Western Australia is a coast of thousands of kilometres with a handful of towns on it, and each town fishes differently: Perth from its beaches, groynes and river, Mandurah from its estuary and the Cut, Busselton from its long jetty, Bunbury from its harbour, Albany from two sheltered sounds and exposed Southern Ocean beaches. Licences are sold by activity, not by person, and the shore angler with a rod needs none.
Reports current for Monday 9 November
Every one of the 34 Western Australia waters we cover has a live read this morning. 9 are scoring 4 out of 5 or better and 7 are slow. Water runs 13 °C to 29 °C. Pressure is holding steady on most of them, so the day comes down to water temperature and wind. 4 have a better-than-even chance of rain.
Best right now: Bremer Bay 5/5, Denmark 5/5, Hopetoun 5/5
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
A capital with a river through its middle, a string of surf beaches, Rottnest on the horizon and a boat fishery that starts at the harbour mouth.
The Peel-Harvey estuary, its canals and the Dawesville Cut: bream, crabs, tailor and mulloway an hour south of Perth.
Koombana Bay, the Leschenault Estuary and the Cut: Bunbury fishes a harbour, an estuary and a coast from the middle of town.
Geographe Bay and Busselton Jetty, which its operator calls the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere: whiting, squid and herring in the calm, and the Capes coast around the corner.
King George Sound, Oyster Harbour and the Southern Ocean beaches: Albany fishes two sheltered waters and a wild coast from the same town.
The Ningaloo coast: a gulf on one side, a World Heritage fringing reef on the other, and the deep water off the North West Cape.
White beaches, granite headlands and the Recherche Archipelago: Esperance fishes for salmon, herring, whiting and reef species on the far south coast.
The mid-west port with the Abrolhos offshore: tailor and herring from the beaches and groynes, with boat fishing for demersals closed on the West Coast until spring 2027.
The river through Perth: bream and flathead from the city reaches to Fremantle, mulloway at night, and blue swimmer crabs outside the spring closure.
Roebuck Bay, Cable Beach and the creeks of the Dampier Peninsula: the pearling town where the big tides decide where the barramundi and threadfin feed.
Water Corporation’s Harvey Dam: trout and marron re-established with Fisheries WA and Recfishwest, a south-west freshwater licence, and a Bureau gauge on the level.
Lake Navarino in the forest behind Waroona: trout, marron by snare in season, water skiing, a south-west freshwater licence and a Bureau gauge.
Lake Brockman in Dwellingup State Forest: one of DPIRD’s popular trout waters, a ski area, campgrounds run by the tourist park, and a Bureau gauge at the wall.
The Collie River dam with the world’s biggest dam mural: a DPIRD trout water in Wellington National Park, marron in season, a freshwater licence and a Bureau gauge.
The Ord River’s great storage in the east Kimberley: barramundi under WA’s size and bag limits, a Ramsar-listed lake, freshwater crocodiles and a Bureau gauge.
The Ord River pool behind the 1963 Diversion Dam at Kununurra: barramundi under WA’s limits, a steady level, Ramsar wetlands and a Bureau gauge.
The Fitzroy at Fitzroy Crossing: barramundi and sooty grunter in a Kimberley river that floods in the wet and shrinks to pools in the dry, with the Bureau’s gauge at the town.
The Murchison River mouth and the cliffs: tailor and mulloway on the beaches, whiting and bream in the river, and mackerel and dhufish for the ledge fishers on the cliffs.
The Turquoise Coast town and its marine park: the jetty, the islands and the reef, with whiting, tailor, herring, dhufish and the crayfish of the coast.
The dunes and the islands north of Perth: Lancelin’s beaches and jetty, the reef and the islands, with tailor, whiting, herring and the dhufish grounds.
Perth’s island: the jetties and bays of Rottnest, the reef and the sanctuary zones, with herring, whiting, squid, tailor and the samson fish of the deep.
The port’s moles and the river mouth: the North and South moles, the fishing boat harbour and the Swan mouth, with tailor, herring, squid, mulloway and the kingfish of the harbour.
Cockburn Sound and the Shoalwater islands: the Rockingham beaches and jetties, Garden Island and Penguin Island, with whiting, herring, squid, crabs and the pink snapper spawning closure.
Geographe Bay’s western corner: the Dunsborough beaches, the Quindalup ramp and Cape Naturaliste, with whiting, herring, squid, salmon and the reef beyond the cape.
Where the Blackwood meets the Southern Ocean: the Hardy Inlet’s bream and whiting, the Cape Leeuwin rocks and the salmon beaches of Flinders Bay.
Wilson Inlet and the Denmark River: bream and whiting in the inlet, salmon on Ocean Beach, with the Southern Ocean coast of William Bay and the Nullaki.
The south coast’s remote bay: the Wellstead Estuary, the beaches and the granite, with salmon, herring, bream, whiting and the reef offshore.
The groyne and the beaches of the Fitzgerald coast: Hopetoun’s herring, whiting and salmon, the Culham Inlet and the granite of the national park.
