April 2006

PO Box 63 KALBARRI WA 6536 PH/FAX (08) 9937 2043
http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MARCH 2006 ELETTER
It is best to open this in Outlook Express so that the photos will open.

With the river mouth only officially opening in the second week of April and a few big swells limiting access due to the sand bar, getting out for a fish has been limited to Port Gregory. As of now the river mouth has cleared up completely and all is back to normal. Big swells are still limiting some boats but that has always been the case. Most of the fish caught this month have been coming from Port Gregory.

Ed Olkowski was in Kalbarri and had been up in Shark Bay with another mate John Hoye, where he met up with cyclone Hubert that was all the rage up north in the first week of April. He didn’t get much fishing done (I’m not surprised) and stopped in to Kalbarri on his way back to Perth. He went out from Kalbarri a couple of times but got battered by the strong easterlies and failed to get a fish. His boat is a bit small and a centre console so not ideal for the conditions. I invited him out on the next good day (low swell) and went out to the edge of the dirty water intent on getting a yellow-fin tuna or mackerel but the water was cold only 21 degrees and no bird activity so we headed north for a bottom fish. We only fished 2 spots, picking up a nice pinky in close and then moved out a bit deeper. We were onto fish straight away with a stream of small fish, breaksea cod, skippy, Sargent bakers, and red-throat emperor until I hooked up on a nice 8kg dhuie. I left the other dhuie for Ed but he couldn’t catch it, only wobbegongs, wrasse etc, so I hooked up on the second, a fine 9kg fish.
My 8kg and 9kg dhuies

Ed made the front cover of the latest Western Angler but could only manage this yellowtail king when out with me. He said that it was because he was fishing on the wrong side of the boat!

Rob Zanon was up just before Easter and on the spur of the moment hired the 6.1m boat with 5 other mates. They got out a bit late but picked up some snapper and this sambo before returning around lunchtime. With a bit more experience they will do better next time.

Have a look at this fish? I caught it down at Port Gregory. I thought it was an undersize mulloway at first (it was 42cm) but the colouring was wrong and the shape was not quite right, too pointy in the mouth. Also it had a very glassy eye. I took this photo and returned it and it swam away no problems. Checking it in my fishes book it is easily identified as a Sand Bass, Psammoperca waigiensis and grows to 47 cm. Colour varies from silvery grey to dark brown. Never seen or heard of one before!
Regarding weird & unusual fish, these are a few that we have caught.

Scorpion Fish, it’s got poisonous spines.

Long-spined snapper.

Sargent baker, make great bait


Unicorn leather jacket

Surf paroty (Blue-barred parrotfish, this is a female)

Andy Woodley-Page was well pleased with the size of this snapper. He and his brother, Geoff, were out in the 6.1m boat on a pretty ordinary day but the best of the three days that they wanted. Unfortunately getting only one day in due to the rising swell making the river mouth a bit dodgy. They caught some other smaller snapper and Geoff was unlucky breaking off and dropping some good fish. One was a nice hammerhead shark that circled the boat a few times before taking a big bait set for a dhuie or big cod.

During Easter Daniel Kwek and is usual crew from Singapore, Tony, Kenneth, Simon and Tan were here again and they set off from Port Gregory due to the continuous problems at the river mouth. Fishing on my waypoints south of the tiny town they picked up very nice sized dhufish. Three dhuies on the first day ranging from 5kg, to 9kgs and 10kgs together with snapper and baldchin groper made up the catch.

Kenneth Sim with his 8.5kg dhuie

Tan Thuan Seng’s 9kg fish.
The second day was a bit slow. Chasing mackerel north of town with no luck they headed out deeper to find some ground, but could not find any. They then spent an hour or so chasing big yellow-fin tuna that were thrashing the surface but to no avail, eventually heading back and finding a spot west of town, picking up a trip saving bag of dhuies, coral trout and baldchin. Simon Wei also landed a 5kg dhuie.
The second day belonged to Tony Chee landing this nice 10kg dhuie,

baldchin and coral trout

On on of the days that it was just too rough to go out in the boats, Daniel Kwek asked about the landbased fishing. I told him to check the bite time for the day and fish Chinaman's for a mulloway. Now the fish usualy come on the bite on the forecasted bite time and bang on the forecast time this 21kg mulloway hit.

