Western Australia's 2026 west-coast salmon season is officially on. Land-based salmon angler Ocean Heart Adventures has confirmed the first solid schooling of the year after hiking the Castle Rock trail south of Dunsborough on the opening day of April, ground-truthing weeks of early-season chatter.
He drove south half-expecting to find nothing. "There's rumors of salmon down in Dunsborough," he said the day before the trip. "We're going to head down 1st of April. I don't know whether it's all rubbish or real or not. And we're going to find out whether there's actually salmon down at Dunsborough."
The fish answered for themselves. "It's salmon time, 2026," he called as the first school pushed in. "And there's a school coming right at you." The opening session was the kind of disorganised chaos that west-coast salmon fishing always is on day one — dropped hook-ups, line tangles and missed strikes — until the schools stacked tight enough to convert. "I'm not fit for this," he laughed between fish. "It's the adrenaline dump, too, though, isn't it?"
His three-rod system is the session's real story. Two matched Daiwa Seabass 1102 medium-heavy rods carry Shimano Sedona 5000 reels with 30 lb J-Braid and 30 lb Black Magic leader to Doctor Hook School Bully lures — the workhorse setup. "Most of you know which sort of rod that I'm using," he said. "It's a Daiwa Seabass 1102 medium heavy with a Sedona 5000 reel. 30 lb J-braid and 30 lb black magic leader to a school bully lure."
The third rod — a Daiwa Sensor Sandstorm with a 7000-class Sedona — is built solely for launching big Richter plugs at long-range schools. "This one, my big Bertha. I don't know whether you've seen ever before, but I tape my fingers up like I use Elastoplast tape," he said. "It's really helpful for casting big heavy Richter plugs and big heavy lures."
On a fast-moving school day the multi-rod approach earns its keep. "When the schools are coming past and coming through thick and fast, you don't have time to go and change lures and all that kind of stuff," he said. "I've only had one school. I've got two fish out of it because I've managed to have a couple of rods set up."
Position mattered as much as gear. The prime ledge was already taken by anglers who had been on the rock since before sun-up, and he tipped his cap rather than scrap for it. "There's a bunch of dudes — they got, I don't know what time they got here, but I got here at 6:00 and they still beat me, so good on them. That's my usual spot. Let them have it."
Overcast cloud killed sight-casting after the early bite. "You cannot see a bloody thing through this water at the moment cuz it's so overcast," he said. "You'd see a big school come across here, but ones and twos, you're not going to see nothing."
The signal for the wider WA fishery is clear: the first runs are confirmed south of Dunsborough and should track east through the Albany ledges over the coming weeks. "Schools are just sitting out in front of those guys there," Ocean Heart said. "They're in the spot, aren't they? If you sit there, you can see it coming across the bay from a mile away."
