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)

Sun 18 Oct 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated 12:00am AWST

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📍 Dampier (Hampton Harbour / Dampier Archipelago)

first quarter · 44%

Weather: Sunny Wind: W 291° · 17 km/h Swell: flat Water: 25.6 °C Pressure: 1012.4 hPa ↓ falling Faces north-west · Offshore: E, SE, S · Onshore: W, NW, N · Forecast wind: onshore

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Strong flow

Wind S 17 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 25.6 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:18 am Last light 6:39 pm

High 1:18 am Low 8:04 am High 2:02 pm Low 7:51 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 8:30 am

3h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:18 am

Last light

6:39 pm

Sunrise

5:40 am

Sunset

6:16 pm

Moonrise

11:10 am

Moonset

12:09 am

High tide

1:18 am

Low tide

8:04 am

High tide

2:02 pm

Low tide

7:51 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

27°

↙︎

231°

21 km/h

1am

☀️

27°

↙︎

218°

19 km/h

2am

☀️

27°

↙︎

207°

18 km/h

3am

☀️

27°

↓︎

202°

18 km/h

4am

☀️

26°

↓︎

199°

17 km/h

5am

☀️

26°

↓︎

198°

17 km/h

6am

☀️

27°

↓︎

195°

16 km/h

7am

☀️

28°

↓︎

192°

15 km/h

8am

☀️

30°

↓︎

195°

13 km/h

9am

☀️

31°

↙︎

219°

9 km/h

10am

☀️

33°

←︎

271°

9 km/h

11am

☀️

33°

↖︎

293°

14 km/h

12pm

☀️

33°

←︎

291°

17 km/h

1pm

☀️

32°

←︎

285°

20 km/h

2pm

☀️

31°

←︎

280°

22 km/h

3pm

☀️

31°

←︎

275°

27 km/h

4pm

☀️

31°

←︎

270°

28 km/h

5pm

☀️

30°

←︎

264°

28 km/h

6pm

☀️

29°

←︎

258°

28 km/h

7pm

☀️

28°

←︎

252°

28 km/h

8pm

☀️

27°

↙︎

246°

28 km/h

9pm

☀️

27°

↙︎

241°

27 km/h

10pm

☀️

27°

↙︎

235°

25 km/h

11pm

☀️

27°

↙︎

228°

24 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.5 m W

12am

Calm

1am

Calm

2am

Calm

3am

Calm

4am

Calm

5am

0.5 m

@ 4 s

←︎

Slight

chop

6am

0.5 m

@ 4 s

←︎

Slight

chop

7am

0.5 m

@ 4 s

←︎

Slight

chop

8am

Calm

9am

Calm

10am

Calm

11am

Calm

12pm

Calm

1pm

Calm

2pm

Calm

3pm

Calm

4pm

Calm

5pm

Calm

6pm

Calm

7pm

Calm

8pm

Calm

9pm

Calm

10pm

Calm

11pm

Calm

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.5° over the last 3 days

Thu

15 Oct

25.1°

Fri

16 Oct

25.2°

Sat

17 Oct

25.5°

Sun

18 Oct

25.6°

Mon

19 Oct

25.5°

Tue

20 Oct

25.6°

Wed

21 Oct

25.4°

Thu

22 Oct

—

Fri

23 Oct

—

Sat

24 Oct

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 17 km/h W (291°).

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

Open in the full fishing map →

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 8:30 am

3h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:18 am

Last light

6:39 pm

Sunrise

5:40 am

Sunset

6:16 pm

Moonrise

11:10 am

Moonset

12:09 am

High tide

1:18 am

Low tide

8:04 am

High tide

2:02 pm

Low tide

7:51 pm

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