mackerel Islands Gamefishing Tournament
With only a little persuasion, I took up an offer to sponsor a trophy for the Mackerel Islands Tournament in September.
It is the end of the season for me so I might as well fish it.
I have a team now, John Hoye, Paul Youngman and wife Sue.
All we need now is good weather.
I am giving away a Shimano TLD15 matched with a Turbo Jerk PE 1.5-3 (One of Alan Koh’s imports see below)
Valued at around $425.00
Highest Point Scoring Game Fish wins it!

New rod imports
I have recently received the Turbo Jerk PE 1.5-3, the one I am giving away as a sponsor of the Mackerel Islands Tournament.

I am impressed; the quality is way up there, very light and very nicely finished with quality guides.

It is a two piece, but jointed at the butt, you would never know it was a two piece.
Very handy for travelling and it also comes with a handy rod bag.
The Turbo Jerk PE 1.5-3 retails at a very reasonable $199.00
There is a huge range of rods in the Hearty Rise and Eupro series.
Email me for a 2010 catalogue if you are interested.

A long weekend in May
Michael Mac Shane got a group of 9 together and booked both of my accommodation units and 2 boats.
Michael took advantage of the package and saving on the deal. They got into a few good fish, making
it a great fishing long weekend with the boys.
Michael sent me the pic and his story.Kalbarri May 2010This year we had a bigger crew (9), hired two boats plus the accommodation. As before, the guys were amazed at how cheap the whole weekend is, 2 days boat hire plus 3 nights accommodation. Those 2 days on the boat are big days and when the fish are on it is enough fishing to keep most people happy! The mackerel were missing this year, the current was weaker and water temps were up to 21.1C. We fished Wagoe the first morning, heaps of tuna, small yellow-fin busting up and we got numerous hook-ups on smaller blue lures. We bagged 3 mackerel, all taken on skipping garfish that had sunk too deep when the boat had stopped to play a fish or untangle a lure, none on lures.

Kevin with a mac on the lie detector – 15kgs.

Dylan holds his Poppa’s 12kg mac.

The 15kg mac coming aboard, the squid skirt covers the garfish to limit the gar from
breaking up when trolled. For stubborn mackerel that won’t come up for baits or lures
try stopping and letting the garfish sink down at selected spots, or use weighted baits to get down
deeper to where the macs are hanging around. This seems to happen during neep tides.

The other boat fared much the same though they had one mackerel strike on a gar while it was skipping. There were the usual moments of chaos when double and triple tuna hook-ups, enough to keep the boys happy. The mackerel were a bit bigger, up to 13.5kg, a 15kg bagged on the second day. A bit of bottom bouncing by one of the boats at the base of the cliffs turned up skippy and some nice eating bottom fish. The second day we headed north to find some warmer water. Sand Patch was a bit cool so we kept on going, tried some bottom bouncing, one boat did OK on breaksea, snapper and other assorted, the other boat found a patch on the shore that had decent mackerel and tuna, successfully landing one mackerel.In all, the trip was a success, everyone enjoyed themselves and though the fish numbers were down, most people got to play a few good fish and experience the excitement.I forgot to mention that we thought there were a reasonable number of mackerel around, but they weren't taking lures or surface baits, changing the fishing method may have had different results!! We did try berleying and drifting out baits but no luck....next year!!Thanks for your help Laurie, expect another booking for next year.RegardsMichael Mac Shane

Another nice day out
Jason Agrela fishes quite regularly with me and last Sunday panned out to be quite nice.
My 7.8m boat had just got back from an extended hire at Coral Bay so it was nice to get it back and get out for a fish.
(Good excuse to check the boat over and make sure everything is working)
Jason’s wife Rochelle doesn’t get out much but took the opportunity this time to shed the kids and come out with us.

A double hook-up at the Sand Patch and she was on. Getting lessens on pump and wind techniques from Jason,
the fish came in easily on the 10kg gear she was using.

