What can you catch in Broome?

Broome's shore fishery runs on the tide — Town Beach jetty and Gantheaume Point produce queenfish, giant trevally and the odd Spanish mackerel, while the Roebuck Bay, Crab Creek and Willie Creek mangroves hold mangrove jack and threadfin. The big offshore fishery — red emperor, jewfish and mackerel out to the Rowley Shoals and the Lacepedes — is mostly a charter trip. Barramundi are a wet-season and build-up proposition rather than a dry-season target.

Are there crocodiles in Broome?

Yes. Saltwater crocodiles are present in Roebuck Bay, Crab Creek, Willie Creek and the surrounding mangroves, and have been recorded at Cable Beach and Town Beach, which is closed when a croc is confirmed. Do not wade in any tidal water, do not clean fish at the water's edge, and treat every creek north of Broome as croc country. This is the single hazard far-north visitors most underestimate.

When is the best time to fish WA's far north?

The dry season, roughly May to October, is the prime window for Broome, Port Hedland and the Montebellos. It brings settled seas, reliable morning weather and the threadfin migration along the Pilbara coast. The wet season from November to April brings cyclones, irukandji and box jellyfish, and most charter operators stand down — though the inshore pelagic and barramundi fishing can fire when the weather plays.

How do you fish the Montebello Islands?

The Montebellos are around 100km off Karratha with no town, fuel, ferry or resort, so trips are 5-to-10-day mothership charters out of Dampier or Exmouth, or a self-sufficient private boat run as a small fleet. A live-aboard parent vessel anchors in the lagoon and tenders run out each day to troll for mackerel and tuna, bottom-bounce for red emperor and rankin cod, and cast poppers at the wash for giant trevally. Settled weather and the DBCA marine-park zoning maps are non-negotiable.

Do the big tides really matter that much up north?

More than the wind, often. Broome's spring tides run 9–10 metres — the second-largest range in the country — and Port Hedland's reach around six. Water moves so far and so fast that the wrong stage on the wrong rock leaves you cut off, and most shore spots only fish for the 90 minutes either side of the high or the bottom of the run-out. Read the tide chart before you read the forecast.

Is Port Hedland worth fishing as a port town?

Yes — the harbour and the Spoilbank produce queenfish, trevally and Spanish mackerel year-round, and the Spoilbank is a renowned spot for threadfin during their winter migration along the Pilbara coast. Summer creeks from Oyster Inlet to Six Mile Creek hold barramundi. The six-metre tides are the limiting factor, which is part of why the Spoilbank Marina was built to give boats reliable access around them.

Fishing the Far North: Broome, Port Hedland & the Montebellos

Most WA fishing happens in the south-west corner, where the demersal closures, the salmon runs and the metro beaches are. Then there’s the far north, where the rules change, the tides move further than some boat ramps are long, and the apex predator on the bank isn’t the shark. This is a dry-season guide to three of the north’s marquee destinations — the Kimberley gateway at Broome, the Pilbara port of Port Hedland, and the remote reef-and-pelagic Montebello Islands.

The honest framing first: the far north has two seasons that fish nothing alike. The dry — roughly May to October — is the trip window, with settled seas, easterlies that drop out by mid-morning, and the migrations that bring fish onto the coast. The wet brings cyclones, box jellyfish and irukandji, and most charters stand down. Plan around the dry and the tide chart and you’ll catch fish; ignore either and you’ll spend a long way from home watching whitecaps.

Broome: the Kimberley Gateway

Broome is where the entire fishery is shaped by tide. Spring tides run 9–10 metres here — the second-largest range in the country — and the water moves so far that Town Beach jetty fishes deep blue at the top of the tide and dries to mudflat at the bottom. The shore game runs on that rhythm: the jetty into Roebuck Bay, the red rocks at Gantheaume Point, and the Willie Creek and Crab Creek mangroves.

From the jetty and the rocks, float-rigged garfish or live herring at the top of the tide pulls queenfish, giant trevally and the occasional Spanish mackerel. The mangrove creeks are where the threadfin and the mangrove jack live — fish the bottom of the run-out with live mullet or paddle-tails worked into the snags. The famous barramundi are more a wet-season and build-up fish, hard to find through the dry. The big offshore fishery — red emperor, jewfish and mackerel out to the Rowley Shoals and the Lacepede Islands — is mostly a charter proposition.

