October 2005

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

MURCHISON BOAT HIRE OCTOBER 2005 ELETTER

No newsletter last month! Had a serious computer crash due to a virus. I was expecting a quote with some prices and when I opened an email with the subject “prices” things started to happen in a worrying way. Too late! A reformat of the hard disc sorted it out but we decided on an upgrade, which took another week to deliver and a fair bit of time sorting it all out and re entering 650 newsletter emails!
Besides, shocking weather last month meant few hires and few fish photos equals limited newsletter content!

Nick Carrol from NSW joined his mates from all over Australia for their bi-annual trip to Dirk Hartog Island. He organised my 6.1m boat from NSW and took it up with another boat to Denham where they launched both boats and drove them over to the Dirk Hartog Island Homestead, anchoring them in the Homestead Bay and stayed at the Homestead. Each day venturing out and about the island. I watched the weather map for the 10 days that they were away, it did not look the best but with the island they can shelter one side or the other. They ended up doing a fair bit of land based fishing and did well on a number of species such as baldies and snapper and tailor. I asked for pictures but sorry, none turned up!

The 4.3m dinghy was busy over the school holidays, going out nearly every day. The tides were very low so not much water under the boat but everyone enjoyed their day out. Anglers were mostly plagued by undersize bream further up river, but the bigger bream and lots to tailor came from around the moorings and jetties. Bait and small chrome slices did the damage.
John Millar went out in the 4.3m with wife Jacquie and son Jake and had a ball catching these 32 to 38cm tailor. Jake landed 4 of them, being very pleased with himself. You made “Bite of the Month” for September, Jake, check it out at “Biteofthemonth”

John Millar and son Jake with their catch

When size bream were caught they were thumpers. Chris Miller’s 1.5kg fish caught during our monthly fishing comp this month was the biggest for the year.

The land based guys and girls are doing well, Brad McGhie and girl friend Wendy Sullivan fished from the Oyster Reef across the river picking up some very nice snapper like shown below. Fishing with mulies as bait they picked them up mainly on the turn of the tide 9pm, 1am, and even during the day. That’s dedication for you! The big one weighing 8kg was caught by Daniel Tarasek but held by Wendy.

The river silted up very badly this year. Getting in and out has been quite hard as there has only been 300mm of water at low tide. Pushing and pulling to get through has been the norm as you can see from the pic below before dredging. The black dot in the river is in fact one of the rocks that is usually in the middle of the river and the channel was 50m to the north of it, which is dry land now! The dredge has been working since 10th October and the channel is now open and navigable.

Before dredging.

Dredging in progress, you can see the channel being cut through dry land.


The Kalbarri Sports Fishing Classic is on the agenda and the Kalbarri Offshore & Angling club is busy with organising it all. To be held next year on the 3rd, 4th and 5th March 2006. We are printing glossy flyers this year and encouraging pre-entry so that all the details can be on the computer before the comp starts, making it a lot easier. We will be giving away metal commemorative badges, as it is our 20th anniversary comp. Don’t ask, both bigger boats are booked for the comp! If you would like an entry form, let me know and I will post one out to you. There is an individual river section and 3 boat size sections in game and bottom as well.

Richard Hay was out with son Martin and Katherine Hay and friends Greg Goddard and Suraya Harharah. Waiting for the best day they went up north in the 6.1m boat catching a variety of fish including a big Red-throat emperor for Katherine and a shark for Martin.

They all caught fish such as pink snapper, red-throat emperor, baldchin groper, undersize dhuie, a sambo (released) and the shark but the really big ones eluded them!

Every October School Holidays, the Kalbarri Offshore and Angling Club, hosts a whiting competition for kids on each Thursday of the holidays. It has been very popular in the past and it proved to be so these holidays. With thanks to SunSmart as our major sponsor this year we were able to give out some great prizes. We had 114 excited kids registering on the first Thursday fishing around the Sand Spit, for any fish.
Some of the 114 kids and parents on the Sand Spit the first day

Rules of the comp allow any fish to be caught, kept in a bucket and brought to the weigh-in live, weighed and then released. The Volunteer Sea Search and Rescue and the Police 4WD quad bikes gave kids a lift to the weigh station saving them the long walk over the sand.
There where 18 prizes each day including 6 rods and reels each day for species, smallest, biggest, most, most unusual etc. Two sections were competed for, under 8s and 9 to 14 years. The quality and diversity of the species caught showed that the river is in good condition. Unlike last year when most of the fish were whiting, this year lots of blowies were weighed in. Alex Knight in the over 8s caught the biggest whiting of 106grams, which won him one of the 6 rods and reels for his efforts. While Sophie Ellis, under 8s, won a rod and reel for her whiting of 68grams. Each day we finished off with a lunchtime sausage sizzle and prize giving. Murchison Boat Hire offered a one-day free hire of their 4.3m dinghy as a raffle prize each day. Murchison River Cruises donated two river cruises and Kalbarri Surf Shop, Kalbarri Sports and Dive and Kalbarri Entertainment Centre also donated prizes.

The second Thursday saw a record 136 kids line up on the Sand Spit with the biggest whiting of 90g going to Andrew Grayson in the 8-14 age group while Jeb Duigan won a rod and reel for his 70g whiting in the under 8s. About 1200 fish were caught and released over the two days in four hours! Species recorded were as follows: blowies, whiting, trumpeter, tailor, black bream, silver bream, gobble guts, crabs, flathead, yellow-eye mullet and spangled perch, a total of 11 species.


Featured website this month is http://www.travellingwa.com/ quite a comprehensive site on travelling around Western Australia.

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!


Big bait – big fish
Laurie

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