Hey,

Thought id share a good news story of mine after recent fishing sessions. 

My father in law is over from Europe, and as the family are avid outdoors people and have a deep connection with the land (hunting and eating game (sustainably and legally), gathering and preserving berries /mushrooms etc) and I was keen to impress him with the outdoor lifestyle in Western Australia, starting with simple metro fishing. Being a hunter, he didnt need reminding that the only thing that is taken from most fishing sessions is experience and a marriage strenthening smell of bait and trail of beach sand through the house, but I gave myself an out and reminded him anyway. 

So i took him out to a northern metro beach last week to chase some tailor and whatever else. He didnt seem too optimistic with the whole casting from the beach into shallow (IN HIS EYES) water. He kept asking if there were actually any fish this close to the shore. But after nearly 2 hours we hooked into a smallish (300mm) flathead - this one went back in - and a dinner plate sized tailor (430mm). Happy days.  

In the conversations over the next week I kept going on about the mysterious and elusive Mulloway that i had been trying to teach myself to fish for since i was a boy. I had caught a few juveniles up north but never in or near the metro area. Ever. After literally hundreds of hours of fishing, and who knows how may hours reading, rereading, talking with people fishing and basically anyone that wanted to talk mulloway... all nighters, high tide, low tide, live bait, lures, trying all sorts of rigs and hooks, solunar table schedules, daytime, nightime, beach, groynes and boats - nothing. 

I constantly keep and eye on conditions and tides etc (as best i can whislt working up north) and saw a tide change just after dark with a positve solunar outlook and some pretty rough weather (yes - this was based on part of what i read over the years with absolutely no serious first hand success to support it) and decided to take him out to have a tilt at metro mulloway. 

The plan was simple. Go to my local beach haunt - try to catch tailor - use as bait - catch mulloway. I had never seen or heard of anyone pulling mulla from this specific place, but ive fished this spot heaps and caught tailor, flathead and whiting / herring. After everything ive read and heard i always thought it should fire for mullla if the conditions were right. 

By the time we got to the beach it was dark and pissing down with rain. We arrived right on low tide. There was a pretty shallow churned up white water gutter covered with foam about 30m from shore. A strong northerly was blowing the whole place sideways. We had set up on 30lb main, with a dropper loop paternoster rigged with 3 ganged 4/0 hooks on 60lb leader with a 6 star sinker. No swivels. Both mulies presented head down.  So much for the tailor plan. 

Again, he didnt look too optimistic but the years of failure have left me obsessed and there was no way a little (or a lot) of rain was going to stop me fishing two hours of low tide that night.

So I set us up and cast out for both of us. Our sinkers struggled to find bottom in the washing machine but within ten minutes my F.I.L started gesturing at me and his rod was bent over. Probably the wave action or weed i thought but as took the rod in hand i felt the unmistakable head shake followed by a run that i had heard about over the years. 

After a brief and uneventful fight my first metro mulla was landed, and no sooner than i measured it the second rod (handed to my F.I.L) fired with the same unmistakable shake and run. After fishing all gear / no idea for mulla for 20 years without success, we hooked 2 in a matter of minutes on mulies... WTF!!! 

They werent massive, but definitely PB for us, and both in the metro and it makes all of the effort and energy so worth it. My F.I.L also now thinks that mulla are easy to catch. 

We left immediately after the second one was in the bag as we were grateful for the drink taken from the karma cup. 

45 minutes from time of arrival to the time we packed up drove away, and all smack bang in the middle of Perth in the pouring rain. 

Dont mean to sound glib but i am just stoked. 

. 

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