Can I drive into Useless Loop?

No. Useless Loop is a private company town for the Shark Bay Salt operation and is closed to non-residents. The Useless Loop Road runs past the township to give 4WD access to Tamala Station, Carrarang and the Edel Land peninsula, but the town itself is signed and gated. Don't drive in.

How do I get permission to fish Tamala?

Book directly with Tamala Station — the station manages camping, beach access and a key system at locked gates. Check in at the homestead on arrival to receive your key and your camp allocation. There is no shop, fuel or mobile coverage on the station; carry everything in. Edel Land protected areas managed by DBCA are accessed separately.

Is the fishing as good as Steep Point?

Different rather than better or worse. Same Gascoyne palette of mackerel, snapper, emperor, samson and pelagics, with calmer beaches and lower rock platforms than Steep Point's lethal cliffs, so a wider variety of conditions are fishable. Steep Point's headline is balloon-fished mackerel off the world-class cliff platforms; Tamala's headline is a more relaxed mixed-bag camping-and-fishing trip with the same species available.

Do the West Coast demersal closures apply?

No — the country around Useless Loop and Tamala is in the Gascoyne Coast bioregion, 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 are zone-specific and apply on top of the demersal rules — verify which zone you are in with DPIRD before each trip, because the rules continue to evolve.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Useless Loop / Tamala (Outer Shark Bay)

Tue 04 Aug 2026 · Australia/Perth

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Today Tomorrow Sat 8 Aug

📍 Useless Loop / Tamala (Outer Shark Bay)

last quarter · 68%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: NE 28° · 12 km/h Swell: 0.5 m @ 9 s SW Water: 18.7 °C

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 7:00 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind NE 11 km/h

Moon last quarter all day

Water temp 18.7 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Now

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

3:30 am → 8:30 am

Good

3:30 pm → 7:30 pm

Good

10:30 am → 12:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

6:39 am

Last light

6:25 pm

Sunrise

7:03 am

Sunset

6:01 pm

Moonrise

—

Moonset

10:08 am

High tide

4:18 am

Low tide

10:40 am

High tide

4:06 pm

Low tide

10:15 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

🌧️

18°

↗︎

28°

12 km/h

1am

🌧️

18°

↗︎

29°

13 km/h

Now

☁️

18°

↗︎

24°

16 km/h

3am

☁️

18°

↑︎

19°

16 km/h

4am

🌧️

18°

↑︎

12°

14 km/h

5am

🌧️

18°

↗︎

28°

9 km/h

6am

🌧️

18°

↗︎

30°

9 km/h

7am

🌧️

18°

↗︎

42°

11 km/h

8am

☁️

18°

↗︎

58°

8 km/h

9am

☁️

18°

→︎

72°

8 km/h

10am

☁️

18°

↗︎

61°

9 km/h

11am

☀️

18°

↗︎

58°

11 km/h

12pm

☁️

19°

↗︎

66°

8 km/h

1pm

☁️

19°

→︎

75°

4 km/h

2pm

☁️

19°

↓︎

193°

3 km/h

3pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

162°

6 km/h

4pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

130°

4 km/h

5pm

☀️

19°

→︎

90°

1 km/h

6pm

☀️

19°

↗︎

34°

1 km/h

7pm

☀️

19°

←︎

270°

0 km/h

8pm

☁️

19°

↓︎

173°

3 km/h

9pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

167°

7 km/h

10pm

☁️

19°

↓︎

161°

13 km/h

11pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

159°

17 km/h

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.5° over the last 3 days

Sat

1 Aug

18.2°

Sun

2 Aug

18.3°

Mon

3 Aug

18.4°

Tue

4 Aug

18.7°

Wed

5 Aug

18.7°

Thu

6 Aug

18.8°

Fri

7 Aug

18.7°

Sat

8 Aug

18.7°

Sun

9 Aug

18.6°

Mon

10 Aug

18.6°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 12 km/h NE (28°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Open in the full fishing map (beta) →

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

3:30 am → 8:30 am

Good

3:30 pm → 7:30 pm

Good

10:30 am → 12:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

6:39 am

Last light

6:25 pm

Sunrise

7:03 am

Sunset

6:01 pm

Moonrise

—

Moonset

10:08 am

High tide

4:18 am

Low tide

10:40 am

High tide

4:06 pm

Low tide

10:15 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Weekly Bite Forecast

Useless Loop / Tamala (Outer Shark Bay) + nearby Perth spots. Thursday 6pm — top windows, conditions, what's biting.

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