Goodbye and Thankyou Abrolhos Islands 2013

It has been another superb season for our Abrolhos Islands fishing and we cannot thank our crew and customers enough!

It literally feels like yesterday that we were getting our first trip on its way and now Aussie Warrior is back here at Hillarys and we have 3 months worth of fantastic memories and feedback.

Each year we aim to make our trips bigger and better and this just wouldn't be possible without the help from our crew. They pretty much live and breath the Abrolhos Islands for 3 solid months and spend most of their time on dry land in Geraldton away from their friends and family. Even in their down time they clean the boat and get ready for the next trip, showing true dedication to the job. They are on hand to our customers from the moment they step on the boat to the moment they step off and it has been amazing to hear the fantastic feedback they have received. We are very, very proud of the boys - Shaun our Skipper and Paddy and Mikey our Deckhands as well as Jake who helped out on our most recent trip.

The organiser of our most recent, and last, trip of the season had this to say:

"We have been doing an annual fishing charter for our Bunbury Toyota Managers for 15 years. In the past we have done live abroad at the Montenello's, Mackeral Islands as well as numerous day trips right across the state. Collectively we have never been on a charter anywhere that would even come close to what Mills Charters provided to us on our recent Abrolhos Islands Trip. The variety of fish we were able to catch was simply mind blowing. Aussie Warrior is the perfect vessel and was kept in tip top condition for the entire trip. Not to mention the food...that was top notch. What made the trip though was Shaun, Paddy, Mikey and Jake, these boys were an absolute asset to Mills Charters! These guys made the trip the experience that it was, I have no doubt that you will be seeing us again."

It's comments such as this that make all of the hard work everyone puts in so very worth it.

Mark and Tash who own the business have also put an incredible amount of effort into ensuring the guys have everything they need in order to make each trip the success that they are - Mark even attending a few of the trips himself. It's the seemingly little things like ordering the food for each trip that is done behind the scenes that also goes a long way to ensuring our customers are happy ones so a big thank you to Mark and Tash for constantly pouring your heart into the business.

Lastly but by no means least, a MASSIVE thank you to our customers, both new and repeat. Without you Mills Charters simply would not be and we count ourselves very blessed to have such an amazing customer base. There are those of you who we see regularly and have formed wonderful relationships with and those who we met for the first time this season and hope to see again. We promise to always raise our standard of customer care and endeavour to make each trip an even better one.

You make our working life a pleasurable one! Roll on next season :)

 

The Beauty of Abrolhos

With several Abrolhos Islands trips under our belt already, as you can imagine, we with have been inundated with photos of customers and their catches. There have been heaps of weird and wonderful species and fish of awesome sizes.

However in our quest to land our biggest catch yet we often forget the sheer beauty of the Abrolhos Islands and its pure serenity. Seeing as it is comprised of over 120 unspoiled islands it's no wonder that anyone who visits is met with sunsets and views that you'd be hard fetched seeing anywhere else.

So let's take a few moments to gaze over some of favourite photos from this season so far...

Abrolhos Islands Feedback 2013

Our Abrolhos Season is well under way and we have had some fatastic guests aboard Aussie Warrior!

Our crew have been working really hard to make sure they deliver the best experience possible so it has been amazing to hear some of the feedback our customers have had to say...

 

David Kelly

"Just returned from the Abrolhos trip dated the 19th to the 21st and I was keen to give some feedback. I tried the web site but could find where to send it so your getting it and I hope you can pass onto Mark, Shaun, Paddy and Mikey.

This was my first ever deep sea stay on board charter and I was a bit worried how things would go??? But I should not have been concerned one bit, Shaun , Paddy and Mikey were fantastic , made the trip fun and couldn't help out enough. Shaun was dropping us on fish almost every drop, and if there wasn't anything happening he would move us to where the action was. Paddy and Mikey were great deckhands and constantly made sure we all were feeling comfortable with everything we were doing, then on top of that they looked after us with great cooking .

The guys that came up with me were also really impressed with the guys professionalism and ability to make the trip fun as well, and we all wouldn't hesitate recommending this type of trip to our friends and we are also seriously thinking about coming back again next season.

Again that's for a great trip. "

 

 

Ashley Lyle

"G’day

We have some photo’s of our fishing trip attached if you wanted to use any. I’ll send them over a few emails as the file sizes are large.

We all had a great time on the Aussie Warrior, the crew definitely made the trip what is was. They (Shaun, Paddy and Mikey) did not stop the whole time we were out there, they are a credit to the organisation and a good team. Please thank them for us and keep them around for next year!"

 

Chris Fitzpatrick and Group
"Hi all, we have just returned from a 4 day fishing trip to the abrolhos islands on the aussie warrier.
To the 3 crew members shawn paddy mikey what a fantastic team great fishing. great food. and best of all a great team . It is a real credit to these 3 guys & mills charters.
Hope to see you on the next trip.

Regards from chris,dane,blake fitzpatrick. big len & steve mazga"

 

 

Dave Hunt Abrolhos Trip

Mills Abrolhos Season is well on its way and got off to a great start with Dave Hunt and his group who hired Aussie Warrior out privately for a 3 day trip departing on the 29th March.

