Christmas 2005

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE CHRISTMAS 2005 ELETTER
A very merry Christmas to all!
The school holidays are in full swing now but town is still fairly quiet. Most people stay at home until after Christmas and then arrive in town en mass. The boats have booked up quite well during the Christmas/New Year period but still a few spaces after the New Year, but if you haven’t already booked accommodation there is no chance that you will get any. Nearly every room in town is booked out between Christmas and New Year!

Fish catches have improved remarkably with snapper and baldchin the main catches. The snapper are in close, sucking all the soft-shelled crays out of their holes in the reef. Anglers staying in my accommodation, “The Secret Waypoint” picked up loads of big snapper and a big baldies.

Ian Pilkington, son Matt, Phil Webster and Michael lush brought their own boat up and had a ball catching big snapper on light gear close in by the Sand Patch.

You can see they picked a few good days – getting fish each day

I am hoping for a mackerel for Christmas. They are usually about by the end of December but the water temp has to be at least 23 degrees. It’s not that yet.

With the slow start to the cray season, Bruno and my self spent a week or so pulling pots for little return. Getting 1’s, 2’s and 0’s and then it happened over night, just after the full moon. We got 10, 16, 11, 16, 16 and then 11 today 22nd Dec, all whites as shown below, what will tomorrow bring?

Easy to catch at this time of year, even the kids can do it! We got 22 size crays this morning, had to throw back 6 plus the 10 or so undersize ones!
Cray for Christmas lunch?

We have kept our pots in the same place and they continued to catch. Amateur cray licences are available at any post office or on line at http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/ or http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/, which is a mirror site. You may have 2 pots and catch 8 crays per day. We have two licences on my boat which is the max so we are permitted to pull 4 pots thus allowing us to catch 16 crays max. We share the crays, bait and fuel.

Ryan Jeffery booked the 6.1m boat waiting around for better weather mid December. When it came he went out with his mum Le-ann, Daniel Salmon and Bob Hattley. The day was quite good and after an early launch were soon at the Sand Patch. I told them that their best bet was to fish in close for pinkies and taking my advice were soon into a couple. A few drifts over the inshore reef in 18m of water secured the fish. The early sea breeze this time of year did not make it easy but they enjoyed the day.
Bob Hattley got the biggest while Daniel holds up his and Ryan’s

Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club, Wagoe weekend 5th December

Our weekend away comp this year was at Wagoe again and is a land based only comp. The big mulloway is the one reported in the Sunday Times at the beginning of the month, it went 19.5kgs. Caught by Cheryl Eley on Wagoe beach on the Friday night. We all thought she would win the day but Tristan Neumann came in with 7 fish - snapper, baldchin groper and sand snapper (sweetlip) to win.The weekend was rounded off with a BBQ and a rare sighting of the meteorite that lit up the sky before exploding in a green flash!

Theo Van Der Merve and a mate Richard Jarvis were up last month and caught some nice fish in the river from my dinghy. I asked him for some photos but none arrived, but he recently contacted me to say he had had a computer problem and that the photos were now available. He sent them on a CD, nice fish Theo! Caught in the river around Castle Rock they picked up mulloway and tailor on what was a bit of a rainy overcast day.
Richard Jarvis with small mulloway and Theo, feeling the cold, with a mulloway

We are coming into the best time of year. From now on there will be easy mackerel and tuna to be caught and the bottom fishing is at it’s best. The weather starts to fine up and the wind drop. It is also our busiest time with the boats. You will need to book if you want to be ensured a boat so plan ahead and don’t be disappointed.

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!

If you would like to recieve my newsletter by email each month just send a blank email to lasue@wn.com.au with the subject "Add to newsletter group" and one will be sent to you each month.

Big bait – big fish
Laurie