JUNE 2011

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JUNE 2011 ELETTER

Another busy month for the boats, with most of them on their annual trips up to northern destinations.
Gnaraloo station was again very popular with multiple groups going up there. Where are all the photos
you were going to send me guys??? When the weather has been good, the catches out from Kalbarri
have been quite extraordinary. Since two of the three charter boats stopped operating the fish have
come back to the nearer spots that I would normally bypass.
Gnaraloo trip

I was lucky this month to get 7 days up at Gnaraloo with Paul Garner and mates, Peter, Alan, Eddie, Shaun and Frank.
We had the 7.8m boat which I towed up from Kalbarri and met the group at the station.

It is imperative to stop at the “King Waves Kill Sign”
and deflate the tyres on the trailer and your vehicle to 35psi. This will give you a better ride over the rough road and corrugations
for the next 70ks of dirt road. The Gnaraloo Station sign is too low for the 7.8m boat to get through, use the gate to the right to get through.
The weather was very crap for the first 3 days, but as Shaun was only there for 2 days we had to get him a fish.
He got one all right, a very good rankin cod and followed up with a good baldchin groper. Paul Garner landed this big rankin, winning
the biggest fish in the betting stakes of biggest fish, first fish and biggest red emperor daily jackpot.

Peter had a burster of a trip winning the biggest red emperor, landing a good sized spangled emperor
and Paul and Eddie hold up their reds caught going over a patch where we pulled
10 red emperor from, on one of the better days
The mackerel were going off while drifting over my “mackie lump”. Drifting with a garfish out, these mackerel, 18kgs for Eddie and 19kgs for Frank kept them busy while we caught bottom fish.

Frank and Shaun with a pair of rankins, while Frank holds up 2 reds which were part of his catch on
one of the days that we caught 7 red emperor.

I got to fish as well, landing my personnel best rankin at 9.5kg and a p.b. red going 9.5kgs.
Next time we are up grading to 100lb leaders, we had lots of bust-offs using 80lb, it’s just not heavy enough!

Accreditation

Murchison Boat Hire is now an accredited tourism business!
It has taken a bit of work and a bit of time but now we can use the logo on all our stationary
website and signage.
So what does this mean to you guys?
Well not much really, you will still get the great service and back-up from me.
You can still be assured that we have all the necessary procedures in place such as
insurances, public liability, maintenance schedules, bookings, refunds, etc all documented
and described.
I guess it is just a recognition that we are doing things right.

Kalbarri Trip
Darryl Friend and mates Ross Jerrard, Stewart Northcroft and son Trey, complete with all the family were up in Kalbarri to have a look around
and get some fishing done. The Saturday was blown out so only the marginal weather Sunday was available.
I took them out in the 6.5m boat as the 7.8m was up at Gnaraloo. First up on strike was Ross, and he dropped 2 mackerel to unusual circumstances, (so he says)
before Stewart took his turn landing this 11kg mackerel setting the standard for the day. It was the first mackerel and biggest fish he had ever caught!
We than had a few drifts over some of my better spots but it took until lunch time, before the fish turned on. A succession of small
dhuies came aboard until, Darryl landed a size one. A very keen angler, 11 year old Trey Northcroft, caught and landed the biggest dhuie
for the day all by himself. Well done Trey!
They got their bag limit which included snapper, cods, a yellow-tail kingfish and sweetlip.

Coral Bay Trip
Hi Laurie,
Here are the pics from our awesome trip to Coral Bay.
The 6.1m boat travelled beautifully behind the 4wd ute and was easy to launch and get back onto the trailer.
Deck wash on the boat was FANTASTIC to use, easy to keep the boat clean.
As you can see from the photos, we had a great time catching spanish mackerel, wahoo, mahi mahi and cobia.
Have recommended the boat to several mates, why would you buy one when you have such a great facility.
Looking forward to coming up to Kalbarri in July and will be booking the boat for next year’s trip with my boys.
All the best
Jeff Hitchins
Looks like it was all pelagics and they had trouble with sharks!
Nice fish Jeff!

Cycling and fishing around Australia!
Hi Laurie,
Guess you will get this when you are back from Gnaraloo so hope you guys had a good time and got some good fish!
Been getting some decent tailor on the lures and still trying for the Mulloway!
Maybe you can include in the newsletter the following.
I'm in Australia for two years cycling and fishing around the country. Previously I cycled from UK to India, fishing along the way
so this trip is a continuation of a world tour on a bicycle. Laurie was kind enough to take me out on his boat in
Kalbarri for a session after spanish mackerel. Apparently conditions weren't perfect for the mackerel but we hoped for some
action all the same! And as it happened it wasn't too long before one of the trolled lures was taken and line screamed from the reel!

