Pipidinny Beach

Pipidinny is the undeveloped stretch of coast between Yanchep and Alkimos, reached down Pipidinny Road off Marmion Avenue and then a sand track to the dune. There is no car park, no kiosk and no surf club, so the gutters here get a fraction of the foot traffic that Quinns or Mullaloo see on the same swell. Tailor hold in the deeper gutters and mulloway work the same water after dark. The northern suburbs are being built out toward it at speed, so the quiet is a wasting asset.

Walk the beach at low tide before you fish it and mark the gutters — the darker channels running parallel to the sand between the bars are where everything travels, and on an undeveloped beach you get to choose from about 5km of them. Cast 55–70g metals across and along the gutter mouths for tailor, retrieving fast and high. Mulloway go in the deepest of the gutters you marked, on a whole mulie or a 150mm hard-bodied minnow, worked over the two hours either side of high after dark. Herring and sand whiting come from the shallower inside water on light paternosters.

Tailor are the main catch and sit in the deeper gutters, best at the low-light ends of the day. Mulloway are the reason people fish here at night rather than closer to home — the beach is quiet enough that a good gutter goes unfished for days at a time. Australian salmon pass through in autumn along with the rest of the coast. Herring and sand whiting are the reliable daylight fallback when the tailor haven't shown.

Walk the beach in daylight first — there is no lighting, no landmark to steer by, and patchy reception if it goes wrong. Drop tyre pressures before the sand track if you are driving in, and do not attempt it in a two-wheel drive after rain. Fish move along this coast rather than living on it, so if a gutter is dead after twenty minutes, walk to the next one rather than waiting it out.

Pipidinny Road runs west off Marmion Avenue at Eglinton to sand tracks behind the dune, about 1.4km from Marmion Avenue. Access is genuinely undeveloped — soft sand tracks, no sealed car park, no toilets, no water, no lighting and no formal beach access path. Four-wheel drive with lowered pressures is the sensible minimum for the tracks; walking in from the sealed road end is the alternative and adds a solid walk over soft sand. This is not a mobility-accessible spot and it is a poor choice for young children. Tell someone where you are going.

Nothing sits between this sand and the south-westerly swell — no reef, no island, no groyne. It needs some swell to build and hold the gutters, but above roughly 2.5m the beach washes out and the rips get dangerous. Morning is cleaner before the afternoon sea breeze puts chop on the water. A big winter swell rearranges the bars, so the gutter you marked last month may not be there. The gutters fish best on a moving tide, and the top of the tide after dark is the mulloway window.

Nobody is coming to help you here quickly — there is no surf club, no patrol, no lighting and no formal access, and that changes the risk calculus on everything else. Rips run hard between the sandbars, and the gutters that hold fish are the rips that will move you; do not wade past your knees to gain casting distance. The sand tracks bog two-wheel drives routinely and recovery is a long wait. Summer northerlies bring bluebottles. Fish with someone, carry a charged phone, and do not fish a night session here alone.

For the sand tracks behind the dune, yes — they are soft and they bog two-wheel drives regularly, and recovery out here is a long wait. You can park at the sealed end of Pipidinny Road and walk in instead, which adds a decent slog over soft sand but avoids the risk entirely. Drop tyre pressures before you start if you are driving.

Tailor in the deeper gutters are the main catch, with mulloway working the same water after dark. Australian salmon pass through in autumn, and herring and sand whiting are the reliable daylight fallback. It is a beach fishery, so everything depends on finding a good gutter first.

No. There is no surf club, no patrol, no lighting and no formal beach access, and rips run hard between the sandbars. It is a fishing beach for people comfortable with an unpatrolled coast — not a family swimming beach. Yanchep Lagoon 5km north is the sheltered option.

After dark, in the deepest gutter you scouted in daylight, over the two hours either side of the top of the tide. Use a whole mulie on gangs or a 150mm hard-bodied minnow, and never fish it alone — there is no help nearby and no lighting.