I was on the second fish about the same size using my Stella 8000 and Eupro Exploder II PE 2-4 Jig rod
given to me to test out by Alan Koh.
Nice rod, handled the fish and conditions with ease, very light and casts well for a short rod.

Bite of the month

Ashley Van Viersen gets it this month with his 13.2kg dhuie caught when
fishing with me this month. Catching fish like this seriously jeopardises his chances of a repeat
trip and his place on next years marlin trip is also in doubt!!!

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

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Saturday 19th June

Some very nice fish again this month. Thomasina Bowman and partner

Paul parks were out deep
landing 2 mulloway each.

Thomasina’s was the biggest at 14.5kgs.
Even the juniors were getting into the fish.

James Dooley landed his first dhuie.

May 2010

2010-05-30T01:05:00.000-07:00

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.

April 2010

2010-04-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
Busy as usual for April, especially with the school holidays and Easter thrown in. It would have been
a lot busier if the weather had been better, but you can’t have good weather all the time, that would
be boring. The mackerel and tuna have been noticeably absent since mid March, with just a few patchy days of good action.
There just hasn’t been a good Leeuwin current pushing in this year, and the water has been cold and dirty most of the time due to
regular rising swell patterns. It will have to change sooner of later. Good thing the bottom fishing
is better than normal with lots of good snapper around, mixed in with dhuies, baldchin groper and red emperor.
The regular Easter group
Every Easter Daniel Kwek comes up and hires at least one boat. He has been coming up for the last 8 or 9 years and
The group changes from year to year with a few regulars each year, but this time Daniel brought his own boat but hired the 6.5m as well.

The group changes from year to year with a few regulars each year, but this time Daniel brought his own boat but hired the 6.5m as well.
This Easter we had probably the worst weather we have experienced to date. 20 knot southerlies each day limiting where we could go.

A tailor caught in 18m of water bottom fishing just north of the Sand Patch, and the group photo at the end of the trip.
On the last day the weather improved enough to get to some of my better spots and the proof shows.

Double header of dhuies for Leo

and a red emperor for Daniel, the best fish for the trip, came from Daniels boat

and another good fish
for Leo who seemed the have all the luck on the day.

Great day out for Chris and Nicky!
Picking a pearler of a day during the school holidays, Chris Crawford and Nicky Jackson took a punt that the
mackerel would be on the chomp at Wagoe. The day was so good no one could fail to get one.

Chris got one skipping a garfish, but was the only strike for the day. Later while searching for
a bottom spot a small tuna took Nicky’s lure and later she picked up a chunky blue-lined emperor.

New rod imports
I have been sent a couple of rods to trial out by Alan Koh. Alan is importing them and will be retailing them when
he has sufficient stock. He sent me a Eupro Exploder II PE 2-4 Jig rod, and a Eupro Baitcaster PE 0.8-2 rod.
Nice rods must say. They have Fuji Alconite guides and Fuji gimbles, Alconite being the best material you can get for guides
other than prohibitively expensive silicone. The Eupro Exploder was paired with my Stella 8000 making it a superb balanced outfit,
while I put my newly acquired Jigging Master P4 on the Eupro Baitcaster. Both rods have great action are very light with plenty
of grunt and lifting power when needed. There are not many rods you can buy off the shelf with Alconite guides.
Most Alconite equipped rods are custom made and quite expensive so these are well priced.

The Eupro Baitcaster PE 0.8-2.0 rod above retails for $159.00 (without the reel).

The Eupro Exploder II PE2-4 Jig rod retails for $329.00
If you would like a catalogue sent to you, just ask and I can email one through to you.

4 days in the 6.5m boat
Andrew Phillips and Matt Retallack and mates spent a tough 4 days out in the 6.5m boat with pretty ordinary weather,
but managed to score good fish.

