Recfishwest's State-Wide Fishing Report 30 May 2025 🎣

Refishwest has teamed up with the good folks at Wildtrak Leisure Australia to offer all our members, followers and supporters 10% off ALL of Wildtrak’s extensive range of quality camping, 4WD and outdoors gear.   

To take advantage of the offer, simply jump on the Wildtrak Leisure Australia website, choose any product/s from their extensive catalogue of great gear and enter the code “Recfish1025” when you check out!  

In addition, Wildtrak have generously donated 10 of their wicked lithium battery jump starters for us to give away valued at $600 each and there are already five en route in the mail to the following lucky Recfishwest members! 

Wildtrak jump starter winners:
1) Paul Arksey
2) Michael Koontoolas
3) Ilia Milan
4) Stephen McLaren
5) Gemma Radford 

We will draw a Recfishwest member out of the hat each month to be the lucky recipient of one of these jump starters – great for getting your car, ute or boat out of strife when you’re out yonder!

Roebuck Bay produced plenty of action this week with schools of sailfish around the 15kg mark smashing trolled garfish baits out from Barred Creek and Spanish mackerel were widespread. The bay’s 10-20m depths yielded plenty of bluebone and spangled emperor with coral trout, blue-lined emperor and Spanish flag in 20m-plus. Big mulloway have been hanging around the lumps, with Black Ledge producing some good ones and, while sharky, the edge of the Deeps has produced, cod, northern mulloway and fingermark. The creeks around town have been fairly quiet, but some good threadfin salmon were caught at the Fingers this week. There is some lovely boating weather arriving from this Saturday evening over the next week so enjoy yourself if you’re offshore.

Conditions have been far from ideal with strong easterlies and lumpy swells a challenge at most locations. A few afternoon weather windows have enabled crews to troll the back of the reef on the west side for the odd Spanish mackerel, while the lagoons have thrown up spangled emperor and a couple of golden trevally. Bigger boats found small weather windows out deeper and picked up a few goldband snapper. Getting to the Muirons has been a challenge as well, but a couple of crews staying over have managed to find golden trevally and the odd Spanish mackerel, with Rankin cod and coral trout on the bottom. In Exmouth Gulf the easterlies have kept crews very close to shore where squid have been in reasonable numbers when clear water can be found. A few anglers based on the east side of the Gulf have been casting flies and lures for giant and golden trevally, permit, queenfish and spangled emperor. Other than the rain lurking around this week, the weather for the boaties should see pretty flat water, but Monday onwards will see the swell spike a bit. The next few mornings look best on the forecast over the coming days.


An absolute horse of a mangrove jack for skilled fisher @junior_grassy, with this beast going 65cm! 

With the roaring easterlies the west side has been the most fishable. Around the lighthouse and at Mildura Wreck golden trevally, spangled emperor and the odd bluebone have been landed, while golden trevally, spangled emperor and queenfish have been the main catches at Tantabiddi and Winderbandi. In Exmouth Gulf conditions have been wild around Learmonth Jetty, but the stirred-up water often brings in big queenfish, giant trevally and northern mulloway. In the town marina the odd small coral trout and spangled emperor has been keeping company with the marina’s regular residents, trevally, mangrove jack and bream. A few squid have been caught from the marina’s oceanside rock wall.

After a few days of big swells nice gutters have formed at beaches east of town with Thomas River and Poison Creek producing big skippy, gummy sharks and mulloway, while skippy over 5kg have been caught at Tagon Beach. Alexander Bay and Dunn Beach have held big schools of salmon, while sand whiting, flathead and tarwhine have been plentiful at Stockyards. Gummy sharks and salmon have been landed at 14-Mile and Roses Beaches, while there has been a hot early-morning bite on salmon at Fourth Beach. The Town Jetty and Taylor Street Jetty have held squid, herring and garfish in the late afternoons and after dark, while Bandy Creek Boat Harbour has yielded King George whiting and skippy. The lakes around town have produced bream to 40cm.

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. 

The beaches have been really carved up by the recent cold fronts, which has ruled out most salmon fishing. The beach at Salmon Holes and the corner of Cheynes which has held big herring could be worth a shot, but most other regular spots have been out of action. Salmon numbers have dwindled a lot, even when conditions were fair, but locals are hoping for their return run to begin soon. Sheltered bays have held big numbers of herring and tarwhine and the odd flathead have been caught as well. The town marina has offered squid, herring and small skippy, while Princess Royal Harbour has surprised many this late in the year by rewarding scoop netters with good feeds of blue swimmer crabs. The beach at Emu Point has been eroded and the area looks tricky to fish, but with only modest rainfall the King and Kalgan rivers, and also the Hay River, should be worth a crack for bream. Frenchman Bay has produced big squid at times, along with herring and small King George whiting. King George whiting have also been active in the inlet at Walpole.

Cheers to the Trailblazers Albany crew for their fishing 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. 

Pink snapper chasers have been out in force at the metro rock walls this week and many have been rewarded, with good fish coming from Coogee, North Mole, Hillarys, Mindarie and Two Rocks, as well as from the northern beaches, where fishers have tangled with herring, tailor and skippy when the weed hasn’t been too bad. Further north a couple of good mulloway hit the sand.  North Mole has also produced squid, herring, tailor, slimy mackerel and a few skippy, while Hillarys Marina has offered herring and the odd slimy mackerel. A couple of big King George whiting were caught at North Mole this week, along with a thumping 70cm bluespot flathead. Fremantle Harbour has held herring, and yellowtail. With the river starting to get flushed out it could be worth a crack for mulloway, with the inside of North Mole another good option. The rock walls in South Fremantle have held small squid, yellowtail, herring and a few big cuttlefish. Herring and good sand whiting have been caught at Cottesloe and Grant Street. In the lower Swan River a few small tailor have been kicking around, while there have been whispers of sizeable mulloway from the deeper sections such as Mosman Bay and Blackwall Reach. School mulloway and one or two better ones have been landed around Rivervale and Belmont. The best time to target mulloway is when the wind is down as a stronger breeze tends to break up the bait schools of poddy mullet, bony herring and hardyheads the mulloway have been feeding on. With the decent rain it could also be worth targeting mulloway at the old Swan Brewery, Canning Bridge or the Narrows Bridge, which has been holding some reasonable tailor. Bream fishers have been doing best in the Swan from Optus Stadium up to Maylands. Sunday’s forecast looks best for land-based fishing.

A big thanks to Anglers Fishing World in Fremantle for their great tips! These guys love their fishing just as much as we all do, so make sure you ask their super friendly team for advice and stock up before wetting a line off the land or boat!