May 2006

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MAY 2006 ELETTER

The boats have been very busy this month, mainly due to the fact that it is the best time of the year for weather and fishing. Both the 6.1m boat and 5.3m boats have been up at Gnaraloo Station for 2 weeks. (Unfortunately no photos available)

Before that, regulars Ritchie Kirk and his group, John Kirk, Bill McAtee, Jim Laurenson, Ian Freeman, Rob Slattery, John Slattery, Des Hewitt, John Dimitroff, Lindsay Hughes and Richard Cottingham had the 6.1m boat for 2 weeks and the 5.3m for a week. Fishing was very slow the first week with them only scoring a few snapper and sambos but picked up the following week when a warm current came in and everyone was catching mackerel. They made up for it on the last two days when they got their bag limits each of mackerel both days. The mackerel were big to! All over 10kgs with some pushing the 20kg mark.

These are some of the pics I managed to get of the macs. Big macs aren’t they?

If you are wondering about bag limits, they had two boats with 5 guys in each boat!

When they handed the 6.1m boat back I had one day with it before it went to Gnaraloo. Time to get out, have a fish, and do a service on the motor when I got back!
We did just that and had a troll up just past Baldface where the macs were going off. My son Jared came along and a mate, Mark Flanagan, from Kalbarri. First up Jared picked up a mac on his 6kg outfit and unfortunately a bad gaff shot (not by me) resulted in a bust off! But he soon made up for it with two tuna, while Mark landed 2 macs around the 10kg mark, but I got my biggest yet a 16kg specimen!

Jared’s yellow-fin

and my personal best of 16kgs.

Pics emailed from Michael Milajlov of his Southern blue-fin tuna.
Michael Milajlov was over here from Victoria and hired my boat with his girlfriend a couple of years ago hence on my mailing list and he sent me these pics of big southern blue-fin tuna he caught from the rocks in Victoria. One went 25kgs caught with live bait on 8kg line while the other went 20kgs and took a raider metal lure on a 10kg spinning outfit. Very good fish from the rocks! He also says that the record for blue-fin from the rocks is over 200lbs!

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local comp 20th May

Daniel’s winning mulloway

My 7.25kg snapper on 2kg line

Have a look at the size of this snapper! With all my boats booked out I even had to borrow a dinghy (thanks Duigie) to fish the local Kalbarri comp this month! Sue came out with me and the plan was to troll for macs on light line and then go for a couple of snapper on 2kg line for game points. Well the easterly was howling and the water was green and no macs showed up so we edged in close to shore out from the Sand Patch in 16m of water and burleyed up. I don’t normally burley up as it draws nor west blowies but we had no choice with the conditions. I fished a 6kg outfit and a 2kg outfit at the same time and got blown away a few times on both outfits while Sue got blown away numerous times but also landed a few tarwhine, cod and size snapper on her 2kg outfit. My last hit for the day came on my 2kg outfit and peeled line like no tomorrow and I felt resigned to yet another bust off, when it stopped and I started to get some line back! Well 40 minutes later this pinky hit the surface weighing in at 7.25kg! A fish of a life time, and pending State record on 2kg line. (The national record is 12kgs from South Australia!). Daniel Tarasek won the land-based section with his mulloway from Frustration.

One of Sue’s snapper on 2kg line and an unusual fish for Kalbarri, I can’t find it in any of my books, does anyone know what it is and the Latin name? We have only caught 2 of these that I know of. It looks a lot like a red-throat emperor (lethrinus miniatus) but not nearly as red and did not have that red throat.

Right at the end of the month Jon McBride turned up on the doorstep to say Hi, I knew him from when I lived in Perth and employed his older brother, Brad. He was up with another brother Geoff and mate Rod Sully and dad Ed Sully. They had a nice big 6.4m boat and were fishing for some spots. I gave them some pointers which lead to them getting into a few nice sized mulloway out from the Sand Patch, but they also had some pretty good spots of their own. Generally the weather was not too kind to them but they picked up big cod, snapper, dhuies, baldies and nor west snapper out deep.

Some of the other fish they caught, big cod, mulloway and tuna. You can see the Sand Patch in the background of the pic with the mulloway. (Pics from Rod Sully)

On the Monday 29th the weather was good enough to get out for a short time and I needed to check the motor on the 6.1 for some flashing lights that had been reported from a previous hire. (This is work you know) I took Jon out while his mates went in their boat. We stopped at the Sand Patch and put the lures out. Within 10 minutes both boats had mackerel on! I landed mine and the other boat lost both of their double hook-up. We went on to land 3 more within half an hour and then decided to head out to deeper water and try for a tuna. The other boat continued to try to convert the hook-ups into fish by working the numerous bait schools. (They got 3 in the end) Before we got to the 35m mark we had to stop and release two more mackerel. As soon as we reached the 35m line I turned towards some baitfish and we were on! The 6kg yellow-fin was no match for the 15kg tackle I was using, but the second hit 15 minutes later saw John struggle for 30 minutes with this magnificent 17.5kg fin. John has never caught a mackerel before let alone a good tuna, he was wrapped!

A very happy John McBride with two mackerel

and his big 17.5kg yellow-fin tuna.
The lures? Halco 190 Laser Pro pink multi chrome and chrome pink. Redheads did it for the other boat.

The following day they went out again and picked up 7 mackerel and a couple of tuna in pretty ordinary conditions. A pretty good trip in anyone’s books!


Featured website this month is www.ansa.com.au/sportfishing.html an Australian fishing records site for national line class records. Junior and senior records in game fishing, sport fishing, hand lining, land based and fly-fishing. Lots of other info as well.


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


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

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