First day they picked up a nice yellow-fin around the Red Bluff area with
Ryan Jenkins dropping another. The second day was a complete black but the third day there were tuna boiling
all over the place with the group picking up 3 and dropping a few more and one big snap-off on 80lb braid left them wondering?
25km north on the last day they experienced triple hook-us on 5-6kg tuna

and got this big bronze whaler
on a big bait set in the burley trail. They picked up tuna on the way back and a mac at the river mouth.

Quite an eventful trip for all especially, Andrew, whose speciality was to burley up!

First fish on a popper
I don’t get to go out in other people’s boats very often, so I readily agreed to go out for a troll with my mate, Derek,
who was up for 2 weeks during the holidays. He has a 6m ali boat. Quite a nice boat I have to say!
We trolled and trolled eventually landing a stripy tuna on the ever faithful 3 mile. (We would have done better in one of my boats ha ha.)
He was telling me that he had never caught a fish on a popper and never seen a fish take a lure. Well that
set the challenge! Luckily he had a spin outfit and a popper on board and I drove the boat while he cast around Black Rock
He must have had 10 or so casts before the tailor turned on.
Landing a couple of smaller ones,

he was well pleased with this 2.5kg fish seen taking and caught on a popper.

Southern Cliffs Magic
Steven Lenz has hired my 7.8m boat a few times, getting a few fish, but this time it was different

Steven sent the pics and this story.

Hi Laurie,
Here is a short story of our big catch.
We woke up at an embarrassingly late 9am, compelling me to concede to a day of no fish. The wind was blowing
s/e at 20 knots by 10 am, as we had five kids aged between 7 and 14 and a couple of chuckers in there,
I decided to head south to the cliffs for a sight seeing day. We proceeded south down the cliffs
where we encountered a school of tuna bubbling at the surface, the excitement on board grew
to a frenzy as we drifted towards our anticipated lunch unfortunately to no avail.
Again we proceeded further south to find a sheltered lunch spot where our few chuckers
could consume their sandwiches without chucking. We found a spot close to the cliffs in a
relatively sheltered area, the sandwiches came out and i got on to setting the hand lines up for
the kids as well as my partner. From there on the fish came hard and fast with the kids catching a smorgasbord of delicacies including Northwest Snapper and Breaksea Cod. My partner then
proceeded to amaze me with a magnificent catch of a beautiful 2kg Baldchin Grouper followed by a fantastic fighting Samson fish. Between baiting the kids and my partner, i floated an unweighted
mulie behind the boat and that’s when one of the most exciting fishing experiences of my life bit,
an 8.5kg snapper took the unweighted mulie on my 20lb line egg beater.
Wow, what an Easter to remember, another Bamba Zonkie II memory.

India’s big bite
Ian Davison, also a regular hirer was out in the 5.3m with wife and kids. They trolled the Sand Patch for a while
then dropped anchor on the first spot they came to on my GPS. A few breaksea cods and odds and sods appeared

when 10 year old India got a big bite!

With a little help from dad she got this 6.7kg cobia to the boat.
A great day was enjoyed by all. Well done India

Bite of the month

Steven Lenz’s 8.5kg pink snapper caught along the cliffs is a worthy fish winning
“Bite of the Month” this month. Sitting on anchor half way to the end of the southern
cliffs Steven and partner Rhonda with the kids had a ball catching a procession of fish
before this big pinky took his unweighted mulie on his 10kg spin outfit.

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

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Sunday 21st March
A few good fish were caught during the last comp.

Paul Parks with a 15kg mulloway from his boat and partner Thomasina with her snapper

Brett again got a 7.3kg snapper and a 1.45kg bream from the old jetty by junior angler Kane DeGrauw.

March 2010

2010-03-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MARCH 2010 ELETTER

The big event this month was the Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic. We enter each year in the 6.1m boat and have won Champion Boat Game 6-7m 6 times in a row, but this year we got knocked off by another boat, “Couta Crazy”. They travelled a very long way to find fish but got into them and won. Well done to Don Stander and his team.
Full results and photos are available from www.kalbarri.org.au/pages/fishing-whale-watching/
Hires are beginning to pick up now that the weather is improving and the northern fishing season starts.
I am glad that I got 2 more boats and can now supply enough without disappointing
some keen anglers.
The mackerel are big this year, with 10-12kg fish at the start of the season and 15kg fish
turning up fairly often this month. Plague proportions of small tuna abound out there with a few big ones between them. You can see from the classic report that there are some
good bottom fish around as well.

