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Shore / Surf

Australian Salmon

Arripis truttaceus

Australian salmon fishing in WA — a hard-fighting pelagic, not a true salmon and nothing like the pink farmed fish of the same name. Schools migrate north along Perth and South West beaches and rock walls through the autumn run (March–June), smashing baitfish in the wash. Cast metals or ganged pilchards into the white water. Strong, oily flesh that's best smoked rather than eaten fresh.

Size
Up to about 10kg, commonly 2–5kg
Peak season
Mar–Jun off the lower west (best Mar–May); year-round on the south coast

Overview

Australian salmon are among the hardest-fighting fish you can hook from a Perth or South West beach. They migrate northward along the coast from March through June in huge schools, smashing baitfish in the surf zone. They're not a true salmon — the name is borrowed — and the dark, strong flesh isn't prized fresh, but they fight above their weight and make excellent smoked fish.

Identification

Also known as Salmon, blackback (adults), salmon trout or bay trout (juveniles), western Australian salmon

Torpedo-shaped, blue-green to dark olive across the back with bright silver flanks, a deeply forked tail and rows of gold-brown spots along the upper body — clearest on smaller fish. The teeth are tiny; if it has proper cutting teeth you've caught a tailor. The real confusion is with Australian herring, because a 25 cm juvenile salmon and a big herring look almost the same in the wash. Herring have dark tips on the tail lobes and more yellow in the pectorals; salmon are more elongate, longer-headed, and keep growing. Nothing about it resembles a true Atlantic salmon beyond the borrowed name.

How to Catch

Best Baits

Whole pilchards (on ganged hooks), mulies, garfish

Lures

Chrome slugs, Halco Twisty, metal slices, large spoons

Rigs

Ganged hook rig (three 4/0 hooks) for whole pilchards, or a heavy spinning setup for casting metals. Use 15–20lb leader — salmon fight hard and will test light gear.

Technique

Cast metals or ganged pilchards into the wash along surf beaches and rock walls. Salmon often feed in the same areas as tailor, so target the white water at dawn and dusk. A fast, erratic retrieve on metals works best. When schools are running, you'll see birds working bait — cast into the action.

Best Time

Dawn and dusk during the autumn run (March–June). A moderate swell helps, and many anglers like a rising tide pushing bait against the shore. Overcast days often produce all-day bites.

Size & Growth

Perth and South West beach fish run 2–5 kg and 50–70 cm through the autumn run, which is what most people mean by a salmon. A good one is 6 kg or better; the 10 kg headline maximum is a genuine trophy and rare from the shore. Juveniles — the 20–35 cm 'salmon trout' — hold in sheltered bays and estuaries year-round and get mistaken for herring constantly. They live to about 12 years, and the big autumn schools are mature fish on a spawning migration. Fish size within a school is usually remarkably uniform, so what you catch first is what you'll catch all session.

Diet & Habitat

Salmon eat whitebait, pilchards, hardyheads, small squid and krill, herding bait into the wash and hammering it in visible boil-ups with birds overhead. They're a surf and rock-platform fish — the white water, the back of a bar, the corner of a groyne, anywhere swell concentrates bait — and rarely stray far from the coast. In WA they range from the south coast around Albany and Esperance up the west coast past Perth to about Lancelin, with stragglers as far north as Kalbarri, and the autumn run follows that path north. Juveniles hold in sheltered water like Cockburn Sound, Warnbro and the estuaries until they're big enough to join the schools.

WA Size & Bag Limits

Western Australian rules. They don't apply in South Australia. Check PIRSA's limits.

Minimum size 30 cm
Bag limit 4
Counts toward Counts within the statewide nearshore/estuarine finfish mixed daily limit of 16.

Bag limit: 4, counting within the statewide nearshore and estuarine finfish mixed-species daily limit of 16. Minimum size: 300mm.

Last checked . Limits change — confirm with DPIRD before you fish.

