Author Archives: 9lochie

About Me (Lochie)

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I am 15 years old. I have lived in Kalbarri for 15 years. Kalbarri is located on the West Coast of Australia, about 650km North of Perth. I have a family of four. I have an older brother that is 19, a mother and a father. I have a pet dog named Ziggy, he is a Labradoodle and he is 2 years old. My interests are fishing/cliff fishing and spearfishing. I’ve been fishing since I was three. I started cliff fishing when I was 7 years old and intend to follow in my Dads shoes. The best fish I have caught cliff fishing is a Pink Snapper and intend to catch a 25kg Spanish Mackerel like my Dad.

Kalbarri is almost surrounded by water. On the west side of Kalbarri is the Indian Ocean and on the East side of Kalbarri is the Murchison River. Kalbarri is famous for its great fishing and surfing. One of the most famous places for surfing is Jakes Point. Most of Kalbarri is just dirt, mud, sand and rock. In summer it gets really hot, the hottest it has gotten is 47⁰C and in winter it can get to 6⁰C at night and in the early mornings.

I am good at running, fishing, spearfishing and sleeping. This year we had a running carnival and I came champion boy and my friend came runner up. The biggest fish I have caught is a 18kg Spanish mackerel and a 80+ kg bronze whaler shark.

Smoked Lemon Tuna Recipe

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The ingredients that you will need to make Lemon Smoked Tuna will be:

. 2 Tablespoons of olive oil

. 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice

. 2 Tablespoons of lemon pepper seasoning

. Salt and pepper for taste

. 2 Tablespoons of minced garlic

. 1 Lemon, sliced

 

1. About an hour before you want to start cooking, combine your olive oil, lemon juice, lemon pepper seasoning, salt, pepper, and minced garlic together and rub it directly on both sides of the tuna steaks. Place a slice of lemon directly on each of your tuna steak fillets. Make sure your lemon tuna steaks are either sitting on ice or left in the refrigerator to keep them chilled during this time.

2. Light you charcoal smoker approximately 30 minutes, or 10 minutes before with a gas grill, before you want to start cooking.

3. Wrap your wood chips in an aluminium foil pouch or a metal smoker box. Punch holes in the foil pouch to let the smoke escape out the top.

4. Next simply put your tuna steak fillets on the grates of your smoker.

5. Check the lemon smoked tuna about a half hour into the smoking time and flip your tuna steaks. Be careful that the tuna doesn’t flake apart and fall through the grates by using a large spatula that can slide completely under the tuna steaks. Smoke the tuna for another half hour and your tuna should be ready to take off the smoker and serve. Garnish the lemon smoked tuna with a freshly sliced lemon.

 

The cooking time for the tuna is around 1 hour. Some people like their tuna rare or in sushis but you want your tuna in the smoker for a while for it to absorb the smoky flavour.

 

 

Spanish mackerel recipe

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Ingredients

  • 4 x 150 g Spanish mackerel cutlets
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika, or to taste
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika, or to taste
  • ½ tsp ground cumin
  • 1 cup flat-leaf (Italian) parsley leaves
  • 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 150 g cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if bigger
  • olive oil, for cooking

Instructions

Check the mackerel for errant scales. Mix both the paprikas together with the cumin and ½ tsp salt and sprinkle this spice mix evenly over the flesh parts of the cutlets.

Allow the fish to sit out at room temperature while you make the salad.

Toss the parsley, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil with some salt and pepper in a bowl until the leaves are well coated. Add the tomatoes and toss a few times more.

To cook the fish, heat a barbecue hotplate to high. Drizzle the cutlets with a little olive oil and grill on each side for about 4 minutes or until nicely browned and the flesh has changed colour right through. A good way to check if the cutlets are cooked is to use your tongs to grab the backbone and give it a wiggle. If the fish is cooked through, the bone will be very loose. If the fish is still a bit firm and stuck to the bone, then continue cooking.

Serve the fish with the salad and potatoes or even some couscous or quinoa.

 

 

mushroom rock fishing

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I woke up at 6 am on the Saturday morning and left at 6:30 am and headed down to Kayden’s place with my beach rod and a bag full of bait. We started our trek down to Mushroom Rock in the freezing cold.

 

When we got there we couldn’t feel our hands or fingers it was that cold. We got out rods and reels ready so we just had to cut our bait up. I took out a bunch of octopus out of a plastic bag that I caught at Wagoe a little while ago. It was still frozen but was a little thawed out so I decided to cut some of it up. I took out my knife and stupidly cut towards me and then my knife sliced through the octopus and then went into my knuckle. I washed my hand in a little puddle of water for around 20 min and took off my jumper and put that on it and applied pressure but it didn’t stop bleeding. So I decided to run home to clean it up and put some butterfly strips on it to pull the cut together.

