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)

Fri 16 Oct 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated 6:59am AWST

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

waxing crescent · 24%

Weather: Sunny Wind: S 197° · 15 km/h Swell: 1.3 m @ 8 s SW Water: 21.7 °C Pressure: 1017.0 hPa → steady Faces several ways: wind direction isn't scored here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind S 18 km/h

Moon waxing crescent all day

Water temp 21.7 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:28 am Last light 6:57 pm

Low 8:00 am

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

4:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

6:00 pm → 8:00 pm

Good

4:30 pm → 5:00 pm

30m

First light

5:28 am

Last light

6:57 pm

Sunrise

5:51 am

Sunset

6:34 pm

Moonrise

9:24 am

Moonset

11:51 pm

Low tide

8:00 am

High tide

11:42 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

20°

↓︎

161°

21 km/h

1am

☀️

20°

↓︎

160°

19 km/h

2am

☀️

20°

↓︎

161°

19 km/h

3am

☀️

20°

↓︎

166°

19 km/h

4am

☀️

20°

↓︎

167°

20 km/h

5am

☀️

20°

↓︎

164°

18 km/h

6am

☀️

20°

↓︎

162°

16 km/h

7am

☀️

20°

↘︎

157°

15 km/h

8am

☀️

20°

↘︎

153°

13 km/h

9am

☀️

20°

↓︎

168°

12 km/h

10am

☀️

19°

↓︎

190°

13 km/h

11am

☀️

19°

↓︎

201°

15 km/h

12pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

197°

15 km/h

1pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

187°

16 km/h

2pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

182°

17 km/h

3pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

187°

19 km/h

4pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

193°

22 km/h

5pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

197°

24 km/h

6pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

197°

25 km/h

7pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

197°

25 km/h

8pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

195°

24 km/h

9pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

192°

24 km/h

10pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

186°

22 km/h

11pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

182°

21 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 0.9 → 1.5 m SW

12am

0.9 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

1am

0.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

2am

0.8 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

ground

3am

0.9 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

4am

1.0 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

5am

1.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

6am

1.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

7am

1.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

8am

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

9am

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

10am

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

11am

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

12pm

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

1pm

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

2pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

3pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

4pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

5pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

6pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

7pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

8pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

9pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

10pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

11pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Moderate

chop

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 21.7°

Tue

13 Oct

21.5°

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

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 15 km/h S (197°).

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

4:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

6:00 pm → 8:00 pm

Good

4:30 pm → 5:00 pm

30m

First light

5:28 am

Last light

6:57 pm

Sunrise

5:51 am

Sunset

6:34 pm

Moonrise

9:24 am

Moonset

11:51 pm

Low tide

8:00 am

High tide

11:42 pm

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Species at this spot

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