Metro

Cooler wet weather will bring sea change

For a number of months, it has felt like I have been writing about the same thing in different ways. The Perth metro area has fished consistently for what feels like a very long time. June,

A lovely land based catch of southern calamari by Ian Moyle caught from the south mole Fremantle.

however, should see things change up quite a bit. SWAN RIVER

Rain will create the biggest changes to our fishing opportunities. The Swan River fish have been widespread throughout the system; however, the influx of freshwater will push their food source towards the mouth of

Emilio Orifici, aka ‘The Little Kahuna,’ following in his dad’s footsteps with a whopper sand whiting, he says his big one makes up for his dad’s three.

from the Narrows Bridge to East Fremantle.

The other change will be that fishing during the low light periods will be more effective. Baitfish will feel more comfortable (more active) during these times and the predators will never be too far away.

Your main target species

will be bream, mulloway and tailor, with the odd flathead still being caught. The keys being, fish dawn and dusk, focus on the lower part of the system, look for concentrations of baitfish and fish deeper water than you would have during the warmer months. The fresh sits on top of the salt water so deeper water ensures more beach angler’s lips at the moment is mulloway. It seems most beaches are producing good mulloway captures at the moment both North and South of Perth. If anything, this will only improve in June.

The key is to find a good gutter to fish and this may mean getting to your location early (daylight hours) and taking the time to watch the surf and see where they are. From there fresh baits fished in these areas will produce the best results with gummy shark and tailor often caught as by-catch.

For those anglers looking to fish during the day, herring and sand whiting are the key target species. Set up a burley bag in front of a likely gutters to entice the fish in close and fish with small hooks and fresh baits. It can be a fun and addictive way to go beach fishing.

Our rock walls will continue to fish well, with many anglers focusing on silver bream, tailor and sand whiting. Cottesloe is a very popular location to target these species.

Squid are a year round target and the Fremantle rock walls will be best at this time of the year. The weed patches that the squid love to hide in are within easy casting distance from these walls, hence the better fishing.

Rock wall snapper anglers will be praying for big swells and unsettled weather as the turmoil this creates brings the snapper in close, feeding on the debris dislodged by the breaking waves. The fishing may be a little uncomfortable but the results can be amazing. The calm after the storm can also result in some good mulloway fishing in the same areas. North Mole has been a hotspot in the past.

INSHORE GROUNDS

The focus in our inshore grounds will continue to be around the local reefs, around areas of broken ground and the shipping channel. The reefs will hold plenty of skippy, and where there are skippy the samson fish won’t be too far away. King George whiting will still be present

in the broken ground areas, you may just need to move around a bit more to find concentrations of them and the focus for sand whiting anglers will be to drift the edges of the shipping channels to find schools of them.

Like the rock walls, squid are a constant in our inshore grounds. Broken ground with weed patches in 3-6m of water will more than likely hold squid.

In the Sound, pink snapper and gummy shark will be popular targets. OFFSHORE

In between the poor weather at this time of the year can produce some of the best fishing we have in the

offshore grounds. Dhufish, baldchin groper and Breaksea cod are just a few of the species available in 25-50m of water. Another constant is the snapper. Their numbers increase during this period and they can be caught in quite shallow water to very deep water. The Northern side of Rottnest has been a hotspot, with snapper widespread in this area. Some big dhufish have been caught with them as well in 40-50m of water. I like to fish for them with big paddle tail plastics. It tends to ensure smaller fish leave you lure for the big fish to eat.

Yellowtail kingfish will continue to be present around the South West end

Jarrad Prieto is no stranger when it comes to boating these horse Cockburn Sound pink snapper. He says berley is the key! A trophy dhufish caught by Chad Knox in 26m of water on a strip bait.

The legend Deano Dibra with a wild capture on 8lb line in Cockburn Sound while targeting whiting.