Never caught a fish on a lure before!
Michael Doan saw the good weather and good fish caught during the Classic and dropped in wanting a boat.

I sent him out with the 6.5m on the Sunday, last day of the Classic, with instruction to fish the ever reliable Sand Patch.
Michael and his group had never caught a fish on a lure before, but it did not take long before landing and losing
a few mackerel and tuna. He enjoyed it so much that he took the boat for a second day, repeating his experience but landing them this time, ending up with 5 mackerel and a tuna!

Special thanks to Laurie and Sue...
Thanks for hiring the boat to us we all had a fantastic time.
I highly recommend your company to everyone.
Cheers for teaching us how to hook up and where to go, fantastic GPS points
The family and I are now planning our 2nd trip back.
So the boat better be free he he he.
(P.S. can’t stop thinking about the tuna and mackerel)

Preparation pays off
David Brest was up last year and had such a good trip that he returned with a couple of mates, Henry Sommers and
Cesere Murcuri, hiring the 7.8m boat and taking advantage of the accommodation package as well.
David was well prepared this trip, emailing me a few times to make sure he had the right stuff, right rigs and lures etc.
He even asked me to custom build him a very nice Grafcast 2 rock fishing rod and he matched it with a Stella 10000.

First day out he christened the Stella, mounted on an Ugly Stick for boat use, with a chunky mackerel.
David’s mackerel that was taken with his new Stella 10000

and the ultra smooth drag spinning on the Stella 10000 reel.
Birds and bait were everywhere and it was not long until the bigger tuna had a crack at the lures

Henry Sommer holds his first ocean caught fish, biggest fish ever, an 11kg yellow-fin. Cesere Mercuri right above, holds his
great catch, a 14kg yellow-fin taken on a flick rod with 14lb braid and a lead baitfish pattern lure. Quite a meritorious catch after
30 minutes of chasing in the boat and to make things worse, being tail wrapped! See the “Bite of the Month” story below.

The days catch of 3 mackerel and 2 yellow-fin tuna.

They also got into some bottom fish, but the weather was very limiting.

A great session chasing & catching 6
small yellow-fin tuna with flick rods and small metals was a highlight of the trip.

How’s this for a mulloway!

Cliffy from South Africa sent me this pic of an estimated 66kg 1.83m long mulloway.
Caught near East London a town on the East Coast. It was revived and released.
They sure get them big over there!

Outriggers
I took my renovated outriggers out for a trial run looking for one of the big tuna that were landed during the
Classic by a boat that was not in the comp. The big yellow-fin weighed in at 44kgs.
I tested big marlin lures; small pushers etc but the fish did not test the outriggers back!
Never the less they work fine and I will be using them on my marlin trip to Exmouth in late April.
They will also be offered as an optional extra to anyone who wants to hire them for marlin and sailfish trips up north.
Optional extras?
It is particularly hard to take an interesting pic of a set of outriggers, but this is what one looks like!
And this is what a 44kg yellow-fin looks like

Bite of the month
Bite of the month goes to Cesere Mercuri, catching this 14kg yellow-fin tuna
on a flick rod and 14lb braid. A lead bait fish pattern lure was cast to a school of
yellow-fin hanging around the boat. The hook-up was followed by a searing run peeling all the braid off
& down to near the end of the mono backing. Chasing with the boat he managed to get most back and then
an agonising 30 minutes later the tail wrapped tuna was gaffed aboard. A great catch on light gear.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
Sunday 21st March
After a week of very ordinary weather with a 2 metre swell that dirtied the water, we had our
local comp on a very nice day with light winds and low swell for a change.
Lots of good fish got caught and we tried for mackerel but as the water was still too dirty, gave up quickly & headed out looking for tuna. There were lots around!

