Email: lasue@wn.com.au http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JULY 2011 ELETTER
It has been quite a wet July for us up here in Kalbarri, and the fronts going through have produced some big swells
making it uncomfortable for those out in the boats. However, most of my hires at this time of year are for trips up north to
fishy destinations such as the Mackerel Islands, Gnaraloo, Exmouth etc, where the fishing and weather has been spectacular.
George Raffa has just returned from his trip up to the Mackerel Islands out from Onslow. He has made quite a few trips
hiring the 7.8m boat each time. The group seem to do extremely well each time, probably due to their experience and knowledge
of the area. He was up with family and friends, Ric, Dave and Paul.
Pics of their fish can be seen on their album on this link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65665902@N02/sets/72157627290883278
Jeff Hitchins and son Steve featured in last month’s newsletter catching lots of fish at Coral Bay out of
my 6.1m boat. Their next trip is to Thevenard Island next year. Jeff felt that he needed a bit of fine tuning
with regards to reading the sounder and general fish catching tips so spent a day with me in Kalbarri.
He says he learnt a lot, saw how I interpreted the sounder, worked the GPS and waypoints and caught fish.
We nearly bagged out on snapper and dhufish. (We had to let a big dhufish go and released lots of just size snapper waiting for a bigger one)
Afterwards we went for a troll and just as we were approaching a well known mackerel spot, the lures went off.
For the next half hour
we caught 5 gold-spot trevally, 3 yellow-fin tuna, 1 yellow-tail king and 5 mackerel!
A couple of mackerel and tuna were kept and the
rest released.
Kalbarri Trip
Scott Darlow and partner Jacqui Claus had the 5.3m boat mid July and asked me to launch it for him, no problems,
I will launch and retrieve when requested.
The easterly was fair pumping, but he stayed in close and enjoyed the day spotting dolphins and
some local wildlife.
He did not catch much and felt that the wind was pushing him along too fast, and not holding bottom.
Probably correct Scott, you have to have your baits right on the bottom.
The answer is to hire a drift anchor from me @ $10.00/day. It will stop the boat to .5 of a knot allowing your baits
to reach bottom. Here is the one I use for the 7.8m boat drifting out from shore, and the result.
(OK it is only a baby snapper but it works)
My wife was doing the books the other day to get them ready to take to the accountant to do our tax assessment.
I asked her if we had made enough money this year for me to buy another Stella 20000.
She gnashed her teeth and said that I was financially incompetent and naïve!
Boy, I can’t wait to tell her that I have won the Nigerian lottery!
Frank Rystenberg, a mate of mine who has returned to town with his new wife, Shelbie is a keen angler and I took them out on a trip with me.
Charlie Messena and partner Janet Schwarz also came along.
Shelbie has never caught a fish before, and I was expecting a bit of sea sickness to ruin her day,
but we put a spread of lures and skipping garfish out and it was not long before a lure went off.
Charlie grabbed his rod that was unloading braid at a rate of knots while we all reeled in the other rods, but I kept one
outfit with the garfish on to slowly sink down into the strike zone. Charlie dropped his fish and as he did the garfish was snatched so
I handed it to Shelbie. A long and protracted fight took place but with a bit of coaching in the pump and wind technique,
this 15kg mackerel came to the gaff at last. First fish she has ever caught!
After a bottom bounce that saw Shelby catch a snapper or two and a dhufish
she trolled up this yellow-fin tuna!
Charlie kept dropping fish on his braid outfit, which is not the ideal line to use trolling, but he did not expect
to be doing any trolling that day. The trick is to add a long mono leader to the braid to give it stretch, fish a loose drag with a light rod.
Frank eventually got to get a hand on a rod landing this chunky mackerel.
John Houwen had a successful trip to Coral Bay and handed the boat over to another hirer at Carnarvon saving a lot of
towing for both groups.
He said that there was a lack of big mackerel around but they made up for it catching a few big tuna.
Looks like a good sized northern long-tail.
John Hoye, my mate and competition fishing buddy popped up to Kalbarri over the school holidays with his son Jack.
Jack is a keen surfer and spent some time in the surf at Jacques Point. On one of the good days, raining but no wind we
shot down to Wagoe in the 6.5m boat to try for some mackerel.
We trolled all over the place, in shallow, out deep, skipped gardies, speed up, slowed down, drank all the coffee in the thermos,
ate all the food in the esky and still no fish! So we stopped and tried for snapper in 12 metres on the edge of the reef with soft plastics.
I was using my Stella 8000 with 50lb braid but matched to a Fishing WA rod that has a great action but way under gunned for the reel.
Rated at 8-10kg it is a lot softer than you would expect but imparts good soft plastics action.
The 1 ounce jig head and 7 inch plastic was hammered by something that took a hell of a lot of line on a fairly tight drag.
It took 15 minutes before we saw what it was and another hour to get it to the gaff. A 12kg very fit yellow-fin tuna.
Any more drag pressure and I felt that the rod would break, and getting it to the boat with the whippy rod
was exceptionally difficult. But hay! I got it. Expect the unexpected!
First fish Shelbie has ever caught - a 15kg mackerel! A well deserved Bite of the Month,
Well done Shelbie, see your pic on my website, link below.
See all the previous Bite of the Month winners on my website.
Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Monthly Comp.
July 23rd
A few good fish caught during the competition this month.
My wife beat me again gamefishing, landing a 10kg mackerel on
6kg line
while my 7kg shark mackerel was a bit of a surprise.
Brett landed a club record coral trout and a dhuie.
Ken also got a club record for this 20.8kg cobia
and junior winner Martin landed this mulloway from the beach.
Club records have to be caught during a monthly fishing comp.
Thevenard Island
Onslow Mackerel Motel, Phone 9184 6586
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
Archived Newsletters
After a lot of effort on my part, you can now view all my past newsletters in my Blogs.
I have made seven 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 to December 2010 with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2010.blogspot.com/
And from January 2011 onwards with photos @
http://www.murchisonboathirefishing2011.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
