Recfishwest's State-wide Fishing Report 24 November 2023 🎣

Visitors to town headed to Sand Patch to chase Spanish mackerel and tuna but had to make do with schools of bonito last weekend. The Murchison is a good option for angler chasing bream and mangrove jack upstream, or yellowfin whiting and tailor down near the Spit and river mouth. Elsewhere, boating activity has been quiet but divers chasing crayfish off Port Gregory have reported picking up some whites along with good numbers of reds. The coming days should see low swells and short windows of light winds in the mornings, hopefully allowing for a few boats to make the most of their opportunities.

The Town Jetty has fished well for squid and herring, while the Taylor Street rock wall has produced bigger squid. Observatory Beach and 10-Mile Lagoon have held big flathead, while every beach along Great Ocean Drive has produced salmon with schools estimated at 5.5 tonnes passing through Roses Beach. Alexander Bay has held gummy sharks, while Thomas River has fished well for mulloway to 90cm with the hot bite being right on high tide. At Stokes Inlet bream to 45cm have shown a liking for shallow-diving Cranka Minnows, while early morning has been the been the best time to target King George whiting up to 40cm at Bandy Creek Boat Harbour.

The Kalgan River has fished well for bream and mulloway, and juvenile salmon mixed in with herring have been hanging around the river mouth. Bream have also been caught in the Wellstead estuary at Bremer Bay, while offshore from Bremer Bay. Beaches, mainly to the east of town, have produced small salmon, herring, skippy and whiting, while squidding has been good at the Town Marina, Frenchman Bay and Emu Point. These locations have also produced whiting, herring and small skippy and Emu Point has also held a few juvenile salmon. Flathead and King George whiting have been caught in the Wilson Inlet.     

King George and sand whiting have been the main targets for boaties this week and good catches have been widespread. Fremantle Sailing Club’s Angling Section made the most of the good KG fishing during their King George Classic over the weekend, with plenty of fish being brought to the weigh in – including a 1.2kg kidney-slapper caught by Reza Salleh and many fish over the half-kilo mark. Deeper waters near Rottnest and Garden islands have produced big KGs and Windmills has fished well for decent KGs and also chunky sand whiting. Sand whiting catches have also been good off Cottesloe and City Beach in 10-15m depths and KG catches have been good at the Three Mile Reef. Squid too have been widespread with the inshore waters off South Fremantle producing plenty and so too the inshore waters off Mindarie. Solid skippy and rat Samson fish have come from the back of Stragglers, while decent tailor have been caught at Mewstones. Divers are reporting plenty of crays in the reef ledges across the Perth Metro – most of which are whites – which should translate into full cray pots over the coming weeks with the whites run. Trolling for chopper tailor in the Swan River has also been productive with Halco Twisty lures working well. Light to moderate offshore winds and low swell should see plenty of fishers make the most of the warm weather before it turns for the worse from Tuesday onwards.