murchisonboathirefishing2012: May 2012

Email: lasue@wn.com.au www.murchisonboathire.com.au

Great weather this month set the trend for good catches. Those picking the right days landed lots of mackerel

and tuna. There has been big numbers of cobia being landed, they seem to be associated with whales and whale sharks, so

never miss the opportunity to cast a popper, stick bait or mulie to them. They will hold good cobia.

Adventure Bound TV Show

Lee Raynor and Ryan Thipthorp spent 3 days last month filming from my boats. The episodes are showing in Sydney and Melboune

with Perth and Brisbane following soon.

Brisbane: Fri 9:30pm. Perth: Mon 9.30pm. Sydney: Fri 8:00pm. Melbourne: Sat 7.30pm. Adelaide: Thurs 7:30pm

They sent me a copy of the three episodes, a big tailor session, demersal and a pelagic episode. They are quite specy.

This week on CH31 is the final episode in Season 12 of Adventure Bound and it's a ripper! Lee completed his trip at Kalbarri and along with Perth local Ryan Thipthorp,

the guys fish some offshore areas using a mixture of surface lures, jigs and trolling to catch everything from big

cobia on the surface, spanish mackerel trolling to yellow fin tuna jigging.

Brisbane and Perth will follow soon. Check out their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/adventureboundtv.

TVS 44 Sydney times:

Friday, 8 June 8:00pm Saturday, 9 June 9:00am Sunday, 10 June 4:00pm Friday, 15 June 8:00pm Saturday, 16 June 9:00am

Don't forget Adventure Bound starts on Foxtel Aurora channel Wednesday night at 7.30pm.

The first six shows we will be running some of their hand picked favourites.

For all of you who haven't been able to see Adventure Bound we hope you enjoy it!

They are still also airing Season 12 on Channel 31 and TVS!

Mackerel Islands Trip

Jeff Hitchins reports on his trip up to the Mackerel Islands early this month.

My 6.1m and 6.5m boats swing on anchor first thing in the morning at Thevenard island.

Just to let you know, we had a great trip at the Mackerel Islands. The boat went fantastic (but as I indicated, one or two minor issues with the echo sounder,

didn’t stop us catching fish though).

On the trip we caught coral trout, spanish mackerel, blue bone, crimson perch,

red emperor, red throat emperor, NW snapper, rankin cod, spotted cod, chinaman fish, cobia and lots of sharks.

Nat and Jeff Hitchins with a pair of good gold-spot trevally, and some pelagic action.

Nat encounters a shark or two during some very fine weather.

Jeff with a great chinaman cod.

The crew on Thevenard are very helpful, friendly and on a Sunday night they put on a free BBQ.

Facilities for filleting and cleaning fish were excellent, there was even a small inflatable boat to take us out to our mooring when you wanted.

The weather was great, with a bit of wind in the morning and flattening out in the afternoon.

There was a lot of coral spawn in the water and water temperature was 26 – 27 degrees so there were not a lot of spanish mackerel around,

however we did catch 5 or 6 while we were there.

With lots of sharks around, it was recommended by a couple of guys who have fished there many times, to only use one

baited line (sharks strike second bait rather than your catch!)

Can highly recommend Thevenard as a fishing destination and we are planning to rebook for next year.

Tight Lines

Jeff, Steve & Nat

Bit of sad news: The Mackerel Islands fishing camp on Thevenard Island is closing from end June until further notice.

Seems that the big Wheatstone Gas development up there has more or less taken over the camp accommodation.

Accommodation is near impossible to get in Onslow now, due to the influx of workers on the project.

However the lone shack on Direction Island will still be open so you can still go there.

Kalbarri Delights

Michael Mac Shane was up last month hiring 3 boats, the two 6.5ms and the 7.8m for 2 days our from Kalbarri.

The group got onto quite a few fish and Michael sent the following YouTube clips.

The weather was kind except for one of the days when a severe squall came through which was not on the forecast.

They managed to get back safely, but were asked to standby at the Sand Patch while the Kalbarri Sea Search and Rescue tried to

determine where a mayday call was coming from. Eventually it was located about 100km north west and that the boat had

sunk and the crew were in their sea kayaks! They were very lucky to be rescued by another boat.

See the video of the 7.8m boat coming through the river mouth in very ugly conditions!

Watch out, some bad language can be heard!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxcikWAjx0A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX6VaSSpe54&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsbQ4nyKkyI

A good day out.

