Welcome to Recfishwest’s weekly fishing report, brought to you by Recfishwest’s fishing expert Joachim Azzopardi, Stewart King for the latest in freshwater fishing and thanks to John Curtis for his Mandurah & Surrounds report.

Keep your eyes peeled for Recfishwest’s Tip of the week, see below!

Picture: Shout out to Luke Kain who caught this beautiful squid in Coral Bay a week after losing his beloved drone to the depths of the ocean (Photo courtesy of Squid Hunters Western Australia).

Your Fishing Photos

If you want to see yourself or your kids feature in our weekly state-wide Fishing Reports, send your best fishing photos and a description to bronte@recfishwest.org.au

Esperance Catches

Picture: Esperance beaches are fantastic for land based fishing. Fishers are able to target species such as salmon, herring, skippy and mulloway.

Boats

Dinghy and small boat fishers continue to do extremely well on whiting and squid through the inshore areas and less than 100m from the coast at times. Nannygai to half a kilo have been common in 70m of water. Some boats also managed pink snapper, breaksea cod, queen snapper and samson fish.

Shore based

Mixed catches of King George whiting, herring, squid and garfish can be caught at the Taylor Street Jetty while the Bandy Creek structure has herring, black bream and juvenile salmon. Salmon continue to be caught at Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach, Nine Mile and Fourteen Mile. Stockyards also has salmon as well as herring, skippy to half a kilo and flathead. Gummy sharks and small mulloway are on offer at Alexander Bay, which also produced skippy to 2kg for one lucky group last week.

Albany Catches

Picture: The King and Kalgan rivers are once again producing good numbers of black bream with Brock Keymer sending in this ripper of a photo (fish caught in the Kalgan).

Boats

Squid have been picked up in reasonable numbers through the inshore areas, which are also producing mixed catches of King George and sand whiting, skippy, herring and flathead. There were seldom reports of boats heading out beyond the protected inshore waters, but expect the usual mix of reef fish including queen, red and pink snapper, breaksea cod and skippy. Black bream enthusiasts have been catching fish between 28cm and 34cm as well as the very odd fish of more than 40cm in the King and Kalgan rivers. Soft plastics have been working well on the bigger fish.

Shore based

It has been a challenging week for shore-based and boat fishers alike due to the terrible conditions, however, some encouraging news has come from the local beaches which have seen an increase in the number of salmon. Surf fishers who picked up a break in the weather and soaked mulies or spun lures at Sand Patch, Shelleys, Bornholm and Cheyne Beach caught up to half a dozen salmon a session. Bigger salmon schools have also been turning up along the Bremer Bay stretch. Plenty of herring have also been coming from the beaches along with some nice skippy, the odd tarwhine and a few flathead. Perhaps one of the more interesting recent catches was that of several arrow squid caught from one of the local jetties and at Goode Beach.