Australian Salmon fishing guide.

Where the Australian Salmon bite is on right now

Hero spots in our coverage where Australian Salmon is in season for May. Click through for the live forecast.

Best bait

• Whole pilchards on a ganged hook rig (3× 4/0)
• Fresh garfish ganged
• Beach worms
• Fresh mullet strips
• Bluebait or whitebait

Best lures

• Metal slugs 25–60 g (Halco Twisty, Raider 30g, Spanyid Maniac) cast and ripped fast
• Surface poppers and stickbaits at dawn / dusk in surf gutters
• Soft plastic paddle-tails 4–5" on 3/8–1/2 oz heads
• Slim chrome / blue minnow hard-bodies (Rapala CD9)
• Spoons trolled behind a bay boat in 5–15 m

Technique

Beach: cast metal slugs into surf gutters at dawn or dusk; salmon school on the back of breakers chasing whitebait. Fast retrieve, no pauses. Rocks: float-rigged pilchard ganged through the wash on a long rod. Bay (Port Phillip, Western Port): troll spoons or cast plastics at busting schools — bird workups are the giveaway. The bite is often a feeding frenzy that lasts 20-30 minutes then dies — when you find them, fish hard.

Tide windows that matter

Run-up tides into beach gutters at dawn or dusk is the textbook setup — bait gets pushed into the gutter and salmon patrol it. Tide is less critical on open rocks where current matters more. Bay schools are dawn / dusk-driven; tide is secondary.

Moon & solunar

Australian salmon are minimally moon-driven. Cloud cover, surf state and water temperature dominate. The Western Port / Port Phillip winter run (June–August) peaks regardless of moon phase. The annual Albany / SA / Bremer Bay run (autumn–winter) is similarly driven by water temp dropping below ~18°C, not moon phase.

Regulations

NSW: no minimum, bag of 5. VIC: no minimum, bag of 20. SA: 21 cm, bag of 20. WA: no minimum, bag of 8. TAS: no minimum, bag of 25. Australian salmon are oily and best eaten fresh smoked or sashimi — they don't freeze well as fillets.