Saturday, April 27, 2013

April 2013


 

Email: lasue@wn.com.au           www.murchisonboathire.com.au
A very busy month with lots of fish, a welcome change!
 The mackerel are back with lots being caught on the 3 mile
As well as the Sand Patch, but going slow now that there is a bit if swell around. School holiday makers are getting a fair number
 of fish with most reporting that they ware happy with their catch, mainly snapper, mackerel and yellow-fin tuna.
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Slow Day, Big Fish
 Brian Mosley and Mike Bellery had a slow day out in the 7.8m boat but when the bites came they were big! 
Brian holds his biggest snapper to date, an 86 cm specimen, 
while Mike shows off his baldchin groper.
Shark Bay Turns it On
Craig Walker had a good trip up to Shark Bay early this month, here is his story!
G’Day Guys,
Thank you again for the stress free hire of your 6.5m All-rounder last week. Some awesome fish were landed and great fun was had by all.
Saturday 6th April,
A quick call to Murchison Boat Hire to let them know we were leaving Geraldton and we were on the road again to pick up our boat from the Kalbarri turnoff.
We met Laurie about an hour later where we went through the checklist and got the rundown on our hire boat.
All was good so we hit the road again with nothing but fishing on the mind.
Sunday 7th April,
The first day of fishing saw us all up before sunrise eager to get on the water. We headed across to Dirk Hartog Island to try our luck.
 Fishing in about 13 meters of water saw our luck change and Trent showed fairly quickly that he was going to have the lucky
 touch for the trip when he pulled in a few nice black snapper and a great fight with a 4 foot shark.
     
Tuesday 9th April,
With the southerly still holding strong we decided to head over the other side and launch from Monkey Mia. It turned out to be the right
 choice as we headed north into some magnificent conditions. Clear flat water everywhere. With plenty of Tuna schools visible
 in the area we tried our luck at some trolling again. We realised fairly quickly that they didn’t want to play the game so we
 went in search of some reef again and after a quick drift saw 2 good Rankin Cod on ice. We dropped anchor and fished the spot for the
 next few hours pulling in some great fish including Black Snapper, Rankin cod and Estuary Cod. 
Glassy conditions ensured a relaxing trip in was had by all.
Thursday 11th April,
Today was Marks last day of fishing and there was some debate as to where we were going to head as it was glassy conditions all round. After
 some discussion amongst the boys it was decided we would try our hand over off Monkey Mia again. We searched for some good ground
 Faure Island. Within 10 minutes of drifting Mark had pulled in two great pinkies at around 65 and 68cms. We tried another drift and they
 just kept coming, Brent pulled in a couple followed by Trent and Craig and before we knew it we had our limit of pink snapper
 on board as well as some other great fish including a 68cm Black Snapper.
Friday12th April,
Mark headed off before sunrise on the long drive back to Perth. Trent Brent and Craig decided that they would again head over to
Monkey Mia where they had most of their luck during the week. We made a b-line for our pink snapper spot and fairly quickly
 had a couple of good sized pinkies on ice. Craig had a big hit which at first we thought was a shark due to the huge run until it buried itself into the reef.
A little bit of slack on the line saw it come out and then some hard winding brought up an awesome 8kg Estuary Cod. With the 3 boys
 in good spirits we kept going pulling in plenty of undersize snapper.
We pulled anchor and headed for the Ramp for the last time of the trip.

All the Luck?
Jay Martin, brother Aaron, Tom Petll and Rolly Brown had a day out in perfect conditions.
Unfortunately only one good fish was landed among the sambos, sharks and small nor’west snapper.
This was Jay’s first dhufish, he was stoked!
Good day out! Good fish!
Vun Leiw sent me this pic of a big snapper he got out of my 6.1m boat early this month.
This is his story!
It was good sunny. The 6.1 metre we hired from Murchison Boat Hire of Kalbarri. This boat riding smooth like in the giant
 swimming pool on the way out with my brother John and my mate Rodney. About one and the half hour we reached the spot
 on the GPS fitted in the boat, water temperature reading from the echo was 24 degree C. Not much effort at all after a few
 drifting along the reef we hooked up this over 80 cm monster Snapper! Also a fish I dream
 about from time to time to catch one.
 It pull so hard off my 40 lbs leader, it tooks me some good tweety mins till we landed this monster with good team work.
I will never forget this good day out fishing in Kalbarri fishing heaven.
5.3m Boat Magic
   Paull Weber and Peter Roach are frequent hirers of the 5.3m boat and it all came together for them. Having never caught a mackerel on a lure,
He was a bit sceptical of his chances. He did not have to worry as it just went off. 5 mackerel and a tuna, the first day!
 
