The Salmon Run

Posted by ANDREW HALTER on November 13, 2019

Having lived a fair portion of my life out end of Fisheries road - my fishing spot was predominately out Past Poison Creek and for the Australian Salmon. So the following information is based primary on that location - but should be applicable to other beaches too.

Posion creek and beach

The Australian Salmon shouldn't be confused with the Atlantic salmon as not same family of fish - although they are not the best ranking table fish but they have a few things going for them that makes trying to catch a few worth the effort.

Can be great fun to catch off the beach - as they jump out of the water and put on a good fight. a salmon over 4 kg can be a nice challenge.
Plenty around and easy to spot the salmon schools when you know what your looking for.
If your into shark fishing then you will have a good chance of finding them stalking the salmon schools.

As a table fish there is a couple of tricks i find worth knowing

Bleed them straight away
When filleting make sure you remove the pink/red off the flesh.
Marinate in lemon - this helps heaps i find to reduce the strong fish taste and stops them drying when cooking.
Ideally bread crumb and cook in butter is way to go after marinating, the butter also mellows the flavours somewhat combined with the bread crumbs making a 2 star fish meal into a 3.5 to 4 star.

To be honest one of my favourite cold fish to eat is previous nights lemon marinated bread crumbed salmon - its a bit like a wine at colder temperatures, it reduces its stronger flavours and taste great in a mayo , lettuce, tomato bun.

Posion creek map of beach fishing

If you want some adventure and enjoy camping in a more isolated environment then Cape Arid National Park and more specifically Poison Creek is a perfect choice - located approx 150km's east of Esperance , being a national park the rules apply to what you can and cant do and so do park fee's, The image above illustrates the good spots to throw a line in , the Salmon mostly run from November to April through here but i find even catching some in the off season but the more smaller sizes.

Your looking for the dark holes along the beach - essentially the rips is the best choice to throw a line in - the schools can be easily seen but mistaken for large patches of seaweed, because they are dynamic in movement thats what gives them away to spotting. I find they school closer to shore in the early mornings - so it helps to be an early bird or set camp up on the beach.

I would say reasonable experience is required for driving on the sand - and ideally two cars are best - many times i have had to help snap someone out of the sand, usually because the tyres weren't deflated to correct pressures. An AWD vehicle may have issues with the clearance in the softer area's.

The best bait to use is stay fresh Mulies on a gang hook with a sand sinker, but in large schools lures work too. but you just need the weight in the lure to cast and not roll in the surf too much - so use the steel ones with the centre and trailing hooks.

They are not fussy eaters and typically once the hooks set, it's game on!

Also W.A. fishery limits do apply:

minimum size: 300mm

Catch per person per day: 4

If you want to find a closer place to fish then Salmon beach which is along Twilight Cove road just after Blue Haven is popular place to fish. Its a small bay which is protected from the south easterlies which is the predominant wind direction during our summer months and the salmon season.