Things
are quietening down now that the end of the season is looming. It has been a
good year and
up on
boat hire bookings again this year. Still a few bookings to go yet before the demersal
closure
starting
15th October to 15th December.
Gnaraloo Trip
We had a good trip to
Gnaraloo again this month. The weather was very ordinary and we had to forfeit
two days to the dreaded wind!
However on the days
we did get out we got some good fish.
There have been a
couple of minor improvements to the station. They now have plumbed fresh water
to all the units, including the showers, which makes it
a lot more
comfortable at the end of the day. The road is still the same, corrugated and
rutted, but the last 4.5km to the homestead has been
upgraded and is very
nice.
We stayed in the Old
Homestead which is very comfortable with plenty of space for the 5 of us.
There was no shortage
of big mackerel and we had to stop fishing for them in the end as they were
getting in the way of the serious fishing.
Brian Mosley got a few
and a red emperor among the many fish he caught and lost.
When the bite was on
they came in thick,
John Hoye holds the biggest red for the trip at 9.5kg and
Brian holds his rankin cod.
We only kept the best
fish returning most. Red-throat emperor were in plaque proportions and to get
to
better fish we had to
move away from them. My normal red emperor spots failed to fire this time but
we found a patch on the
last day with help
from a mate, thanks Dave!
A coral trout for me
that went on the table that night
and a chunky rankin cod for Paul Youngman
Paul was pleased with
his red emperor while sue showed us how it was done when she realized there
were a few mackerel around,
grabbed her Stella
5000 with new Blue Sniper rod, tied on a big metal and jigged up this big
mackerel!
Sue got the most red
emperor
while John landed his first sailfish that took a hooked red-throat
emperor on his bottom gear,
wrapped its bill in
the leader and was landed without hooks!
We landed 10 red emperor,
a few rankin cod, caught coral trout, spangled emperor, estuary cod, tomato
cod, red-throat emperor, sharks,
mackerel, sailfish,
tuna, and a multitude of odds and sods from the bottom.
The best way to get
the boat out of the water is to be prepared! First up make sure you reduce your
tyre pressures down to 20lb.
Reverse the trailer
and the 4WD so that both sets of tyres (boat and trailer) are on steel mesh. I
supplied a set of mesh with each hire to
Gnaraloo this year.
Winch the boat onto the trailer and using a second vehicle, with a snatch
strap, tandem pull the boat out.
6.5m Boat Pair
Craig Rolls and mate
Andy hired both 6.5m boats with a bunch of mates, They went their own way and
caught different species of fish.
with one boat doing
better than the other.
Craig says in an
email to me:
Barry
Rolls travelled to Kalbarri which is 5 hours further north than he had
previously been since living in Perth for over 20 years.
On
his 1st ever boat fishing experience and fighting off sea sickness pulled in
this nice Gold-spot Trevally (his biggest ever fish) on a fairly light outfit
and after the fish had tangled itself around
the anchor rope. It was a 3 man effort but eventually the fish was pulled over
by hand
and Barry
has the cuts from the braid to prove it.
Craig
was surprised by how hard this parrot fish pulled but by far the prettiest fish
of the trip and great eating to!
All 9
of our group had a great time seeing whales, sharks and caught fish all
weekend. Everyone is keen to head up to Kalbarri again in the near future.
Thanks guys see you soon
Andy says in his
email
Our
Kalbarri Holiday....
Peter,
James, Danny, Rosa and Andy arrived in Kalbarri on Friday 12th of July
afternoon just before doing a quick dash of sightseeing at natures window,
what
a view. Got the boat ready and thought we were going to have an early
one!...wasn't the case.
After
a couple or a few too many beers the evening before at the local pub we all
weren't too crash hot to set sail first thing the next morning,
what
was a few sore heads and a bout of motion sickness was all forgotten once we
were out there and catching fish. Two days on the trot and between
5 keen fisherman we managed to catch 16
different species of fish between us.
We
have attached some photos for you to see. In the picture of 4, from left to
right Andy, Danny, James & Pete.
Rosa with
a club-nosed trevally
and James’s dhuie
Even
a golden trevally!
- Carpet
shark
- Pink
Snapper
- Trevally
- Wobbegong
(carpet shark)
- Dhufish
- Black
arse cod
- Baldchin
Groper
- Mullet
- China
man cod
- coral
trout
- Wrasse
- Skippy
- Spangled
Emperor
- Tropical
Fish
- Scorpion
Fish
- Morwong
And
all in days fishing we managed to see a tiger shark, numerous pods of dolphins
and loads of whales. Amazing!
Laurie
and Sue and the people in Kalbarri were great! Thank you for your amazing
hospitality and local knowledge of the great fishing spots.
We
have attached some photos for you to see. in the picture of 4, from left
to right Andy, Danny, James & Pete.
Thanks,
all of us.
Slow day that ends well
Reuben Osborne was
back for another shot at a good fish and came with mates Nick Sillem and Travis
Raymond.
The day started very
slowly with the group struggling to find fish in the 7.8m boat.
A series of small
fish made up the catch until Nick hit the jackpot with his first ever dhuie
Not a big one but
65cm is still a dhuie!
A short troll on the
way back went well for Travis Raymond when his rod started to scream.
This nice chunky
yellow-fin was the result.
Reuben caught a nor
west blowie, a wobbegong and a couple of small fish, but he says he will be
back to catch
what he hopes is his
first big fish!
Shark Bay Trip
Bryce Wilson and his
brother had a couple of great days up at Shark Bay with the 6.1m boat.
What wasn't expected
was this 40kg cod, at 1.1M brought in on a handline. After a couple of photos,
the poor old cod was
placed back in the water and sent on its way.
It was a great trip
and a pleasure to be on the 6.1m boat.
Some nice pink
snappers were brought in during the trip.
Out at Steep Point,
it was amazing to see a massive tuna school, some 300 metres plus in diameter
however not a lot of
tuna were biting the lures out the back.
Kalbarri Catches
Hi Laurie
Please find attached
a photo of our two best fish caught.
Thanks for providing
us the opportunity to hire a boat in Kalbarri, we had a ball.
Your professional
service and helpful knowledge was much appreciated. We look forward to using
your hire company again in the near future.
Kind regards
Shanon Sime
(That red emperor is
a pretty good catch! We don’t get them here very often well done!)
Crayfishing video
I have at last got
round to finishing my cray fishing video.
It has been selected
as one of the feature short videos on ABC Open, My Crazy Passion. https://open.abc.net.au/
Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club Local Comp.
20th July
A couple of red
emperor this month, came from out wide on a fairly ordinary day as well.
Red emperor and dhuie
for Graeme Black
and the same for Ron Neumann.
Each month I award Bite of the
Month to someone who catches the best fish from one of my boats.
Each month together with
Striketech reels I am giving away
a Striketech reel to the Bite of the Month winner.
Craig Rolls gets bite
of the month with this delightfully coloured male surf parrot fish. A very
unusual catch as it
is usually only the brown/blue females that get caught. They are weed eaters so
do not usually feed
on protein, but the
females sometimes do when they need the protein to breed.
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: Art
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
Website: www.ashburtonresortonslow.com.au
Gnaraloo
Station
Gnaraloo contacts for accommodation:
Barbara: 9315 4809
Email: bookings@gnaraloo.com.au
Website: Gnaraloo.com.au
Steep Point
Steep Point Ranger for booking campsites.
Phone: Paul Dickson -
Steep Point 9948 3993
Email: Ranger@steeppoint.com.au
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!
