Fresh Water Season Open!
There are a number of locations stocked with trout every year, including a mix of fingerlings, yearlings and ex-broodstock making for some great fishing opportunities in the South-West for fishers young and old.
Be sure to visit our How To Catch Freshwater Trout page for all the best trout tips and techniques as well as our Freshwater Stocking article for a list of stocking locations so you can make the most of your trout season.
Metro Catches
Picture: A nice dhu caught on jig. For the latest news in the dhufish boat limit click here! (Photo courtesy of @dan.coughlan)
Black bream enthusiasts have been enjoying some entertaining sessions using soft plastics in the middle reaches of the Swan River and the Canning River. The Old Swan Brewery, the causeway and Garratt Road Bridge were among the spots where bream in the high 30s and low 40s were picked up this past week. The Mount Henry Bridge, Fifth Avenue and the posts have been fishing well in the Canning.
Flathead are starting to appear in good numbers in the lower reaches of the Swan. A couple of flathead fanatics, who persevered with the cool water temperatures and waded through the shallows near Point Resolution, caught fish to 40cm and spooked several that were estimated to be more than 50cm. Land-based squidding has been productive at Port Coogee. During the calm evenings, a few squid have also been coming from the illuminated jetties located in the lower areas of the Swan including Claremont Jetty and Mosman Jetty.
The boats continue to do well on squid and cuttlefish off Fremantle and within Cockburn and Warnbro Sounds. Around the 15m depths have been good for sand whiting off Rockingham and Fremantle. King george whiting to a thumping 50cm have been picked up through the waters east of Rottnest. Customers of Anglers Fishing World in Fremantle caught dhufish to 10kg, breaksea cod, pink snapper and baldchin groper off Mandurah earlier this week. Pink snapper have been found schooling behind Stragglers and Garden Island.
In case you missed it – The dhufish boat limit could potentially increase as early as December. Click here for more information.
Jetty, Set, Go! – Garvey Park Jetty
Today we’ll shine the spotlight on Garvey Park Jetty. A very accessible jetty with playgrounds, public toilets and great fishing! Read more about the Garvey Park Jetty and near by facilities here.
In case you missed last weeks jetty, Deep Water Point Jetty Mt Pleasant, click here.
Mandurah & Surrounds
Picture: If you are keen squid fisher make sure you check out Squid Hunters Western Australia on Facebook (Photo courtesy of Squid Hunters Western Australia).
MANDURAH
In the Dawesville Cut fishers have been taking a few tailor at the ocean end, herring, skippy, whiting and a few king george whiting near the jetty adjacent to the Jolly Frog. There are still a few salmon still hanging around on the southern beaches. Fishers using lures to chase black bream are generally not going home empty handed. There are plenty of fish in the lower reaches of the rivers. There are also plenty of herring, garfish, skippy and whiting around on the beaches to the north and south and people fishing the beaches at Tim’s Thicket and Preston have been taking some big tailor in the evening. These beaches are the spots to try for mulloway with one 10kg fish captured earlier this week at White Hills.
SECRET HARBOUR / PORT KENNEDY / WARNBRO / ROCKINGHAM / SAFETY BAY
Point Peron is fishing well for tailor. There have been plenty of whiting coming from the local bays around the sandy patches. Palm Beach has been producing the odd king george whiting and is a good spot to try for most species and also definitely worth a try for squid. Rockingham Jetty is producing herring, garfish and a few chopper tailor.
South West Catches
Picture: The name ‘King George’ is often thought to be derived from the English monarchy, however they actually got their name from first being caught in King George Sound, Albany in 1829 (Photo courtesy of Marco Orifici).
Pink snapper continue to be picked up in good sizes and numbers within Geographe Bay. Dunsborough Outdoor Sportz regulars have been landing pinks to 12kg between the Four Mile and Eight Mile in 25m of water and within a few hundred metres of the tip of Cape Naturaliste. Dhufish to 12kg and breaksea cod catches have been more common off the west coast. King george whiting can be found in 5m to 10m off Quindalup and Eagle Bay.
Paternoster rigs with squid jigs attached are working well on the popular cephalopods, which seem to be in bigger concentrations in 15m to 20m of water off Dunsborough. A couple of 5kg salmon were caught at Bunker Bay last week and there have been others caught at Mitchells and Sugar Loaf Rock recently. Blue swimmer crabs are expected to be about in good numbers off Quindalup following the recent rough conditions.
Albany Catches
Picture: A nice top water bream. In case you missed it, check out our Winter Bream article here. (@jakefishstagram).
Big schools of salmon continue to turn up along the beaches east of town with Bluff Creek and the Bremer Bay stretch producing good catches of 4kg to 7kg fish. Salmon were also occasionally caught in their ones and twos at Nanarup, Sand Patch, Lowlands, Mutton Bird and Shelleys. Cables continues to fish well for bread and butter species including sand whiting, herring and tarwhine, while king george whiting have been picked up irregularly from the shore at Little Beach and Two Peoples Bay.