Here's what some of them had to say about the trip:

"We had a ball - it was absolutely awesome. As a group it was really well catered for and we caught heaps of fish. The trip went above and beyond"

"The food was very good, quantity was great. We caught lots of fish and the quality and service all round was impressive."

"Good all over and we couldn’t find anything wrong. All 100% happy with it."

"The trip was great. It was well organised and we were looked after."

Abrolhos Islands

With our first Abrolhos Trip now well on its way it seemed only fitting to have a post about the Abrolhos Islands.

The Houtman Abrolhos (often informally called the Abrolhos Islands) is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia and it lies about eighty kilometres (50 mi) west of Geraldton, Western Australia.

It is the southernmost true coral reef in the Indian Ocean, and one of the highest latitude reef systems in the world.

It is one of the world's most important seabird breeding sites, and is the centre of Western Australia's largest single species fishery, the Western Rock Lobster fishery.

It has a small seasonal population of fishermen, and a limited number of tourists are permitted for day trips, but most of the land area is off limits as conservation habitat.

It is well known as the site of numerous shipwrecks, the most famous being the Dutch ships Batavia, which was wrecked in 1629, and Zeewijk, wrecked in 1727.

According to the surviving historical record, the first sighting of the Houtman Abrolhos by Europeans was by the Dutch VOC ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam in 1619, only three years after Dirk Hartog made the first authenticated sighting of what is now Western Australia, and only 13 years after the first authenticated voyage to Australia, that of the Duyfken in 1606. Discovery of the islands was credited to Frederick de Houtman, Captain-General of the Dordrecht, as it was Houtman who later wrote of the discovery in a letter to the directors of the Dutch East India Company:

"On the 29th do. deeming ourselves to be in an open sea, we shaped our course north-by-east. At noon we were in 29° 32' S. Lat.; at night about three hours before daybreak, we again unexpectedly came upon a low-lying coast, a level, broken country with reefs all round it. We saw no high land or mainland, so that this shoal is to be carefully avoided as very dangerous to ships that wish to touch at this coast. It is fully ten miles in length, lying in 28° 46."

The word Abrolhos is of Portuguese origin, making the Houtman Abrolhos one of only two Australian places with a Portuguese name, the other being Pedra Branca in Tasmania.

At last count, a total of 389 species of fish have been recorded from the Houtman Abrolhos. 16 species occur in very large numbers; in decreasing order of abundance, these are:

• Pomacentrus milleri (Miller's Damsel)
• Scarus schlegeli (Schlegel's Parrotfish)
• Stethojulis strigiventer (Stripebelly Wrasse)
• Coris auricularis (Western King Wrasse)
• Kyphosus cornelii (Western Buffalo Bream)
• Choerodon rubescens (Baldchin Groper)
• Chromis westaustralis (West Australian Puller)
• Thalassoma lutescens (Green Moon Wrasse)
• Scarus ghobban (Blue-barred Orange Parrotfish)
• Abudefduf sexfasciatus (Scissortail Sergeant)
• Thalassoma lunare (Moon Wrasse)
• Stegastes obreptus (Western Gregory)
• Halichoeres brownfieldi (Brownfield's Wrasse)
• Amblygobius phalaena (White-barred Goby)
• Asterropteryx semipunctatus (Starry Goby)
• Anampses geographicus (Scribbled Wrasse)

The Houtman Abrolhos also maintains a breeding population of Australian Sea Lions, probably numbering between 75 and 100 and these have been a favourite for our customers as well as the fishing on our trips.

MC.

Think Fishing is a Mans Sport? Think Again!

Now I'd be lying if I said I haven't always thought that fishing was more of a "mature gentleman's" sport...

But shut me up because the females and younger generations are excelling in this popular hobby and I've been forced to eat my own words!

Here at Mills we welcome people from all over the world, male and female and of all ages. And whilst we don't always recommend children under the age of 10 due to the nature of the business, that's not to say we haven't had plenty of youngsters aboard who have impressed us with their fishing skills! We often have couples enjoying the day out together or parents with their children and large families. What better way to spend quality time together, away from the busy world and in the sunshine.

When it comes down to participating in something you love, gender and age don't factor into the equation regardless of the labels we may subconsciously apply to certain activites.

Who knows, perhaps I'll even get out on a little fishing trip myself soon! I can sunbathe too right..??

MC.

Australia Day 2013

It's been a little while since our last post as we have been super busy here at Mills and Australia Day was no exception!

We started our day with two whole boat charters which headed over to Rotto for the day. Gemma had Aussie Warrior and Frazer and his crew took Blue Strike - both customers are regulars of ours and it's always great to have them aboard! Both cruises spent the day at the beautiful Porpoise Bay and needless to say I imagine there were a few sore heads come Sunday!

At 2.30pm the boats made their way back to Hillary's but their work here wasn't done...

A quick clean up later and they were back out on the water, this time headed for the Swan River to watch the fireworks.

Blue Strike took Dulio and his party out whilst Aussie Warrior boasted members of the public and friends and colleagues of Mills. We were treated to a variety of finger food, sausage sizzles, BBQ prawns and a selection of sweets, cakes and fruit. What a way to celebrate Australia Day!

We want to thank everyone involved in making this day a HUGE success - our friends, family and above all our customers and crew.

We hope you all had a very safe and happy Australia Day and hope to celebrate with you all again in 2014!

MC.