Is it worth fishing in Perth in July?

Yes, if you pick your window. July is the coldest, wettest month with relentless wind warnings, but the calm 48-hour gaps between fronts produce excellent bream, mulloway and herring sessions. The anglers filling the freezer aren't fishing the most hours — they're fishing the right hours.

Where can you catch herring in Perth in winter?

Sheltered jetties that break the wind. Ammo Jetty's southern side, inside the Hillarys Boat Harbour marina walls, and Mandurah Jetty all stay fishable when the coast is blown out. A gang-hook rig with a small float and a mulie strip fished a couple of metres down does most of the work — drop deeper for the better fish.

Are mulloway biting in the Swan River in July?

They can be, on the right night. The Swan holds resident and seasonal mulloway through winter, and the night bite upstream of the Narrows can be excellent on a calm night between fronts, ideally on a tide change with a bit of moon. Live herring or fresh mulie on a running sinker along the channel edges is the standard approach.

What's the best bait for winter bream in the Swan?

Small soft plastics worked slow along the bottom, or unweighted prawns drifted through the deeper holes. July bream are staging deeper and feeding more cautiously than June's hungry fish, so slow everything down — a plastic that got smashed in June needs three times the pause now.

What’s Biting in Perth in July

Q: What's biting in Perth in July?

July's main targets are black bream staging for the spawn in the Swan and Canning, mulloway at night on the river between fronts, Australian herring off sheltered jetties, cobbler on the warmer nights in the estuary, and tarwhine off the metro jetties. It's a window game — fish the calm gaps between cold fronts.

July is Perth fishing at its most honest. It’s the coldest, wettest month of the year, the BOM wind warnings feel like a daily newsletter, and “9° and raining sideways” is a standard forecast rather than a freak event. A lot of the metro crew quietly pack the gear into the shed for the month and tell themselves they’ll “sort the reels” before spring. The ones who keep fishing — the hardcore dads in beanies and wet waders — tend to be the ones filling the freezer. July isn’t about grinding it every weekend. It’s about reading the chart, picking the calm window between fronts, and being ready when it lands.

Black Bream: Pre-Spawn Staging Fish

July is deep in the black bream pre-spawn build-up on the Swan and Canning — the spawn itself doesn’t fire until spring, but the bigger fish are already staging on deeper structure and shifting toward the upper reaches. This isn’t the peak staging month, that’s August’s job. July is the early staging month, and it changes the whole character of the fishing. The schools are shifting around, holding deeper, and the bite goes from June’s hungry chew to something more considered. Quality over quantity is the rule. You might have three sessions where nothing goes, then stumble onto a cracking forty-plus centimetre fish on a single cast. That’s July bream fishing.

Ashfield Flats is the standout this month, but fish the deeper edges rather than the skinny water — the staging fish are sitting off the shallows, not on them. Small soft plastics worked slow along the bottom, or unweighted prawns drifted through the holes, will do the job. The Narrows Bridge pylons hold good numbers of staging fish and still produce when the water’s dirty after a downpour. Point Walter off the sandbar is worth a look at low light with hardbodies around the weed edges.

Slow everything down in July. The water’s cold, the fish are starting to prioritise other things, and a plastic that got smashed in June needs three times the pause now. School holidays also put extra bodies on every accessible bream spot, so if your favourite pontoon’s got two families and a bucket of mulies already on it, keep driving. A lot of serious bream anglers start easing into catch-and-release from now on — the fish are lining up to do important work.

Mulloway on the Swan: Night Sessions Between Fronts

If you’ve only chased mulloway off the beaches, July is the month to try the river. The Swan holds resident and seasonal fish through winter, and the night bite upstream of the Narrows Bridge can be genuinely excellent when the weather plays ball. The catch is that window — you need a calm night between fronts, ideally on a tide change, ideally with a bit of moon.

Live herring or fresh mulie fillets on a running sinker rig, fished deep along the channel edges, is the standard approach. The bite often comes in short bursts — a thirty-minute window where two or three fish go, then nothing for four hours. Bring a thermos, bring a chair, and resign yourself to being cold. Some of the better fish come from the stretch between Point Walter and the Narrows, fished from an anchored boat with the motor off.

Check the forecast hard before you commit. A July cold front with a 30-knot westerly will make the river feel like the Southern Ocean, and no mulloway is worth hypothermia.

Australian Herring: The Month’s Reliable Feed

When the wind’s howling and the rain’s horizontal, Australian herring are the fish that keep people sane. They don’t stop biting for weather that would put a pelican off. Sheltered jetties are the play in July — you want structure that breaks the wind and gives you a shot at actually holding your float steady.

Ammo Jetty on the southern side is a classic winter herring spot. Hillarys Boat Harbour inside the marina walls stays fishable when most of the coast is blown out, and Mandurah Jetty produces reliably. A gang-hook rig with a small float and a strip of mulie, fished a couple of metres down, does most of the work. Quality herring sit deeper than the swarm of tiddlers hitting the surface — if you’re only catching small ones, drop your float lower.

They’re brilliant for kids stuck inside on a wet school holiday afternoon, they make outstanding live bait, and a feed of fresh herring fillets crumbed and fried is the best argument against packing it in for July that I know of.

Cobbler on the Warm Nights

Cobbler are one of the few species that actually prefer the conditions July hands out. They’re a warm-night fish in cool water, which sounds like a contradiction until you’ve fished for them. The pattern is simple: wait for one of those weirdly mild nights where a northerly pushes through and the air temp sits above fifteen degrees, then head for the sandy margins of the estuary system.

The Swan and the Mandurah estuary flats both produce. Fresh prawns or mulie strips on a running sinker, fished on sandy patches near weed beds, is the go. They’re slow eaters — set the rod, leave the bait alone, and check it every twenty minutes. Handle them carefully; the dorsal spines will have you in A&E fast if you’re careless, so a rag and pliers are standard kit.

You won’t catch cobbler every trip. You probably won’t catch them most trips. But on the right night, in the right spot, they turn up in decent numbers and they eat well.

Jetty Tarwhine and a Bycatch Bonus

Tarwhine are the quiet achievers of Perth winter fishing. They hit the same baits you’re using for herring, fight harder than they’ve got any right to, and they’re on most of the metro jetties through July. Bicton Baths is a standout — the sandy bottom suits them, and a running sinker rig with a small piece of prawn or worm fishes well straight off the jetty. Scale down the hooks and tarwhine will often save a miserable afternoon.

Pick the Window

July rewards patience and punishes optimism. The Dockers and Eagles are both officially “rebuilding” again, so there’s no reason to stay home watching the footy — you might as well be on the water. Watch the chart for a gap between fronts, pick your calm day, and be ready to go at short notice. Check BiteCompass for wind, tide, and barometric trends before you lock in the spot. The anglers getting the good fish in July aren’t the ones fishing the most hours — they’re the ones fishing the right hours. Rug up, pack the thermos, and back yourself.