Samson fish
Excellent
Prime. Knife jigs and big plastics worked over the reef edges and the bait schools.
Hopetoun Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
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.
5/5
Excellent. Go now.Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.
Next tide
Low 2:30 pm model
Air / High
14 °C / 17 °C
Wind
SE 12 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Hopetoun is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. Today brings cloud cover, wind SE around 11 km/h, falling pressure near 1023 hPa and a high of 17 °C. Tides: high 11:00 am and 9:45 pm, low 5:15 am and 2:30 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:02 PM-1:02 AM and 10:38 AM-12:38 PM: the windows to build the day around.
King George whiting
Excellent
Peak season. Berley lightly, fish the sand holes on the making tide, and stay mobile: whiting are where the bait is, not where they were last week.
Southern calamari
Excellent
Prime. Drift the weed edges casting jigs, or a baited jig under a float from the piers.
West Australian dhufish
Good
Fish the deeper reef in 40 metres and more; big baits, heavy leaders, and release any fish you are not keeping with a release weight.
Tailor
Good
Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
Tie on: Soft plastic on a 1/4 oz jighead · Small hardbody, shallow diver · Squid jig, size 3.0 · Fresh pipi or worm on a small hook. Prime windows: 11:02 PM-1:02 AM, 10:38 AM-12:38 PM, 3:57 AM-4:57 AM. Similar at 17 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Western Australia requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$40.00. Western Australia fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing west australian dhufish here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD WA before you keep anything; the West Australian dhufish page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Hopetoun today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (04:52), sunset (18:34), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:02 PM-1:02 AM and 10:38 AM-12:38 PM; minor 3:57 AM-4:57 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.
Tides (modelled)
Modelled sea level curve from Open-Meteo Marine for these coordinates, datum mean sea level. Fish the moving water either side of each change.
A model, not the official prediction: times can drift by tens of minutes inside bays and estuaries. Check the Bureau of Meteorology tide predictions for the exact times before you rely on them.
Mon
LOW5:15 am-0.24 m
HIGH11:00 am-0.04 m
LOW2:30 pm-0.11 m
HIGH9:45 pm0.47 m
Tue
LOW5:45 am-0.31 m
HIGH11:30 am-0.14 m
LOW2:30 pm-0.19 m
HIGH10:06 pm0.43 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp14 °C
High / Low17 °C / 14 °C
WindSE 12 km/h, gusts 23 km/h
Pressure1023.1 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain97% cloud, 25%
Sunrise / Sunset04:52 / 18:34
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Hopetoun
Today is the pick of the week on Hopetoun, at 5 out of 5.
Best day this week: today, 9 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Excellent
Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.
- Solunar majors
- 11:02 PM-1:02 AM and 10:38 AM-12:38 PM
- Minor period
- 3:57 AM-4:57 AM
- Sun
- 04:52 to 18:34
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 21 km/h
- Rain chance
- 25%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Hopetoun: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
West Australian dhufish
Year-round demersal fishery with a closed season on the West Coast; check DPIRD
WA's prize demersal. Lives on limestone reef and lumps in 20 to 100 metres from Kalbarri to Augusta; slow-growing and tightly managed. Fish the deeper reef in 40 metres and more; big baits, heavy leaders, and release any fish you are not keeping with a release weight.
Samson fish
Best: summer and autumn off WA
The big amberjack of the west: bruising fights on jigs over the deep reef and around the offshore aggregations in summer. Prime. Knife jigs and big plastics worked over the reef edges and the bait schools.
King George whiting
Best: December to May in SA; spring and summer in Port Phillip
The table fish of the south. Feeds over sand patches between weed and reef in 2 to 10 metres, mostly by day, mostly on the moving tide. Peak season. Berley lightly, fish the sand holes on the making tide, and stay mobile: whiting are where the bait is, not where they were last week.
Southern calamari
Spring and autumn peaks in the southern bays
Southern calamari over weed and sand in 2 to 10 metres of the bays and gulfs; a jig fishery at dawn, dusk and under the jetty lights. Prime. Drift the weed edges casting jigs, or a baited jig under a float from the piers.
Tailor
Autumn and winter on the east coast; the run reaches K'gari (Fraser Island) in late winter, where the east beach from Waddy Point to Indian Head is closed to all fin fish from 1 August to 29 September
The surf and rock fish of the east coast, running north in autumn and winter. Fast, toothy and best at dawn, dusk and into the dark. Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
When to come: the Hopetoun calendar
Activity by species and month for the southern year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
West Australian dhufish
Samson fish
King George whiting
Southern calamari
Tailor
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 19 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Hopetoun today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Samson fish led the card at excellent. High of 22 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Samson fish led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 21 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Southern calamari led the card at excellent. High of 17 °C, wind to 27 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Western Australian recreational fishing licences, from A$40.00, the same for residents and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by DPIRD WA and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Western Australia licence page before you keep anything.
Access
Line fishing from the shore at Hopetoun is not among Western Australia’s licensed activities; fishing from a powered boat needs the Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence; our Western Australia page has the fees.
About this water
Hopetoun is a coastal town in Western Australia, Australia, covered from the Western Australia reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Hopetoun: the full guide
Hopetoun and the Fitzgerald coast
Hopetoun is the small town on the south coast between Bremer Bay and Esperance, with the groyne that replaced the old jetty, and the foreshore, the beaches running east toward Starvation Bay and west into the Fitzgerald River National Park, the Culham Inlet and its bar behind the western beaches and the granite of East Mount Barren above the coast. It is a groyne-and-beach town on a remote coast, and the report on this page is scored for the town’s coordinates. Esperance has its own page.
Species and seasons
Herring and garfish fish the groyne and the beaches all year and are the town’s fish; Australian salmon run the beaches and the granite in autumn, big ones; King George whiting fish the sand off the groyne in summer; squid work the weed around it; black bream fish the Culham Inlet when it holds water; tailor run the beaches in the cooler months; skippy and sweep fill the granite; and the reef gives dhufish and snapper for the boats under the South Coast bioregion rules, with DPIRD’s new limits from 1 June 2026. Mulloway are taken on the Hopetoun beaches at night.
Where to fish it
The Hopetoun groyne off the main street is the walk-on mark for herring, garfish and squid, fished at dusk and on the rising tide, and the town beach either side of it is the whiting sand; the beaches east to Starvation Bay and Mason Bay and west into the national park at Four Mile are the salmon and mulloway sand, and the Culham Inlet behind the western beaches is the bream water when it holds water. Boats launch at the groyne.
Reading this report here
The coast faces south and a south-westerly closes the beaches and the granite, while the groyne in the town’s lee keeps fishing on most days; the wind row tells you which. The tide panel is a modelled curve for the coordinates of Hopetoun, labelled as a model, small on this coast. Pressure and sky build the score at Hopetoun; the planner shows the day. The granite around East Mount Barren is exposed: fish it on calm days only, and wear a lifejacket.
Licence, access and rules
Line fishing from the shore at Hopetoun is not among Western Australia’s licensed activities; fishing from a powered boat needs the Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence; our Western Australia page has the fees. The groyne and the beaches are public; the Fitzgerald River National Park rules and the DPIRD limits are in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch at Hopetoun?
Herring and garfish off the groyne all year, salmon on the beaches in autumn, whiting off the groyne in summer, squid over the weed, skippy and sweep on the granite.
Do I need a licence at Hopetoun?
Not for the groyne or the beaches; fishing from a powered boat needs the Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence.
Is fishing good at Hopetoun right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Tide curve (modelled)
- Open-Meteo Marine, sea level height including tides
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.