A lovely yellow-fin tuna of 5kg was the result! Happy with this fish, I smiled even more when the other rod arched over and the reel
screamed for the second time of the day. This time it was a more solid fish that easily took line from the clutch. Laurie and
I were both hoping it was what we had come for and as it happened it was! A lovely spanish mackerel of 10.5kg and new
PB for me! It couldn't get much better than that! Thanks very much Laurie, much appreciated,
Scott.

www.worldbiker.blogspot.com

Tip #1: Forget the cycling, just do the fishing!

Exmouth trip
My cancelled trip to the east side of the Exmouth gulf is back on again, but in September now.
We are going to go out of Onslow now and as one of the group, Paul, will be delayed getting up there we will be killing time trying for big GT’s for a couple of days around Long Island, a known haunt for big GT’s. When Paul joins us, we will head round the corner into the Gulf and flats fish for queenies, trevally, jacks, and hopefully bonefish, tarpon and permit on fly!

Bite of the month

Peter Callisto has been the Bite of the Month before with a red emperor caught out from Kalbarri
But he gets it again this month for this near 10kg red emperor from my 7.8m boat caught at Gnaraloo this month.
He had a great trip landing lots of good fish, in less than perfect conditions.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.
WTF

This was caught up at Gnaraloo this month. A bit of a strange looking snapper.
The book identifies it as a long-finned snapper. Argyrops spinifer
It was about 350mm long.

Look at the size of this stout longtom! Caught in Kalbarri this month, 1.4m long!
See all the fish species on my website www.murchisonboathire.com.au/fish_species2.htm

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
June 18th

I was still in Gnaraloo so could not fish this comp. Pity, just look at some of the fish caught!
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.
Island manager: 9184 6444, Drew Norrish & Traci Nathan
This year the 6.5m 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

May 2011

Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/
MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MAY 2011 ELETTER

A lot of good weather this month meant lots of fish caught out from Kalbarri, I don’t have pics of every trip
But all did extremely well, even those who were inexperienced landed good fish.
The mackerel were patchy but the bottom fish exceptional. Some hirers saying that they were releasing
10 dhuies each day, and getting their bag of big snapper on top!
All the great bottom fishing is due, I think, to the reduction from 3 charter boats to one, and that one does not go
far from the river mouth. All the fish are coming back, and the best is still to come with the start
of the breeding aggregation of dhuies for the next couple of months.
Weekend break away
Robert Yamil fished with me last year with a large group of guys and this year came with his mate Henry Tumewa.
Henry lives in Indonesia and made the trip especially to fish with Robert. Robert is also from Indonesia where he owns a holiday
resort south of Jakarta, but also lives in Perth. We had a couple of great days fishing, the mackerel were absent, but the bottom went off!

Robert and Henry show off a couple of good baldchin gropers

and Robert a very good coral trout.

The red-throat emperors were big; it was a top new spot we found!
These were just a few of the great fish they caught.

Gnaraloo trip
Peter Holtfreter’s trip was a success landing good fish from the 6.1m boat this month. Peter is a regular
and has been fishing out of Gnaraloo a long time.

They caught good baldies

Red emperors and they even caught a sail fish! Just look at the conditions!

Boat Rescue from Gnaraloo

Peter Holtfreter rang me from Gnaraloo, 6.30pm the evening before they were to leave. The 6.1m trailer had a broken spring and
broken U bolt. Nothing else to do but get another trailer up there and bring it back. Now this did not give me much time!
I launched one of the 6.5m boats in the dark and put it on a mooring and set my alarm for 1.30am.
The above pic is dawn at the blowholes; I was in Gnaraloo at 7.45am.
We changed the 6.1m boat onto the 6.5m trailer and made the old bust up trailer safe enough to tow back on its own.
I am now frantically building another new trailer, but this time beefed up to the max.
The under carriage has now been built from 14” Landcruiser axles, hubs and bearings, it can now be classed as “off road” as it is
grossly over engineered for the size of the boat!

Kalbarri Trip
Mick Thompson got hold of the 6.5m boat for 7 days, scoring fine weather, (except for a bit of unusual rain) and did well most days.
I dropped in on them when organising a survey for the boat, and they showed me their catch.

Billy Thompson had a very good baldie

while the group, Alan Wiseman, Mick Thompson, Billy Thompson and Jason Loverage
hold up their catch for the day.

