Recfishwest's State-wide Fishing Report 28 July 2023 🎣

Big swells and poor weather unfortunately restricted offshore activity again this week, with most boats that found weather windows preferring to stay in close to shore. Most of them were targeting King George whiting and squid in King George Sound and overall, the catches were rather slim. The ground in Oyster Harbour out from Emu Point offered better squidding than most spots this week, with decent-sized hoods. A few bigger boats managed to make it out to the coral grounds and found pink snapper and dhufish, while the same species were also caught off Cheynes Beach when conditions allowed. It's another rollercoaster on the conditions this week but Monday and Tuesday is looking like providing the most comfortable window for now with northerly winds and a 2-3m swell. In close within the sheltered bays are still the best option. 

@wadefennell_fishing knows how to catch some solid fish and match it with awesome snaps. A quick duck out during a more favourable weather window saw this stonker dhufish around the one metre mark. 

The overcast weather has offered good squidding conditions with the pick of the spots being the right side of the town marina, around Emu Point and the stretch along Frenchman Bay to Whalers Cove. Early mornings have been the best times and white and yellow squid jigs have worked best. These locations have also held a few whiting, skippy and herring. Elsewhere, activity has been pretty slow, with a combination of poor weather and thumping swells carving up local beaches but reports of skippy catches came in from Cheynes Beach this week. The King and Kalgan rivers have held a few bream, however strong currents and murky water meant a bit of effort was needed. The southern inlets were a good option and this week produced pink snapper, mulloway, herring, skippy, King George whiting and flathead. Further upstream in the Denmark River black bream were on offer. Bremer Bay saw a couple of good salmon sessions late last week and into the weekend, while a very experienced crew with all the right safety gear found a small window when the swells were down last weekend and landed pink snapper, blue groper, breaksea cod and nannygai off the stones. Just make sure you fish with a friend, wear the right footwear and strap on a lifejacket if fishing off the rocks, otherwise play it safe and keep the sand between your toes. Big thanks to the crew from Trailblazers in Albany for their tips!

Conditions were fair on the weekend but in many cases the fish weren’t playing ball, especially pink snapper with the Fremantle Sailing Club’s snapper competition bringing in only a few fish and nothing over 65cm recorded. One charter also had a quiet time of it with only a few pinkies caught, but did manage to put clients on to some tuna as a consolation prize. Skippy have been in big numbers in 20-30m depths off Parker Point at Rottnest Island and seemed to be beating everything else to the baits. Reports of Samson fish and dhufish also came from Rottnest. The white-water around Carnac Island this week has offered tailor in the 50-65cm range while small King George whiting were caught from inshore waters out from the heads at Fremantle. Out at Gage Roads, big sand whiting have been caught. Squid have been plentiful close in off Fremantle with dinghy and kayak anglers doing well in the clearer water around the 8m depth mark. Decent squid have also come from inshore waters off Hillarys and Mindarie and further offshore from Hillarys, pink snapper and dhufish were caught. In the Swan River there have been enough tailor around to keep dinghy anglers interested with most of the choppers between legal 30-35cm sizes. Further upstream Yak Hunters WA held their bream social event around the Canning and Mt Henry bridges last weekend in ideal conditions with a few fish landed, but the sizes were modest. Sunday and Monday should see much calmer conditions on the water so make sure you are courteous to others given the demersal closure kicks off at midnight on Monday from August 1st until September 22nd. Boats will be out in force, so try dropping a line in more remote areas if you want to avoid the crowds.