March 2006

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE MARCH 2006 ELETTER
The big news this month is off course the flooding in the Murchison River. Last month I showed you pictures of the flood from cyclone Clair. Well that squirt of water really brought on the mulloway and filled all the dry pools in the river. Then we had cyclone Emma dump in the catchment area and with all the dry pools already filled up the water came down in record flood levels! It was 17.8m at Emu Springs Station, where monitoring has taken place for the last 100 years. 17.8m is the highest ever and Kalbarri was in panic mode. We were expecting to get flooded. The Shire and hundreds of volunteers spent two days and nights filling sandbags and building levees at the low lying marina area and at the Black Rock Cafe area.
It peaked on the Tuesday 14th March but it did not come up as far as expected but would have flooded the car park at the Marina Shopping Centre if the levees were not in place. Big sigh of relief and lots of spare sand to top-dress our lawns!
The latest news as at 29th March is that the river mouth is still officially closed but cray boats are coming in and out. A hydrographic vessel is due in town at the beginning of April to do soundings and most of us expect them to declare the river mouth safe to navigate. They will not open the mouth officially until the soundings have been done, but if cray boats are getting in and out it should be OK for smaller boats. There should be no problems for the Easter School holidays.

Those who really want to fish have been taking the boats down to Port Gregory and launching there and getting into some very good fish. The flood up river from Kalbarri

The Z Bend in flood

and an old pic as it is normally
The boat pens under water
The old wooden jetty, under water

The recreational boat ramp

Before the flood, we managed to get out on quite a nice day and the tuna were going ballistic. On this day I invited a couple of mates out who have never caught fish before! Totally green they were, I gave the first hit to Gavin, the new owner of the Palm Resort. He has been in town 6 months now and hasn’t had a day off until this one. 16kgs of thumping yellow-fin tuna on the deck within 20minutes of trolling right in front of town! Next up was Martin within 5 minutes on the troll again, 15kgs, a near matching pair. I took the next hit and found it to be unmovable on 15kg tackle. This was a big one! But after about half an hour the hooks pulled!!! Not to worry, we had another within 20 minutes, a smaller one and then a spotted mackerel before heading in to work around 9.00am.
Gavin’s 16kg fish

and Martin’s first ever fish, spoilt for life!

Since the flood the river mouth has been closed and all my hires have been going out of Port Gregory. Port Gregory is about 65km south of Kalbarri with an “over the sand” launch ramp. Sometimes the sand is quite soft but any serious 4WD can get the boats in and out. I thought it was a good time to do some research and development at Port Gregory. Tuesday 21st was a great day weather wise and Clinton, a mate from Pinjarra was up in Kalbarri with a long face not being able to get out to his usual spots, so I invited him out in the 5.3m boat to Port Gregory (the 6.1 was already hired and at Port Gregory).
He had been down there the day before and picked up a nice coral trout trolling in close to a reef that comes up from 16m to 8m over about 25 metres! First pass over this reef and my 8m Crazy Deep lure got snagged! We got it off and next pass nailed this coral trout. After picking up another for Clint and a big sambo (released), we went for a troll for a mackerel and to try to find some ground to fish the bottom.
Nice looking coral trout,

my dolphin fish (mahi mahi)

and pair of dhuies
The dolphin fish was a surprise! First one I have ever caught, taking a Halco Laser Pro 190 2m chrome pink, it leapt from the water about 10 times before showing off its magnificent colours alongside the boat. We found some ground about 8km south of Port Gregory in 23m of water and proceeded to catch a string of good fish, baldchin groper, snapper, and our bag limit each of good-sized dhufish. With close to our bag limit of 7 fish each we cruised the short distance back to the boat ramp and were back in Kalbarri by 2pm.

Those hiring my boats to Port Gregory can get the GPS points from this trip.
A happy Clinton with his sambo

and dhuiefish

Another group of guys wanted the same experience went down to Port Gregory with the 5.3m boat, also trolling the coral trout spot marked on the GPS. Within the first 10 minutes Keith Combe picked up this 68cm trout on an 8m Halco Crazy Deep lure. They picked up another soon after and then went a bit deeper for some bottom fish, catching snapper, sambos and other bottom fish but missing out on a dhuie.

