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 the longest jetty in the country, Bunbury from its harbour, Albany from two sheltered sounds and the wildest beaches on the mainland. Licences are sold by activity, not by person, and the shore angler with a rod needs none.
Reports current for Friday 25 September
Every one of the 34 Western Australia waters we cover has a live read this morning. 2 are scoring 4 out of 5 or better and 4 are slow. Water runs 8 °C to 26 °C. Pressure is holding steady on most of them, so the day comes down to water temperature and wind. 12 have a better-than-even chance of rain.
Best right now: Broome 4/5, Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing 4/5, Albany 3/5
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 the longest timber 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, the reef on the other, and a fishery of pelagics, bonefish flats and the deep water off the North West Cape.
White beaches, granite headlands and the Recherche Archipelago: Esperance fishes for salmon, herring, whiting and the reef species from the far south coast.
The mid-west port with the Abrolhos offshore: tailor and herring from the beaches, whiting in the bay, and the demersal reef for the boats.
The river through Perth: bream and flathead from the Narrows to Fremantle, mulloway at night, and the blue swimmer crabs of the lower reaches.
Roebuck Bay, Cable Beach and the creeks of the Dampier Peninsula: the pearling town where the tide moves ten metres and the barramundi follow it.
The south-west’s stocked trout dam above Harvey: rainbow trout, redfin and marron in season, a freshwater licence, and a Bureau gauge on the level.
The small trout and redfin dam in the scarp above Waroona: Lake Navarino’s stocked rainbows, marron in season, a freshwater licence and a Bureau gauge.
Lake Brockman in the scarp above Harvey: stocked trout, redfin and marron in a small dam with camping, a freshwater licence and a Bureau gauge.
The big Collie River dam with the mural wall: redfin by the thousand, stocked trout, marron in season, a freshwater licence and a Bureau gauge.
The Ord’s inland sea in the Kimberley: barramundi, sooty grunter, catfish and freshwater crocodiles by the thousand, with a Bureau gauge at the dam.
The Ord River lake at Kununurra: barramundi and sooty grunter in the diversion dam’s pool below Argyle, fished from the town and the river, with a Bureau gauge.
The Kimberley’s Fitzroy at the crossing: barramundi, sooty grunter and the sawfish of a wild river that floods and dries, 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 the mackerel and dhufish off 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, snapper and the pink snapper closure.
Geographe Bay’s western corner: the Dunsborough beaches, the Quindalup ramp and Cape Naturaliste, with whiting, herring, squid, salmon and the dhufish grounds.
Where the Blackwood meets the Southern Ocean: the Hardy Inlet’s bream and whiting, the Cape Leeuwin rocks, the salmon beaches and the whales 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 orcas of the canyon offshore.
The jetty 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 One Mile Jetty coast and the Shark Bay water to the south.
The Ningaloo reef from the beach: Bills Bay and the lagoon, the sanctuary zones and the outer reef, with the spangled emperor, the trevally and the mackerel of the reef edge.
The Pilbara coast between Exmouth and Dampier: Onslow’s beaches, creeks and the Mackerel Islands, with mackerel, trevally, mangrove jack, mud crabs and the reef.
The Dampier Archipelago: forty-two islands off the Pilbara port, with mackerel, trevally, queenfish, coral trout and the mangrove creeks, and the tides that rule everything.
The iron ore port and its creeks: the Hedland spoil bank and the harbour, the Pretty Pool and Cooke Point rocks, with mackerel, trevally, mangrove jack and the biggest tides in the state.
The Warren River at Pemberton in the karri forest: trout and 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 |
| Water | Type | Live data | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perth | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Mandurah | Town | modelled tide | Mar |
| Bunbury | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Busselton | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Albany | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Exmouth | Town | modelled tide | Apr |
| Esperance | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Geraldton | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Swan River | River | modelled | Mar |
| Broome | Town | modelled tide | Apr |
| Harvey Dam | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Waroona Dam | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Logue Brook Dam | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Wellington Dam | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Lake Argyle | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Lake Kununurra | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing | River | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Kalbarri | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Jurien Bay | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Lancelin | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Rottnest Island | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Fremantle | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Rockingham | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Dunsborough | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Augusta | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Denmark | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Bremer Bay | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Hopetoun | Town | modelled tide | Jan |
| Carnarvon | Town | modelled tide | Apr |
| Coral Bay | Town | modelled tide | Apr |
| Onslow | Town | modelled tide | Apr |
| Dampier | Town | modelled tide | Apr |
| Port Hedland | Town | modelled tide | Apr |
| Warren River at Pemberton Weir | River | modelled | Apr |
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 beaches in autumn and winter, bream in the estuaries and mulloway at night; the boats fish the demersal reef for dhufish and pink snapper under the West Coast closures, and the crabs of Mandurah are a fishery in their own right. The north, from Kalbarri to Broome and Exmouth, is a different world of pelagics and reef that this site reaches in a later phase.
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. Line fishing from the shore is not on the list. DPIRD publishes the rules by region, including the demersal closures on the West Coast, and each water page links what applies.
The sea breeze runs the coast in summer: the Fremantle Doctor arrives most 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. Tides are small in the south-west; 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.
Australian salmon run the south coast and the south-west beaches in autumn and winter, some years in schools within casting distance; the species cards on Albany, Busselton and Perth rate the month.
Perth, Mandurah, Bunbury, Busselton and Albany, with the Yorke of the west, the Kalbarri to Exmouth coast and Broome to come from the official gazetteer.