A word that isn’t a joke: there are crocodiles here, and they are the most underestimated hazard on any far-north trip. Saltwater crocs are present in Roebuck Bay, Crab Creek, Willie Creek and the surrounding mangroves, and have turned up at Cable Beach and Town Beach. Do not wade in tidal water. Do not clean fish at the water’s edge. Fish the firm creek edges or from a boat, and treat every creek north of Broome as occupied.

Port Hedland: the Pilbara Port

Port Hedland is a working iron-ore port, not a holiday brochure, and it fishes better than its reputation. The harbour and breakwaters hold queenfish, trevally and Spanish mackerel through the year, and the back creeks from Oyster Inlet to Six Mile Creek produce barramundi through the summer build-up.

The dry-season headline here is threadfin. The Spoilbank — a large sand bar built up from decades of dredging — is a renowned threadfin spot, and each winter the fish migrate along the Pilbara coast and stack onto it. Work the run-in tide with paddle-tails or live bait, and respect the soft mouth: feed line on the take and lift rather than swinging. The limiter, as everywhere up here, is the tide — Port Hedland’s range runs to around six metres, which is exactly why the Spoilbank Marina was built with fishing access in mind: a reliable window around water that otherwise leaves ramps high and dry.

The Montebello Islands: Remote Reef and Pelagic Mecca

The Montebello Islands are the trophy trip — a chain of around 174 islands roughly 100km off Karratha, on the edge of the North West Shelf, with over 450 recorded fish species and a DBCA-managed marine park. There is no town, no fuel, no ferry and no resort. This is a charter or private-mothership trip and nothing less.

Most visitors go on 5-to-10-day mothership charters out of Dampier or Exmouth: a live-aboard parent vessel anchors inside the lagoon, and tenders run out each day. Troll skirted lures and bibbed minnows along the bommie lines for Spanish mackerel and tuna; bottom-bounce the deeper edges for red emperor, rankin cod and rosy jobfish; cast stickbaits and poppers at the wash on the outer islands for giant trevally and queenfish. The lagoon pockets even hold mangrove jack on a rising tide.

Two cautions specific to the Montebellos. Britain detonated three atomic weapons here in the 1950s, and the ground-zero sites on Trimouille and Alpha Islands still carry slightly elevated background radiation — DBCA caps landings at one hour per day per site, so stay on hard surfaces and take nothing. And the 100km crossing from Dampier is open ocean: EPIRB, working VHF, a marine-rescue log-on and a life raft are non-negotiable for private boats.

Gear for the Far North

Bring more rod than you’d bring south. For the inshore pelagics off Broome’s jetty and rocks and around the Hedland harbour, an 8–10kg spin outfit with 30–50lb leader, 30–60g metals and 5-inch stickbaits covers queenfish and trevally — add a short single-strand wire trace the moment mackerel are realistic. For creek threadfin and jacks, run a 7ft 15–20lb baitcaster or heavy spin with 50lb fluoro and live bait or paddle-tails. For the Montebellos’ demersals it steps up again: a 24kg overhead, 80–100lb leader and 9/0–10/0 hooks or 300–500g jigs, plus full-sized popper gear for the GTs. Pack spare leader and hooks — there’s no tackle shop within 100km of the islands.

Rules: Check Before You Go

All three destinations sit in the North Coast Bioregion, and the rules here are not the West Coast rules most Perth anglers carry in their heads. The demersal mixed bag is four per day (outside the West Coast region — check DPIRD for the current per-species limits), and there’s no equivalent of the West Coast demersal closure up north. Threadfin, mangrove jack and Spanish mackerel each have their own settings, several reset in DPIRD’s recent reforms. Don’t take numbers off a charter mate or an old guidebook — read the current limits at DPIRD before you go, and screenshot them: reception out on the Pilbara coast is patchy at best.

The far north rewards the trip and punishes the unprepared. Broome’s tide-driven creeks and jetty, Port Hedland’s winter threadfin on the Spoilbank, and the Montebellos’ reef-and-pelagic spread are three of the best fisheries in the state — all gated by the dry-season weather window, the size of the tides, and respect for what lives in the water. Plan the window, sort the boat or charter, check the rules at DPIRD, then watch the threadfin and Spanish mackerel forecast and pick your run.