Keith Combe's big coral trout

Paul's big snapper

and samson fish

KALBARRI SPORTS FISHING CLASSIC 20th ANNIVERSARY YEAR 2006
The Kalbarri Classic this year again hosted a record number of boats making it a very successful tournament. The final count of fifty boats (17 under 6m, 22 in the 6m–7m and 11 over 7m) spent 3 days fishing it out for $18,000.00 worth of prizes in 29 categories over the Labour Day long weekend, 3rd 4th and 5th March. 146 anglers fished the ocean and 19 fished the muddy and in flood Murchison River.
I know that you guys don’t read this newsletter much and mainly look at the photos only so here is a very abbreviated report with lots of photos.
The good news is that my boat “Bulawayo Buoy” skippered by myself and crewed by wife Sue, daughter Rebecca and John Hoye picked up Champion Boat Game 6-7metres again this year. Sue took out Highest Point Scoring Snapper, Highest Point Scoring Game Fish and Champion Angler Game overall. John Hoye also picked up Highest Point Scoring Tuna. My other boat the 5.3m “Mzilikazi Roller” Skippered by Lou Parker with Vern Godfrey and Geoff Higgott won Champion Boat Bottom under 6 metres and he only fished between the Sand Patch and Baldface between 18m and 30m!

Champion River Adult, Daryl Fishwick.

Top Gun River, Paul Allen.
Champion River Junior, Jeb Duigan.

Heaviest Bream, Chris Miller, 1.028kgs

There were a lot of contenders for the catch and release prize with Brett Bain, catching and releasing 10 of the 33 bream released over the weekend.

Kelly Westlund’s 14.5kg samson fish.

Peter Maindok’s impressive 12.1kg mulloway.
Heaviest WA Dhufish, Jason Pache, 9.8kgs.

Lisa Morgan, 4.3kg groper.

Darren Cooper’s winning 5.4kg fish.
Sue Malton, Champion Angler Game,
Highest Point Scoring Game Fish,
Highest Point Scoring Snapper.
“Top Gun “ day one Game.
John McCarthy.

Paul Maindok

Graham Cole heaviest snapper 6.8kg

Janice Olsen’s 5.25kg coral trout
Champion Boat Bottom under 6m, Lou Parker.

Champion Bottom Junior, Steven Eley.

Champion Boat Bottom over 7m, David Birrell & Dario Sorbello.
James Mather.

Tracy Mather.

Rebecca Malton.

Featured website this month is http://www.kalbarriwa.info/ The new official Kalbarri website where you can look at all the things to do see and stay and book direct.

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

If you want to be included in our email newsletter just send a blank email with the subject “Add to newsletter group” to lasue@wn.com.au and you will receive one monthly.

February 2006

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE FEBRUARY 2006 ELETTER
The river continues to flow with chocolate coloured water and has coloured the ocean as far north as the eye can see. South of the river mouth it is still relatively clean and during the incoming tide pushes up against the dirty water. You can see the colour change in the pics below. Trolling along the colour change has resulted in a few mackerel catches, but no result on the day these pics were taken. (Water was a bit cold 22.5) The cold water is all along the coast from Perth up. The Leeuwin Current has just not pushed in very strongly this year!

Out the back with Blue Holes in the background

& heading west just off Blue Holes

Mulloway have been very active with the dirty water and a few boats have been sitting just out from Black Rock soaking mulies on the incoming tide. Most have been getting their bag limits, but there are a lot of undersize amongst them. I went out with my son Ben on a break before going to Uni and a mate Lou Parker. We checked out the bite time and anchored by Black Rock catching 8 mulloway and a few chopper tailor. (All released except one). They came on right on bite time and then the shutdown was like a light turning off.
Ben with the average size mulloway.

Regulars Jason Scouler and his group who call themselves the “City Slickers” were up again. Jason was on his 7th hire! There must be some sort of “Frequent Hirer” points there! This time Louie was missing, replaced by Greg, with the usual crew of James and Rob. They had a 3-day hire on the 6.1m boat and stayed in my accommodation picking up the discounts on boat hire. When they first came up they were very inexperienced but caught fish. They have had some good times and bad and as their experience increases so has their catch rate. Now they have no problems getting into the fish. Below is just one days catch, a real ripper, not to be forgotten easily. They landed 6 yellow-fin tuna and a mackerel from a swirling mass of birds and baitfish.
Greg with his best fish ever (samson fish from the bottom) before the yellow-fin tuna
This is what to look for: swirling mass of birds and baitfish
James and Rob (yellow-fin & mac)

Greg’s yellow-fin

Robs yellow-fin
A missed gaff shot: it will cost you another 10min on heavy gear,

Rob’s skippy

& Jason shows his tuna (the only bite he got all day)
They got yellow-fin tuna on both preceding days as well. Redhead Halco 190DDs and Rapala 180 Red-heads were the only lures used to catch these game fish.

