how can i catch australian salmon land based

[davido]

Hey raiders,

Just as the title says, I want to know how to catch australian salmon from the beach and possibly rocks/breakwall. I currently use pillies on size 4/0 gangs, also have 5/0 gangs for the larger pillies that ive got. Only thing I am doing is going to the beach in the morning or afternoon when the tided is high and swell is atleast below 2m. I know someone told me about water temperature having to be warm, but how warm is it suppose to be. I currently fish the Illawarra region from Bellambi down to maybe Kiama.

Love Salmon on the BBQ

Cheers

Davido

[rjc123]

Ganged pillies are the go mate, just fish the best gutter you can find at the top of the tide and maybe introduce a bit of burley to get them on the bite. You have the right size hooks so its only a matter of time until you get lucky mate!

[Captain Spanner]

Sounds like you've got it pretty much right mate for starters. I don't know if you are using a wire trace or not, i wouldn't bother. Depending on what else is around you might consider 20lb to 60lb mono as a trace. I only use wire for jackets if i want revenge when bottom fishing.

Fishing off the rocks i would attempt to fish as unweighted as possible and focus on wahsy and foamy areas. You can also try spinning with 15g up to 60g chromies if you feel like a change of pace but if you just want to catch one o would stick to the pillies.

Off the beach it probably isn't as critical how much weight you have as long as you can cast it. I would probably target the holes and gutters along the beach but the salmon will often roam. Hopefully one of the local fellas down your way can point you in the right direction as far as spots are concerned.

With the pillies you may want to try casting it out unweigthed or with a small ball sinker right on top of the ganghooks if required for casting distance or due to excess current. Let the pillie sink to the bottom (or close if it's snaggy) then lift it up with the rod and take up the slack, letting it sink slowly again similar as to how you would with a soft plastic. If your pillies aren't coping with this tecnique you can use salted pillies or wrap the baits in baitmate or stocking thread which makes them survive casting, pickers, sand and to some extent rocks.

On a side note i'm not sure if you know that Australian Salmon is quite different to eat from the nice pink fleshed stuff like Atlantic and Tasmanian Salmon you often get at the shop.

Good Luck

[bharris]

get yourself a waighted float mate,put a float stopper on your main line,put the float on then put a ball sinker on, tie a swivel on.then tie on a leader around 2mt long 20lb-40lb is plenty then tie your gang hooks on. Its the best rig to use of the rocks. As for spots try port kembla brakewall,hill 60,bass pt, the farm, mystics there's heeps of ledge's and beach's that hold aussie salmon most of the time. You will get 1 mate it wont take long.

[Kaktis]

What these guys said is on the money davido

If you're using ganged hooks I wouldn't bother with a wire trace at all either.. current/wind allowing I just use 15lb mono - swivel - 5/0 gammies ganged.

I just add a star sinker on a short leader from a crossline if current or wind are up.

Off the beach I've been finding them at any tide, casting at the edges of white water, bordering deeper sections of water, using the above rig.

Also as someone else mentioned, they're not true salmon, and unless you cut out all the blood line & bleed em immediately upon capture, they're supposedly inedible.

Good luck with em man, they are great fun to catch, put on a damn good show!

[fisholb]

Hi. Try stanwell park in the afternoon near the surf club. We bagged out on salmon there a couple of times. We use paternoster rig with 2 small hooks. One on the head and one at the back. Tie the tail of the pilchard on the trace using double half knot. We also get bream and flathead using the same setup. We usually catch aussie salmon when the water is calmer during the winter months. Btw, we use no. 2 to no 1/0 suicide hooks. Your success rate will increase hopefully when you try our setup.

[aeb870]

Try the port kembla southern breakwall, walk about 200m up and cast out on the ocean side. Just fish with a regular running sinker to the swivel and then a heavier trace. You won't get snagged there as it is all sand (unless you go up towards the end it becomes snaggy).

Also if you travel around, Corrimal and Bombo beaches usually hold salmon most of the time. Use a pyramid sinker on a paternoster rig and make sure you are fishing the gutter.

Pilchards usually never fail, but most fish baits will get salmon biting. And always remember that usually when you catch one salmon there is more around. Let me know how you go..