Another day they went north and landed another great bag which included a red emperor for Alan.

Nice fish saves the day
Hi Laurie/Sue,
Just and update of our trip to Kalbarri and the boat hire for the day.
"Having a 4.8 meter glass boat my wife was a bit bemused as to why I wanted to hire a boat from Murchison Boat Hire.
Needless to say bigger is better. I decided to hire the 5.3 meter (smallest in the fleet I believe).
My father in law and I left pretty late in the morning and headed south along the cliffs hugging the shoreline.
The current was pretty ferocious and we were not able to bottom bounce in the depth we wanted to (20+ meters) and as the swell
was pretty high we couldn't anchor either. So we decided to head back to the river mouth in shallow water and see what was on offer.
We then anchored about 500 meters out from the mouth. After a few nibbles I thought I was snagged on the bottom as
I tried to lift my line but no luck, that was until I was almost pulled over the side of the boat.
I knew that this was a good fish and fought it for a while until I saw the mouth pop out of the water just below the port side of the boat.
Gob smacked, excited, and just plain stunned (with completely numb forearms).
My fist mulloway, and what a mulloway it was. I didn't have a scale that could lift this weight,
but I judged it at over 20kg's.
I would highly recommend you hire a boat from Laurie and Sue, their knowledge, experience and just plain old good customer service is second to none.
And the prices, well you will NOT find better. For four guys I would suggest to hire the big beast (7.8m) as this is truly fantastic value for
money and you can head out as far as you like with no problem to worry about. Those four stroke engines sniff petrol
and the fuel bill should not even be a concern."
I WILL be back…...
Erich DeBruyn

Weekend fish fest
Michael Mac Shane was up again for his annual trip, this time bringing a large group. He took advantage of the boat and accommodation package,
saving himself and the group on the cost of the boat hire. He took two boats and both accommodation units over a weekend this month.
They had an awesome time with lots and lots of fish, here is his story.

We took two Murchison boats out again this year and a third private boat. The water was a lot warmer than last year so we had our fingers crossed the Mackerel were going to show. The first day arrived with strong easterlies and overcast, all day, and then it rained! We fished The Sand Patch and north of Bald Face but found the mackerel were quiet. The other boats headed further north and did well, bringing home nice bags of mackerel and a few snapper. One boat scored a 10kg barracuda and decent Samsonfish.

The mackerel were averaging 12kg plus. We got among some nice snapper in close and had a play with some of the
many schools of Tuna, boating about 7, managing to finish the day with a lone mackerel of 20kg. Everyone got among some good fish, big hits and the occasional bust-off, a great day.
The next day was almost identical to the first, overcast and windy. We all fished north of the river, looking for some good bottom ground.
Our boat raised a few smaller mackerel and a tuna but couldn't get the bottom fish to fire like yesterday. One of the other boats had a great day on Snapper, bagging out and catching a few mackerel as well, whereas the third boat had a quiet one.Another fantastic year, good fishing, the boats did their job well and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Thanks Laurie, see you next year!

Exmouth trip
My much anticipated trip up to the Eastern side of the Exmouth Gulf had to be cancelled at the last moment.
It was a pity we were all set and quite excited about it. My mate Paul Youngman decided to come up to Kalbarri
from Perth anyway and fish out from here. The first couple of good weather days, Paul went out in Daniel Jenk’s boat,
Daniel was to come with us on the Exmouth trip and they headed south to the end of the cliffs, bagging out each day with mackerel.
The next good day I suggested we challenge ourselves to the max and try for one on 2kg line!
We got them, but it took over 45 minutes per fish, quite an achievement!

They went 9.1kgs and 9.3kgs, serious fish for 2kg mono line!

WTF

This odd looking gardie jumped/flew into the boat, while on hire this month.
The big book shows it as a long-finned garfish. It is another fish added to my fish species picture
gallery on my website www.murchisonboathire/fish_species2.htm

Bite of the month
Robert Jamil boated this big coral trout while out in the 7.8m boat early this month.
Fishing in 50m of water north of the river mouth, the big bite came with a thud.
It was part of a double header with a big red-throat emperor on the bottom hook.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.


Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
May 21st

Not a lot caught this month, due to the less than perfect weather. Few boats went out
And not able to get to their spots, caught few fish. Daniel Tarasek landed this mulloway at the Chinamans Beach.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
Onslow Mackerel Motel managers, Colin and Rosa will 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.
Island Manager: 9184 6444,
This year the 6.5m 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