Two members of the Naturaliste Game and Sports Fishing Club (NGSFC) have been presented with special awards recognising their record catches of Australian salmon.
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8 year old Brooklyn Fee landed a 4.08kg salmon during the NGSFC Light Game Competition in April 2023, a WA, Australian and World record catch for the class.
In the Junior Male 4kg line class, 14 year old Hunter Jensz caught a 6.11kg salmon at the 2024 NGSFC Light Game Competition, with WA and Australian records confirmed and the World record confirmation pending.
The Club's Blake Tickle said both knocked off previous long-standing records. "Australian salmon records are more often than not held by anglers fishing in WA, particularly the South West," he said.
"This is largely to do with the nature of the Australian Salmon migration, as they will be at their largest physical size as they wrap around from the South Coast and head North towards Rottnest Island."
Blake said the record catches were taken in Bunker Bay and Eagle Bay, where salmon chasers flock during the annual Salmon Run.
"Light Game fishing consists of attempting to land nominated game fish on line which has been pretested and guaranteed to break under a certain strain of static weight, in this case 2kg for Brooklyn and 4kg for Hunter," he explained.
"To be eligible for point in a tournament, the fish must be heavier than the breaking strain of the line it was caught on."
Blake said anglers needed to demonstrate care and skill in controlling their lines, while boat skippers also had a large part to play, manouevering the boats to ideally position the anglers and chase the fish.
"Deck crew also play a role in the capture when it comes to 'leadering' the fish and netting or gaffing to secure the fish.
All that is to say it is one of the most skilful and team-orientated forms of fishing."
"Australian Salmon are widely regarded as one of the most spectacular fighting fish available to us in the South West as they leap and head shake attempting to dislodge hooks, often cartwheeling through the air," Blake said.
"They are one of the hardest fighting fish in the area, pound for pound. It can be mayhem when 5 to 10 different anglers on different boats are hooked up to fish in the same school."
