Queenfish in WA: Where, When and How to Catch Them

If you’ve spent your fishing life in Perth catching herring and tailor, the first queenfish you hook up north will recalibrate what you thought a light-tackle fish could do. They eat a popper like they’re owed money, jump four or five times, then do it again the next cast. They’re also fairly ordinary on the plate — which is why almost everyone who chases them lets them go. Queenfish are a sport fish first and a feed a distant second.

This is a guide to chasing them in WA’s north: where they live, how to tell them from the trevally they school with, the gear that works, and the rules worth knowing before you keep one.

What You’re Looking At — and How It’s Not a Trevally

Queenfish (Scomberoides commersonnianus) are long, thin and flattened side-on, like a silver ribbon with a row of grey-green blotches down the flank. They have a small, forward-set mouth and a soft jaw that tears easily — crush your barbs, because you’ll be unhooking a lot of them. They grow to around 12kg but most fish you’ll land are 2–5kg, and a metre-long queenie is a genuinely good one.

The fish they get confused with is trevally, and the two often bust the same bait school. The tell is body shape: queenfish are skinny and ribbon-like, giant trevally and the smaller trevally species are deep-bodied and round. If it’s flat as a board with spots down the side, it’s a queenie. If it feels like it’s trying to pull your arm off and looks like a dinner plate, that’s trevally.

Where and When to Find Them

Queenfish are a tropical inshore fish, found from roughly the Gascoyne north — Exmouth, the Pilbara and into the Kimberley — across sand flats, reef edges, harbour entrances and creek mouths. They herd baitfish into the shallows and feed at the surface, which is exactly why they’re such a gift to a lure angler: you can often see them coming.

They bite year-round in the north, but the cooler dry season, roughly April to October, is the most fishable window. As the water warms toward summer the queenies share the flats with longtail tuna, bonito and mackerel, and the Exmouth land-based scene fires on the rising tide toward November, when bigger fish push close to shore. Tides matter more than the calendar: a run-in flooding the flats, or the first of the run-out draining a creek mouth, is when they switch on.

The Rules — Check DPIRD Before You Keep One

Queenfish sit inside the nearshore/estuarine finfish group in WA, and the rules are not what you might remember. Under the current DPIRD recreational fishing guide:

The trevally and queenfish group carries a daily bag limit of 8 per species.
That sits within a total mixed-species nearshore/estuarine bag limit of 16 fish per fisher, statewide.
There is no minimum legal size for queenfish itself (silver trevally, in the same group, has a 250mm minimum).

Rules change, and they change without warning, so don’t take a forum post — or this article — as gospel. Pull up the current DPIRD rules before you fill an esky. Given the eating quality, most anglers never trouble the bag limit anyway.

Best Queenfish Spots in WA

These run roughly north to south. All of them hold queenfish through the warmer half of the year; the flats and creek systems around Exmouth Gulf are the heartland.

Exmouth

The Gulf side of Exmouth is queenfish country — vast sand flats, creek systems running back into the mangroves, and a town built around chasing fish on lures. Sight-cast poppers to schools busting bait on a run-in tide, and work the creek mouths on the drain. Big land-based queenies come from the shore on the rising tide.

Bundegi and Tantabiddi

On the Ningaloo side of the Cape, Bundegi and Tantabiddi give you flats and reef edges fishable from the shore or a small boat. The water is clearer here, so longer casts and a bit of stealth pay off. Tantabiddi’s boat ramp also puts you onto the wider Ningaloo lagoon.

Coral Bay

Coral Bay is best known for its reef, but the lagoon edges and channels hold queenfish that will smash a stickbait worked over the sand. A handy option if you want flats fishing without the full Exmouth drive.

Onslow and the Mackerel Islands

Onslow — particularly the creek systems and Beadon Creek — produces queenfish on most outgoing tides, and the Mackerel Islands offshore give you clean flats and reef edges loaded with sportfish, Spanish mackerel included.

Dampier and Point Samson

In the Pilbara proper, Dampier harbour and the back creeks, along with Point Samson near Karratha, hold queenfish around structure and current lines. Industrial backdrop, excellent fishing — the two coexist up here.

Broome

Further north again, the Broome causeway and the surrounding creeks fish well for queenfish on the big Kimberley tides. Mind the crocs in the creek systems north of here — this is genuinely their country.

Gear That Works

Queenfish are not a heavy-tackle fish, but their soft mouths and acrobatics mean you need to match the gear to the job.

Rod: 7–8ft medium spin rod rated 4–8kg or PE2–4 — enough to throw poppers all day without wearing your shoulder out.
Reel: 3000–5000 size spin reel with a smooth drag. Queenfish run hard but short.
Line: 20–30lb braid to a 30–40lb fluorocarbon or heavy mono leader. A short heavy-mono bite trace handles their raspy mouth; you don’t need wire unless mackerel are mixed in.
Poppers and stickbaits: Halco Roosta poppers, Nomad Madscad, Duel Adagio and similar 90–130mm surface walkers and poppers are the bread and butter. Chrome slugs (30–60g) cover distance when fish are out wide.
Soft plastics: paddle-tails on a 1/4–3/8oz jighead when the fish are sitting deeper than the surface bite suggests.

Single inline hooks with crushed barbs make releasing fish faster and do less damage — sensible when nearly everything goes back.

Technique

The classic queenfish session is sight-casting. Spot a school herding bait or busting the surface, cast past them, and bring the lure back through the action. Walk-the-dog stickbaits and chugged poppers both work — vary the retrieve speed until they commit. Queenfish are notorious followers: they’ll chase to your feet, swipe and miss several times, then eat on the last metre. Keep the lure moving right to the rod tip and don’t slow down when you see the fish.

When they’re not showing on top, work soft plastics through the water column around the same structure — creek mouths, drop-offs, reef edges. And mind the sharp scutes near the tail when you grab one to unhook it.

Frequently Asked

Are queenfish good to eat?
Not really. Queenfish have thin, soft, slightly oily flesh that doesn’t hold up well, and most northern anglers release them. If you do keep one, take a smaller fish, bleed and ice it immediately, and eat it the same day — bigger fish are worse, not better.

How do you tell a queenfish from a trevally?
A queenfish is long, thin and flattened side-on, with a row of grey-green blotches along a silver flank and a small mouth set forward — built like a flat ribbon. Trevally are deeper-bodied and rounder. Queenfish also have a soft, easily torn mouth, where trevally feel solid in the jaw.

What’s the best lure for queenfish in WA?
Surface poppers and stickbaits worked fast across the flats are the classic queenfish lure. Halco Roosta poppers, Nomad Madscad and similar stickbaits, plus chrome slugs for distance, all produce. Queenfish often follow and miss several times before committing, so keep the retrieve going right to the rod tip.

Do I need a licence to fish for queenfish in WA?
No licence is needed for shore-based recreational fishing in WA. Fishing from a boat requires a Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence. Bag and size limits apply either way — check the current DPIRD rules before you keep anything.

When is the best time to catch queenfish in northern WA?
Queenfish bite year-round in the tropical north, but the cooler dry season from about April to October is the most fishable. Run-in and run-out tides around creek mouths and over the flats are prime, and the hour after first light and the hour before dark consistently outproduce the middle of the day.

Queenfish are the fish that turn a casual lure-chucker into a popper obsessive — fast, visible, and willing, even if they’re never going home with you. For rigs and handling detail see the full queenfish species guide, and before you commit to a tide check wind, swell and the solunar bite times on BiteCompass.