Back for another Shot
      Laurence Tunnacliffe and Peter Jewell and mates Fred, Kim and Andy were back for another shot at some fish.
They have had the 7.8m boat a few times always catching good fish. This time it was a bit slow, but
On one of the days they bagged out on big dhuies, big cod, good snapper and baldchin.
Kim holds the cod 
and shark.
Baby Blue Marlin
This baby blue marlin was one of 7 million eggs released by its mother, and was only a few millimetres
 long upon hatching. Blue marlin can grow to be 14 feet long, weighing up to 1985 pounds.
Monster Barracuda
   Cam Nicolson shows off a pending-record 102-pound Guinean barracuda, caught in mid-February off Angola by Thomas Gibson (pictured below).
As we speak, the IGFA is reviewing a new submission for a pending all-tackle, world-record barracuda — but it’s not
 the great barracuda (or the Pacific variety) you might be familiar with.
Meet the Guinean barracuda (Sphyraena afra), a ferocious species found along the Atlantic coast
 of East Africa, from Mauritania to Namibia.
This particular specimen was caught in mid-February by Thomas Gibson, of Houston, Texas. Gibson was fishing for tarpon with Cam Nicolson
 around Rio Cuanza in Angola, when the beast hit a Rapala. It weighed a whopping 102 pounds on the scales and, if approved, would just supplant
 the current record of 101 pounds, 3 ounces, caught in Gabon in 2002 by Dr. Cyril Fabre.
“I have never seen anything like it,” Iain Nicolson, Cam’s brother, tells Sport Fishing of the catch. “It was 210 cm long – that’s just under 6’11”!”
That’s about as big as they get, according to the IGFA’s species page for the Guinean.
Similar to the very popular great barracuda (Sphyraena barracuda), the Guinean is generally found around continental shelves and inside lagoons
 and estuaries. But interestingly, there are no documented reports of ciguatera related to this species of barracuda – or any Sphyraena
 species from the eastern Central Atlantic, for that matter.
One more interesting fact about barracudas in general: Did you know there are 27 species of cudas throughout the world? I honestly never
 knew that before researching it a bit. Pretty amazing, I thought.
  
Each month I award Bite of the Month to someone who catches the best fish from one of my boats.
From this month onwards together with Striketech reels I am giving away a Striketech reel to the Bite of the Month winner.
Brian Mosley wins this month with his biggest snapper to date, an 86cm specimen caught from the 7.8m boat.
Up Coming Events In Kalbarri
 LeisureCat Ultra Light Kalbarri
Only a few days until this comp.
Swell is coming down and the wind turning easterly, so it should be right!
Date is the 4th and 5th May 2013.
A Game Fishing Tournament for lines 6kg, 4kg, 3kg, 2kg and 1kg.
Lines must be IGFA factory pretest mono only.
Need a boat for up north?
Remember I will deliver a boat out to the turn-off for free for those heading north.
Just ring me from Geraldton and I will meet you there.

Popular Northern Destinations

Thevenard Island
Island Manager: Ash and partner Jade, 9184 6444.
There are a few cabins available, just ask and see if you can get one.  However Direction Island is always open and
still a good option and bookings can be made.
Check out the website: www.mackerelislands.com.au
Ashburton Resort
Ashburton Resort. Phone 9184 6586 email: admin@ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Gnaraloo Station
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
Website: Gnaraloo.com.au
Steep Point
Steep Point Ranger for booking campsites.  
Phone: Paul Dickson - Steep Point 9948 3993
Dirk Hartog Island
Kieran Wardle:  08 99481 211   Mob: 0407 383 449
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 to December 2011 with photos @

And from January 2012 onwards with photos @

And from January 2013 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