September 2010

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