Eating Quality

Honest answer: average fresh, very good smoked. The flesh is dark along the lateral line, firm, strong-flavoured and on the oily side, and most people find plain fillets underwhelming. Bleed it the moment it's landed and ice it hard — an unbled salmon is genuinely unpleasant. Smaller fish and juvenile salmon trout eat noticeably cleaner than big autumn breeders. If you're cooking it fresh, do it the day of capture, trim every scrap of the dark bloodline, and lean into bold flavours: curries, fish cakes, chilli and tomato, or a hot barbecue. Where it genuinely shines is hot-smoked, and smoked salmon pâté is the standard fate of a good beach session. It freezes better than most oily fish if you fillet, skin and vac-seal it — otherwise it's the best cut bait going for mulloway and tailor.

Where to Catch Australian Salmon

Albany (Emu Point / King George Sound / Salmon Holes) Alkimos Beach (Shorehaven) Ammo Jetty (Ammunition Jetty, Woodman Point) Augusta (Hardy Inlet / Flinders Bay) Bremer Bay (Town Foreshore / Bremer River Mouth / Point Gordon) Bunbury Back Beach (Geographe Bay) Burns Beach Busselton Jetty Cape Le Grand (Lucky Bay / Hellfire Bay / Thistle Cove) Cape Naturaliste (Dunsborough / Bunker Bay) Cervantes (Jetty / Hangover Bay / Thirsty Point) Challenger Beach (Naval Base) Cheynes Beach (Waychinicup) City Beach Groyne Cottesloe Groyne Dawesville Cut Denmark (Wilson Inlet / Ocean Beach / Lights Beach / Hay River) Dongara / Port Denison (Harbour / Granny's Beach / South Beach / Irwin River Mouth) Duke of Orleans Bay / Wharton Beach (Condingup) Esperance (Esperance Jetty / Bandy Creek / Cape Le Grand / Twilight Beach) Falcon Bay Floreat Beach (Floreat Drain) Golden Bay Gracetown (Cowaramup Bay) Greenough River Mouth (Cape Burney) Guilderton (Moore River Mouth) Halls Head Hamelin Bay Hangover Bay (Nambung National Park) Hopetoun (Mary Ann Haven / Two Mile / Four Mile / Starvation) Horrocks Beach Jurien Bay (Jetty & Marina Walls) Lancelin (Jetty & Back Beach) Leighton Beach Madora Bay Mandurah Town Beach Margaret River Mouth (Prevelly) Marmion Beach Middleton Beach (Albany) Mullaloo Beach Munglinup Beach Myalup Beach Nanarup Beach (Albany) North Mole (Fremantle) Peaceful Bay Pemberton / Donnelly River Pinnaroo Point (Hillarys) Pipidinny Beach Point Peron Poison Creek (Cape Arid) Port Beach (North Fremantle) Port Gregory (Harbour / Foreshore Jetty / North & South Beaches) Preston Beach (Yalgorup) Quinns Rocks Rottnest Island (Shore Fishing) Safety Bay Salmon Holes (Torndirrup) San Remo Beach Scarborough Beach Seabird Secret Harbour Shelley Beach (West Cape Howe) Shoalwater Beach Singleton Beach Sorrento Beach South Beach (Fremantle) South Mole (Fremantle) St Mary Inlet & Point Ann (Fitzgerald River NP) Swanbourne Beach Tim's Thicket Trigg Beach Two Peoples Bay (Albany) Two Rocks Marina Walpole / Nornalup Inlet (Coalmine Beach / Mandalay Beach) Watermans Bay (Marmion Marine Park) Wedge Island & Grey (4WD Beaches) Windy Harbour (Salmon Beach / Point D'Entrecasteaux) Yallingup (Smiths Beach / Sugarloaf Rock) Yanchep Beach (Capricorn) Yanchep Lagoon

Guides Featuring Australian Salmon

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