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club local comp.
The weather was quite blowie on the 18th so the comp was changed to the following Saturday. Again it was windy but we had the comp anyway! We went out trying for a mac or tuna on light line but the seas were white capping by 7.30am and pretty rough out wide as we were trying to find clean water away from the dirty river water. We got bashed around and decided that the only thing we could do was to tuck in behind Black Rock and try for a mulloway. Bite time was for 8.30 but on a low tide so thought our chances a bit slim. Within 10 minutes of anchoring, my 3kg outfit started to peel line on a very loose drag. The result after a protracted battle was this 7.2kg mulloway, which won me the game section. It was the only bite we had all day! The land-based guys did well with snapper and a big shark
My mulloway

and Daniel Tarasek did well fishing land based


RECREATIONAL SKIPPER’S TICKET
Yes it is coming in and you will have to have one to hire one of my boats. The facts are as follows:
You won’t need one if you have:
Commercial Marine Qualifications
BoatSmart Certificate
Small Craft Proficiency Certificate
TL3 or TL5 certificate issued before 10th Feb.
Inter State Boat Certificate

You still have to apply for one if you have the above qualifications.

If you are under 25 you have to have one by April 2007
Over 25 by April 2008

If you have had a boat registered continuously in your name for the past 5 years you will only have to sit the theory test not the practical, but by 1st April 2007.

Think about getting one soon, you will need it.

The big Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic is on this coming weekend. All preparations are going well and entries have flooded in. This Year we have my daughter Rebecca joining us aboard Bulawayo Buoy with the usuals, John Hoye and my wife Sue. We are aiming for our third “Champion Game Boat 6m – 7m” win this time. Wish us luck; it’s not that easy! I will be reporting on the comp next newsletter.

The river continues to flow and latest reports, today 28th Feb, the river has risen another half metre at the Murchison House Station Homestead. A cyclone has formed over Exmouth and dumping more rain in the catchment area so the “mulloway fiesta” seems as though it will continue for another month or so, and the dirty water will be here for a while. A warm current has started to flow again, at last, and a 13kg yellow-fin tuna was caught off Pot Alley yesterday and there were birds working out the front of Black Rock this morning. Things are looking up! The cyclone has now developed into a tropical low so we might be into some very nice weather for the Classic.

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

If you want to be included in these newsletters send an email with the subject "add to newsletter group" to lasue@wn.com.au and you will get one each month.

January 2006

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE JANUARY 2006 ELETTER

First mackerel for the season that I know about was caught by Neil Van Niekerk who comes up every year and hires the 6.1 m boat. He had it for 3 days this Christmas period and got into some nice fish down by Natural Bridge. He had a mulie hanging out the back while on anchor and this mac had a go at it. Quite a surprise catch as the water temp was only 21.1 degrees, usually a bit cold for macs! The rest of the crew Peter Du Preez and brothers Ross and Conrad Posthimus all caught fish but had some monster bust-offs that they recon were very big snapper! On the third day out Neil had a big hit on his live skippy that he had out the back resulting in this monster mac, not weighed but around 20kgs!

Yes you made “Bite of the Month”, for December Neil!

First mac of the season 28/12/05

and Neil’s thumper 20kg odd mac

Michael Davey and Craig Sharp were out in the 5.3m boat, and hearing of the fishing south also went down to the Natural Bridge area. They fished around the usual spots on my GPS and landed a few blue-lined emperor. When the fishing hotted up, they experienced the usual hook-up that then turned suddenly into a massive hook-up! This we know is usually big cod taking the smaller hooked up fish. Craig was the lucky one to eventually set hooks into the fish, landing a very nice estuary cod. They were unsure of the legalities of keeping a fish this size and elected to let it go. It however did not go down and floated away! Just by coincidence my 6.1m boat skippered by Zoran Grubic with the Grubic family of Goran, Dragon, Igor, Bojan and Slavko was also in the area near by and were catching an assortment of emperors when this cod, still alive, floated past, so they picked it up!

The floating cod from the 5.3m boat landed by the 6.1m boat.
They enjoyed the day but Slavko was a lot happier as in the picture because this was taken when he knew they were heading home! He had spent the whole day throwing up over the side! Slavko with a smile on his face because they were heading home

They were lucky enough to have dolphins surf under the boat on a nice day

Another happy angler was skipper Bishoy Paul centred who’s group picked up these baldchins and 5.7kg digitally weighed dhuie tucked under the Southern cliffs from the 6.1m the first day of a 2-day hire. Second day they only recorded a baldchin groper but they had a great two days and will be talking about it for a while.

Andrew Noel, Bishoy Paul and Aaron Baird show off their catch.

Aaron also caught this pretty fish.
Identified as a coral cod Cephalopholis miniata. It grows to about 1.5kg.

First one I have seen caught around these parts.

Clae Pike from Gingin and Adam Shields were on their annual fishing trip to Shark Bay and swung into Kalbarri and picked up the 5.3m boat, taking it up to steep point. Finding Steep point a bit difficult, (I am not surprised) they moved onto Denham and spent time fishing up at the tip of Peron Peninsula. They caught lots of snapper and had a ball. They reckon the place to go is the camp ground at the tip of Peron Peninsular in the Peron National Park, launch the boat over the hard sand and get into the snapper, tuna and mackerel.

