West Australian dhufish in Australia

Identification and biology

The West Australian dhufish, Glaucosoma hebraicum, is endemic to Western Australia: DPIRD records it from the Recherche Archipelago near Esperance to Shark Bay, most commonly between Kalbarri and Augusta. It is a deep, silver-grey fish with a dark chevron through the eye, a big head and cavernous mouth, and males carry a long filament on the dorsal fin. Adults live around rocky outcrops and ledges, usually in 20 to 50 metres, and tagging shows they rarely travel far from home. The department’s fact sheet says dhufish live more than 40 years, reach more than a metre and 25 kilos, grow fastest when young, and mature at 3 to 4 years and 30 to 35 cm. They are also prone to barotrauma, with a blood chemistry that slows recovery from capture. The West Coast bioregion’s boat-based demersal fishery, which includes dhufish, pink snapper and red emperor, is closed to recreational fishing until it reopens in spring 2027, with no date published, and statewide reforms began on 1 June 2026. Land-based line fishing remains allowed; spearfishing for dhufish does not.

Where they live through the year

When the fishery is open, dhufish are a year-round reef fish, holding tight to ledges and outcrops, often just off the bottom on the up-current side, and feeding on other fish, crustaceans, squid and octopus. On the lower west coast they can spawn from October to May, with a peak from December to March, in pairs or small groups rather than big aggregations, and the larger fish spawn for longer and produce more eggs. The deeper, older fish are the valuable breeders, and the barotrauma of a fish brought up from depth is why DPIRD requires a release weight on board every vessel fishing for demersals in WA waters.

The mistakes that cost fish

The first mistake in 2026 is fishing for them at all from a boat in the West Coast bioregion, where the closure is total and dated only as “until spring 2027”; the Western Australia hub and every West Coast water page say so and link the rule. When the fishery reopens, the mistakes are the usual ones of deep reef fishing: drifting past the structure instead of holding on it, fishing a bait too far off the bottom, and bringing a fish up fast without a release weight ready for the ones that go back. DPIRD plans real-time reporting of demersal catches and revised bag and size limits before the West Coast reopens; read the rule before the trip.

Reading the report for dhufish

The swell, which the report does not carry and the Bureau’s coastal waters forecast does, decides the offshore reef more than the wind; the wind row shows whether the sea breeze will end the morning. Pressure matters little at forty metres. The species card rates the month on the West Coast waters, and the season line on each one says closed while the closure lasts, with no reopening date, because none has been published.

Tackle setups

Playbook by water temperature

The plan the daily report picks for west australian dhufish in each band; the water temperature on each page is a seasonal estimate for its type of water and says so.

The legal season is a separate question

Activity says when the fish bite; the agency says when you may keep one. These are the closures that name west australian dhufish, computed for 2026 from each rule as written and read on the date shown. A state with no row publishes no closure for this species, which is not the same as open all year.

Month by month

Activity for the southern year, 1 slow to 5 peak; January is midsummer. Current month highlighted.

Waters we cover for west australian dhufish

16 Australia waters carry west australian dhufish on their species card, each with a daily report.

Common questions