The Gascoyne River mouth and the fascine: Carnarvon’s mulloway, mangrove jack and whiting, the Babbage Island coast and the Shark Bay water to the south.
The Ningaloo reef from the beach: Bills Bay and the lagoon, the Maud Sanctuary Zone and the outer reef, with the spangled emperor, the trevally and the mackerel of the reef edge.
The Pilbara coast between Exmouth and Karratha: Onslow’s beach, Beadon Creek, the Ashburton delta creeks and the Mackerel Islands, with mackerel, trevally, mangrove jack, mud crabs and the reef.
The Dampier Archipelago: the 42 islands of Murujuga off the Pilbara port, with mackerel, trevally, queenfish, coral trout and the Burrup creeks, and tides that rule everything.
The iron ore port and its creeks: the spoil bank and the harbour, Pretty Pool and Cooke Point, with mackerel, trevally, mangrove jack and a tide range that empties the flats.
The Warren River at Pemberton in the karri forest: stocked trout and pest redfin under the south-west freshwater licence, with no current Bureau level series.
Species activity across the covered waters, written for the southern year. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for the dominant water type here, in degrees Celsius (estimated, not a reading).
Read from the agency page named on each row, on the date shown, and calculated for 2026 from the rule as written: a date written as a day of the week is computed, not copied. Species with no published closure are not listed, which is not the same as open.
| Fishery | 2026 | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Coast demersal scalefish | Closed, no reopening date | Boat-based fishing for demersal scalefish in the West Coast bioregion is closed until spring 2027; DPIRD has published no reopening date. Land-based line fishing is allowed, except spearfishing for dhufish. | DPIRD WA, demersal fishing rules and reforms, read 2026-09-23 |
| Blue swimmer crabs, Swan River to Minninup Beach | Closed 2026-09-01 to 2026-11-30 | All waters, including rivers, estuaries, man-made waterways and Cockburn Sound, from the Swan and Canning rivers to Rich Road, Minninup Beach (15 km south of Bunbury) are closed to all crab fishing from 1 September to 30 November. | DPIRD Western Australia, West Coast bioregion rules (Perth and South West blue swimmer crabs), read 2026-09-29 |
| Blue swimmer crabs, Geographe Bay | Open all year | Geographe Bay is south of the Swan River–Minninup closure and has no crab closed season; the daily bag is 10 crabs, of which no more than 5 may be female. | DPIRD Western Australia, recreational fishing rules: blue swimmer crab, read 2026-09-29 |
The south-west corner holds most of the state’s anglers and most of the water we cover: the metropolitan coast around Perth, the Peel-Harvey estuary at Mandurah, Geographe Bay at Busselton, Koombana Bay at Bunbury, and the south coast around Albany. The everyday fish are herring, tailor, whiting and squid from the shore, salmon on the south coast beaches in the autumn run, bream in the estuaries and mulloway at night. The boats that fished the demersal reef for dhufish and pink snapper are off it in the West Coast bioregion until the fishery reopens in spring 2027, and DPIRD points them to pelagics such as samsonfish and kingfish instead; the crabs of Mandurah are a fishery in their own right. The north, from Exmouth to Broome and the Kimberley lakes, is a different world of pelagics, reef and big tides.
Western Australia licenses activities rather than people: fishing from a boat (A$40, one licence per boat), net fishing, freshwater angling in the south-west, and the rock lobster, abalone and marron fisheries (A$50 each), with half fees for under-16s, Seniors Card holders and pensioners, and no south-west freshwater licence needed under 16. Line fishing from the shore is not on the list. DPIRD publishes the rules by region, including the West Coast demersal closure and the reforms of 1 June 2026, and each water page links what applies.
The sea breeze runs the coast in summer: the Fremantle Doctor arrives on many afternoons and ends the shore fishing, so the day is a morning, and the wind row on each page tells you when. On the south coast the Southern Ocean swell decides whether the beaches and the granite headlands are safe at all. The Bureau puts the south-west’s tidal range under a metre; the modelled curve on each coastal page is for the direction of the flow at the estuary mouths and the Cut, with the Bureau of Meteorology linked.
Not for line fishing from the shore, which is not among the activities DPIRD licenses. Fishing from a boat needs the A$40 boat licence; net fishing, south-west freshwater angling, rock lobster, abalone and marron need their own. See our Western Australia licence page.
In autumn: DPIRD describes the annual autumn salmon run as the heart of the fishery, taken mostly from the south coast beaches. The species cards on Albany, Esperance, Busselton and Perth rate the month.
Thirty-four: Perth, Fremantle, Rottnest and Rockingham, Mandurah, Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough and Augusta, the south coast from Denmark and Albany to Esperance, the midwest from Lancelin to Kalbarri, the north-west from Carnarvon to Broome, and the south-west dams and the Kimberley lakes.
The facts on this page were checked against these pages, from the agencies, park services and operators that manage the water on 27 September 2026; anything we could not verify was taken out.