 

When I got back to mushroom rock the sun had just started to come up over the cliffs and shone onto the water. I started fishing for 10 min and got a couple rock cod but chucked them back because they aren’t that good eating. When it was 9:20 I decided that we should start to pack up. As we were leaving I looked out at the ocean and saw a pod of dolphins around 20 – 30 dolphins chopping through a bait ball but was out of casting distance so we didn’t bother trying to cast any lures.

 

Later that day I caught up with some friends and did the maze at the Rainbow Jungle which was really good. In the maze there are two towers and you had to get to both of them. At the end we decided to play hide and seek. One person is on the tower and they have to guide the person that was it around the maze because they had to close their eyes, and they had to find the people that were hiding. We did that for about 20 min and then after a while we got bored so we decided to go into town and watched the girls play netball from 3:30 to 6.

 

After a long day of being outside since 6 am – 6 pm it was time to head home and get ready for fishing again in the morning.

 

Queensland Holiday (shooting)

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We drove two hours to get to my uncles farm. We continued driving for an hour with my Dads and my uncles rifles in the back of the Ute hoping to see something out and about. We were hoping to see if there were any pigs in the water holes, but we saw nothing.

 

We stopped in a little gully and placed an empty jerry can about 30 – 40 metres away and had a little shooting practice.

 

Later that day we went to a deep waterhole and was hoping it had a few fish in it. After half an hour of casting lures I hooked up on a small yellow belly. It wasn’t quite size so I chucked it back. We stayed there for a couple of hours attacking the water with lures praying for a fish to hook up. After a little elbow grease Dad hooked up onto a small yellow belly as well. When the sun became black we decided it was time to go and get ready to go spotlighting.

 

Dad and I were on the back of the car looking if anything was out and about while Daniel was inside the car using the spotlight. We saw a bunch of cats and foxes but they slipped away into the thick dead shrubs. We drove slowing past this small waterhole and we saw this huge boar. We couldn’t see it because the spotlight was getting caught on the muffler. Dad took a shot but didn’t get it. After a cold hour and a half we decided it was time to head back. We started to drive past some dead grass and heard something running away. It was a young boar only starting to grow its tusks. It took a few shots to take down and I forgot to block my ears on the first shot and I was 30 cm away from the gun so my ears were ringing.

After a few photos we headed off to see what else we could find.

 

Later on we saw a couple of foxes and got both of them, but could only find one.

 

After a cold night we decided it was time to head back and lay in a warm bed.

 

 

My Weekend Adventure

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On the weekend Kayden and I went fishing on his boat. When we left the River Mouth it was a bit choppy and started to rain. We kept on heading out West through the heavy rain and rough seas until the sky came blue. We looked on the horizon and saw a rainbow. We thought that seeing a rainbow was good luck. Well after a couple of minutes the one rainbow became a double rainbow and we thought yew beauty. So much for that thought of good luck, because not long after it all changed. The motor shuddered to an instant stop and nothing we did would make it start again. We called up the VRM and asked for a toew in. It was a long 40 minute tow into the River Mouth.

 

After we hauled the boat onto the trailer I asked Kayden if he wanted to go for a ride to Wagoe to see if the big swell had washed up any treasures. We drove 20 km which ended up being 35 – 40 minutes. We drove through a couple patches of heavy rain but that didn’t stop us. Once we followed the winding tracks through the sand dunes we eventually ended up on the beach.

 

We drove north a few kilometres towards the cliffs and Kayden found a lure but had no hooks and a broken bib. We stayed there for a good hour climbing the sand dunes and pushing rocks off the cliffs. After we got bored we decided it was time to start heading more south. As we were riding something shiny caught my eye. I turned around and it was a gaff sticking out of the sand. I yanked it out of the sand and thought this must be my lucky day.

 

We arrived home at 5 o’clock, washed down the bikes and had a shower and were ready for dinner.

 

I sat on the couch and fell asleep. But when I woke up, I wondered… was that real or was it a dream?

 

My Birthday

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Today was my 15th birthday. It started off with some pancakes and a coffee for breakfast. After my belly was full I went to have a shower and got ready for school.

When I got to school everyone wished me a happy birthday which was nice. Harry gave me a bar of Oreo chocolate but there won’t be any left after a few days. At lunch time Sam also gave me a bar of Oreo chocolate. So now I have two.

When school finished we came home and I opened my presents. I got some money, a bag, some clothes and a BCF voucher. I haven’t decided what to buy yet.

When I finished opening my presents I went into the vege garden to see how my plants are going and to see how the chook is going.

