February 2005

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE FEBRUARY 2005 NEWSLETTER
The weather is improving, the wind has dropped off, the swell has gone down and the best time of year is nigh.
Ashley Waite and Jeremy Watson come up every year around this time and have extraordinary luck! Last year they got into some big yellow-fin tuna and this year they brought along a mate Chris Firns to show him how it is done. The first day of a 2-day hire with our 5.3m boat was not the best and they returned with only a couple of fish. A baldchin and small skippy made up the catch. With better weather the next day the mackerel and tuna came out to play. They got stuck into a mackerel each; with Jeremy landing the biggest around 11kgs and Chris’s was around 8kgs. Ashley dropped down in tackle size and played around with a light spin reel and 8kg line landing one mac, a small yellow-fin tuna and dropping a second mac. All hooked around the Sand Patch in 22m of water. They then found some cray pots in 18m of water and had a slow drift, picking up 7 snapper. Chris was happy with his first double header of pinkies. A nice baldchin groper and yellow-fin tuna completed Jeremy’s catch.

Snapper and mackerel in one day
Jeremy’s biggest mac

Matt Rafferty and his group of six, Sean Rasmussen, Mark Nicholson, Steve Haydock, James Knight and Kim Taylor had the 6.1m boat for 3 days mid Feb and were lucky to put 3 good days weather wise together. 12kg and 10kg macs was a welcome sight combined with a snapper and some reef fish the first day Followed by a blinder of a second day when the macs went ballistic. Every boat out that day caught mackerel. Of the group only Sean missed a mac as he elected to go bream fishing in the river the second and best day!! While Steve’s hangover limited his chance and he remained static in a corner of the boat for the day! The third day with fine weather resulted in every boat out that day, coming home empty! Funny how it goes??

They caught 6 mackerel over the three days. Looks like redheads were the lure of choice

Our local comp this month on the 19th ended up a really good weather day. Sue myself and no. 2 son Jared started the day with a troll trying to pick up a mac on 3kg line to no avail. The water temp was 22.2 degrees – far too cold so decided to try game snapper on 2kg line. I know a spot that I try to keep secret in shallow water, 8 metres deep. Anything deeper and the difficulty with 2kg line increases dramatically. Anchoring on the spot I was the first down and got hammered before touching bottom but the fish went under a ledge and stayed put. Sue hooked up as soon as she was down and 10 minutes later had a 2.65kg snapper on deck. I kept getting ledged and bust off and Sue landed 4 snapper winning her the game section! I eventually got one up but it was less than 2kgs so did not count as a game capture. Son Jared caught one and a couple of cod before retiring seasick.
Sue’s snapper both 2.65kgs on 2kg line

I noticed on the sea surface temperature chart that a warm current had flowed into Kalbarri and shot out the next available fair weather day. Well, when I got out there the water was cold, only 22.2 degrees. It should have been 23/24 according to the chart, must have by-passed Gantheume Bay again! We had a go for a mac all the same but I was not very confident. I did all the right things, had a spread of different lures and two teasers out but nothing. Just as we were about to pull in Paul got a hit, which turned out to be a spotted mackerel. Also his first lure caught fish he said. We get them occasionally, not very big here and usually around Jan/Feb.

Paul with his first lure caught fish, a spotted mackerel

We are getting into the time of year when there are lots of mud crabs in the river. As the water temp increases, out they come, where from who knows?
Muddies have been in the Murchison of as long as I can remember but the size of them has lately has continued to surprise me. They are getting bigger and in more numbers than ever and from now on until about May it is quite easy to go out in the dinghy and get a feed of big muddies, bring them home, cook them up in your favourite chilli mud crab recipe. My mouth waters at the thought of it!
Drop netting for them is the way to go. Half a dozen nets and some oily fish heads seem to do the trick. I just drop the nets in the deeper holes along the river and then go for a fish while those big fisted stalk-eyes sidewalk into the centre of the net to rip the bait apart. Give it twenty minutes or so and pull the nets up fast. Try and contain it in a bucket, as it will terrorise your crew if it escapes and scuttles about the boat! How the Fisheries Department then expects you to measure the thing beats me. There is no way that I am going to put my hand into a bucket with an angry unpredictable hydraulic bolt cutter, hold it up and try to measure it! To me it’s either well over or well under, make the decision, keep it or turf it. They’re green mud crabs up here, have to be 15cm to be legal, most make it quite easily and the bag limit of 10 is heaps for a feast.
Best time seems to be the run-out tide. Sometimes when fishing on anchor on a run-out tide you can see them swimming in mid water heading down river with the tide. They are usually small ones; probably looking for new feeding areas, but probably proves that they are most active on the run-out. They can be caught at any time offcourse and sometimes they can be a menace by grabbing your bait set for bream or mulloway, and letting go just as you try to lift them from the water. But as always, late evening and into the night are prime times.
Drop netting from the service jetty at night has to be one of the most popular activities equally among locals as tourists. It’s where some of the biggest ones come from but as I said, the jetty is fished a lot so you have to strike it lucky that no one has been there before you. The recreational jetty near Bird Sit Island has a deep hole at the end and is always good at night both for good muddies and thumper bream.

One of the good things is the by catch of blue manna’s that enter the nets as well. Half of the catch will be these very tasty creatures, they don’t even have to be as big as a muddie to be size, 127mm does it and they have a lot of meat in their body that the muddies don’t have. A lot less aggressive, most of them have difficulty holding their claws up for very long so measuring them is a bit easier. At the bottom of the tide blue mannas can be scooped up anywhere where there are shallow sand or mud flats. Most of the good sand flats are across the other side but up river and on a good day the blue mannas are everywhere but you have to be quick!
So if you’re not catching fish there are always alternatives that taste as good if not better, it’s just a matter of getting out there and doing it.

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/ is not a bad one!

Laurie