Metro Catches
Picture: This fish came from the Murray River and was caught pitching light plastics hard up against fallen trees to entice feeding fish sitting underneath them for cover (Photo courtesy of @massamone)
The most encouraging news offshore is the number of pink snapper around. The pink snapper regulars have been consistently catching 5kg to 10kg fish near Stragglers and in Cockburn Sound. The back of Garden Island and off Carnac Island have also been producing good numbers of pinks. King George whiting, breaksea cod, samson fish and skippy have been caught along Five Fathom Bank. Swarms of small dhufish have been encountered between Five Fathom Bank and the southern side of Rottnest Island.
Reports of yellowtail kingfish near Rottnest have prompted a few crews to try for these backbreaking speedsters. Squid are still about in excellent numbers along the seagrass meadows in Cockburn Sound, out from Fremantle and off Cottesloe. The sandy holes off Leighton, Cottesloe and City Beach are good for plump sand whiting. Black bream are widespread in the river with fish to 40cm caught between Freshwater Bay and Ascot this past week. Early mornings and evenings are seeing a few tailor caught along the Cottesloe to Floreat Beach stretch.
Jetty, Set, Go! – Deepwater Point Jetty
Fishing in the Swan this weekend and not sure where to fish or what facilities are close by? Check out our new ‘Jetty, Set, Go!’ Series: A snapshot of popular fishing locations to make your family fishing days more enjoyable!
Today we’ll shine the spotlight on Deepwater Point Jetty Mt Pleasant. A very accessible jetty with playgrounds, public toilets and great fishing! Read more about the Deepwater Point Jetty Mt Pleasant and near by facilities here.
Last week we looked at Keane Street Jetty, in case you missed it click here.
Mandurah & Surrounds
Picture: When unweighted baits get to the bottom they can turn up great surprises like this kidney slapper of a King George. This guy took an unweighted mulie meant for pink snapper while fishing on the Five Fathom Bank. (Photo courtesy of Ed Davidson)
MANDURAH
The Dawesville Cut is still producing plenty of herring, King George whiting near the Jolly Frog and a few whiting for those fishing from the rock walls. Fishers chasing black bream are generally not going home empty handed. There are plenty of fish in the lower reaches of the rivers. Bream can be found scattered throughout the estuary and better fishing is upstream in the Ravenswood area. Also fishers fishing in the canals are reporting some good fish to 38 cm. Most success seems to be coming from fishers using soft plastic lures. Give it a try – If it improves your catch all well and good, if not, nothing ventured – nothing gained.
People fishing the beaches both north and south of Mandurah are finding a bit of weed on most beaches but also report occasional catches of big tailor along with plenty of choppers. They are also taking plenty of whiting, tarwhine, herring and garfish. Nobody has told the salmon that they are supposed to have moved back east as winter is now over, so there are still a few of them around and several smaller specimens have been reported along the southern beaches.
SECRET HARBOUR / PORT KENNEDY / WARNBRO / ROCKINGHAM / SAFETY BAY
Warnbro Sound has been producing some good catches with some very big sand whiting, skippy, tarwhine and some good pink snapper. There are still plenty of squid being taken in and around the Sound. Most beaches in the area are producing a few tailor, plenty of herring, yellowfin whiting and sand whiting. People fishing from Kwinana Beach have found whiting, pilch and herring. Other locations in the region that have been turning on good whiting are the Penguin Island sand bar and Secret Harbour.
Safety Bay Yacht Club and Rockingham Beach Jetty have been producing herring and squid. There are a few herring along most of the beaches, but not in any great number. Squid are still being caught from the jetties as well as off-shore. Palm Beach Jetty is producing a few herring and skippy and there are a lot of squid also in the area. fishers braving the cold evenings and mornings have been catching a few mulloway from these structures.
South West Catches
Picture: Ben Court with his pink snapper. Pinkies are fished most often on baits such as mulies, slimy mackerel, pilchard, squid and octopus (Photo courtesy of Marco Orifici).
The Geographe Bay waters have been rather murky as of late thanks to the recent rain and while this has not assisted squid enthusiasts it has certainly aided those who have been targeting pink snapper. Good catches of snapper were picked up along the Eight Mile, Four Mile and artificial reef during the past week and there were even a few caught shore-based at Monaghans together with a few mulloway.
A couple of boats that searched for promising ground off Cape Naturaliste and the west coast scored some nice dhufish. Salmon are still about with Bunker Bay, Castle Rock and Point Picquet among the spots to produce catches of the 3 to 7kg fish. Baits have reportedly been out performing lures on the salmon while the water remains discoloured. Herring have been plentiful along the west coast and in the bay and expect yellowfin and sand whiting to turn up along the sand flats in front of Quindalup soon.
Albany Catches
Picture: Now this is fishing! Great to see Dylan with a cracker of a smile with his fish (Photo courtesy of Dylan Picken).
It has been tough work trying to find a day to head offshore, but there was the odd boat that managed to pick a short break in the rough conditions and headed out. Those crews appeared to head mostly to the back of the islands and seemed to mainly pick up small pink snapper, breaksea cod, dhufish and queen snapper.
