Australian salmon basics for beginners

I’d left the rod in the rocket holder, tip bobbing as the lure wriggled in the pull of the current.

Having the rod with the lure up high left room clear to drop in all my other fishing lines.

All of a sudden, the rod’s drag started screaming as something smashed the slug and started running.

It was a fun fight getting the fish, whatever it was, back into the boat. Whatever species I’d hooked was powerful, running on my 5kg line several times, and then leaping spectacularly out of the water. It may have taken only minutes getting it in, but to me it seemed like an hour.

When I finally coaxed it into the net, I’d ended up with a 50cm Australian salmon, and an experience I’ll remember for a long time.

All the successes I’ve had with salmon have been estuary fishing off a boat. You can land-based fish for them, but a boat will get you to where they’re most likely to be.

Look for channels moving plenty of water, with gutters draining into them. Anchor up on the edge of a channel and cast to where one of the gutters meets it.

If you don’t have a boat, beach-based fishing near estuary mouths will often yield good Australian salmon.

My favourite rod for targeting Australian salmon is the same soft-tipped rod I like using for whiting and bream: a 2.1-metre Shimano Finesse Bream Raider rated to 4.0kg. The rod is paired with a 2500-size reel running 5kg monofilament line.

I use a similar setup on a Jarvis Walker Ultimate rod but the reel is spooled with braid. Despite using these rods side by side, while the mono will deliver, including with the occasional double hook-up, I’ve never caught a salmon on the braided line. Your mileage may vary.

I like using a paternoster rig that I make up myself with 1/0 circle hooks that set themselves and hook neatly in the corner of the fish’s mouth. The same rigs can be used for flathead or whiting, and you can easily swap out the hooks to suit the size of the fish, or the sinker to suit the current.

Salmon generally move in big schools, and quickly, so a simple paternoster set-up will work best to drop multiple baits down to where they’re feeding.

Once they're on the bite, get the fish onboard and the hooks re-baited and back in the water as quickly as possible. You can use a variety of bait for Australian salmon, including bluebait, pichards, pipis, mussels and squid.

Mussels are the easiest bait. Just find the nearest marina, go to the end of one of the walkways and pick them. They’ll last longer on the hook if you toughen them up a bit on a hotplate before heading out.

Of all the baits for Australian salmon, pippis are my pick. Give the salmon a choice of pipi or squid, and they’ll go the pipi each time.

Metal slugs are a common lure to target salmon, but they can be a lot of work for little reward; you cast out, reel in as fast as you can crank the handle, and repeat. A lot.

One benefit, though, is you can cover a lot of ground with a metal slug. They’re nicely weighted, and are easy to cast a long way and place precisely.

In my experience, it’s better to just leave the metal slug swimming on its own in the current. If a salmon strikes, you will know they’re in the area and it’s time to set your baited rods to suit.

Cheap metal slugs seem to work just as well as the expensive ones. Just sayin’.

The fight to get an Australian salmon back to the boat is always an exciting one. Be careful not to set the drag so low that the fish can run at will, and not too high that you’ll give the fish a chance to spit out the hook during the big displays of aerial acrobatics.

The fish pull hard, so keep the rod held high and let its flex take most of the shock. Keep the line nice and tight.

You’ll need a landing net to get a fish in the boat, as they’ll put up a fight all the way in.

Once you’ve landed the fish, bleed it immediately and place it in an ice slurry.

As always, respect bag and size limits, and seasonal restrictions wherever you fish.