Thursday, December 29, 2011

December 2011


 
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.
 They never made the Overlander in time but took the risk and pushed on to Denham, just making it on the fuel I gave them.

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.
 Merry Christmas and happy fishing from Crutchy, Cretty, Seagz, Sarah and Ally
 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

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

Thevenard 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.
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
Gnaraloo Station
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
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!

 

Big bait – big fish

Laurie