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 20 Oct 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated 2:50am AWST

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20 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 17 Oct

📍 Useless Loop / Tamala (Outer Shark Bay)

first quarter · 65%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: S 200° · 5 km/h Swell: 0.6 m @ 8 s SW Water: 22.1 °C Pressure: 1016.0 hPa ↓ falling Faces north-east · Offshore: S, SW, W · Onshore: N, NE, E · Forecast wind: offshore

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 7:00 pm

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind S 21 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 22.1 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:23 am Last light 6:59 pm

High 4:30 am Low 12:18 pm High 8:50 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 pm → 9:30 pm

Good

4:30 am → 9:30 am

First light

5:23 am

Last light

6:59 pm

Sunrise

5:47 am

Sunset

6:35 pm

Moonrise

1:03 pm

Moonset

1:57 am

High tide

4:30 am

Low tide

12:18 pm

High tide

8:50 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

20°

↓︎

167°

31 km/h

1am

☁️

20°

↓︎

164°

29 km/h

2am

☁️

20°

↓︎

161°

28 km/h

3am

☁️

19°

↓︎

160°

27 km/h

4am

☁️

19°

↓︎

159°

26 km/h

5am

☁️

19°

↓︎

159°

25 km/h

6am

☁️

19°

↓︎

159°

24 km/h

7am

☁️

19°

↓︎

159°

22 km/h

8am

☁️

19°

↓︎

161°

20 km/h

9am

☁️

19°

↓︎

163°

17 km/h

10am

☁️

19°

↓︎

166°

13 km/h

11am

☁️

20°

↓︎

176°

8 km/h

12pm

☁️

20°

↓︎

200°

5 km/h

1pm

☁️

20°

↙︎

240°

4 km/h

2pm

☁️

20°

←︎

254°

5 km/h

3pm

☁️

20°

↙︎

236°

5 km/h

4pm

☁️

20°

↙︎

208°

8 km/h

5pm

☁️

20°

↓︎

191°

12 km/h

6pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

182°

17 km/h

7pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

179°

21 km/h

8pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

177°

24 km/h

9pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

177°

24 km/h

10pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

178°

24 km/h

11pm

☀️

19°

↓︎

180°

22 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.7 m SW

12am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

1am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

2am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

3am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

4am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

5am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

6am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

7am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

8am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

9am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

10am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

11am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

12pm

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

1pm

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

2pm

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

3pm

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

4pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

5pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

6pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

7pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

8pm

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

9pm

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

10pm

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

11pm

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 22.1°

Sat

17 Oct

22.3°

Sun

18 Oct

22.4°

Mon

19 Oct

22.4°

Tue

20 Oct

22.1°

Wed

21 Oct

21.9°

Thu

22 Oct

—

Fri

23 Oct

—

Sat

24 Oct

—

Sun

25 Oct

—

Mon

26 Oct

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 5 km/h S (200°).

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

5:30 pm → 9:30 pm

Good

4:30 am → 9:30 am

First light

5:23 am

Last light

6:59 pm

Sunrise

5:47 am

Sunset

6:35 pm

Moonrise

1:03 pm

Moonset

1:57 am

High tide

4:30 am

Low tide

12:18 pm

High tide

8:50 pm

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