Small boat fishers who worked the inshore waters of King George Sound, Gull Rock and Ledge Beach did reasonably well on king george whiting. Squid have been picked caught in better numbers through the inshore areas east of Albany. A good mix of reef species including pink and queen snapper, breaksea cod, skippy to 1.5kg and small-to-medium-size dhufish were caught along the coral in 60 to 85m of water. It did not seem to matter whether the boats fished out from Albany, Cheynes Beach or Denmark with crews reporting catches of the aforementioned species out from all three general areas.
Judging by most accounts, the shelf has been rather hit and miss with some able to set their drift correctly and striking hapuka and blue eye trevally and others struggling to bring up a single fish. Several mulloway were caught in the Kalgan this week. The croakers were not big, but the punters were pleased to see the prized fish back in the system nonetheless. Black bream in the mid 30’s can be sought in both of the local systems as well as those out east and west.
Esperance Catches
Picture: Nice sambo caught by Jethro (Photo courtesy of Jethro Bonnitcha).
Salmon continue to turn up at Fourth Beach, Salmon Beach, Fourteen Mile and Roses. Alexander and Thomas are producing skippy between 500g and 1.5kg, salmon and the odd gummy shark. The Taylor Street Jetty is worth a visit with plenty of herring, garfish and squid hanging around the structure while the Bandy Creek Boat Harbour has been providing some good sessions on king george whiting.
The small boat and dinghy fishers are coming in with some nice hauls of sand whiting, herring and squid. Big concentrations of nannygai have been found wide of the islands together with queen snapper and breaksea cod. Samson fish and yellowtail kingfish have been located in a range of depths and areas.
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Geraldton Catches
Picture: This wide spread and strong swimming pelagic can be found all over the world, usually in warmer tropical waters from the Mediterranean (through the Suez Canal) to the Pacific. Luckily for us the spanish mackerel can also be found on our doorstep (Photo courtesy of Geraldton & Districts Offshore Fishing Club).
Surf fishers have been picking up mixed catches of tailor to 50cm, herring, pike and small mulloway along the Flat Rocks to Greenough river mouth stretch. Bigger tailor have been coming from the reefs at Southgates and Separation Point while Tarcoola has been producing good catches of school whiting. A good variety of bread and butter species including skippy to a kilo, herring, yellowtail and whiting can be sought from the back of The Lives and the northern end of the new marina.
Tailor, whiting and school-size mulloway have been common along Drummonds and Coronation. The boats have been finding pink snapper, dhufish and red throat emperor near African Reef. Big schools of dhufish have been located near the shipping channel. Most of the pelagics, including spanish mackerel, tuna and dolphin fish, have been encountered near the Abrolhos Islands.
Kalbarri Catches
Picture: Many of WA fisher’s favourite snapper – the iconic and long lived ‘Pinkie’…is not really a snapper (Lutjanidae) being more closely related to a bream and tarwhine (Photo courtesy of Ashley Hicks).
Tailor have returned to the coast in numbers with good catches reported north and south of the river mouth this past week. Paul Wheatfill caught eight tailor at Sharkfin Rock last Friday. Others also enjoyed good tailor sessions at Red Bluff, Wittecarra Creek, Siphons and Oysters early morning and around dusk. Frustrations has been producing some nice mulloway and there have been a few also picked up at the river mouth, however sharks have been problematic at the latter spot. Ash McClintock landed a superb 15kg mulloway at Wagoe last Thursday.
Black bream between 32cm and 35cm have been common in the lower and middle reaches of the Murchison. Plenty of mulloway just under the legal size limit of 50cm have been caught throughout the system. Estuary cod have mostly been picked up in the lower reaches. Rob Tang has been getting stuck into some early season blue swimmer crabs in the lower areas of the river. Boat fishers continue to do well on pink snapper and baldchin groper within a mile or so of the coast south of the river mouth.
Exmouth Catches
Picture: We love it when our members send us photos! This is Joshua with a big brassy trevally that he caught all by himself with only a little bit of help from his mum at the end! These fish are often mistaken as GT ‘s because they look very similar (Photo courtesy of Sara Hennessy).
Peak Sportfishing achieved a grand slam for one of its clients on Sunday comprising five black marlin, a striped marlin and a sailfish. Giant trevally have been responding well to big poppers and stick baits retrieved from the white water near the back of the reef. Spanish mackerel have been picked up on bibbed minnows in 15m to 25m of water behind the reef line, especially south of Tantabiddi.
Sailfish are expected to turn up in big numbers in the upper areas of the gulf during the coming weeks. Some nice golden and brassy trevally have been caught near the shoals in the lower and eastern areas of the gulf. Try Learmonth Jetty, the marina and the Tantabiddi boat launching facility for squid.
Broome Catches
Picture: A nice saltwater Broome barra caught by Ben (Photo courtesy of Ben Little).
Billfishing enthusiasts continue to encounter fair numbers of sailfish and small black marlin offshore, especially near The Peanut. Spanish mackerel have been responding well to trolled minnows and rigged garfish off Entrance Point and Gantheaume Point. Nice catches of snapper have been picked up in Roebuck Bay and areas out wide.
Bluebone have been caught in good numbers in relatively shallow waters. Threadfin salmon have been a little hit and miss in the bay and local creeks. Barramundi catches are increasing in the local creeks and the Fitzroy as water temperatures in these systems rise as the start of the wet seasons draws nearer. Shore-based fishers along Cable Beach are enjoying good sessions on whiting.