Sue landed one on 3kg line, Jason got one on 2kg line and I had the best day landing 5 tuna all on 2kg line, trolling and flicking chrome slices, adding 916 points to my yearly tally! We all lost a lot with bust offs,
and pulled hooks so it was a full action packed day.

A lot of big snapper, cobia and mulloway were also landed!

February 2010

2010-02-24T04:19:00.000-08:00

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

I spent last weekend in Perth and on the Saturday drove one of my 6.5m boats out to Rottnest accompanying a quad swim team.

above is a crude attempt at a stitched together panoramic of the start. We were in the middle wave of the

2000 odd swimmers so a lot of the boats had already left to go to Rotto.
Rotto is in the distance but obscured by the multitudes of boats

The only time I could take photos was when it was quite clear of boats, You should have seen the congestion
when the swimmers had to go around the marker buoys!
Next weekend is the big Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic. This year I am all geared up and ready. The weather forecast
is for really nice days for a change, so am looking forward to it.
I will do a full report on it next newsletter.

The boys from Ranger Outdoors Bentley
Staff members from ranger Outdoors Bentley and a couple of mates were up in Kalbarri and hired the
7.8m boat for a few days.

They got into some nice fish with Chris Nickoll having the best luck of all.

Landing double headers of cobia, a couple of mackerel

and a dhuie among alot of other fish.

Damo nearly got himself spooled with this +-20kg sambo and Chad landed his first ever mackerel.

Dan was extremely please that his Hilux was able to launch & retrieve the 7.8m out without a problem.
(Not suitable for towing this boat on long distances)
If you want tackle, drop into see these guys at Ranger Outdoors Bentley, they know their stuff!

Local’s day out
Rob Tenaglia, a local crayfisherman deckie spends a lot of time on the sea but loves to get out in a rec boat and do
some shallow water snapper fishing.

Hiring the 6.5m with a couple of mates.

Lloyd caught his first fish! a small snapper. Rob got his snapper together with
a few tuna and this juvenile pennant fish.

One week, fish every day
David and Aisha were up for 2 weeks taking the 5.3m for 7 days. David struggled with the anchor,
and only fished one spot each day but sure got into some fish from those spots.

He spent some time trolling for mackerel and tuna, but the macs were off the boil, but little tuna were plentiful.

Aisha had all the luck or was a better fisher, landing all the good fish even getting a rarely caught
surf paroty.

