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 27 Oct 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated Mon 2 Nov, 10:52pm AWST

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📍 Useless Loop / Tamala (Outer Shark Bay)

full · 99%

Weather: Sunny Wind: NE 60° · 11 km/h Swell: 0.7 m @ 5 s SW Water: 20.6 °C Pressure: 1011.3 hPa → steady Faces north-east · Offshore: S, SW, W · Onshore: N, NE, E · Forecast wind: onshore

★★★★☆

High Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Minor window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind S 18 km/h

Moon full all day

Water temp 20.6 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:17 am Last light 7:03 pm

Low 7:48 am High 3:40 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 8:30 am

3h 30m

Good

11:30 am → 2:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

6:30 pm → 9:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:17 am

Last light

7:03 pm

Sunrise

5:41 am

Sunset

6:39 pm

Moonrise

8:06 pm

Moonset

5:58 am

Low tide

7:48 am

High tide

3:40 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

17°

↓︎

170°

22 km/h

1am

☀️

17°

↓︎

178°

22 km/h

2am

☀️

17°

↓︎

184°

21 km/h

3am

☀️

17°

↓︎

176°

21 km/h

4am

☀️

17°

↓︎

178°

20 km/h

5am

☀️

17°

↓︎

191°

18 km/h

6am

☀️

17°

↙︎

208°

16 km/h

7am

☀️

18°

↙︎

223°

15 km/h

8am

☀️

20°

↙︎

216°

22 km/h

9am

☀️

21°

↙︎

208°

18 km/h

10am

☀️

21°

↘︎

150°

17 km/h

11am

☀️

20°

→︎

97°

16 km/h

12pm

☀️

20°

↗︎

60°

11 km/h

1pm

☀️

20°

↑︎

356°

12 km/h

2pm

☀️

20°

↑︎

341°

14 km/h

3pm

☀️

22°

←︎

249°

18 km/h

4pm

☀️

22°

↙︎

235°

25 km/h

5pm

☀️

22°

↙︎

213°

22 km/h

6pm

☀️

22°

↓︎

195°

28 km/h

7pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

203°

28 km/h

8pm

☀️

21°

↙︎

206°

27 km/h

9pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

197°

19 km/h

10pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

193°

21 km/h

11pm

☀️

20°

↓︎

194°

17 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.7 m SW

12am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

4am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

5am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

6am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

7am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

8am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

9am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

10am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

12pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

1pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

2pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

3pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

4pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

5pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

6pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

7pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

8pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

9pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

10pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

11pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Slight

chop

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 11 km/h NE (60°).

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

5:00 am → 8:30 am

3h 30m

Good

11:30 am → 2:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

6:30 pm → 9:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:17 am

Last light

7:03 pm

Sunrise

5:41 am

Sunset

6:39 pm

Moonrise

8:06 pm

Moonset

5:58 am

Low tide

7:48 am

High tide

3:40 pm

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

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