[davido]

Sounds like you've got it pretty much right mate for starters. I don't know if you are using a wire trace or not, i wouldn't bother. Depending on what else is around you might consider 20lb to 60lb mono as a trace. I only use wire for jackets if i want revenge when bottom fishing.

Fishing off the rocks i would attempt to fish as unweighted as possible and focus on wahsy and foamy areas. You can also try spinning with 15g up to 60g chromies if you feel like a change of pace but if you just want to catch one o would stick to the pillies.

Off the beach it probably isn't as critical how much weight you have as long as you can cast it. I would probably target the holes and gutters along the beach but the salmon will often roam. Hopefully one of the local fellas down your way can point you in the right direction as far as spots are concerned.

With the pillies you may want to try casting it out unweigthed or with a small ball sinker right on top of the ganghooks if required for casting distance or due to excess current. Let the pillie sink to the bottom (or close if it's snaggy) then lift it up with the rod and take up the slack, letting it sink slowly again similar as to how you would with a soft plastic. If your pillies aren't coping with this tecnique you can use salted pillies or wrap the baits in baitmate or stocking thread which makes them survive casting, pickers, sand and to some extent rocks.

On a side note i'm not sure if you know that Australian Salmon is quite different to eat from the nice pink fleshed stuff like Atlantic and Tasmanian Salmon you often get at the shop.

Good Luck

Thanks for that, Ive had Aussie salmon a few times before, mate brought it over and cooked it up,was suprised the first time I ate it thinking, "is this salmon? but it isn't pink!?!?!". Now im hooked on that fish.

Yeah Im going to try a few different techniques, i tried unweighted pillies at kiama rocks afew days ago, squid kept playing with the bait. Might give it a crack this weekend again. Went out this arvo, felt some bites but came back with pillie heads. Maybe just down on luck

cheers for the advice

[davido]

Try the port kembla southern breakwall, walk about 200m up and cast out on the ocean side. Just fish with a regular running sinker to the swivel and then a heavier trace. You won't get snagged there as it is all sand (unless you go up towards the end it becomes snaggy).

Also if you travel around, Corrimal and Bombo beaches usually hold salmon most of the time. Use a pyramid sinker on a paternoster rig and make sure you are fishing the gutter.

Pilchards usually never fail, but most fish baits will get salmon biting. And always remember that usually when you catch one salmon there is more around. Let me know how you go..

Yeah I will give Corrimal beach a go with ur setup. Went to Towrodgi beach today, a bit awkward with the beach being cut in half and deciding to climb down the sand to cast or cast up the sand cliff

[davido]

Discovered Multiquote button tehe

get yourself a waighted float mate,put a float stopper on your main line,put the float on then put a ball sinker on, tie a swivel on.then tie on a leader around 2mt long 20lb-40lb is plenty then tie your gang hooks on. Its the best rig to use of the rocks. As for spots try port kembla brakewall,hill 60,bass pt, the farm, mystics there's heeps of ledge's and beach's that hold aussie salmon most of the time. You will get 1 mate it wont take long.

I haven't tried fishing in and around port kembla yet. I'll have to give it a go in the next few weeks.

What these guys said is on the money davido

If you're using ganged hooks I wouldn't bother with a wire trace at all either.. current/wind allowing I just use 15lb mono - swivel - 5/0 gammies ganged.

I just add a star sinker on a short leader from a crossline if current or wind are up.

Off the beach I've been finding them at any tide, casting at the edges of white water, bordering deeper sections of water, using the above rig.

Also as someone else mentioned, they're not true salmon, and unless you cut out all the blood line & bleed em immediately upon capture, they're supposedly inedible.

Good luck with em man, they are great fun to catch, put on a damn good show!

Yeah I should try using mono instead of wire trace. Maybe setup to rigs on my two rods one with mono and one with wire, see how that goes.

Hi. Try stanwell park in the afternoon near the surf club. We bagged out on salmon there a couple of times. We use paternoster rig with 2 small hooks. One on the head and one at the back. Tie the tail of the pilchard on the trace using double half knot. We also get bream and flathead using the same setup. We usually catch aussie salmon when the water is calmer during the winter months. Btw, we use no. 2 to no 1/0 suicide hooks. Your success rate will increase hopefully when you try our setup.