Daniel Kwek's mulloway caught at Chinaman's Beach on the 12.30 bite time.

Another regular group was up again this month, Andrew Hall, Jeff Bradbury and their families. They had the 6.1m boat for 6 days with a couple of days rest between. Due to the big swells they also fished out of Port Gregory. They took a couple of days to find the fish but with a little bit of patience and changing spots often they got into them with gusto. At one spot not far from Port Gregory they anchored and burleyed up catching and releasing 7 sambos, dhuies and baldchin during a great day out. Carolyn Bradbury’s baldchin went 5kgs while the dhuies were around 9 to 11kgs.

Andrew and Jeff with their pair of 9kg dhuies

and Carolyn’s baldy

Christopher Bradbury’s very nice 11kg dhuie

while 83 year old Gil here got pulled all over the boat by this sambo, one of seven that they caught on one spot! Loosen that drag Gil!


Graham Fraser also fished out from Port Gregory having a ball with wife Denise and daughter Anna and friends. Fish of the trip was his monster mackerel that savaged a mulie hanging under a balloon out the back of the boat. It gave is little Abu a real workout! When the sea breeze came in they anchored inside the Port Gregory lagoon where little Anna showed the crew how to catch skippy. Denise picked up a reasonable dhuie and Rob Stomp was kept on his toes with a black-tipped reef shark.

Denise Fraser with her dhuie while 5-year-old Anna caught skippy from inside the reef at Port Gregory.
Rob Stomp with his shark and

Graham Fraser’s big mackerel that took a mulie from under a balloon at the back of the boat.


Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 15th April


Simon and Steve with their chunky cliff caught snapper.

Paul’s deep-water snapper
Our local comp was a bit slow due to the river mouth problems, but Paul Loffler risked it slipping out between the swells to get a bag of 7 fish including this big snapper which was the biggest for the year, while the land based guys got into these big snapper from the cliffs early in the morning. The river fished well again despite the brown water but with only bream recorded.
*Unspoken truths for successful fishing*
1. Always be an optimist and try to look confident when you are fishing
2. Never fish in crowded areas. Lesser the competition, better the chances of getting a fish.
3.Never fish beside amateurs or beginners. If they are there they are in the wrong spot or at the wrong time so you are also at the wrong spot or wrong time.
4.Never fish beside kids. Kids spook fish. & sometimes they catch more than you.
5. Never fish beside disillusioned lure anglers who are luring next to you. Disillusioned lure anglers spook fish
6.Never take bananas aboard a boat. Bananas spook fish.
7.Bigger predatory fishes are cautious and usually hard to catch.
8.Always make sure your terminal rig is different from the guy next to you.
9. Use tried and proven rigs. If that innovative rig you designed worked, it would have been published a long time ago.
10.Nighttime is the best time for shore and jetty fishing as bigger fish venture nearer inshore.
11. Always use very fresh or live bait. See somewhere above for the reasons.
12.When fishing a featureless terrain, move every 20 minutes if you are not getting a bite. Or just wait forever for something to pass through. The choice is yours.
13. Big fish and baitfish schools prefer natural features. No prizes for guessing why the pros and regulars are also there.
14.Forget the notion of light tackle on a jetty. At times you may need to haul in heavy flotsam, seaweed, sunken drift nets, fish traps and crab nets against a strong current.
15. Never cast heavy rigs when there are windsurfers, swimmers and canoeists around. Always report windsurfers, swimmers and canoeists to the authorities.
16.When you can't find a suitable spot to fish go home and spend quality time with your loved ones. You won't regret it.
17.Never base your happiness on catching a fish. It’s a good idea to have an alternative pastime to avoid disappointment.
18. When you see dark clouds looming overhead and feel moisture in the air with flashes of lightning in the distance. Its time to pack it in and call it a day.

Featured website this month is http://www.fishwrecked.com/ an Australian community fishing site with movies, forums, articles, reports and photos.

Remember if you rent our accommodation you get big discounts on our boats. Have a look on my website for the details, and check out the savings.

Check out http://www.oceanoutlook.com.au/ and go to the Geraldton weather for local weather conditions & 5-day forecasts.

or http://www.buoyweather.com/ and go to virtual buoys, is not a bad one!

Big bait – big fish
Laurie

If you want to be included in these newsletters just send me a BLANK email to lasue@wn.com.au and you will be sent one each month.