The inshore fishing wasn’t much better with even the protected waters of King George Sound and both harbours becoming whipped up by the persistent strong winds. When the conditions did settle somewhat, it was mostly small King George whiting, sand whiting of mixed sizes, skippy to a kilo and flathead caught. Squid have remained a rare commodity in these parts with most crews ordinarily catching fewer than three of the popular cephalopods each outing. Judging by some accounts, squid catches have been better in the inshore waters east of town. Similarly, salmon have been turning up in better numbers along the coast east of Albany. A customer of Albany Rods and Tackle scored a hot session on 4 to 6kg salmon at Nanarup last week.
Bremer Bay has reportedly been fishing consistently well for salmon and there have been some good sessions had at Bluff Creek. Herring are also good in these parts while the best options for the bread and butter species near town appear to be Sand Patch and Cable Beach. The Bremer River has been fishing well for black bream while both of the local systems have been producing good numbers of fish to 35cm for lure and bait fishers. The Hay and Denmark have been a little hit and miss. Wilson Inlet is still open and fishing fairly well and Nanarup is also open, but rather cloudy.
Esperance Catches
Picture: Nannygai is a prize catch for deep water anglers on the south coast. The Recfishwest app has given this fish a 5 star edibility rating! These guys are also known as bight redfish, nanny or red snapper (Photo courtesy of Cowan Wise).
A good mix of bread and butter species including garfish, herring and squid can be sought at the Taylor Street Jetty. Bandy Creek Boat Harbour is mostly producing King George whiting and herring. Salmon were reportedly thick along the beaches during the past week with Thomas, Alexander, Dunns, Stockyards, Salmon, Fourth and Fourteen Mile among the spots that produced fish to a thumping 8kg.
Big skippy have been on the bite at Dunns, Fourteen Mile and Roses. The boats that fished approximately 10 to 15km from town did well on pink snapper to 6kg. Those who ventured out to the ground 30km out and beyond scored good size nannygai and queen snapper. Small southern bluefin tuna are expected to turn up soon following the arrival of big schools of small mulies.
Download iPhone or Android
Geraldton Catches
Picture: Sandy’s ripper of a coral trout caught on a leadhead jig (Photo courtesy Sandy Daniele).
A group of customers of customers of Geraldton Sports caught three mulloway of about a metre in length near West Bank at the weekend. Tailor have been turning up some mornings and evenings at the first and second points at Greenough. Chopper tailor are evident in the river itself together with small mulloway, of which most have just been more than legal size. The rocks in front of the Sail Inn are worth visiting with skippy to a kilo and, in the evenings, herring on offer.
Graham Maunder and a couple of friends caught yellowfin and school whiting to 30cm at Coronation Bay on Saturday afternoon. School mackerel around 60cm have also been turning up along the beaches there. Boat fishers had to work hard for their catches at the weekend. Schools of 6 to 8kg dhufish were found along the shipping channel together with some big slimy cod. Catches of dhufish, pink snapper and baldchin groper were picked up at African Reef, South West Bank, the coral strips out from Drummonds and near the Abrolhos Islands.
Kalbarri Catches
Picture: Red throat emperor are just one of the many emperors you can catch in WA. There is no mistaking these guys due to their bright red colouring inside their mouth.
Wayne Dewar, of Kalbarri Sports and Dive, has been catching some nice black bream in the upper reaches of the Murchison and being busted off by what he suspects to be estuary cod or mangrove jack. Yellowfin whiting are starting to show in better numbers along the lower reaches of the river and there seems to be more blue swimmer crabs being caught just inside the river mouth.
Several pink snapper were caught from the cliffs and Red Bluff during the week. Plenty of mulloway to a metre and the occasional bigger fish are being caught at Wittecarra, Frustrations and the beaches north of town. Better catches of pink snapper, baldchin groper, sweetlip, emperor and coral trout have been coming from the southern waters while the ground north of town has been producing bigger numbers of red emperor and dhufish.
Exmouth Catches
Picture: Yuesf Kay with his awesome long tail tuna he caught in Exmouth last week. Yusef is also an Admin member of the Facebook group Squid Hunters Western Australia (Photo courtesy of Squid Hunters Western Australia).
Billfish enthusiasts have been raising up to a dozen black marlin a session in waters out from Tantabiddi. Several fishers reported experiencing pack attacks by small black marlin in their spreads. Reports suggest that most of the blacks have been coming from depths of 100m to 300m. Striped marlin and sailfish have also been turning up in the spreads during the past few weeks and there has already been the odd early-season blue marlin showing up beyond the 400m contour.
The boats targeting reef fish off Tantabiddi have been picking up good numbers of coral and coronation trout in relatively shallow waters. Squid have continued to show up in good numbers in the gulf with boat and shore fishers finding the incoming tide period the most productive time to target ink fish. Blue swimmer crabs have been a little quiet of late in the gulf, while the prawns have also been sporadic.
Broome Catches
Picture: While this Wahoo caught by Ash is a ripper, a new Fijian record may have been set by an Australian spearo last week that weighed in at 57 kgs! (Photo courtesy of Ashley Hicks).
Sailfish and small black marlin continue to be encountered offshore, especially in waters northwest of town. Matt Fava caught several sailfish, raised at least seven black marlin and landed a nice wahoo during an entertaining session approximately 60 nautical miles from the coast last week.
Good numbers of Spanish mackerel and schools of longtail and mack tuna have been found off Entrance Point and Gantheaume Point. Queenfish and varieties of trevally can be caught near the jetty. The area behind the pearl farm has been fishing very well fro threadfin salmon. Small giant trevally have been dominant in Dampier Creek.
