Where do I launch at Dampier?

Hampton Harbour Boat and Sailing Club is the main public ramp, with a sealed multi-lane ramp, floating pontoon, fuel and wash-down. It fills early on weekends in the dry season — be there at first light. There is a smaller ramp at the Dampier Public Jetty for tinnies, and the Karratha boat ramp on Nickol Bay, 20 minutes east, covers the inshore creeks.

What's the fishing like in the Dampier Archipelago?

It's a reef and pelagic fishery — forty-two islands within a 30-minute run of Hampton Harbour holding coral trout, spangled and red emperor, rankin cod, Spanish mackerel and big GTs. Drift the shoals and bommie edges on the tide for demersals, troll the island edges for mackerel, and cast stickbaits at the wash for trevally. No state marine park covers the archipelago, but the island nature reserves (under DBCA–Murujuga joint management planning) and the Commonwealth marine park offshore both carry rules, so check DBCA and Parks Australia zoning before each trip.

Are there crocodiles at Dampier?

Occasionally. Saltwater crocodile sightings are rising across the Pilbara, but the open Dampier Archipelago is lower-risk than the back creeks and mangroves — those, and the Karratha creeks next door, are where to be cautious. Treat any mangrove creek or tidal margin as potential croc habitat, don't clean fish at the water's edge in the creeks, and check City of Karratha and DBCA alerts.

Does the West Coast demersal closure apply at Dampier?

No. Dampier is in the North Coast Bioregion, well north of the Kalbarri boundary that triggers the West Coast demersal closure. North Coast rules apply: a 4-fish demersal mixed bag with tighter per-species caps, plus species size and bag limits. No state marine park covers the archipelago, but the island nature reserves and the Commonwealth Dampier Marine Park offshore carry their own rules — verify current DPIRD, DBCA and Parks Australia zoning before each trip.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Dampier (Hampton Harbour / Dampier Archipelago)

Sat 12 Sep 2026 · Australia/Perth

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📍 Dampier (Hampton Harbour / Dampier Archipelago)

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Weather: Sunny Wind: W 269° · 9 km/h Swell: 0.1 m @ 7 s NW Water: 24.2 °C Pressure: 1017.6 hPa ↓ falling

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 am

Solunar Minor window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Strong flow

Wind W 5 km/h

Moon new all day

Water temp 24.2 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:50 am Last light 6:28 pm

Low 4:58 am High 11:00 am Low 5:12 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:30 am

2h 30m

Good

4:30 pm → 8:00 pm

3h 30m

Good

12:00 pm → 2:00 pm

First light

5:50 am

Last light

6:28 pm

Sunrise

6:12 am

Sunset

6:06 pm

Moonrise

6:41 am

Moonset

7:12 pm

Low tide

4:58 am

High tide

11:00 am

Low tide

5:12 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

22°

↖︎

316°

8 km/h

1am

☀️

22°

↖︎

303°

8 km/h

2am

☀️

21°

←︎

291°

8 km/h

3am

☀️

21°

←︎

284°

8 km/h

4am

☀️

21°

←︎

273°

8 km/h

5am

☀️

21°

←︎

261°

6 km/h

6am

☀️

20°

←︎

252°

5 km/h

7am

☀️

22°

↙︎

232°

7 km/h

8am

☀️

24°

↙︎

212°

4 km/h

9am

☀️

25°

↙︎

243°

5 km/h

10am

☀️

27°

←︎

267°

7 km/h

11am

☀️

27°

↖︎

294°

10 km/h

12pm

☀️

27°

↖︎

301°

13 km/h

1pm

☀️

27°

←︎

284°

16 km/h

2pm

☀️

28°

←︎

281°

15 km/h

3pm

☀️

27°

←︎

283°

16 km/h

4pm

☀️

27°

←︎

284°

15 km/h

5pm

☀️

25°

←︎

284°

15 km/h

6pm

☀️

24°

←︎

281°

13 km/h

7pm

☀️

24°

←︎

277°

12 km/h

8pm

☀️

24°

←︎

276°

11 km/h

9pm

☀️

23°

←︎

274°

9 km/h

10pm

☀️

23°

←︎

269°

9 km/h

11pm

☀️

23°

←︎

261°

10 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.1 m W

12am

0.1 m

@ 8 s

←︎

Calm

chop

1am

0.1 m

@ 8 s

←︎

Calm

chop

2am

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

3am

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

4am

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

5am

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

6am

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

7am

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

8am

0.1 m

@ 6 s

←︎

Calm

chop

9am

0.1 m

@ 6 s

←︎

Calm

chop

10am

0.1 m

@ 6 s

←︎

Calm

chop

11am

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

12pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

1pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

2pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

←︎

Calm

chop

3pm

0.1 m

@ 8 s

←︎

Calm

chop

4pm

0.1 m

@ 8 s

←︎

Calm

5pm

0.1 m

@ 8 s

←︎

Calm

6pm

0.1 m

@ 8 s

↖︎

Calm

chop

7pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

↖︎

Calm

chop

8pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

↖︎

Calm

chop

9pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

↖︎

Calm

chop

10pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

↖︎

Calm

chop

11pm

0.1 m

@ 7 s

↖︎

Calm

chop

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.5° over the last 3 days

Wed

9 Sep

23.7°

Thu

10 Sep

23.8°

Fri

11 Sep

24.0°

Sat

12 Sep

24.2°

Sun

13 Sep

24.5°

Mon

14 Sep

24.6°

Tue

15 Sep

24.7°

Wed

16 Sep

24.9°

Thu

17 Sep

25.0°

Fri

18 Sep

25.4°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 9 km/h W (269°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Open in the full fishing map (beta) →

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:30 am

2h 30m

Good

4:30 pm → 8:00 pm

3h 30m

Good

12:00 pm → 2:00 pm

First light

5:50 am

Last light

6:28 pm

Sunrise

6:12 am

Sunset

6:06 pm

Moonrise

6:41 am

Moonset

7:12 pm

Low tide

4:58 am

High tide

11:00 am

Low tide

5:12 pm

Nearby spots

Karratha (Nickol Bay / Hearson's Cove) 9.9 km

Species at this spot

Weekly Bite Forecast

Dampier (Hampton Harbour / Dampier Archipelago) + nearby Perth spots. Thursday 6pm — top windows, conditions, what's biting.

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