Peter Robinson and Ian Hook were out in the 7.8m boat in a much anticipated trip. Neither had done much fishing, but it

did not take long for Ian to hook up to a nice mulloway just past the Sand Patch. Not a bad fish for someone who rarely fishes, but

on the second drift over the well lit up patch resulted in a second fish! Peter just shook his head in disgust.

On the way back lures were set and Peter redeemed himself with a small mackerel. However 5 other mackerel were dropped over a half hour session.

Your two mulloway make Bite of the Month on my website Ian!

Borewors Fishing Club – Kalbarri trip 2012

At 10.30pm on Thursday 24 May the BFC members assembled at their usual meeting point on Wanneroo Road – 8 members plus "Pops". 1 Cruiser,

2 Pajeros and 2 boats (with a third to be collected from Murchison Boat Hire in the morning). The Plan – be on the water in Kalbarri at sunrise.

Into the night went the convoy. All went smoothly until about an hour out of town the chatter on the radio turned into a discussion between the

2 Pajero drivers as to why each of their cars was flashing some warning light that nobody knew existed and had no idea what it was.

Alas following some deductive reasoning it was determined it was an icy road warning as the outside temperature had hit 0 degrees Celsius

on what turned out to be the coldest May night in WA for 98 years!. Too cold? No!!! We kept going. Following a couple of driver rotations and a toasted sanger in

Gero the BFC arrived in Kalbarri over an hour before sunrise. The wind was Easterly so everyone deduced the Arctic had moved to Central Australia as it was freezing.

After a hop over to Murchison Boat Hire to pick up Tokoloshe (aka the fish magnet) the crew blasted out in choppy conditions covered from head to toe in whatever

waterproof clothing one could muster. When finally the throttles were eased back to tie on the wooden fishies, everyone agreed on one thing –

the water was damn salty.........we were living the dream (as Andrew L kept reminding us).

Friday was just a warm up – some Macky hook ups and some successful bottom bouncing. First bag of Biltong gone!

Friday dinner was Dhufish and Boerewors – job done!

Saturday brought far more pleasing temperatures and flatter seas as the boats left the River just after daybreak. After reaching the Boerewors secret location

the fun began – an 80lb trace was turned to fray as some great sea monster attacked – 1 wooden fishy gone!!!! After that each boat

enjoyed some good fishing using a variety of lures. The rigs were changed and the sinkers attached as the boats roared

off to the secret bottom bouncing location. Second bag of Biltong gone! A quick visit to the IGA on the way back to Camp Anchorage caused

Les significant emotional distress when the smartly dressed cashier announced "My God you stink!!!". The rest of us smiled and thought....Yes, living the dream.

That night after the fish clean up and some long hot showers it was Baldy, Snapper and Cod ......with Boerewors entree and a few beer chasers.....job done!

The final day delivered decent weather again and another early start was had. Laurie's trailer was already at the ramp having heard of the

good fortunes of the BFC on the previous day. Leave the fun to Laurie...not a chance...so throttle forward....thank god Tokoloshe is a 4 stroke!!!

The final morning brought some good fun and some great photos (including a double hook up), again on a variety of lures. Alas the fishing was over and time

to head back in before heading home – some mackerel in the freezer for some good BBQ action in the coming weeks and some let go to catch next time.

Until next year...tight lines!

Exploring WA

Lee Kirkman from the Gold Coast was over in WA with a couple of mates, exploring fishing spots, when he called into Kalbarri.

He was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the fishing! All caught on jigs and soft plastics!

Here is his story and pics.

Chris with a yellow-fin

and Lee with his 90cm snapper

and Stu's snapper.

On one of my stops on my exploring trip to the WA coast to plan future fishing trips was Kalbarri. I must say the little town of

Kalbarri was definitely a small piece of paradise. After seeing so many fish and so many fishing stories from clients coming and going, so it's

good to see you keep up that friendly smile and welcome feeling. I was so happy to see the quality of your boats and the maintenance upkeep is excellent.

With the rods going missing on the flight over from Gold Coast, thanks again for lending me one of your fishing rods.

The rod received a very good work out with 6 kg braid.

Normally it takes a couple of days in a new fishing spot sort out where and what works in that region, before any quality of fish or any type can be caught.

So to have one day out and catch as many jelly bean yellow fin as you want, long tail tuna to 20 kg and snapper to 4 - 8 kg on plastics and

jigs and a couple of critters that wanted to keep my jigs for there personal collection was fantastic.

The potential in that area must be great. All my fish where released and so happy that W.A has in

place rules & legislation to maintain the quality of your fishing for years to come.

Here is a couple of pics.

Thanks Again

Lee Kirkman

Gold coast

N.S.W