So salmon season came and i was pretty confident that i was going to catch heapss coz i had caught them nearly every fishing session during the off season. The front-runner schools started to show at my spot but they were so fussy that they wouldnt even take a gardie bait even though the salmon spent hours chasing huge schools of them right infront of me. The same thing happened for a couple of weeks then i started to hook a few on my rapala xrap and ended up losing three in a row. A week after easter i headed back down to the spot and the groin was packed with people. One guy got 3 in 3 casts by drifting unweighted mulies over the reef on the incoming tide. The only time i could get my lure in the water was when two guys would get their lines tangled. Ended up only getting one hit that day but pulled the hooks right out of the salmons mouth on the strike.

Fished ASI rock groin one weekend with my dad and brother. Caught the usual herring and gardies and my brother caught a 46cm leatherjacket from under the rock we were standing on. Everytime we fish rock groins where the water is calm, he walks up and down the rocks dropping his bait into dark holes and crevaces and quite often pulls up decent leatherjacket and fish that look like they belong in a tropical aquarium. He often gets 50cm+ eels in the dawesville cut at night fishing this way.

Went to north mole with a workmate after work a little while ago. He burleyed up the shit out of the northern side inbetween the red lighthouse thing and the toilets. The gardies were in a frenzy infront of us and out the back of the burley trail came swimming up 2 solid salmon that start casually chasing the gars. I scrambled up the rocks to my 9ft starlo already rigged up with an xrap. The lure went out and after a 5m chase, the smaller of the 2 fish grabbed it and i was on! It was always going to be hard to land it coz i left the net at home, its not exactly the first thing you throw in the car at 2am before you leave to go to work. My workmate was as close as he could get to the water, crouching with his shirt now wrapped around his hand for a bit of extra grip when he plucked the fish out of the water. I steered the salmon right to him and he grabs the line to slide the fish up a rock so he can reach it, but hes grabbed the 18lb mainline rather than the 30lb leader, and PING. Goodbye salmon! And oh yeh thanks for all the fishos towards the point that came down with their gaffs to give me a hand, not. So i scramble back up the rocks to the car and re-rig but this time with a starlo and bushy 4inch SP in pearl white. The SP goes out 30m and nothing chases is it in, then BANG! Just as im pulling the SP out of the water, the other salmon has grabbed it, literally a meter and a half infront of me and it actually grabbed the plastic as it left the water. The fish hadnt chased it in so it mustve been sitting right on the rocks waiting to ambush. I cant believe ive hooked another one straight away and neither can the guys chucking out lures towards the point. This fish was much larger than the first one, its first run took about 40m of line and swam straight to the bottom. In the meantime, one of the other fishos had come and let my workmate use his gaff. I brought the fish in and after a few un-orthadox hacking and axe-like swinging of the gaff (which had me thinking i was going to lose another fish bcoz of him), the fish was gaffed. But as he turned towards me, the fish slipped the gaff and fell down a crack in the rocks. I grabbed the gaff and slipped it under the salmons gills and pulled it up. Finally! First salmon of the season. Fish went 86cm, probably the biggest one ive ever caught. In the pictures you can see where the first gaffing attempt landed, under the yellow fin, and the jighead in the fishes mouth, that had actually started to straighten out! 

