We drove from Perth to Yagerup beach near Pemberton on Saturday, and arrived at 2;30pm. we did a lap of the beach to suss out spots and gutters, as well as gathering intelligence on other fisherman's rigs and catches. We settled for a likely looking gutter. I rigged up my Ugly Stick 12ft beach rod and Penn slammer 760 with 330m of 25lb green mono. tried on a gang/surf popper paternoster, put a mulie on and cast out. 4 casts later a few big bangs and I strike, I'm on! The salmon gave a good run parallel with the beach, I walked along following him. The penn reel was screaming, pump wind, pump wind, after a few runs in the shallows while we were trying to grab him and we got him to the safety of the beach. My first ever salmon.

We caught 2 big bull herring that day, and another 7 salmon on Sunday. The salmon fought hard on Sunday with aerial jumps and acrobatics resulting in some lost fish, but nonetheless Sunday morning was a hot session with 10 fish hooked, and 6 landed. The surf poppers were gold, 5 of 7 landed fish were caught on them, and only 2 on bait. We lost 7+ salmon due to the hooks bending, and in once case a big salmon bit straight through the gangs.

A while back on fish wrecked reeltime there was an article on homemade surf poppers so in MacGyver style I whipped some up with balsa wood shaped with my swiss army knife, some glue and nail polish, and a tail made of feathers. After the premade rig was bit through by a big salmon, I tied on the sad looking homemade surf popper, not expecting anything. But after a few minutes I was on. The homemade surf popper actually worked, and better still, unlike the cheap premade surf popper rigs, the hooks didn't bend.

You can just see it hanging out of the fish's mouth (the yellow thing). (FAIL, derpy eyes -_- Sun was shining strait in the face)

I was stoked four 4/5kg salmon and numerous long battles lost with bigger fish due to bent/straightened hooks, I will be back next year, with better quality hooks, more surf poppers and a longer weekend. :)

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