Swansea Salmon

[AlbertW]

Hey Raiders,

Looking to target salmon in either lake Mac or off the Swansea break walls near Reid’s park, or anywhere doesn’t have to be up north either. I’ll be fishing land based and probably with either 5000size reel with 30lb mainline and rod to match or 3000 sized stradic with 10lb line and rod to match, I’ll probably be throwing halco twisties and maybe slow pitch jigs or some mullet that I’ve fillet up. I don’t have any experience with salmon and jigging for kingfish has been slow so i figured I’d get into some winter species. (my mate somehow catches kings whenever Im not there but it’s always a donut if I’m there) All info is appreciated 

cheers,

Albert

[XD351]

You can drop into their shop for the most up to date report , they usually put a video report out every Friday as above.

The areas shown in the map below are the deeper sections , lots of current though ,if I were to fish any of the break walls it would be the northern one but they all look pretty gnarly- I think they rebuilt them as Lucy’s wall was way harder to fish last time I was there compared to 20yrs ago . You can always walk the beach casting lures .

 

 

I know a guy that has been getting a few nice salmon in the mouth of the lane cove river but I think they are everywhere in the harbour right now , I would be trying milsons point, neutral bay , Clifton gardens and places similar to that - really anywhere there is reasonable water depth and you can get a decent cast in you are in with a chance of either a salmon or tailor .

Edited July 13, 2023 by XD351

[AlbertW]

1 hour ago, XD351 said:

You can drop into their shop for the most up to date report , they usually put a video report out every Friday as above.

The areas shown in the map below are the deeper sections , lots of current though ,if I were to fish any of the break walls it would be the northern one but they all look pretty gnarly- I think they rebuilt them as Lucy’s wall was way harder to fish last time I was there compared to 20yrs ago . You can always walk the beach casting lures .

 

 

I know a guy that has been getting a few nice salmon in the mouth of the lane cove river but I think they are everywhere in the harbour right now , I would be trying milsons point, neutral bay , Clifton gardens and places similar to that - really anywhere there is reasonable water depth and you can get a decent cast in you are in with a chance of either a salmon or tailor .

Thanks for the info mate, my fishing has been pushed to Saturday so I’ll watch the report, if not I’ll either walk the beaches casting halco twisties or try jigging in the harbour again (I’ve been jigging for 6 hours for around 4-5 sessions and still haven’t caught anything 😢)

[AlbertW]

1 hour ago, XD351 said:

You can drop into their shop for the most up to date report , they usually put a video report out every Friday as above.

The areas shown in the map below are the deeper sections , lots of current though ,if I were to fish any of the break walls it would be the northern one but they all look pretty gnarly- I think they rebuilt them as Lucy’s wall was way harder to fish last time I was there compared to 20yrs ago . You can always walk the beach casting lures .

 

 

I know a guy that has been getting a few nice salmon in the mouth of the lane cove river but I think they are everywhere in the harbour right now , I would be trying milsons point, neutral bay , Clifton gardens and places similar to that - really anywhere there is reasonable water depth and you can get a decent cast in you are in with a chance of either a salmon or tailor .

Yeah I’m going to be definitely walking the beach now that I’ve thought of it, I’ll pick up some 40-50 gram knight metals and straight retrieve all the way back 

[AlbertW]

1 hour ago, XD351 said:

You can drop into their shop for the most up to date report , they usually put a video report out every Friday as above.

The areas shown in the map below are the deeper sections , lots of current though ,if I were to fish any of the break walls it would be the northern one but they all look pretty gnarly- I think they rebuilt them as Lucy’s wall was way harder to fish last time I was there compared to 20yrs ago . You can always walk the beach casting lures .

 

 

I know a guy that has been getting a few nice salmon in the mouth of the lane cove river but I think they are everywhere in the harbour right now , I would be trying milsons point, neutral bay , Clifton gardens and places similar to that - really anywhere there is reasonable water depth and you can get a decent cast in you are in with a chance of either a salmon or tailor .

Sorry for bothering you so much but do you know if there are any bonnies still up in the northern beaches e.g Avoca 

[Green Hornet]

Swap the trebles on all your lures over to singles. Brands like Owner and Decoy make inline hooks especially made for the job. While you’re in the tackle store, buy some suitable split rings too. Twisties have those horrible rings that have an extra turn of wire, making the task of swapping hooks over a pain in the bum.

Salmon have soft mouths and can easily dislodge a lure with their jumps and head shakes. The larger gape of a single hook will get a better hold and your catch rate will increase significantly.

Bleed, gut and chill a salmon soon after capture and in my opinion, they make a good table fish, shallow or deep fried.

