We were blessed with incredible weather conditions the past week and most of this week. If you haven’t been out fishing, now is the time to dust off those old fishing rods and reels and head out to try your luck! I’m sure you’ve all heard by now, the salmon are here in big numbers and the frequency of the schools showing up will become greater in the upcoming week in the leadup to the next full moon. Where else in the world can you test your skills and gear on 5kg fish that don’t like coming in easily? We are truly blessed to be living in Perth.

Last month and this week have taught us that fishing can become a very big mystery, with reports of red emperor being caught near Rottnest, a coronation trout getting caught offshore at Hillarys and more recently an estuary cod caught around Scarborough beach. So who knows what species you might catch out there? Please remember to report all unusual catches to Redmap (Range Extension Database Mapping Project), an online tool to report unusual fishing captures http://www.redmap.org.au/

Salmon. They are turning up everywhere locally, with Preston beach, north mole, city beach, floreat beach, south mole and woodies point boat ramp being the “hot spots”. An extremely effective method of targeting salmon is to have two setups with you. One with bait the other a light graphite rod around 7’ with a cast weight of 10-40g with a lure attached. This way you can soak the bait and wait till a school comes by and start flicking lures at them. Use the metal lures for distance and the bibbed minnows such as the doctor hook school bullies or Rapala XRAP’s for their action. Baitwise, anything from mulies, scalies, yellowtail scads and even prawns are sufficient enough to catch a WA Salmon.

If salmon doesn’t tempt you, there are plenty of other species out there that are easily accessible to the average joe. Dhufish of around 7-10kg are showing up around the 40s with the smaller specimens hanging around the inshore reefs. However, as the saying goes “where there are small fish, big fish are soon to follow”. Burleying up and using a paternoster rig with two snelled 7/0 hooks on a fresh piece of sergeant baker, king wrasse, mulie or squid (in that order of personal preference) is a sure way of snagging you a brag worthy dhuie to your mates. For the artificial fisho’s, the 7” Z-Man jerk shadz paired with a TT headlockz jig head have been deadly or alternatively any 100gram – 120gram metal slow pitch jig (in sub 40metres of water), with a haoli king being my personal choice of jig.

Morley Customer Jaqrryd Antcliff with a Dhuie on Jig

Snapper are showing up in the inshore reefs around Garden island, Mindarie and ocean reef and are quite easily accessible with a tinny given the conditions are calm. A good way of targeting inshore pink snappers is to let them come to you via a steady burley trail, a good method is using a burley cage with a Shorecatch mulie log which slowly releases the scent on the side of the transom. I’d recommend live bait or as fresh as possible. Using a sabiki rig and a light 2-4kg rod is an effective method of catching livebait such as yellowtail scads, herring, scalies, slimy mackeral etc. I personally prefer to use a running ball sinker > swivel > leader then to a snelled pair of 6/0 owner cutting point all purpose hooks. Letting it drift down the water column with as minimal weight as possible is deadly on pinkies. If live bait is not an option than any of the aforementioned baitfish dead, mulies and squid are an acceptable alternative. As for the artificial fisho’s 7” jerk Shadz with a size 5/0, 1oz TT Headlockz jighead can sometimes be more productive than bait.

Morley Customer Peter Antcliff with a good Baldie

River- The water is starting to clear up and some good reports of Bream from the Swan and Canning rivers with a lot of nice fish taken on both baits and lures. There is a few whispers of crabs still lurking in the deeper parts of the river so its still worth dropping a net.
Beach- Salmon are really starting to make an appearance around the metro area with good schools showing up from Preston beach to Scarborough. The fish are moving around a fair bit so it pays to be willing to move with them. There is a good amount of solid herring around which makes a perfect excuse to get the family out and take home a feed of these plump little fish. With the water starting to cool down the number of Squid in the shallow water are increasing with some good reports coming from Fremantle.