Perth Fishing Calendar: What’s Biting Month by Month

Summer in Perth is long days, warm water, and the sea breeze doing its daily imitation of a hairdryer on high. The fishing’s genuinely good if you get up early enough — pre-breeze mornings are gold, and anything after about 1pm on the open coast is usually an exercise in leader management.

December kicks off with summer tailor schools on the metro beaches, King George whiting holding on the grass, southern calamari thick around the weed beds, and australian herring reliable off every second jetty. The carpark queues at Hillarys at 5am are a sight, but the trade-off is genuinely good fishing either side of Christmas. You’ll share the ramp with half the in-laws, but the fish don’t care.

January is peak summer inshore. Tailor schools on the dawn beach sessions, whiting and squid still producing, yellowfin whiting on the sand flats at dusk, and skippies schooling around jetty pylons. February is much the same — summer schools holding before the autumn shift — with the dawns and late arvos the only useful sessions and the middle of the day a write-off. If the Dockers have already been eliminated by early February — which, let’s be honest, has happened before — fishing is the healthiest coping mechanism available.

• Read the full guides: December → January → February

Autumn is peak Perth, and anyone who tells you otherwise hasn’t fished it properly. The water’s still warm, the sea breeze backs off, and the fish stack up. March is the big tailor and Australian salmon run along the metro beaches — North Mole gets busy for good reason, and the southern push of salmon rolls through the groynes and headlands.

April is the month most Perth anglers quietly treat as their favourite. Tailor and salmon still firing, King George whiting starting to push onto the metro sand, squid absolutely prime, and black bream on the chew in the Swan as they build toward the spawn. If you were only going to fish four weeks a year in Perth, April would be a strong shortlist pick.

May is the changeover. Tailor and salmon winding down, whiting and squid taking over as the stars, and mulloway on the metro beaches becoming a genuine night mission. First cold fronts roll through this month and they’ll shut a bite down fast — but the two-day calm windows between systems are when the best sessions happen. Ashfield Flats in the upper Swan lights up for pre-spawn bream.

• Read the full guides: March → April → May

Winter fishing in Perth is a window game. Don’t believe the calendar, fish the gaps. Between cold fronts you’ll get forty-eight hours of light wind, clear skies, and water that actually holds its temperature. That’s your weekend. Miss it and you’re waiting another week.

June is when Perth’s winter fishery takes over. Black bream feed hard in the Swan and Canning, putting on condition through winter ahead of the spring spawn. Mulloway become the marquee night target on the metro beaches and the Swan, australian herring keep saving otherwise blown-out sessions from sheltered jetties, and cobbler come out to play after dark in the estuary. The wind warning cycle is relentless: south-westerly, westerly, south-westerly, back to south-westerly, with a brief cameo from a cheeky easterly to keep you honest.

July is the deep midwinter slog. Cold fronts line up off the coast like aircraft on approach at Perth Airport. Short trips, protected spots, and a willingness to go when the window opens. Bream stage up deeper and feed in the cold, mulloway patrol the Swan structure on calm nights, herring hold through almost anything on the sheltered jetties. Rockingham Jetty becomes a winter favourite because it tucks behind the coast just enough to fish through most of what July throws at you.

August is the pre-spawn build-up — the biggest fish of the year are stacking up and feeding hard in the middle Swan and Canning before the spring spawn, and the quality of a single bite can make the month. Mulloway continue to reward the patient, cobbler fire up on the first warm evenings, and the cold-front trains start spacing out enough to give you the occasional long window.

• Read the full guides: June → July → August

Spring is when Perth fishing wakes up properly. September is the early-spawn period — black bream in the Swan and Canning are staging and aggregating in the upper reaches, feeding hard as the spawn gets going, squid start properly firing off the jetties, King George whiting are returning to the grass, yellowfin whiting kicking off on the sand flats, and herring reliable as ever. One of the best-value months on the calendar — less crowded than summer, weather warming, quality lifting.

October brings the sea breeze back with a vengeance. The “Freo Doctor” is less doctor, more aggressive cleaner who moves the furniture while you’re not looking. Morning sessions become the go, and by November most Perth anglers have given up on afternoon trips on the open coast unless they’re behind structure. October’s mix is genuinely great — KGW prime, squid on fire, bream feeding, the first tailor arriving on the beaches, and yellowfin whiting on the sand.

November is early summer in everything but name. Water’s warming, KGW and squid both at peak, the first proper tailor schools rolling through, and yellowfin whiting on the flats. One thing November is not: pink snapper season in Cockburn or Warnbro Sound. Those sounds are closed to all pink snapper fishing — shore and boat — every year from 1 August to 31 January inclusive to protect the spawning aggregation, so the whole month is off-limits there. Worth remembering more broadly that West Coast boat-based demersal fishing (dhufish, pinkies and the rest) is closed until spring 2027, so the metro snapper trip simply isn’t on the table right now. Rockingham Jetty is a standout spring and early summer spot for the species that are open — herring, whiting, squid — especially on a light easterly morning before the breeze swings through. By late November the summer pattern is setting in — early or nothing.

• Read the full guides: September → October → November

The calendar gives you the big picture. Conditions on the day decide whether you catch. A “perfect” month means nothing if the wind’s up 25 knots and the swell’s 3 metres, and a “quiet” month can produce cracker sessions in the right window. Three things matter more than the month on the wall:

• Wind. Perth lives and dies by wind. Pick species and spots that suit the forecast, not the other way around.
• Tide and moon. The days either side of new and full get the water moving properly — plan around them where you can.
• Pressure. A rising barometer after a front is gold across most Perth species.

Bookmark this page, use it as the jumping-off point, and when you’ve picked a month click through to the monthly guide for the detail — spots, rigs, bait, and the specific windows that month tends to reward.