When I came upstairs I talked to my Nanna for a little bit and then had a shower because we were going out for dinner at Finlay’s. I had Red Throat Emperor, Daniel had steak and Mum had calamari.

When we finished we sat around the fire for a little bit and then went to the Kalbarri Cafe to get an ice cream. We went to the park to eat our ice creams while playing on the swings. Daniel and I went on the little kid swings and Mum went on the older kid swing. Daniel and I flipped upside down with our legs looped around the chain and got a little bit light headed with all the blood rushing to our heads.

When we got bored we decided it was time to head on home. When we got home we had a shower and laid on the couch for a little bit, until I decided to write on my student blog.

 

Queensland Holiday (part 2)

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Start of part two

 

When we got onto the plane we found our seats and asked the guy next to us to make sure that we got the right seats. When we found out that we were at the right seats we put our stuff underneath the person’s seats in front of us and sat down. Later on a guy and his family sat down next to us. His name was Charlie. He was a nice bloke. We talked to him for about half an hour. Our plane trip took a long and boring four and a half hours. When we got halfway, we got some dinner. The food was lamb steak and vegetables. After that the plane had little TVs on the seat in front of you. I watched ‘The Martian‘ and Daniel watched the new ‘Star Wars‘. When the movies finished we were about 10-15 minutes out of Brisbane.

When the plane landed we called mum up to let her know that we got in Brisbane safely. When we exited the walk way we saw Dad standing with a happy and excited look on his face. He was shocked to see how much we have grown and that I am nearly the same height as him. We then walked to the baggage collection to get our bags. We waited for 20-30 minutes until our bag came out. We kept on saying that it is probably the last bag there, but we were the second last, a baby pram was the last one. We then left the Brisbane airport and then drove maybe an hour to one of my Uncle’s places to stay for the night. When we got to his place we had some dinner and some sweets. For dinner we had scrambled eggs and for sweets we had ice cream and chocolate pudding.

After that we started to play 1 and a half hours of pool. We then put our stuff away and got ready for bed thinking of what we will do the next day.

 

End of part 2

Queensland Holiday

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On the second week of the school holidays Daniel and I went to Queensland to see my Dad. We woke up at 5 AM in the morning to drive to Perth. When we got to Perth we went to Karrinyup shopping centre to get some food. We then went to Karrinyup Waters Resort to book our accommodation. At that night for dinner we went out to Sizzlers. I had pumpkin soup, Mum had chicken soup and Daniel had steak. After that we went to Time Zone and stayed there for an hour and a half. We played a bunch of games and one was you had a hammer and you had to smash it on a button and see how hard it was. Daniel had the first go and his highest score was 903. Than I had a go after him and my highest score was 901. I was pretty chuffed with that. After that we went back to Karrinyup Waters and stayed up a little bit watching TV and then went to bed.

We woke up at 7 o’clock to have a shower and get ready so we would get to the airport early and have plenty of time to sit and relax and not rush around. We went through security and walked upstairs to have some food and a coffee. After that we sat down at our gate number and waited for the lady to say the plane is ready to leave. When she said the plane was ready and everyone had to board we stood up and walked to the back of the line so our tickets could get scanned. When our tickets got scanned we said our final goodbyes to Mum and walked onto the plane.

And that’s when our adventure began.

End of part one

 

 

My Weekend

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Day 1

My weekend was great!

On Saturday Kayden and I went for a dive at Chinamans to see if we could catch any crays. The water was clear and cool. We swam to the reef and saw a bunch of little fish. We started to look under ledges but saw nothing. We were looking for 10-15 minutes but saw nothing.

I then looked under a big hole under the reef and saw 3-4 massive crays. I tried to loop one but missed. I swam around the reef and grabbed a big one. Its back was so big I couldn’t Wrap my hands around it. I tried to pull it out but it slipped out of my hands. I went back to the hole and looped one of the crays. When I looped one of the crays I didn’t hold on to the pole. So when it was swimming like crazy it loosened the loop and swam out. Kayden got really close to looping one as well. He went under the ledge and tried to loop one of the Crays but missed. We went to another reef close by. We saw a few big crays but couldn’t get them. We stayed in the water for a few more minutes and then went in.

On that night Kayden and I went for a night fish at Witticarra. We went there at 7:30pm and came back at 9:30pm. We didn’t catch anything.

Day 2

At 6pm Kayden and I went for another night fish at Witticarra. We stayed there at 6pm and came back at 8:30pm.

At about 7 o’clock we both started to get gets bites. But we didn’t catch anything.

At 8:10pm I started to wind in to see if I had any bait left, and I was snagged. I tried to unsnagg myself but didn’t work. So I had to hold onto my spool and walk back, to break the line.

After that we started to pack up and started to head home.