Clae Pike and Adam Shields with average size Shark Bay pink snapper.

A mate of mine, John Hoye was up for a week of R&R staying in my accommodation and had to wait around a few days for a boat to be available and a nice day to coincide. We had a troll first up around the Sand Patch with no luck so pushed on to a nearby snapper spot where we picked up a couple. Moving out a bit deeper we landed a dhuie and an estuary cod. On the way home we bumped into a pod of dolphins that were crashing the surface in feeding mode. Now this usually means that there could be tuna amongst them. We had a good look for them and saw no sigh of tuna. On the off chance we put the lures out (dolphins won’t take lures, they’re too smart) and within a minute we had a double hook-up! John’s Saltiga outfit screamed but the hooks pulled. I was left loosing 8kg line fast until John turned the boat and gave chase. After an hour we got our first look at a big yellow-fin, Another half hour and the fish was coming up to the boat but still not ready for the gaff when the hooks pulled and the tuna just glided away! A very disappointing result on a very good fish. Estimates in the 20-30kg range.

The cod, from the trip

The river mouth before the flood

The river mouth a couple of days later with the chocolate coloured water from cyclone Clair

Up river at Gregory Rocks.

I went up river in the 4.3m boat. (Only possible in the flood conditions) There is still a lot of water to come down yet! With the river spewing chocolate water out into the ocean, sometimes the fishing for mackerel along the colour change is truly awesome. The first available day weather wise and the 6.1 not booked I shot out to have a look see. Dale, a friend of my brother in law was visiting from Kununurra and was telling me all about the Ord River barra fishing! Well I thought I would show him some Murchison River Mackerel! He has never caught a mackerel, baldchin or dhuies so after failing to get him a mackerel we tried a couple of spots past Baldface north of the river mouth.

Well it took most of the morning, but Dale picked up a very nice baldie and then went on to pick up a dhuie as well.

I have put you up as “bite of the month” for January Dale!

Dale shows off his dhuie

and my PB baldie 6.4kgs

Luckily I showed him up by landing my personal best baldie of 6.4kgs.

You can see the colour change in this pic taken at the Chinamans point. This is when the tailor go ballistic. The incoming tide pushes under the fresh water and we cast poppers into the dirt and dragged them into the clear. Just as the poppers hit the clear, fish after fish climbed all over the poppers. In a 45-minute session this week I lost four tailor, (and my Halco Rooster popper to an unstoppable fish), released 3 and kept this 3.9kg average sized fish.

It was a memorable session (It is not always like this)

Jason Lowe and mate Kamal were back again this year taking out the 5.3m boat for 2 days landing snapper, skippy and silver bream from spots around the Sand Patch both days. They had a great time, stayed in my accommodation and picked up the discounts on boat hire.

Kamal also managed this small mulloway at the Chinaman’s in the evening.

Jason & Kamal show off their snapper.

Kalbarri Offshore Angling Club, Ultra Light Comp 28th & 29th January

Really crap weather was the forecast for our annual Ultra Light comp this month. We went out on the Saturday and got blown away by the wind and huge seas. We hit a big patch of wheeling birds that gave us hope but nothing happened. Battered and bruised we came inshore and made a plan. Knowing the bite time was around 10am and that there should be mulloway just out of the entrance near Black Rock, we anchored and dropped mulies down into the chocolate coloured water on light lines. My daughter Rebecca got hit first by something big on her 3kg outfit but the hooks pulled, I got into something big and my hooks pulled. Trying again, another hit almost immediately and this time the hooks held for 45 minutes till this 12.15kg mulloway surfaced. A pending National record on 3kg line class!

My 12.15kg fish

The following day was even windier so we checked the bite time in the almanac again and found it to be around 11am. We slept in and went out to Black Rock around 10am to meet a couple of other boats that had got the goss on the fishing. First up, son Jared, hooked up but the hooks pulled after about 10 minutes, but was soon onto his second on 4 kg line. The mulloway went 5kg and is also a pending Junior National ANSA record.

Jared’s 5kg fish, check out the dirty water!

Our fish were the only game fish weighed in so won the 3kg and 4kg line classes. We also hooked up on a few unstopables, probably sharks and shovelnose rays

Featured website this month is http://www.earth.google.com/ extraordinary site where you can zoom into anywhere on the planet and see quite clear satellite photos. I recently had a look at Coral Bay as my son was going up there for a fish and you can actually pick out the bigger coral bommies and plan where to fish! You have to down load the free software and you need XP minimum and a fair bit of memory. 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

If you would like to receive a my monthly newsletter via email, just send me a blank email to lasue@wn.com.au with the subject line “add to newsletter group” and you will receive one each month.