How do you actually get onto Dirk Hartog Island?

Two practical routes. The Hartog Explorer landing barge from Shelter Bay at Steep Point carries one 4WD and trailer at a time across the South Passage in around 15 minutes, running 1 March to 30 November in a morning window that shifts by month. Bookings are essential and it does not sail every day, so confirm your day with the operator. Or board a ferry from Denham — Island Life Adventures and the Eco Lodge run separate services across the inner Shark Bay side. Charter flights from Monkey Mia airfield reach the island airstrip in around 20 minutes for fly-in stays.

Is the fishing as good as Steep Point?

Different rather than better or worse. The western coast of Dirk Hartog has the same Gascoyne pelagic palette as Steep Point but with a wider variety of fishable corners — Surf Point, Notch Point, Withnell Point, Sandy Point — and the eastern Shark Bay side adds calmer beach and small-boat options that Steep Point doesn't. Most multi-day trips fish both islands, using the barge to swap sides as the weather dictates.

Are the sanctuary zones really that strict?

Yes. Dirk Hartog sits inside the Shark Bay World Heritage Area and the Shark Bay Marine Park, with sanctuary zones covering significant stretches of both the western and eastern coasts. Penalties for fishing inside a sanctuary zone run to thousands of dollars and zones are camera-monitored. Use the Marine Parks WA app for live GPS overlay and verify each drift before you cast.

Does the West Coast demersal closure apply?

No — Dirk Hartog is in the Gascoyne Coast bioregion, managed separately. The Gascoyne mixed demersal daily bag is 4 fish with tighter per-species caps within that total, plus species-specific size limits. Shark Bay inner-gulf pink snapper closures apply separately and are zone-specific; Dirk Hartog straddles those inner-gulf zones, so verify which side you are fishing before targeting snapper. Rules continue to evolve — check DPIRD before each trip.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay)

Thu 29 Oct 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated Thu 29 Oct, 10:01pm AWST

Bite Alert

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29 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 7 Nov

📍 Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay)

waning gibbous · 90%

Weather: Sunny Wind: SW 213° · 17 km/h Swell: 0.9 m @ 11 s SW Water: 20.8 °C Pressure: 1015.5 hPa → steady Faces several ways: wind direction isn't scored here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 7:00 pm

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind SW 22 km/h

Moon waning gibbous all day

Water temp 20.8 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:16 am Last light 7:05 pm

Low 7:17 am

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:00 pm → 8:00 pm

Good

2:00 am → 9:00 am

Good

2:30 pm → 3:30 pm

Good

10:00 pm → 11:00 pm

First light

5:16 am

Last light

7:05 pm

Sunrise

5:40 am

Sunset

6:41 pm

Moonrise

10:25 pm

Moonset

7:45 am

Low tide

7:17 am

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

20°

↙︎

219°

26 km/h

1am

☀️

20°

↙︎

219°

26 km/h

2am

☀️

20°

↙︎

223°

25 km/h

3am

☀️

20°

↙︎

222°

24 km/h

4am

☀️

20°

↙︎

220°

23 km/h

5am

☀️

20°

↙︎

218°

21 km/h

6am

☀️

20°

↙︎

214°

19 km/h

7am

☀️

21°

↙︎

209°

20 km/h

8am

☀️

22°

↙︎

214°

17 km/h

9am

☀️

23°

↙︎

230°

18 km/h

10am

☀️

23°

↙︎

237°

20 km/h

11am

☀️

24°

↙︎

238°

20 km/h

12pm

☀️

24°

↙︎

244°

21 km/h

1pm

☀️

24°

↙︎

246°

22 km/h

2pm

☀️

24°

↙︎

246°

24 km/h

3pm

☀️

23°

↙︎

244°

25 km/h

4pm

☀️

23°

↙︎

240°

24 km/h

5pm

☀️

22°

↙︎

234°

23 km/h

6pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

229°

23 km/h

7pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

224°

22 km/h

8pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

221°

21 km/h

9pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

216°

20 km/h

10pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

213°

17 km/h

11pm

☀️

19°

↙︎

211°

16 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.9 m SW

12am

1.0 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

1am

1.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

2am

1.0 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

3am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

4am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

5am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

6am

1.2 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

7am

1.2 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

8am

1.2 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

9am

1.2 m

@ 5 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

10am

1.2 m

@ 5 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

11am

1.1 m

@ 5 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

12pm

1.1 m

@ 5 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

1pm

1.0 m

@ 5 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

2pm

0.9 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

3pm

0.9 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

4pm

0.9 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

5pm

0.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

6pm

0.8 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

7pm

0.8 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

8pm

0.8 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

9pm

0.9 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

10pm

0.9 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

11pm

0.9 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.4° over the last 3 days

Mon

26 Oct

20.4°

Tue

27 Oct

20.5°

Wed

28 Oct

20.6°

Thu

29 Oct

20.8°

Fri

30 Oct

21.4°

Sat

31 Oct

21.5°

Sun

1 Nov

21.6°

Mon

2 Nov

21.6°

Tue

3 Nov

21.3°

Wed

4 Nov

21.1°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 17 km/h SW (213°).

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

6:00 pm → 8:00 pm

Good

2:00 am → 9:00 am

Good

2:30 pm → 3:30 pm

Good

10:00 pm → 11:00 pm

First light

5:16 am

Last light

7:05 pm

Sunrise

5:40 am

Sunset

6:41 pm

Moonrise

10:25 pm

Moonset

7:45 am

Low tide

7:17 am

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

Keep Tabs on Dirk Hartog Island (Wirruwana — Outer Shark Bay)

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