Went down to my nans who lives in Falcon for mothers day lunch. Turns out lunch wasnt ready for another 15mins. My favourite fishing spot is 5mins away, which leaves 5mins of fishing before we have to leave to make it back for lunch. Just so happens to be mine and my brothers rods are in the car [ ;) ]. So we get down there and literally run out to the end of the groin. Wasnt expecting to get anything at all, wind was howling 25knt from the south, tide was on its way out and the water looked more like choc milk than the ocean. Out goes the rapala to the northside. Nothing. Second cast is towards the south, and after 5m of reeling, a school of about 8 salmon are fighting each other to get to the lure then WHACK!! Fish onnnn. Duh, guess who's forgotten the net again! After fighting the fish out at the end of the groin, i decide the only way of landing this fish is to skulldrag it the length of the groin and then onto the beach. Finally get down to the beach, and my little brother Cody runs down to the water, and in ball-deep water, he plucks the fish out from between his knees! We cant believe it and i just keep yelling, "2nd cast!!!" Cody wants to keep it, but i dont realy want to and chuck it back. Ive never released a good sized fish off the beach and boy is it a good feeling as it swims out of your hands! You can see from the picture how far i had to drag the fish from the and of the groin to the beach, was no easy feat with no shoes and a 6kg+ fish on the end of your line thats still pretty green! So we've been there for 5mins, but theres no way in hell im leaving. I send mum a pic msg of the fish as we run back out to the end of the groin. After 5mins of unproductive casting im ready to call it quits, then this guy rocks up, casts out, BANG! He's onto one bigger than my one! I use his gaff to get it up and start casting from where he was. First cast out and im on again! I offer this fish to the guy and he wants it, so he gaffs it. He then tells me hes going to go home! He's had one cast!! After another 10mins of casting and no fish, i start walking back towards the car, casting as i walk hehe. My brother yells out quite i girlish scream and apparantley theres salmon all over his popper. I run back out to the point where he is, and cast out. First cast and im on, again! Cody casts out and line comes flying out of his reel. Hes got a tangle and a popper pretty close to the rocks to deal with. But as my hooked fish swims close to the popper, the rest of the school come up and start smashing the floating popper and he's on, but still tangled. He's got line everywhere, and as the fish takes its first run, some line loops around his finger, and the fish tightens it and actually breaks the skin and the line has snapped. He was actually bleeding out his finger!! I skulldrag my fish back to the beach and chuck him back. What was meant to be a 5min fishing sesh turned out to be a 40min session and one of the best ive ever had. Ended up missing lunch too!!

Went back down the following tuesday with my girlfriend. Im armed with my 9ft starlo AND THE NET, and Claires got her cleo magazines and oversized glasses. We pass a guy on the groin and hes seen nothing all morning. As i start to put the starlo together, a school of about 15 salmon cruise right past me, heading towards the guy. I yell out to him and give him the heads up and within seconds he's on. I use his gaff and get the fish up. I cast the xrap out, nothing. Second cast, and the school are heading back my way and after a few twitches of the lure, fish onnn. Two fishing sessions in a row, ive hooked a salmon 2nd cast, gotta be happy with that! "Please darling can you come and net my fish," but shes busy, reading out lines to me from the article "10 ways to improve Your Sexlife." Yep okay Claire thanks alot!! Manwhile the guy with the gaff has come over and gaffs it for me. The schools comes back the other way but i miss out coz im bleeding out the first fish. The other guy hooks up again, and again i gaff it for him, but hes spewwing he has to leave for a business meeting! After a couple of casts im on again, and again Claire's too busy to net the fish, this time quoting the article "How Your hair reflects Your personality." Blah blah blah but shes kind enough to hand me the net this time, and the fish pretty much jumps straight in! I offer the fish to the poor bloke whos been there all morning and cant get a hookup. He ended up getting one later in the morning and left with 2 fish in the bucket.

Yep, you guessed it, went back down on the saturday just gone with a mate and fellow FW member who goes by the name of Goatlobster (haha!!) I setup on the same rocks as the last session but he walks on past to the end of the groin. First cast, nothing. Second cast. . .  NOTHING!! Unbelievable haha! Then Benjo (goatlobster) yells out that hes been busted off on his second cast!!! I run out to where he is and start casting. After a couple of mins the school makes its way back up the rock and the xrap does the job again, im on! This fish isnt as big as the north mole salmon, but it put up a bigger fight. It kept its head down low against the incoming tide and i could hardly pull it up. The goatlobster ended up netting it and i decide to throw her back, even though dad asked me to bring one home, i was feeling pretty confident i would get another one that morning. Never happened, for both of us. Not due to lack of fish tho, quite a few schools came through but were just unlucky realy. Netted a couple of fish for other fishos and called it quits.

 After catching only 1 salmon in a month, i end up catching 6 in one week! The fish are much hungrier now that what they were a month ago and me and the goatlobster are pretty excited for what then next month has to bring.

I doubt any of you will read this whole report but hopefully you skimmed throught the good bits, if there are any!

Happy fishing, Beau.