Have you seen this?
Copied from www.sportfishing.com
Have you seen this? OMG! I just learned that they found a mummified mermaid in a marina in India,
apparently uncovered by the 2004 Tsunami! It's true! No, really it is! I know it is.
Do you get these emails? (Henceforth designated as "HYST"), of course. Doesn't everyone?
But if you go to http://www.snopes.com/ to see the real history of the ludicrous "true" news that folks so
quickly pass on. In the case of the above marina mermaid, Snopes reminds us that the 2005 mermaid
photos went around in 2003, but that year she'd been found by fishermen in the Philippines.
The lady does get around! Next year, no doubt I'll get two or three e-mails from guys
I know who seem like cogent, sentient beings that say in all earnestness: "Incredible!
Have you seen this???"
Of course topics of fish and fishing are at least as subject as anything else to absurd claims and facts
that hordes of the gullible quickly embrace. But as with marina mermaid, such false reports
aren't embraced only once. No, the HYSTs return again and again - Freddy Krueger lives,
on the internet - usually in slightly different form.
I was reminded of all this just last week, when an email came to me from a source who is definitely
not a stranger to fish and fishing, citing a huge white shark taken off California. As soon as I saw the photo,
I gave a not-this-one-again groan. Wrong on two counts. First, it's a mako, not a white.
(While that's evident from the teeth, it may not be evident to a general audience.) Secondly, it was
caught off Nova Scotia, not California. How do I know all this? Because, in the past four or five years,
this photo has come to me from well-meaning emailers time and again as either a white shark or a mako
and it's been caught off the Mid-Atlantic, Texas, British Columbia (that one proved particularly popular
for some reason) and elsewhere. In many of these, some enterprising prankster had further inserted an account
of how this great white shark pulled a commercial dogfish boat backwards at 7 knots.
I read it in the email; it must be true!
If you type in "mako shark" in the Snopes search box, you'll quickly learn the truth -that it is a monster mako,
a 1,082-pound female caught during a 2004 shark derby held in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Just short of
11 feet long, the mako yielded $3,000 in prize money.
Feel free to tell your buddy Cornelius the truth when he e-mails you this photo next year with an amazing
account of how this great white shark was caught by a pair of old bream anglers fishing with cane
poles below the Lake Conestoga dam.
Of course, not all seemingly outrageous reports that drop into your inbox are false. Despite
what Photoshop can accomplish, sometimes life really is stranger than fiction. I'm guessing some who
read this blog will remember getting the have-you-seen-this email with crazy shots of a big catfish struggling
at the surface of a lake with what appears to be a basketball stuck in it's mouth. Yes, it looked preposterous,
all right. But it was true. The real poop, on Snopes, is that a resident of Sandalwood Lake in Kansas
noticed a bright-red child's basketball moving strangely at the surface. He went out on a boat with his
camera and took the photos that then went quickly around the world on the web.
Most often Snopes tell us if a seemingly outrageous HYST e-mail is true or false. But sometimes
the search rather offers the satisfaction of kissing one's sister when the result is what Snopes calls
"multiple," meaning maybe partly true, maybe partly false (or, put another way, it ain't that simple).
That's the assessment of emails with a photo anything but amusing that alert you to the nasty practice of
shark fishermen on Réunion Island of using dogs and cats for live bait. The analysis finds evidence
that in fact this may have happened though not on the widespread basis the reports suggested.One rather silly bit of misinformation that only real fish heads (guilty, your honor) would note had surprising
legs when it went around a couple years or more back - i.e., it went around and around and around;
I received it probably a dozen different times. The emails trumpeted the "World-record piranha!"
or variations on that in presenting photos of a tigerfish from some river in the southern part of Africa
where these things live. That one I didn't need to check on Snopes since I knew the information was
incorrect though it is on Snopes. But I can't agree with Snopes on this one since it declares the status
as "undetermined." It is not a world record, it is not a piranha (it is a Characid, in the same family,
but a much larger and much longer species) and it didn't come from South America as do piranhas.
Everyone knows you can't believe what you read in emails, yet often a surprising number of recipients
seem to do just that. Before you pass on that next HYST email about some incredible fish or fishing event,
take a moment to check Snopes. A little skepticism is a good thing. (Not that I'm not occasionally suckered in,
also, when I pass along an email to get back a reply with a Snopes URL that leaves me
slapping my head with a resounding "D'Oh!"). Of course Snopes isn't always in the know. It never knew jack about a certain
Lonestar Bluewater Fishing Ranch in the Gulf of Mexico, for example.

Why fishing is so good
When you go fishing and you catch something, that's good. If you're making love and you catch something, that's bad.
Fish don't compare you to other fishermen, and don't want to know how many other fish you caught.
In fishing you lie about the one that got away. In loving you lie about the one you caught.
You can catch and release a fish; you don't have to lie and promise to still be friends after you let it go.
You don't have to necessarily change your line to keep catching fish.
You can catch a fish on a 20-cent mulie. If you want to catch a woman you're talking dinner and a movie minimum.

Bite of the month

This month goes to Aisha Li for her unusual catch of a surf parrotfish. Anchored up with
A burley trail out the back Aisha and boyfriend David were catching skippy, snapper and the likes
When along came this parrotfish. Hard fighting and good eating makes a deserved Bite of the Month.
Well done Aisha!
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

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
Archived Newsletters
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.

