If you had to choose between catching your bag limit of 70cm+ pink snapper or a Spanish mackerel, which would you take?

Well, the good news is this weekend we have high tide just after sunset, so just like the girl on the taco advertisement, why not have both? One can expect the period from about 4pm to 6pm to fish very well for Spaniards. The sun sitting lower in the sky, the tide rising, it’s a baitfish’s worst nightmare. Keep your eye out for a decent drop-off, in clean water, ideally showing baitfish on the sounder. The back of 5-Fathom and 3-mile should be good starting points. Trolling lures is the easier option; you can travel at 5-7 knots and just wait to hear the ratchet on your reel scream. Trolling baits such as mullet and garfish is likely to yield greater results, but takes a lot more preparation and attention to detail. If you’re prepared to make the commitment to trolling baits, jump on YouTube or come into a Bluewater store for rigging instructions.

Once the sun gets close to the horizon, it’s time to find a nice piece of structure, anchor up current/wind/tide and start your burley trail. I recommend an unweighted or lighted weighted mulie drifted back in your burley trail, a paternoster mid ship and flick a soft plastic around. There is a lot of by-catch for those targeting snapper at the moment such as samson fish, skippy and the odd dhufish as well.
Offshore the demersals are still fishing well with a lot of Baldchin groper being landed North of the river and big schools of dhufish in the 30-40m mark. 


New staff member Jeremy and his brother with a good pair of dhufish. Welcome aboard Jeremy!

There is very some warm water out at the fads now, with dolphinfish, striped and blue marlin all being caught this week. If you can get out there, do it, and you will be in with a serious shot at a metro marlin, with the chance of tuna, dollys and wahoo as well.

With the water finally starting to clear up from all the rains, the bait has shown up along the beaches and with it the tailor. Most fish around the 30-40cm range so not big sizes but the numbers make up for it and make it well worth throwing some lures around the beaches. The whiting numbers have been hit and miss with good reports coming from the Mandurah beaches. Some reports of school size sharks being reported North of Lancelin with a few taken each night as well as a couple school size mulloway.

In the river, bream have been providing plenty of sport for anglers targeting them with hard bodies and soft plastics alike. Myaree staff member Jeremy Cui spent a very enjoyable afternoon wandering from Barrack Street, across The Narrows Bridge, to the South Perth foreshore. He landed multiple fish in the 20-30cm category and found the biggest specimens around the southern end of The Narrows Bridge. Jeremy recommends using the Zipbaits Khamsin Jr Tiny. Meanwhile in the Canning, Myaree staff member Laith Rickman, has continued his success from last week on soft plastics in the Canning. There are good numbers of herring to be had in the mouth of the river as well as a few other bait fish species such scalies and slimey mackerel if you are planning any adventures.

One of Laith's chunky bream before release

Staff member Hon-su fished the Dawesville Cut this week and reported it to be “chockers full of undersize skippy and salmon trout that were plenty of fun”. He also reported seeing scores of garfish in there as well. Staff member Curtis also got stuck into some herring and chopper tailor in Mandurah.

One of many herring Curtis got on his 'yak'.

Even with all the recent rain the number of squid have still be good as well as the average size, with most people that put the morning in to drifting the inshore weed beds coming home with enough for a feed and a lot of fresh bait.

The casting finger of metro salmon anglers has begun to twitch in the last week, with reports of isolated captures from south of Mandurah, to Yanchep in the north. Perhaps none more so the Myaree staff member Geoff who wrote the following. “Now is the time to make sure your salmon gear is in order. If you’re land based, any rod in the 7’6” - 9’6” range that can cast 15-60g should work. Pair that with a reel that holds 300m of 15-30lb braid and you’ve got a great combo for flicking lures at salmon. Speaking of lures, anything that casts well and swims true, will entice a hungry salmon. I like to carry a variety of lures including; metals, plugs, sinking stickbaits and sinking minnows. Plastics work as well, but tend not to cast as well in the breezy conditions we’re used to locally. I’ve got my split-ring pliers and lure trays ready for the next time my girlfriend chooses the movie we’re going to watch on tele. That’ll be when I change all my lures to single hooks. I might even be sporting this year and crush the barbs to look after the fish”.

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