Just got back from spending a the week up at Kalbarri. We hired the 7.8m walkaround on tuesday 25/11 from our friend Laurie at Murchison Boat hire, who also came out with us. Last week i read a report on fishwrecked about some macks and tuna being caught and persuaded laurie to give trolling a shot.

We went south, trolling around wagoe cos Laurie reckoned the weather would get too bad to fish north. An hour or two into it my brother, Shane, got this 8kg beauty onboard, the earliest mack Laurie has ever caught (apparently he's usually lucky to get a couple by christmas if that). After this he said this was a freak incident and that "we probably wouldnt see another one for a few weeks".

Well within half an hour marcus, my friend on holiday from singapore, was hooked onto this 12kg YFT. We soon found out this was his first fish and was really struggling to handle the sheer strength of the fish. It made for a very amusing 20mins where screams like "i dont care about this fish anymore", "someone hold onto me", "i need water, give me some water" and "i cant take this sh!t anymore" were heard. After his near-death experience and some laughs Laurie told me i should take over to save marcus, the fish and my rod+reel. Even then it took another 10mins or so for me to land it with a tighter drag and more experience. Either way well done to marcus!

Lines were back out again after the photos, and within 5mins Andrew hooked up to this 10kg beauty! Laurie was totally amazed by these early season macks, suggesting that this season should be very very good.

Soon after we thought we'd try bottom fishing. Laurie had told me to bring up some okta jigs so i brought up a green shimano one and a red gillies one just to try out. I got this one on the green one on my second cast. This estuary cod really made up for a year of just crap fishing so i was stoked to say the least!

Other than that cod bottom fishing was pretty average with few bites and 1 undersize Dhuie (49cm). Stan was the only one left who hadnt caught anything, but soon made up for it by catching this monster on a whole squid. As it was slightly longer than a metre, it had to be released, which took some time cos it was full of air (but still had lots of life in it). It was successfully released after about 10-15mins.

All in all a great day out!! 5 happy fishermen and a huge thanks to Laurie Malton from Murchison Boat Hire (www.murchisonboathire.com.au) who hired us the boat and showed us around. He really knows the kalbarri waters and is also a game fishing and tailor expert, holding several WA and National line class records for tailor.

(sorry its a little long, just trying to make it as informative/readable as possible!)