How do you actually fish from the cliffs at Steep Point?

Ballooning is the headline technique. A latex balloon inflated with helium, rigged to a skipping garfish bait on a heavy land-based-game outfit, carries the line offshore on the prevailing southerly. The bait skips the surface hundreds of metres out, drops into deep water and Spanish mackerel hit on the way out or back. Landed fish are gaffed up the cliff on a long-handled gaff run down a rope.

How dangerous is rock fishing at Steep Point?

Genuinely dangerous. Multiple anglers have been swept from the platforms and not recovered. Life jackets, harnesses and ropes are standard kit. Never fish alone, never fish in swell over 2 metres, and never turn your back on the water. Fishing fatalities at Steep Point are well-documented; the platforms are unforgiving.

What 4WD do I need to get there?

High-clearance 4WD with low-range gears and the ability to drop tyres to 20psi or less. The last 30km is a soft single-lane sand track winding through dunes; standard SUVs and AWDs are not suitable. Recovery gear, spare fuel, water and a satellite communicator are essential — there's no mobile coverage and recovery costs are high.

Do the West Coast demersal closures apply?

No — Steep Point is in the Gascoyne Coast bioregion, which is 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. Verify current rules with DPIRD before each trip; the rules continue to evolve.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Steep Point (Edel Land — Mainland's Westernmost Point)

Sat 17 Oct 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated 10:02am AWST

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📍 Steep Point (Edel Land — Mainland's Westernmost Point)

first quarter · 33%

Weather: Sunny Wind: SW 211° · 11 km/h Swell: 2.6 m @ 11 s SW Water: 21.8 °C Pressure: 1018.3 hPa → steady Faces several ways: wind direction isn't scored here

★★★★☆

High Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind S 16 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 21.8 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:27 am Last light 6:58 pm

Low 8:30 am

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

4:30 am → 10:00 am

5h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

First light

5:27 am

Last light

6:58 pm

Sunrise

5:50 am

Sunset

6:35 pm

Moonrise

10:17 am

Moonset

—

Low tide

8:30 am

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

20°

↓︎

179°

20 km/h

1am

☀️

20°

↓︎

178°

18 km/h

2am

☀️

20°

↓︎

176°

17 km/h

3am

☀️

20°

↓︎

176°

16 km/h

4am

☀️

20°

↓︎

175°

16 km/h

5am

☀️

20°

↓︎

173°

16 km/h

6am

☀️

20°

↓︎

165°

15 km/h

7am

☀️

20°

↘︎

155°

14 km/h

8am

☀️

20°

↘︎

150°

13 km/h

9am

☀️

20°

↘︎

157°

11 km/h

10am

☀️

20°

↓︎

180°

8 km/h

11am

☀️

20°

↙︎

203°

9 km/h

12pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

211°

11 km/h

1pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

212°

13 km/h

2pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

212°

16 km/h

3pm

☀️

20°

↙︎

213°

19 km/h

4pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

213°

22 km/h

5pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

212°

25 km/h

6pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

210°

26 km/h

7pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

208°

26 km/h

8pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

205°

26 km/h

9pm

☀️

21°

↓︎

202°

25 km/h

10pm

☁️

21°

↓︎

199°

25 km/h

11pm

☁️

21°

↓︎

195°

24 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 1.7 → 3.2 m SW

12am

1.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

1am

1.8 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

2am

2.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

3am

2.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

4am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

5am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

6am

2.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

7am

2.3 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

8am

2.3 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

9am

2.4 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

10am

2.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

11am

2.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

12pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

1pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

2pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

3pm

2.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

4pm

2.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

5pm

2.9 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

6pm

3.0 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

7pm

3.1 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

8pm

3.1 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

9pm

3.2 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

10pm

3.2 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

11pm

3.2 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 21.8°

Wed

14 Oct

21.6°

Thu

15 Oct

21.7°

Fri

16 Oct

21.7°

Sat

17 Oct

21.8°

Sun

18 Oct

21.9°

Mon

19 Oct

21.8°

Tue

20 Oct

21.4°

Wed

21 Oct

21.3°

Thu

22 Oct

—

Fri

23 Oct

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 11 km/h SW (211°).

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

4:30 am → 10:00 am

5h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

First light

5:27 am

Last light

6:58 pm

Sunrise

5:50 am

Sunset

6:35 pm

Moonrise

10:17 am

Moonset

—

Low tide

8:30 am

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

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