This time of year after a couple of storms the Mulloway will start running,also a chance of a Pinkie.

But given the height of the jetty off the water and the size of the Mulloway you re gonna want some weaponry to stop the fish. Its a matter of being able to control the fish particularly if its green and starts heading towards the pylons or the other side of the jetty. We fished with heavy handlines of 100- 120lb gut when I was a young bloke - with some success - caught 9 in a season but it was long hours 4-5 nights a week and bloody cold - not that I want to put you off. Best I saw was 34 years ago out along the area known as the "Red box" when a massive school hit - over a hundred fish were caught by the guys fishing - it was like walking over dead bodies laid out- the old wood jetty was "painted" silver that night.

but i'd go even heavier on the handlines, 200lb+.

I'll be putting in plenty of cold nights this year

 that's insanity haha, i can't wait to try my hand (using gloves of course) at stopping a horse of a mulloway if im lucky. The storm thats in at the moment has hopefully stirred things up a bit. Do we agree on a type of bait here? I'm guessing an outift for a rod would have to be extremely heavy and set to stop anything that grabs it in a hurry.

We used to use a combination of baits. Take a light rig with a bait chaser for yellowtail under the lights - catch as many of these as you can get a hold of ! We'd also get some fresh squid off the jetty - if you can't manage that buy a box of the Lunds squid and carefully space a couple of 7-8/0's out in the bait so that it presents really well.  The yellowtail we'd use live - pinning a hook above the head in the shoulder region or just under the dorsal.

Once the yellowtail had died, if it didn't get taken we'd fillet the fish or butterfly it if the sea lice were bad. We'd take both fillets and a strip of squid from the tube and pin it through with the hook with the fillets forming the "bread" in a squid sandwich. Depending on quantity of fresh bait supply vs sea lice and other pickers we'd put one fillet or both flesh out or skin out  - this would present a soft bait or fairly firm and mean you'd be able to effectively ration your bait supply for the length of time you fished.

Butterflying the fish meant leaving the head on but extracting the backbone allowing the fillets to swim the dead fish. We always fished unweighted baits if possible - three lines - 2 one side of the jetty and 1 the other, usually into the wind with a light bean sinker if needed to cast the bait out that ran all the way to the hook.

Live bait was premium & often if the fish were around but not overly interested a live yellowtail would bring about their undoing. You should always fish a dead bait too. My system was to have a live yellowtail, butterflied yellowtail and a squid sandwich out. Keep a check on the livey, and then actively fish your dead baits back to the base of the jetty before retrieving and throwing back out. Let them sit for 5- 10 mins whilst you slowly fish the other back in throw it out and then shift to the other dead bait - it is remarkable how many fish are caught on a dead moving bait in murky water slowly skipped over the ocean bed.

P.S. Don't bother doing any of this without a serious gaff - I've never seen a decent Mullie pulled to the top of the jetty without using a gaff. Fish can be caught anywhere however locals will have their favorite spots - don't spread your lines out too far  - you need to be able to reach them before the fish has finished its run.

Matt do you remember the Berg brothers ? Horace , Ronnie and Norm - we knick named them the "3 Wise Monkeys" See No Evil , Speak No Evil Do No Evil! Three old but very talented fishermen who would delight in landing a Kingie ( Mulloway) whilst you diligently kept your eye on what was happening (in the case of a school of fish turning up) and you would know they'd caught a fish after being less than 20 metres away from them! They were great fellows well into their 70's who always had a story and a kind word to share. Their grandson Rodney was in Busselton - I don't know if he still lives there now or not?

Well Trav I hope there's a couple of pearls of info there for you - when I took it up seriously, 4-5 nights a week for about 5 years I regularly caught fish but there were many hours involved, lots of warm clothes, beanies and coffee with a shot of bourbon included and some food - we'd often fish from 4 or 5 pm till midnight or even 2-3am if we felt the fish were there. It was take no prisoners and pretty hardcore !

Trying to work out the depth of water Mulla's hit the jetty is where the real skill is. Sometimes you'll catch them out towards the end and on other occasions only on the first section of jetty from the shore. Time of night also varies with some being caught early in the evening and on other nights late evening. It pays to keep your eyes and ears open to try and work out whats what but if you then take notice of the tides and the phase the moon is in which also plays a part all I can say is good luck.

Thank you perry for a remarkable and imformative response, I had heard Mullies do love their yellowtail. Are the yellowtail available all along the jetty or must they be captured in shallower waters first? Are they a bottom feeding fish? I don't have a gaff unfortunately so I'll need to chase up one. Approximately what length should it be to haul up a good capture?

Good call Matt

It's a cliff gaff & the 10 m of rope as Matt has said which are the go for sure. Depending on your type of gaff make sure you have a dogclip that is tied into your rope so the you just slide it down the fishing line. A little extra weight in the gaff is handy so it doesn't spin and get hung up around the line. You can get solid snapper but often the morning after a blow - a great mate of mine got a nice fish of around 6 kg on the sandbar on night of all places - if he hadn't shown me I wouldn't have believed it. The hard thing to do to get the snapper is to locate where the old ships used to drop their ballast stones around the area known as the first  and second head - these used to be the ends of the jetty but were developed further as ships became bigger and needed deeper water to accomodate their size. If you can guesstimate those locations "Mr Pink" may well turn up - their have already been some quality fish caught this year around 8 am - do a search for the post on the site - something like Busselton Jetty Snapper.

Trav - if you re having trouble getting yellas don't be afraid to pick some up as they're often let by others on the jetty - fresh dead yellas will outfish no live yellas hands down if you understand me. Be brave - try things that others aren't - if most are fishing one side of the jetty don't be afraid to fish the other side into the wind - I always liked to buck the trend and it was amazing how often you luck in much to the disgust of the other anglers out there. We'd put massive hours in and when there were no women in our lives catching Mulloway off the jetty was a massive addiction - but having your finger on the pulse gave you a clear advantage. When I was "on song" with information I was always hinghly confident of success - my mate and I fished usually together for a seasons return of 18 Mulloway in one year.

If I gave you two tips they'd be;

Fresh bait &

Fish your bait in slowly bouncing it off the bottom virtually to the base of the jetty.

Good luck - p.s. they'll be on at the jetty right now!

Matt - yeah sorry mate - I'm talking the early to mid eighties here when the Bergs were around - you tend to forget that time marches on.