Ill give stanwell park a visit, never thought of looking that way to fish, always looking south. Ill give your rig a go, hopefully i get something

Cheers guys, got lots to try out and think about

[fisholb]

@davido...mate just wanna let u know that stanwell got plenty of salmon yesterday. Hope u caught some already.

[bennoz]

Pillies are the bait of choice for salmon 100% !

As for ganged hooks – ive been having alot of success lately with a slightly different setup - single 4/0 circle and pillie fillets.

What i do is fillet the pilchard (larger the better). Fold the tail end of the fillet over (about 1/3 of the way down) so the skin is on the outside (ie: flesh to flesh) and thread the hook through all the way past the eye so its threaded on the line. Then down the bottom of the fillet, put the hook through twice again so the fillet is resting on the hook shank and theres good “point” exposure. Half-hitch up the top on the tail end and you’ve got the perfect fillet bait (and its secure for long casts into the surf)... wish i had a pic would be so much easier

(edit: google “Double-Pinch Method of Baiting Strip-Baits on Circles” for a pic )

Hook up rate has been heaps better (for me anyway). I use Same rig as the others have mentioned.

Good thing about this is the pillies last twice as long and you can use the frames (chopped up) for berly

Best of luck

[davido]

Pillies are the bait of choice for salmon 100% !

As for ganged hooks – ive been having alot of success lately with a slightly different setup - single 4/0 circle and pillie fillets.

What i do is fillet the pilchard (larger the better). Fold the tail end of the fillet over (about 1/3 of the way down) so the skin is on the outside (ie: flesh to flesh) and thread the hook through all the way past the eye so its threaded on the line. Then down the bottom of the fillet, put the hook through twice again so the fillet is resting on the hook shank and theres good “point” exposure. Half-hitch up the top on the tail end and you’ve got the perfect fillet bait (and its secure for long casts into the surf)... wish i had a pic would be so much easier

(edit: google “Double-Pinch Method of Baiting Strip-Baits on Circles” for a pic )

Hook up rate has been heaps better (for me anyway). I use Same rig as the others have mentioned.

Good thing about this is the pillies last twice as long and you can use the frames (chopped up) for berly

Best of luck

At the moment for past few weeks, ganged hooks havent been a great success, only had biteoffs with them but using prawns on 2/0 baitholder has landed me 2 awesome salmon 45,46cm and a fair few flatties and 2 whiting. just yesterday, 5/9/2011 on corrimal beach been giving pillie fillets a shot, going to try your setup with them because my setup id either lose the bait on cast or been stripped of. But great to know they are atleast attacking it, and boy i had some strong tugs on it, many were to me rebaiting my surf rod while my other rod was out, missing multiple bites. I would turn my head and theres my rod head banging like crazy, and once i grabbed it, goes slack. I think i counted 6 times with pillie fillets and twice on prawns.

Davido

[FishFever]

I was out at Avoca rocks on fathers day with my mate. He initially used a 40g metal with no luck. He changed to a hardbody and on the 2nd cast hooked up, I was also on a hardbody (rapala) and hooked up at same time.

We got 3 and dropped 1 in about 1 hour of fishing, a few of the other guys fishing with pillies that day didn't have much luck.

[bennoz]

I would turn my head and theres my rod head banging like crazy, and once i grabbed it, goes slack. I think i counted 6 times with pillie fillets and twice on prawns.

try using circle hooks - they're great

[davido]

I was out at Avoca rocks on fathers day with my mate. He initially used a 40g metal with no luck. He changed to a hardbody and on the 2nd cast hooked up, I was also on a hardbody (rapala) and hooked up at same time.

We got 3 and dropped 1 in about 1 hour of fishing, a few of the other guys fishing with pillies that day didn't have much luck.

Tried metals once, funny story. I think there was a fracture in the line so when i casted, i just watched my metal lure fly away pretty far. Was an awesome sight to see while going "ahh, i just bought that....." I did tie it properly but i guess i didnt check my line.

try using circle hooks - they're great

around the sizes of 2/0-4/0 ??

[bennoz]

yep 2/0 - 4/0.

i lean towards the larger end of the scale and use the 4/0.

[arthur06]

try using twin circle hooks (7/0) gamakatsu hooks with mackerel fillets using frames for burley