South Yunderup (Murray Delta Canals)

Start with the closure: this is a crabbing address as much as a fishing one, and blue swimmer crabbing is closed 1 September to 30 November, with a second Peel-specific order closing crab fishing from 1 September to 31 October. South Yunderup sits on the delta where the Murray spreads out and meets the Peel Inlet, about 8km east-south-east of Mandurah. The Murray is one of the few large waterways near Perth never dammed for public supply, so it still runs on its own schedule, and the delta it builds here is sandy patches and shallow seagrass beds. The suburb itself is a canal estate, which means a great deal of the best-looking water has a private jetty and somebody's house attached to it — the public fishes Centenary Park, the River Road ramp and the open river bank. Come for rising-tide bream on the flats rather than a wander along the canals.

The delta is a rising-tide fishery and every source says the same thing about it — the tidal push out of the Peel Inlet stirs the flats and brings bream up onto the sand and seagrass with it. Work small suspending hardbody minnows and 1.5 to 2.5 inch soft plastics in motor oil or pumpkin on 8 to 12lb leader, and take the middle treble off the hardbody before you start. Whiting are a surface fish out here, taking small poppers worked across the shallow inlet flats through the warm months. Mulloway are the after-dark bait proposition in the deeper water off the delta. Fish the run rather than the slack, and get there before the sea breeze puts chop over water that is ankle-deep in places.

Black bream are the fish this delta is known for, running from October through into early winter with the spring months the pick, at 250mm minimum and a daily bag of 6. Yellowfin whiting are the summer surface fish, with no minimum size in WA at all and a daily bag of 30. Flathead come off the sand edges from December through March at 300mm with a bag of 8, while herring and tailor fill the same warm months — herring carry no size limit and a bag of 20, tailor are 300mm with a bag of 8 and only 2 fish over 500mm. Mulloway are the after-dark long shot at 500mm and a bag of 2. Blue swimmer crabs are the other reason people come, and on the delta the Peel-Harvey rules apply once the season opens: 127mm across the carapace, a bag of 10 per person and no female sub-limit, but crabbing is shut until 30 November. Black bream is the fish actually documented for this water; the rest of the list comes from river- and area-level listings rather than anyone's session on the delta. Fishbrain's logs for the canals rank a puffer second, which is a blowfish by any other name and highly poisonous to eat, so those go back.

Time the session to the rise rather than the clock — the flats drain, and the push back in out of the inlet is what puts fish on them. Take the middle treble off every hardbody before the first cast, or the delta snags will redistribute the contents of your tackle box. Do not drive down expecting to walk the canals, because the frontage, the jetties and the moorings belong to the houses in front of them. Centenary Park, the River Road ramp and the open river bank are the public water, and any posted Shire notice overrides all of it.

South Yunderup Centenary Park at 2 Strain Glen is the public land-based access point, with a playground, open recreation space, barbecue facilities, shelters, toilets, parking and boat mooring along the Murray River bank. The Shire of Murray runs it, and no fees or opening hours are published. The public boat ramp is on River Road and is listed by the Department of Transport. Nothing has been published on accessibility, dog rules or lighting for the park, so treat all three as unknown and carry a head torch rather than assuming there is a light. The canals are private frontage, which leaves the park, the ramp surrounds and the open river bank as the walkable public water. The Shire can close a locality to fishing by posting a notice, so the signage at the gate is the current rule.

Tidal saltwater at the bottom end of an undammed river, opening straight into the Peel Inlet, with no ocean swell to consider at all. The rising tide is the productive phase and it is not a mild preference — the flats drain, and the push back in is what puts bream onto the sand and seagrass. Wind chop across shallow water is the limiting factor, so the afternoon sea breeze does more damage here than any swell forecast ever could. Black bream come on from October and hold into early winter, while whiting fish year-round with the warm months clearly the best of it. The delta stays workable in most weather, largely because there is nothing here for a swell to do.

Snags are heavy enough that the standard local rig advice is to remove a treble from your hardbody before fishing, which tells you most of what you need to know about the bottom. The delta flats drain on the fall, so a wading route that worked on the rise can leave a long walk back to firm ground. Canal frontage, jetties and moorings are private property, and a boat tied up outside a house is not an invitation. Expect boat traffic around the River Road ramp on a weekend morning, which is inference from the ramp rather than anything anyone has reported. Puffers are logged here in numbers and are highly poisonous to eat, so return them rather than filleting anything you cannot confidently identify.

No. Blue swimmer crabbing is closed 1 September to 30 November across the whole Peel-Harvey system including the Murray delta, and a second order closes crab fishing from 1 September to 31 October. Both bind shore crabbers as well as boats. DPIRD's own guides go further and describe the whole area as closed to all crab fishing until 30 November, so treat November as shut for every crab. The current rules reopen the season on 1 December, and DPIRD's proposal to shift that to 1 January has been consulted on but is not gazetted. When the season is open the delta runs on Peel-Harvey rules: 127mm carapace width, a bag of 10 per person, a boat limit of 20 with two or more licensed fishers aboard, and no female sub-limit.

Not from the bank, for the most part. South Yunderup is built as a canal estate and the majority of the frontage, jetties and moorings are private property attached to the houses. Public land-based access is South Yunderup Centenary Park at 2 Strain Glen, the River Road boat ramp and the open river bank, and that is where the fishing described here happens.

South Yunderup Centenary Park at 2 Strain Glen is the main public access, with toilets, barbecues, shelters, a playground, parking and boat mooring along the Murray River bank. The River Road boat ramp, listed by the Department of Transport, is the other public point. From either you are fishing the delta flats and the river bank rather than the canals.

The rising tide, without much argument. The flats at the river mouth are sandy patches and shallow seagrass, and the push of water out of the Peel Inlet stirs food up and brings black bream onto them. Fish the push rather than the slack water between tides.

They are two different fisheries in the same river. South Yunderup is the tidal delta at the bottom end, where the Murray meets the Peel Inlet — shallow flats, seagrass, a rising-tide bite and crabs in season. The Ravenswood to Pinjarra reaches upstream are narrower, snag-bound bream water with far less tidal movement. If you want flats and surface whiting, come here; if you want to flick hardbodies at timber, head up the river.