[XD351]

No mate I don’t, I will have a look at a few of my FB feeds and see if anyone has reported anything but I don’t recall seeing anything recently.
When you say you are jigging in the harbour , which harbour are you fishing ? I was assuming Sydney harbour?
Salmon can be frustrating at times , they can be busting up mall around you but won’t touch anything you present to them because they are eating tiny bait fish known as eyes . It is fly fishing time when this happens.

[Rebel]

@Green Hornet  I use Gamakatsu single lure hooks  1/0. Use them on all lures one size. Never had a problem. I started using them after @DerekD recommended them.

Are the Owner or Decoy any better ?

Cheers.

[Green Hornet]

1 hour ago, Rebel said:

@Green Hornet  I use Gamakatsu single lure hooks  1/0. Use them on all lures one size. Never had a problem. I started using them after @DerekD recommended them.

Are the Owner or Decoy any better ?

Cheers.

I can't really say @Rebel as I've never used the Gamakatsus, though I found the Owners and Decoys perform much the same.

I recommended those hooks as a good option to start out with, though I've taken things up a notch and land far more fish with this set up. The hooks I use are Mustad Hoodlums (size to match the lure), one on a double split ring, the other on a 100lb assist cord dropper. You need quality rings as the wire is finer than the cheapies and suits the smaller eye on the Hoodlum hook.

Most often you'll hook the fish on the short hook and the assist hook will pin the fish under the chin.

 

 

[Rebel]

@Green Hornet I Should have waken up.

Some of the lures I have bought lately have two hooks.

Cheers.

[AlbertW]

8 hours ago, XD351 said:

No mate I don’t, I will have a look at a few of my FB feeds and see if anyone has reported anything but I don’t recall seeing anything recently.
When you say you are jigging in the harbour , which harbour are you fishing ? I was assuming Sydney harbour?
Salmon can be frustrating at times , they can be busting up mall around you but won’t touch anything you present to them because they are eating tiny bait fish known as eyes . It is fly fishing time when this happens.

Yeah Sydney harbour, it’s just so frustrating because my mate always catches a king when I’m not there 

[XD351]

You need to start a diary  noting what tide cycle , moon phase and lure he is using when you are not there . Maybe he is fishing a different tide or time of day when you are not there ? I don’t believe in curses or luck ,although I did convince my mate he was cursed ! Fishing the hunter river at Hexham for bream using nippers , we tied up to the pylon and fished right next to it - 20 min in and I had landed two reasonable bream , he hadn’t lost a bait ! He began to give me looks like he could kill me so I went over and dropped a nipper right next to his and hooked a big bream , I’m sure he gave me a spray but I didn’t hear it as I was screaming with laughter 🤣🤣 I then convinced him the reason why he wasn’t catching anything was some sort of smell and that before we went out I petted his dog which masked the smell , next trip I arrived at his house to find him rolling around on the front lawn with the dog - poor thing didn’t know what was going on - all this affection all of a sudden 🤣🤣🤣.

Anyhow Albert , I suspect your mate is doing something different as noted above and a diary will show this up . Keep trying and you will succeed!

Edited July 14, 2023 by XD351

[AlbertW]

17 hours ago, XD351 said:

You need to start a diary  noting what tide cycle , moon phase and lure he is using when you are not there . Maybe he is fishing a different tide or time of day when you are not there ? I don’t believe in curses or luck ,although I did convince my mate he was cursed ! Fishing the hunter river at Hexham for bream using nippers , we tied up to the pylon and fished right next to it - 20 min in and I had landed two reasonable bream , he hadn’t lost a bait ! He began to give me looks like he could kill me so I went over and dropped a nipper right next to his and hooked a big bream , I’m sure he gave me a spray but I didn’t hear it as I was screaming with laughter 🤣🤣 I then convinced him the reason why he wasn’t catching anything was some sort of smell and that before we went out I petted his dog which masked the smell , next trip I arrived at his house to find him rolling around on the front lawn with the dog - poor thing didn’t know what was going on - all this affection all of a sudden 🤣🤣🤣.

Anyhow Albert , I suspect your mate is doing something different as noted above and a diary will show this up . Keep trying and you will succeed!

Should've started a diary long time ago as my mates leaving back to Canada for around 2 years to look at jobs, he's going to come back if the job market is worse than Australia as he has already been working as physio for good pay, but when he leaves I'm going to buy all his jigs off him and maybe then I'll start catching again 

[rickmarlin62]

Try lucys breakwall  just inside the heads south side  the salmon have to swim past there to go up in salts bay