Living in Western Australia - Fishing

Article by: Jay
Last updated: Tuesday, 11-Jul-2006 00:00:00 CEST

Fishing can be summed up in 2 words - iFish iVote. So says the slogan accross Western Australia which leaves you in no doubt how the general population feels about it - and no wonder with incredible coastline available and the sheer variety of fish. Fishing is a BIG business in WA (as around the whole of Australia) and no trip here would be complete without a day out on a chartered boat, or hiring the tackle to just cast from shore.

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WA Fishing Species

Australian Salmon
Blue Swimmer (Manna) & Mud Crabs
Bream, Black
Flathead and Flounder
Garfish
Herring
Mulloway
Samsonfish
Skippy (Silver Trevally)
Snapper, Pink
Tailor
Trout, Brown & Rainbow
Whiting, King George
Whiting, School & Yellowfinned

The herring and Australian salmon are not really true examples of those species. It is believed that they were named by early settlers after the fish they most resembled. Herring is a commercial fishing species but is nowhere near as important to professionals as the salmon.

The breeding ground of the salmon is roughly the Esperance to Albany area. The fish gather in mid-summer around the south-east coast and migrate to southern WA where spawning occurs in March and April each year.

The ocean currents in the area carry the eggs and newly hatched fish towards South Australia although many juveniles land in the Esperance area and continue their life from there. The remainder are carried into the eastern states and can end up as far north as NSW.

As cooler waters replace the warm currents of the Perth summer, large schools invade the metro area and congregate around Rottnest Island in huge numbers thus allowing for some fantastic fishing opportunities.

The fish can be caught around most offshore metro reefs in May each year and will occasionally visit land based fishing spots such as Penguin Island, the Fremantle Moles and even Hillarys.

If they are hungry, they will take any bait or lure and they fight just like their cousins the herring or tommy ruff - tough and airborne. A 3-4kg salmon on even 6-8kg line is a handful (especially around reefy areas) as they will run long and often and get more than a metre in the air, gills flared, trying to shake the hooks.

Sometimes, anglers are frustrated by huge schools of salmon that will not even look at a bait, fly or lure. In this case we recommend live herring which they find hard to resist.

Fishing - How To Catch Them

Ocean Fishing:

Trolling cheap metal lures or shallow running minnows around reefy ground is a good way to find feeding schools and a berley trail may be useful to get them feeding. Larger fish can also be caught casting unweighted mulies into the wash on a reef at all hours during the day.

The peak ocean fishing time around Perth is from March to June when large schools of 3-6kg fish take up residence around reefs from Rockingham to Rottnest in particular. Spots to try include Coventry Reef near Rockingham and Fish Hook Bay at Rottnest's West End.

Working with a group of other boats is ideal because a school is likely to stay close by if others are hooked or berleyed up. We like to troll River2Sea Triho 180s because they have a tight action and ultra sharp hooks

When a fish is hooked, keep it in the water until someone else can get a hookup and the school is likely to stick around all day. Drive in patterns looking for schools to pass under the boat and in almost all situations, if you see them, you will hook them.

Rock Fishing:

Many people catch salmon from the moles in Fremantle and other man made rockwalls but the natural rocks along the south west of the state are ideal salmon hunting locations.

You should never discount the value of a gook berley and oil slick here as many places have a semi-permanent population of salmon that are either injured or loners.

Getting a slick moving will attract herring, garfish, skippy and more but keep a lookout for salmon darting into the area. They are most likely going to be in ones and twos but lures might not be the answer.

We prefer a simple Paternoster fishing rig using half a mulie rather than a whole one as the fish are often just feeding on scraps. Driving dozens of SW beaches, just berleying up clear pools and waiting can be amazingly productive and is lots of fun.