Onslow (Town Beach / Beadon Creek / Mackerel Islands)
Tue 28 Apr 2026 · Australia/Perth
Bite Compass is showing a medium fish activity bite score on 28 Apr 2026. Wind is around S at 5 km/h. Solunar feeding windows are listed below.
Local Knowledge
Onslow sits at the western edge of the Pilbara and the southern edge of saltwater croc range, fourteen hours up the coast from Perth. The town fishery is a sheltered creek, a long Indian Ocean beach and a working ferry wharf at the Beadon Creek groyne; the real reason most people make the drive is the Mackerel Islands sitting 22km offshore. Between Beadon Creek mangrove jack, the Ashburton River mouth flats and the islands' Spanish mackerel and red emperor, Onslow gives you four distinct fisheries inside an hour of one launch.
Beadon Creek: float-rigged live mullet or soft plastics worked tight against the mangrove edges and the groyne pylons for mangrove jack and threadfin, especially the last hour of run-out into the bottom of the tide. Town Beach and the wharf: light spin for queenfish, GTs and trevally on metals or stickbaits at change of light. Ashburton River mouth (45 minutes south by 4WD): flats fishing for blue bone, queenfish and trevally on a rising tide. Mackerel Islands: trolled skirts and minnows for Spanish mackerel, bottom-bouncing for red emperor and rankin cod off the shoals. Run the islands on a settled forecast — the channel kicks up fast in any sea breeze.
Mangrove jack (creek), queenfish, GTs and trevally (wharf and beach), Spanish mackerel, spangled and red emperor and pink snapper offshore, with mulloway and tailor a cooler-months bonus from the beach.
Use the Beadon Creek boat ramp before 9am — by mid-morning the trade wind has the channel chopped up. The wharf gets crowded with locals on weekends; arrive early or fish the run-out under the lights. Bag your jacks fast and go — the creek bull sharks have learnt the sound of an outboard at the ramp.
Access & Conditions
Sealed road in via the North West Coastal Highway and the Onslow Road turnoff, around 14 hours from Perth and 80km off the highway. Town has fuel, a small supermarket, a tackle shop and a hospital, plus the Onslow Beach Resort and a couple of caravan parks. The Beadon Creek boat ramp is sealed with a floating pontoon. Mackerel Islands access is a private ferry from the same wharf with accommodation on Thevenard Island. The Ashburton River mouth requires a high-clearance 4WD.
Tides run 3–4m on the springs and dictate the entire creek and flats fishery — the bottom of the run-out is when the bait stacks up at the groyne. The afternoon trade wind blows hard from the south-west most of the dry season; the morning launch window before 9am matters. Cyclone season runs November to April with serious storm potential and the road south can shut for days. Water clarity drops fast after any blow.
Saltwater crocodiles have been confirmed at Onslow including in Beadon Creek and on the Ashburton River — the southern edge of WA croc range now sits at and below this town. Treat the creek and the river mouth as croc country: do not clean fish at the water's edge, do not wade, do not stand on undercut banks. Bull sharks work the creek mouth around the boat ramp. Sun and dehydration kill more visitors than any animal; cyclone season planning is non-negotiable November to April.
Gear & Rigs
Creek and estuary jack: 7ft 15–20lb baitcaster or heavy spin with 30–50lb fluoro and live mullet, 3-inch paddle tails or shallow hardbodies — heavier than southern bream gear because the structure pulls fish into snags hard. Wharf and beach pelagics: 8–10kg spin with 30–50lb leader and 30–60g metals or 5-inch stickbaits. Offshore reef: 15–24kg jig and bait gear with 60–80lb leader and 8/0–10/0 hooks for emperor and rankin. Mackerel: 24kg overhead with single-strand wire trace and float-rigged garfish or trolled skirts.
Seasons
Onslow sits in the North Coast Bioregion, north of the Ashburton River boundary. The bioregion's demersal mixed bag is 5 per day with emperors capped at 3, and there is no equivalent of the West Coast demersal closure. Mangrove jack are 2 per day south of the De Grey River, which includes Onslow. Spanish mackerel run September through April with peaks in the build-up. The dry season (May–October) is the prime trip window — settled weather, reliable trade-wind mornings and fishable offshore days.
If this spot's blown out
- Exmouth (North Ningaloo / North West Cape) — Drive 4 hours south for North West Cape, Ningaloo lagoon and reliable billfish.
- Dampier / Karratha (Hampton Harbour / Hearson's Cove) — Drive 3 hours north for Dampier Archipelago and a wider reef fishery.
- Coral Bay (South Ningaloo) — Drive 6 hours south for southern Ningaloo and a smaller settlement.
Frequently Asked
Yes. Saltwater crocodiles have been confirmed at Front Beach, in Beadon Creek and on the lower Ashburton River in recent years, and the Shire of Ashburton issues sighting alerts. Treat all tidal water around Onslow as potential croc habitat — no wading, no cleaning fish at the water's edge, and stay back from undercut mangrove banks.
No, but you'll get more out of the trip with one. Beadon Creek wharf, the groyne and Town Beach all fish from the bank for queenfish, trevally and the occasional mangrove jack. The Mackerel Islands and the offshore shoals are where the trip really pays off, and the islands can be done by private boat in settled weather or by ferry and charter from the wharf.
Onslow is south of the De Grey River, so the daily bag limit is 2 mangrove jack per angler at a 300mm minimum size. Jacks aggregate and are vulnerable to localised overfishing — most local crews self-impose a one-fish-and-leave rule on a single creek section. Verify current DPIRD rules before fishing.
May to October is the prime window — dry season, settled weather, reliable mornings before the trade wind and the offshore shoals fishable on more days than not. Spanish mackerel peak in the build-up shoulders September–November and again March–April. Avoid the cyclone window November to April unless you're committed to flexible plans.