Australian Salmon: Metals, Tiny Flies and Bubble Floats
Some people like them, some people hate them, and I absolutely love them. I'm talking about Australian salmon. I fish for fun and my primary mission is to be hooked up. A salmon standing on its tail, shaking its head and then charging off on another run does the job nicely.
Getting that first bite can be another matter. You can have salmon boiling all around the boat and still catch nothing. The answer usually starts with the little fish they are eating: how long, how deep through the body, and how far below the surface?
Match the bait, then reach the school
In our 2017 sessions the bait was about 3 cm long. Tiny resin-headed flies and small plastics were the answer. In September 2019, the salmon were full of baitfish about 5 cm long and our 10 g metals were almost exactly the right length and body depth. We had doubles and the occasional triple while other boats struggled with bigger lures or couldn't cast far enough.
That photograph is the point of Bustups and Baitballs: compare the whole profile. A short, fat lure can still be wrong for a short, slender baitfish.
Watch the birds and surface activity, then work out which way the school is travelling. Get within casting range without parking on its leading edge. Cast ahead of the fish so the lure is waiting when they reach it. Charging into the middle makes everybody's job harder.
When a small metal is the right choice
A metal gives you casting weight in the lure itself. Our 10 g knife jigs are a useful starting point when their length and shape match the feed.
The fish aren't always eating right on top. In Sydney Salmon and Kings, the method was to cast, let the jig sink about a metre, give it two or three quick lifts, then let it flutter down. That is worth trying when a lure skimmed across the top gets ignored.
Check the hook after a solid fish. In Harbour Topwater, the salmon loved an expensive popper but bent its hooks. I switched to the little jigs and kept catching. Price on the packet doesn't straighten a hook.
When the bait is too small for your metal
On the North Head trip in Bass, Kingfish and Salmon, hooked fish coughed up bait that was shorter and slimmer than even our 10 g jigs. Out came the bubble floats and flies.
A tiny fly or unweighted plastic has the right profile but hardly any casting weight. The float supplies that weight while keeping the little lure near the surface. In those rolling schools, we wanted it in roughly the top 30 cm.
Use a water-fillable bubble float. Pull out the centre stem, put the float under water until it is about half full, then replace the stem to seal it. It now has enough weight to cast but still floats when it lands.
The through-stem rig in the photograph
This is the Harbour soft-plastic arrangement I showed in March 2018. Starting at the main line and working towards the lure:
- 6 kg braid main line, with a slip-on stopper knot.
- A small stopper bead, then a larger bead. The larger bead bridges the wide opening in the float's tube.
- The through-stem bubble float, half filled with water.
- A swivel large enough to stop the float sliding over it.
- 8 kg fluorocarbon leader, then the little 5 cm soft plastic on its hook.
The beads and swivel need to suit the actual tube opening. Check that they stop the float before you cast. Keep the lure close enough to the float to work in the shallow feeding layer.
With the centre-stopper type I described in 2021, I slid the float up the line about 50 cm before tying on the fly. That is a useful starting drop for that arrangement. Float designs vary, so check how yours grips or slides on the line rather than adding parts it doesn't need.
Cast it straight, then let it work
The float travels ahead of the tiny lure. Just before it lands, feather the line with your free hand to straighten the rig. Otherwise the fly can overtake the float and wrap around the line above it. If the rig comes back in a knot, fix the cast before changing the lure.
Cast ahead of the leading edge of the school and let the float stay there. With this method you don't need to wind the lure back through the fish. Let the little plastic wash around like an injured whitebait. Seeing a salmon spot it, turn and suck it down is the big buzz.
Big Bubbles No Troubles has the full casting explanation. Match the Hatch to Catch a Batch shows the flies, plastics and the fishing that made this one of my favourite ways to chase salmon.
Enough rod to cast, enough line to finish the fight
My 2017 outfit was an 8 ft, two-piece 802 rod and HG3000 reel, with 200 m of 6 kg braid joined to 3 m of 10 kg fluorocarbon by an FG knot. That 3 m was the outfit's braid-to-leader setup. The short float-to-fly drop is a separate part of the presentation.
The useful combination is a long rod that will cast a light rig, an action that absorbs head shakes and a smooth drag. I've used 6 to 10 kg fluorocarbon because a string of fish puts plenty of wear on the leader. Feel for rough spots and retie when it is damaged.
Three-kilo line is great fun, especially when fishing solo. But a good fish can take ten or even fifteen minutes. While one angler is fighting, the school swims out of range and the boat can't follow it. Everyone else is left holding a rod. Six-kilo line is a practical compromise when you've got a crew keen for the next cast.
If they're still ignoring you
First check that the lure is straight and the leader isn't wrapped around the float. Then compare the lure with any bait you can see. If the bait is finer than your metal, try the little fly or plastic. If the float rig is being ignored, try the metal a little deeper, with that lift-and-flutter retrieve.
There are other good salmon sessions too. Sambos in the Suds was a wash-fishing morning with metals and small stickbaits after the kingfish refused to play. Rambo the Sambo produced despite a high tide when I would normally have preferred the run-out. Watch what the fish are doing on the day.
In NSW, Australian salmon have no minimum legal length, a daily bag limit of five and a possession limit of five. Check the current NSW saltwater limits before you go.
Back in September 2017, this float-and-fly caper kept me hooked up so often that I felt a click in my arm when I got back in the car and put my hand on the steering wheel. A work-related injury. Salmon Elbow.