August 2005

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE AUGUST 2005 ELETTER

You are no doubt aware of the unfortunate accident recently in Kalbarri. For my Eastern States and overseas readers who would not have seen the newspaper reports, the facts are: A 4.3m pressed aluminium dinghy with four experienced 50-60 year old Perth guys were returning from fishing around the Sand Patch. The weather was good with a 2m dropping swell. It seems that about 2km north of the river mouth they tended to come in too close to the shore line and unfortunately picked up a wave that turned them over. They all had life jackets on but looked like cheap non Aust Standard ones. Two made it to shore, one drowned and they pulled him onto shore and at the time of writing a 10 days later still no trace of the fourth!
My 6.1m boat crewed my Mal Craig and Wayne was on the scene first and assisted in the initial search until sunset. I spent 2 hours in the plane spotting to no avail. The following day 15 or so boats including both of mine searched the area from Red Bluff to the Sand Patch. Since then the swell has come up and 20 – 40 knot westerlies have blown, so it has been down to searching the beach north of the river. Not a good result and the whole town has been devastated.

Some big dhuies were caught last month. This is the time they migrate into shallower water and school up to spawn. They are easy to catch if you get onto a spot where they are aggregating around and there are many places that they do this, usually around a quality lump in fairly shallow water. When you find a spot, double headers are quite common, which makes the 2 fish bag limit sensible as you could clean out a spot very easily.

At the beginning of August I went up north to fish some of the creek systems around Point Samson with mates Lou Parker, Scotty Grant and Zac Goninon. We got to some quite remote creeks and had a ball catching fish as shown below. Dinghies that were small enough to manhandle into the water were the go and fishing was restricted to a couple of hours on the incoming and out going tide. After that the fishing shut down but still gave us time to catch mud crabs and explore the area.
Soldier crabs were everywhere on the mud flats at low tide
Average size threadfin
The biggest for the trip, a 5kg 80cm threadie for Lou Parker,

and a javelin fish on soft plastics for me

Jason Lowe and mate, Kamal, fished down south of the river around the Natural Bridge area last month picking up lots of nor west snapper and this big sand snapper for Jason. The second day out in the 5.3m boat they headed north picking up some good fish as well.
Sand snapper for Jason, caught down by Natural Bridge

Mal Brown with mates Craig and Wayne hired the 6.1m at the end of August getting the boat hire discount of $50.00 off the first day and $25.00 off the next two days because they were staying in my accommodation. See my website http://www.murchisonboathire.com.au/ and go to the accommodation page to see the great deals there.
They fished north of the river striking good weather days but not really getting into the fish. They did all the right things, had the right bait, tackle and spots but sometimes the fish don’t bite! They also assisted in the search for the lost fisherman. Mal sent an email with the following pics, and this is what he had to say.

“Gidday Laurie and Sue,
Thanks heaps for hiring us your boat. Rest assured that even with the unfortunate events that transpired, we had a ball. We have been keeping an ear out to the news, and have heard sadly that the fourth fisherman has still not been found.
The efforts of the Kalbarri VMR, is phenomenal. Could you please send the lady whom I was speaking to, a big vote of thanks from me.
On the fishing side, we had great fun!! A couple of baldies, 5 pink snapper, a smallish 4kg dhuie, an assorted other reefies like norwest snapper. Whilst the fishing wasn’t fast and furious, both Craig and myself appreciate the efforts you went to, to put us on the right spots to catch a few.
Once again thanks heaps to yourselves and KVMR!!!
Some photos of the fish attached.
Best wishes
Mal Brown”

Mal’s snapper.


Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Local Competition August 20th

I was out fishing the comp the two kids, Rebecca and Jared and another junior Lee Ivey. The kids did not do very well, Jared was seasick, Rebecca couldn’t get a bite and Lee kept snapping off on big fish. I managed 2 baldies a small sambo and a snapper to win the comp! I also let go two undersize dhuies one of which had a tag in it, caught almost on the same spot just over a year before and only growing 2cm.
Cheryl Eley had a near 1kg bream from the river. (Tagged and released)
Simon’s 2.95kg bonefish.
The beach guys had a good time, fishing somewhere south of the river, Simon Tarasek brought this bonefish in, caught on bait, while his mate Steve Westropp released two bonefish. They also weighed in snapper and baldchin from the beach!

Lou Parker with a 14kg early August dhuie, caught from his dinghy just before the Sand Patch
in 17m of water.

It made his good-sized snapper seem tiny.

These pics emailed to me from a mate in South Africa shows a massive trevally caught by Barry Dodds. They were caught on bait from a beach island in Mozambique. They call them kingfish there but looking at the website photos of the island resort where it was caught it is probably what we call a brassy trevally or might even be a slightly different coloured giant trevally. The island resort website is http://www.linene-island.com/ There are also pics of some massive giant herring on the website!

Now on the opposite side of the continent, an Angolan Beach and the catch: white steenbass,
A cold current sweeps the coast and black volcanic rocks make up the beach. The background country looks worse than Western Australia’s northwest! Info: http://www.aasafaris.com/
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

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

Laurie