Saturday morning I decided to try for some Black Bream at one of my many favourite little hotspots up the Murchison River in Kalbarri ,

I found one of the spots approx 8km up the river free from other anglers so I thought this is ideal. I unpacked and setup the Bream gear put some Mullet on as bait and within 10 mins I had landed a healthy 70cm Mulloway. To catch a Mulloway of 70cm this far up river is always a bonus and uncommon, so this fella was destined for the frying pan for lunch, not having any onions or lemon I headed back to town to get some supplies, oh and also to brag about my great catch

After heading back up to cook this Mulloway I decided to set the rod again and cook lunch, after this tasty meal I started washing up when my rod bent over and my reel was screaming. I raced to my rod and the run just stopped, this is not uncommon so I waited a little longer with no movement I decided to check my bait as the line had been in the water for about an hour. Once I started to pull my line in I got about two turns on the reel when rod and reel both went ape&*#! I had to tighten the drag real quick otherwise it was going to be over fairly quick, there was no way I was going to gain on this fish anytime soon, the power behind this fish on my little combo made me realise that I was not going to see this fish let alone land it but I had to try.

 45mins had passed running up and down the river chasing this fish to preserve line when the Mulloway took a huge lunge and started peeling me to the point where I had about a dozen wraps on my reel when I had no choice but to tighten the drag to the point of almost no play when I managed to turn him and bring him to shore. I must add both the fish and I had enough as we were both exhausted, but I had enough strength to get knee deep in the water to drag him in.

At approx 2pm on Saturday 13th Aug I hooked onto this 20.5kg Mulloway at approx. 8km up river at a place called Paradise flats, it took 45mins to land, I used a Pflueger Trion GX7 (4735GX) reel with an Abu Garcia Muscle tip 3-6kg light spin rod, and 20lb braid, the rig I used was a paternoster rig with size 2 beak hooks and a 3oz egg sinker. I had some fresh Mullet as bait and used a piece of about the size of a fifty cent piece.

Believe this to be the largest fish ever caught that far up the river, this was after speaking to the ANSA WA president Steve Wiseman (Australian National Sportsfishing Association WA) also have asked most local fishermen and Dean Robins from Kalbarri Sports and Dive who weighed the fish for me. I have lived in Kalbarri for 12 years and fished the River weekly and have never heard of a fish being caught over 3kg this far up.

By the way my Abu rod “unbreakable Muscle tip (and I have tried hard to break it with Mackies)” and Pflueger reel as a combo are just dynamite.

Cheers Wayne Dewar