I have made five 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 @
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.

Noel and Robyn are willing to accept bookings for my boats at Port Gregory
I will deliver the boat down there for 2 or more days hire for free.
& return it to Kalbarri for you.

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

January 2010

2010-01-29T19:10:00.000-08:00

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

A big month with the school holidays and Christmas break, so the boats have been going
out a lot and plenty of fish caught. Mackerel were abundant at the beginning of the month
but have gone quiet for a while now. They have been replaced by multitudes of small yellow-fin
tuna around 3kgs, hitting anything that moves. The continuous hook ups are a bit annoying for
those after better fish but lots of fun on lighter gear.
Christmas Mac Attack
Chad Stonehouse and 6 mates were up over the Christmas New Year break, taking the 7.8m for 5 days.

Here they are heading out early one morning in the 7.8m.
Chad writes in an email to me:
“We rented a house in town and hired the big 7.85m Bamba Zonke from Murchison Boat Hire, awesome boat heaps of room and deck set out
spot on. The weather looked bad as we rolled into town but after a quick chat at the tackle shop got told that it would
blow its self out tonight and be good for the morning . Early start fishing was slow as we trolled the Sand Patch

and cliffs only picking up a small long tail tuna and some spotted mac no sign of the spanairds.”

So next day we headed a bit more north than the Sand Patch and a little deeper around 23m found some bait fish jumping everywhere so
worked that for a while and nothing so headed away from the bait then to have 4 rods screaming off, we landed all
the fish. The biggest one being about 10kg

Most of these Mackies where caught on triple hook ups even four rods going off at the same time and all landed.
The pink 7m diving lures worked the best as did a 3m gold one. We where getting our biggest ones north of the Sand
Patch.

Next couple of days we bagged out before 9 o’clock with 6 to 8 mackies on board heaps of triple hook ups, a
lot of small long tail around so all in all had a awsome time, will definitely come back next year.”

One incident happened when one crew member tried to remove the lure from a raging amberjack
with his bare hands. Cost them a trip back to the Medical Centre to get it removed!
The rest of the crew went out again after that.

Outriggers
I am in the process of fixing up the outriggers I bought last month. Repainting, rebinding etc.
The stainless steel brackets will be fixed to my 7.8m boat and will be offered as an optional extra to hire for those
who want to chase marlin and sails up north.
Optional extras?

Flying visit to Kalbarri.
Paul Seamer rang to say he was on his way up at the end of the week and wanted to grab a boat, my accommodation and just fish.
The long range weather report looked good so he dully arrived with mate Clint Olszowy. Unfortunately the forecast high
moved a bit quicker and it was quite ugly on the Friday, but we went out and had a go taking the 7.8m due to the conditions.
Experimenting with a few different methods a deep heavy metal jig was savaged by something big and just as the fish
came into sight Clint dropped it. He was doing all the right things, just bad luck!
A spotted mackerel kept us interested but in the end we came in defeated by the green water.
The Almanac showed a major bite time as we were returning so I suggested to Paul to tie on a popper for
a shot at a tailor at Black Rock. It did not take long, second cast and 4 or 5 greenbacks followed the popper in.

Third cast, hook up! Paul shows off the first.

Clint then takes the rod for a shot. A couple of casts and a monster greenback misses the popper, but this smaller one gets it instead.

Paul’s turn again; bang this big one hits the popper, about 4kgs. It was followed in by a smallish sambo.
Clint then takes the next cast, he is about to lift the lure from the water after his first cast when the sambo hits
it from under cover of the boat! Bang back under the boat, screaming drag, too much pressure, something’s
got to give, bang, bust off round the front of the boat! It was fun, but no more poppers!
(Paul had a great trip in the 6.1m boat last year in Exmouth with one of the crew landing a Marlin just out the
entrance to Tandabidi boat ramp.)

