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2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2015 11:42 pm
by Uluabuster
Each year, around Easter time South West coast will be packed with people trying to sample some salmon action. I was at Albany Salmon Hole 2 weekends ago, caught bugger all and witnessed someone drown before my eyes. That was an awful experience.

Came Australian Day long weekend, I thought of getting a piece of the action in Perth since reports of Salmon being caught sprung up everywhere in social media. Practically the whole west coastline from Perth downwards to Augusta was plagued with salmon.

Jetties and rock groyne that dotted the metro coastline were chockers everyday for almost a month. Instead of tangling my lines with every other man and his dog along the shoreline, I went out in my mate's boat to stay away from the aggression as well as the need for heavy tackle to haul in the fish.

Weapons of choice was 20lb outfit with my TP4000XG reel. Lure wise I was experimenting with a swag of lures which have been sitting around for years if not decade without seeing any action. With so much competition, the salmon practically smashed almost everything and anything that was thrown at them. So it didn't test the efficiency or effectiveness of the lures but more if the single hook / split ring / line / rod / reel combination stood the test of abuse and the casting distance of each lure.

So I'll let the pics do the rest of the talking...
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First of the 3 fishes of the day was caught blind trolling Rapala CD12 retrofitted with single hooks. The single hooks proved to be a blessing in hooks removal and as well as preventing the fish from throwing the hooks when it went air borne. None of the 3 fish came off the hook despite jumping multiple times.



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The salmon did shoulder each other many times to get a glimpse of these 2 lures but none committed. Perhaps they didn't like the vibration ? My conclusion was that they prefer something longish minnow in shape.....



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This brute was caught casting a GT-Bio spoon of 20g into the melee. It didn't take long for slice to entice a strike. After 5-10 minutes of tussle this torpedo surfaced. Again, the single hook made hook removal a breeze.



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I got the most satisfaction from catching this fish because it was caught on a 20g homemade popper that I bought, believed to be made out of broom stick. The popper casted like a dream and left a bubble trail like that when you crank a Yozuri Hydro Tiger minus the $$! In fact I was using Halco Roosta popper many times but failed to entice any strike. Perhaps it was being used by too many people on the same day ?



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John's fish. To put it in perspective, John's is about 6". So that's a fairly big fish. Caught on a Jackall/Lucky Craft popper/stickbait hybrid topwater lure retrofitted with single hooks.



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Close up of the lure and its victim.



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All fish caught were more or less this size with some being fatter in the belly than others. I measured one at 81cm so I'll say they were all along 75cm -80cm in length, estimated between 7 -8kg.



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Abu Toby spoon of 1 oz doing the damage. I bought a packet of open-eye gold Owner single J-hook to try. I guessed it passed with flying colours because the salmon didn't manage to throw the hook despite going airborne multiple times.



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The 3 musketeers that did the damage. Amongst the 3, Abu Toby cast the furthest. Not surprising given it is the heaviest at 28g.



I forgot to add that 2 lures were sacrificed in their line of duty. One being an Ofmer Jiggly sinking stick bait. This lure was pelted the moment it touched water. The salmon jumped many times while spewing blood, indicating it was hooked deep. Although the 110mm lure was retrofitted with Decoy single hook, the salmon swallowed it whole with only the nose of the lure sticking out the mouth. Sadly, the leader wore through just as the fish was lifted out of the water. I felt really sorry for the fish, and more sorry for my lure....RIP. Looks like I won't be using anything smaller than 110mm next weekend to prevent the same tragedy from happening.

The other lure was a 28g Tailwalk Slim stick of 130mm. The 20lb Berkely Whiplash braided line snapped prematurely while it spewed out of the reel at amazing speed as the salmon dived deep. I am not surprised since the line was very well used. Another spool of whiplash is in the mail as I pen this.....

Thanks for reading. :)

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 12:03 am
by hornet
Stonker salmon !! thx for the report Uluabuster ! :thumbsup:

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 12:05 am
by shazdoggg
Awesome report and pics Eric! Those salmon leave our vic ones for dead in the size department! Nice work! :-D

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 4:02 am
by rogs
:good: :rocking_report: :nicefish:

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 5:37 am
by CarlG
Sweet report mate, would love to get into some of that lol..

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 7:45 am
by Rod Bender
Great effort and informative report!
cheers
Jim

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 8:13 am
by Mikey87
Awesome report & fish! Thanks Eric - well done mate!

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 8:32 am
by SparkyUK
Great pics and report, looks like an awesome session.

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:21 am
by Fishn104
Awesome report mate. Great pics too. Wish I was there!!

Re: 2015 Perth Salmon Bonanza

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 9:39 am
by poodoo
Hmmm......look at some of those steam trains would be lots of fun........