Landbased Georges River Salmon

[Gremlin]

Man what a day I can barely believe it, landing a 50cm Salmon on 2lb Crystal Fireline and 4lb Vanish leader on a little 2-4kg rod and 1000 size Shimano Sienna, FROM SHORE!

It started out at 11pm last night, me and a mate decided since we both had the day off to go for a fish so after him getting permission from the wife and grabbing his gear we headed off. We ended up arriving at our target location on the upper Georges at around 1am on a VERY cold morning (9C apparent temp with windchill) , so we didn't exactly have high hopes for the day.

After spending the night fishless and absolutely freezing we had thoughts of packing up but decided to fish a little longer, around sunrise we managed to get a few little tailor and that was enough to make us decide 'Alright maybe we should stay a little longer' and boy am I glad we did!

Just before 8am after the sun come out and the wind died down in some very glassy looking conditions I noticed a rather large flock of birds working the water a few hundred meters away which I quickly pointed out to my mate, to which he replied 'Wonder what that's all about' before he went back to flicking his switchblade in the search of a flatty for lunch.

I ended up figuring that whatever those birds were feeding on there would have had to have been fish around and it wasn't long before I was proven right, barely before I could finish the thought we started seeing bait fish jump around fleeing whatever was below the water all the while being hammered by the birds from above.

It was about now I decided I'd tie a little 55mm green/gold/black coloured popper on just in case the fish come closer, however no sooner had I tied it on the fish stopped busting up and I was left a little disappointed, so I sat down and decided to wait to see if they would re-emerge

It wasn't long before my mate pointed out bait fish swimming around by the shore, they looked to be mixed, some were little schools of white bait while others looked to be about the size of a pilly so I knew the fish wouldn't be far behind and this is where the fun really happened...

Just out of normal casting range they started to bust up, so deciding what the hell I lobbed a cast in the hopes of getting close enough... and something magical then happened! Just as I cast a nice gust of wind blew in and was enough to carry my popper just far enough to land directly in the middle of the school and before I could even wind in the slack I was on!

At this point I had no idea what it was but it took off, it peeled so much line in its initial run I could start to see the colour of my backing starting to show through what was left of my braid on the reel! That little spool was going so fast I thought it would melt! But calmly i tightened up the drag just slightly and his run stopped and it was here I had to really be careful to not get busted off with so much structure around for it!

I slowly started to glift and wind, gaining a little bit on him every time, but he really didn't want to come in, and because I was only using 2lb line with a 4lb leader I didn't want to put pressure on him, so I started to wear him down bringing him in a few beters at a time as he got his body side on to me and really started resisting!

After about 5 minutes of this he was finally close enough to see colour and and I nearly jumped out of my skin at it being a salmon where I was fishing! but before I could even get beyond surprise he decided to lunge under the jetty I was fishing on to try and snap me off, but luckily I jammed my rod top in the water grabbed a hold of the spool and through nothing short of an act of god he slid back out!

At this point I was yelling at my mate to get him in the net but he replied my other rod and reel were stuck in the net so I just told him I don't care net him! which he valiantly managed without dunking my other combo!

To say I was elated would be an understatement! I was over the friggin moon!

[Breambucket]

good work mate they go great on light gear hey!!!

Pete

[Gremlin]

Cheers!

Yeah mate it went off like firecracker, it really didn't want to give in at all and it was only about 2kg... If they fight like that when they are only that size I'd love to hook into a 70cm model!

[Mr.KingSpooled]

Awesome little session buddy !! Landed a salmon from the upper Georges !! WOW.

If you dont mind me asking how far up did you hook this fish ? Like when you mean upper are you talking as far as chipping norton/east hills way or you talking further down near Como!!

All in all great catch espeacially out of the Georges, first ive heard of salmon coming from the upper regents !!

Cheers,

Jez

[jenno64]

Great catch on the gear! I caught 2 today....one on a live poddy mullet and one on a HB. They seem to be coming up the river!

[Gremlin]

Awesome little session buddy !! Landed a salmon from the upper Georges !! WOW.

If you dont mind me asking how far up did you hook this fish ? Like when you mean upper are you talking as far as chipping norton/east hills way or you talking further down near Como!!

All in all great catch espeacially out of the Georges, first ive heard of salmon coming from the upper regents !!

Cheers,

Jez

Somewhere in between the two mate!

And cheers, I was stunned to pull it out myself, I called it for a big Taylor at first but when it got a bit closer and I saw the spots I was absolutely shocked at what it was