MURCHISON BOAT HIRE DECEMBER 2011 ELETTER
Lasue@wn.com.au www.murchisonboathire.com.au
A very merry
Christmas to everyone, and a peaceful New Year. This coming season is going to
be a good one; I can feel it in my bones.
We got mackerel and
tuna at the beginning of December and the water temp has been up over 22.5
degrees all month.
There have been loads
of snapper around with some thumpers hitting the decks, and just yesterday, 28th
December Frederick Heydenrych
& his crew got 10
small yellow-fin tuna out on the 3 Mile between 10am and 2pm. So no shortage of
tuna schools this year.
Cray season, however,
was a bit slow this year.
We put out pots in on
the 13th December, expecting it to be like last year with 12 every
day but it ended up like this.
12 on the morning of
the 14th, then 12, 11, 5, 10, 7, 7, 5, 6, 9, and 2 on the 24th
when we pulled our pots in and retired them for the year.
We were not the only
ones to be down on our catch, with some getting non in their pots for a few
days on the trot.
Dayle’s Anticipated Trip
Dayle Serfozo and
partner Janelle came all the way from Boulder. Dayle is keen as mustard for a
fish and had the 6.1m for 6 days, mid December.
I have to admit, the
weather was not in his favour with fresh southerlies from early morning. His
cray pots turned up a blank most times
but the experience
was what mattered. There is a fair learning curve when fishing new locations
and he did his apprenticeship the hard way.
However the results
started to show with a fair bag of snapper in the end and a good one for
Janelle and tuna on the troll for Dayle.
The mackerel eluded
Dayle, and everyone else for that matter! It just did not happen that week for
some reason.
He’s coming back in
March, It has to happen then!
Shark Bay Adventure
Nick Crettenden made
a lightning trip up to Shark Bay with the 6.5m boat a few mates. 4 days is not
long enough but they sure packed a lot in!
Picking the boat up
the evening before in Kalbarri, they tried to make the Overlander before
closing at 11.30pm.
Here they are parked
in the main street the first morning.
Nick
wrote about his adventure and this is his story and pics.
It started with a bit of a worry because the Overlander Rroadhouse
didn’t want to stay open to fuel our needs. But with a little deliberation
and with a bit of a vote, we
decided to push on to Denham and surprisingly made it through thanks to Laurie
and Sue for the desperately
needed extra fuel, to camp just outside the town, where we earned some
well needed sleep.
The next day we made great haste to get ourselves and this vessel which
was a lot bigger than we were expecting, thank god as we had somehow
managed to pack what seemed like everything we owned. Out to Steep
Point to find out what all the rave was about. So we punched out!
With a bit of shaking around, water on the windscreen, smiles on our
faces and rods at the ready.
When the swell and chop decided to drop away we sighted the always
exciting flock of gulls and terns hitting the waters surface and a
few good splashes and flashes coming from the abyss we thought it best
to throw out a few lures and see if we couldn’t jag a
few nice spanish mackerel to start the trip off. Following the patches
of birds around, we only managed a couple of school mackerel
and a horrible northwest blower fish. Bored with it all, and not wanting
to waste the nice weather we decided to continue the journey to Steep Point.
Nothing had prepared us for the magical experience that awaited. As we
got deeper into the bay around Steep Point,
we were surprised to notice this dark creature that was moving with ease
and elegance through the water.
The initial reactions were “have a look at the size of that tiger shark,
it’s near on 20 foot long” Spearfishing looked like it had gone
out the window for a while, when the senses come to, and we realised it
was a whale shark, there was an immediate hustle and bustle
to get the hell off the boat and to be the first person in the water
with the amazing creature!
With nothing short of twenty metres of visibility, the beautiful creature
took our breaths away, as it moseyed on through the crystal waters of Steep
Point with ease. With all our efforts, we swam with the magnificent beast,
keeping our distance and our fingers on the camera buttons. We were absolutely
loving life, especially the two Canadians girls with us that hadn’t even heard
of a whale shark before! We exited the water. A whole lot of high fives,
yelling and carry on preceded even the comment “that was one of the best
moments of my life” was put out there.
Once the massive hits of adrenaline that the whale shark had caused,
slowly wore off we decided to jump in the water
again and try our luck with the spearguns. Turns out it was a great idea
as with the water being unbelievably clear,
the aquarium below us was the perfect opportunity for us to get our
heads under and push into the second atmosphere
to see what mother nature had waiting for us and hopefully our dinner
plates.
We were not disappointed, as always the west coast turned it on.
As soon as we put our heads under the water there were reef fish
everywhere.
As we investigated the reef a good solid 20kg kingfish and a couple of
sambos started tearing around us, too flighty to get a shot off unfortunately.
After a bit more of a swim we came across a nice little bombie in about
ten metres of water, after only a few descents we had a big bald chin groper
and a north west snapper on board
and with the interest of only one little bronzie. So we were straight
back down there and the fish just seemed
to get bigger with each dive, The trigger fingers were working over
time. We were absolutely devastated we hadn’t got a cray licence as the
ledge was loaded with massive western reds anywhere up to 40 of them, oh
well we couldn’t exactly complain about life at
this stage, the esky was starting to fill and the sun was shining.