Small tuna, dirty water
Mike Safy, and his family group asked for a trip out early January. With the water still green and the wind up and no alternative day,
we had a go out at the 3 mile reef. Things were looking promising when some birds started to form up, but not much happened.
We then made a move to the Red Bluff/Pot Ally area where the day before I had seen schools of baitfish on the surface.

A little yellow-fin first up to Chris Ray,

then a second hook up to Quinten Ray and Rod Ray got his reeling in his lure.
The 4th tuna went to Chris and then again a bigger fish that was giving Chris a bit of stick, only for it to go around the props of the 7.8m
and busting off without a sighting. Wonder what it was? Mike Safy waited patiently for his lure to go off, but without a sniff all day!

Testing the waters

Out for a social fish with Jason Agrela, we picked up a small mackerel

and a little yellow-fin on 2kg line. More practice for the forthcoming Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic next month

Ockey Jigs perfected

It’s taken me a while, but I have at last got my Ockey Jigs perfected. I am sure you all know how
effective they are, I wouldn’t be making them for myself and for sale if they didn’t work.
Designed for medium and deep water, getting down fast, just imitate an octopus moving from rock to rock.
They get hammered by snapper, dhuies, cod, baldchin, and mackerel when pulled up fast.
Available from the “Boat Shed Shop” or by mail order. Just ask, $8.50 each.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
The Kalbarri Electrical Services Ultralight
The Ultra light this month fell on a couple of very ordinary days, just after the little cyclone late this month.
It was a slow morning but Jason started the day well landing a very nice dolphin fish on 4 kg line, winning his section.

See the Bite of the Month below for details.

Sue opened her account with a little yellow-fin on 2kg line that went just over 3kgs. Then landed another on
2kg line to win the 2kg line section with ease.

I got one on 2kg line class, but not good enough to beat Sues, and any caught on 3kg line
just did not break the 3kg minimum.

The river section produced a 1.3kg bream for Cheryl

and a mulloway for Di.

Bite of the month

This month goes to Jason for his unusual catch. Trolling out on the 9 mile during the
Ultra Light comp this 7.3kg dolphin fish took his scorpion 125 on 4kg line.
Putting up a great aerial display and dogged fight on 4kg line, this was
a great meritorious catch.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.

First Time Tourist
Chris Kimberley-Bowen hales from England and was over visiting brother Rafael who organised a trip out for the day.
Only day available was just after a couple of real nice days and as you can see in the pics, the wind picked up
and the swell increased, but the water was clear! Having never caught anything bigger than an English mackerel so he was in for a surprise when a 10kg mac struck his lure!

Wrestling it in without a pump and wind action look some time,
but a quick photo and release after made his day.

Brother Rafael got his a few minutes later; equally please with himself, releasing it as well.
Well done guys in difficult conditions.

8 guys 3 days cyclonic weather

Les Nel brought a bunch of mates up last week end, rented my accommodation and the 7.8m boat,

They picked the same week end as the Ultra Light just after the cyclone, luckily having the 7.8m making it dry and comfortable. (Leaving me the 6.5m to get wet and bashed around!)
The first day they only scored a spotted mackerel, but the conditions were bad.
The second day was the first day of the Ultra Light and they followed me out to the 3 mile, with the intention of
getting out to the 9 mile. The wind was up and we had 3 spotted mackerel within an hour so we all stayed
at the 3 mile hoping for more action, but to no avail.

Third day I was determined to get to the 9 mile regardless of the weather so we pushed through it, only to find the day improving
every hour. The day started very slow but we got the dolphin fish early and Les got into a couple of small tuna. Just after lunch it was like flicking a switch!

Little yellow-fin all over the place, boiling on the surface, birds working, double hook-ups, crossed lines, lost lures, the lot.

They were all about this size, with the pink lures working the best. They landed 12 yellow-fin on the 7.8m boat, their bag limit with 6 on board.

Utilising the filleting table at my accommodation. It’s all set up for anglers with freezer, filleting table, boat wash down and you get boat hire discounts if staying here.