WA OzFishers making the most of relaxed Covid restrictions
Every year massive schools of migrating Australian salmon draw big numbers to WA’s beautiful South-West and Great Southern beaches. Salmon are generally a far south coast species which undertake an annual migration in autumn where they come round Cape Leeuwin into the south-west of WA on the ocean currents, and if we’re lucky all the way up to the Perth metropolitan area.
Thousands of Western Australian families eagerly await the annual Easter run of these amazing sport fish, but unfortunately, this year with Covid-19 regional travel restrictions fishers couldn’t truly enjoy this experience up close like they usually would. A massive school of salmon was filmed off WA recently and shared across the country on social media.
Over the ANZAC weekend, OzFish member and volunteer Toby James (14) and his Mum Helga made the most of wonderful weather and recently scaled back restrictions to head out to see if any schools of Salmon had arrived off Perth. They didn’t have too far to go when a sizable school of big salmon arrived right out front of Fremantle Harbour and Toby caught the biggest salmon of his life.
Toby happily released his first big fish and several others during the eventful morning using his Savage Salt2 Spinning Rod from BCF.
The best Aussie salmon is off our iconic sandy beaches and can be caught any time of day. However, fishing at dawn and dusk when salmon are often in close to the beach using lures is popular with most anglers. Those with boats often use trolling lures or look for sea birds following the furiously feeding schools and cast midsize poppers or stickbaits into the froth.
Department of Fisheries recreational guidelines state that a person can catch four salmon at a time, and should store them out of the sun, either in seawater ice slurry, an esky or a damp open-weave bag. Smoked or baked, Australian salmon has a textured flesh which is popular with people who enjoy its strong flavour.
Author: Andrew Matthews, OzFish Project Manager WA