With such an amazing day behind us we decided to head into the sandy
shore and try to find one of those comfortable camping spots
where we could celebrate the days triumphs. So sure enough, with the
smiles spread across our faces we drank to the day and the fish
we were about to eat. Once we had indulged in a feast of bald chin
grouper we were all still very excited about the day that had been so
into the esky it was and somehow managed to demolish two days worth of
grog in the one night, shame on us!
The next morning we pushed through the throbbing headaches only to be
greeted by rising swell and the wind quite rapidly freshening!
We didn’t have much choice except to push it slowly back to Denham,
which I’m sure even though nobody said it, it was
a good thing as we were all looking forward to a shower and a sand free
meal!
After talking to a few of the locals of this windy town, they directed
us to none other that Monkey Mia, where perhaps we would
receive the wind protection we so much desired! The Canadian girls were
pleasantly greeted with the smiling faces of the famous
Monkey Mia dolphins, which they were quite excited about as they had
never seen one of these curious creatures in the wild!
Us boys on the other hand, were not
interested in hungry faces of porpoises, but more of what lay beyond, and
beneath.
What we found though was not what we had
hoped for. Shallow waters, sand bars and bad vis was all Monkey Mia had to
offer us with the gusting 30 knot winds.
The lures were again placed in the water and
dragged through a few nice looking gutters with little result apart from a few
small spotted mackerel. We dropped the
pick in a nice looking part of the gutter and baited the hooks in the hope of a
few blackies, but were again denied a feed!
Beaten by the sand banks and shallows of
Monkey Mia, we decided it was time to head back for the day! Thankfully
the resort restaurant did an
unreal feed and their beers were cold so we
all still had smiles on our faces!
As the sun cracked the skyline we shook off
the hangover again and made our way down to the vessel, the bay was oily calm,
huey must have really had it in for us this
trip as we only had a couple hours before we had to pack up. So we threw
the biscuit out the back
and let the pleasantly quiet 150hp yammy whip
us around the ocean until we couldn’t hold on any longer, we really do lead
hard lives!
The boat loaded and cleaned it was back to
Kalbarri to unfortunately return her, it was extremely tempting to drag it to
Perth as it would
look really good in my garage! A quick
feed at the Kalbarri pub and we were off to dodge the roo’s for the next
6 hours arriving safely home a 3am for some
much earned shuteye!
All in all, the trip was a success, with one
day of great diving, constant sunshine, cold beers and unbeatable company, who
could complain.
A special thanks to Laurie and Sue who made
it a hassle free week away, with their flexibility with times, affordable prices,
reliable vessel
and that little extra fuel that we
desperately needed. Hopefully we can do it all again sooner rather than later.
The Kids Get A Couple
Matt Retallack has hired my boats a few times now and this
time got the kids into some fish.
Again a bit of a blowie day, but that is normal for
December, but the 7.8m boat can handle it.
Jesse got a dhuie and
also picked up an undersize snapper and a big blowie, while Brooke holds
Matt’s, snapper but got an undersize dhuie a blowie and
unfortunately a
serious bout of seasickness. Andy got his baldchin which made him smile.
WA
Introduction
David Zhang has hired
my boats a few times now and has been unlucky with the weather, seasick crew
and uncooperative fish
Nearly every time he
has the boats. This month was much the same with fresh southerlies most mornings
making it decidedly
uncomfortable. This year he brought his parents with him who
hail from Southern China. They speak no English so all the communications
were through David.
Luckily for David, that his method of fishing is to anchor over a spot, burly
up and fish it all day, so the
weather did not
matter too much and that his parents don’t suffer too badly with seasickness.
They caught a fair
number of fish with his Mum landing all the big snapper and his Dad a shark.
Both were super
impressed with the ocean wildlife, and remote scenery.
Shark
Attack
Some photos of a shark attack on a marlin off the
coast of Mozambique!
It is a big marlin, how big was the shark!
The head from the marlin that
got eaten by sharks last month.
We estimate the weight of the
fish around 800lbs.
This portion was 108kg. Pity
such a nice fish.
Kind regards,
RICKY JACOBS
RICKY JACOBS
Not exactly a bite, but experience of the
month perhaps.
Ally swims with a whale shark near Steep Point,
Shark Bay.
An experience of a life time, keep it with
you forever Ally.
Popular Northern Destinations
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.
Check out the website: www.mackerelislands.com.au
Ashburton
Resort
Nikki and Scott Dagan
are the new managers of the new Ashburton Resort. Phone 9184 6586 email:
admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Website: www.ashburtonresortonslow.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.
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 @
And from January
2006 to December 2006 with photos @
And from January
2007 to December 2007 with photos @
And from January
2008 to December 2008 with photos @
And from January 2009
to December 2009 with photos @
And from January
2010 to December 2010 with photos @
And from January
2011 onwards with photos @
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, www.buoyweather.com go to virtual
buoys, pick the location you want.
This is the one I go by!
