Recfishwest's State-wide Fishing Report 3 January 2025 🎣

Mulloway to a metre and gummy sharks to 10kg have been landed at Israelite Bay, while Alexander Bay has held big schools of salmon and gummy sharks. Big skippy and flathead have been caught in Wylie Bay, while gummy sharks and salmon have come from Roses and 14-Mile beaches. Good-sized King George whiting and decent flathead have been the main fare at Bandy Creek Boat Harbour, while the Town and Taylor Street jetties have offered squid and garfish at night.  Big sand whiting have been caught at Blue Haven Beach, while bream have been firing in the Stokes Inlet.
    
Hats off to the very knowledgeable team at Southern Sports & Tackle for their tips! These guys love their fishing as well, so make sure you swing by their store for the best gear and advice before wetting a line around Esperance. 

A few salmon have been taken east of town but they have been hit or miss and no one location has been consistent. Other than that, most beaches have produced herring, skippy, tarwhine and sand whiting. Frenchman Bay and Whalers Cove have offered shelter from the prevailing easterlies and have been good options for herring, squid and small King George whiting. Emu Point has offered herring, snook and juvenile salmon, while the town marina has held herring, small skippy and a few squid. Bream have fired up in the King and Kalgan rivers, but mulloway have been quiet. Scoopers have been prowling around Princess Royal and Oyster harbours mainly at night where a trickle of blue swimmer catches have been coming in, but most have been just a few millimetres undersized.

Cheers to the Trailblazers Albany crew for their tips this week! Swing by their store if you're after some top gear and advice ahead of your next fishing trip. Remember, you'll also catch just as many fish off the beaches than the rocks and it is always much safer to go with this option on the south coast. 

Some great dhuies have been landed off the metro coast over the past fortnight, with this 12kg model pulled up on @fishfrnzy.wa's boat. If you catch yourself a big dhuie like this that can feed plenty of people, do the right thing and switch your target species over to pelagics, squid or whiting as one of these big demersal specimens is more than enough. For tips on how to get the most out of your fish when filleting, watch this video. 

The tailor seem to be firing up when that stronger 20+ knot south-westerly wind roars in over the Swan River lately, with @mat.kleczkowski.photography enjoying a lovely session during the festive period. Casting into the darker drop offs is a good place to start. 

The Fremantle Moles have been quiet with only herring during the day and snook and chopper tailor caught when the south-westerly kicks in. A few squid have come from the rock walls along Mews Road, which have also yielded tarwhine, bream, skippy, herring and chopper tailor. A lot of beach fishers have been thwarted by weed, but tailor and herring have been caught at Swanbourne and Floreat and a few bigger tailor and the odd pink snapper have been taken from the northern beaches. In the Swan River, flathead and flounder continue to fire in the lower reaches, with good fish being landed from Nedlands downstream. As usual, they’ve not been fussy and have been happy to take jigs, soft plastics, vibes, artificial prawns and hard-bodied lures. Plenty of tailor have been in the Swan River, particularly around Applecross, the Narrows, Claremont and East Fremantle. A regular early-morning flathead chaser turned up at Claremont last Saturday and found the area busting up with birds and bait, so he put on a hard-body lure and landed 15 tailor up to 40cm in quick time, along with a pink snapper around 30cm and some big bull herring around the same size. He then switched to an Eco Gear ZX Vibe and landed a dozen flathead. Up river saw flathead in good numbers too, with the Causeway, Optus Stadium and Maylands fishing well where they have been kept company by bream, which have been mainly around structure as far up as Guildford. Scooping for blue swimmer crabs in the Swan has been best at night around Claremont and Bicton, while drop netters have been doing OK from the Bicton Baths and jetties around Mosman and Claremont and also at the Old Brewery. Yellowfin whiting chasers fishing near the Left Bank in East Fremantle have been catching some good fish on live baits late at night. Sunday and Monday morning should hold the better land-based weather windows at this stage.