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)

Fri 30 Oct 2026 · Australia/Perth

Forecast updated Fri 30 Oct, 10:05pm AWST

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30 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 7 Nov

📍 Useless Loop / Tamala (Outer Shark Bay)

waning gibbous · 83%

Weather: Sunny Wind: W 269° · 24 km/h Swell: 0.4 m @ 8 s SW Water: 21.6 °C Pressure: 1017.4 hPa → steady Faces north-east · Offshore: S, SW, W · Onshore: N, NE, E · Forecast wind: offshore

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind SW 10 km/h

Moon waning gibbous all day

Water temp 21.6 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:14 am Last light 7:05 pm

High 2:07 am Low 10:23 am High 7:00 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

2:00 am → 6:30 am

4h 30m

Good

6:30 pm → 8:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

2:30 pm → 4:30 pm

Good

8:30 am → 10:00 am

1h 30m

First light

5:14 am

Last light

7:05 pm

Sunrise

5:38 am

Sunset

6:41 pm

Moonrise

11:26 pm

Moonset

8:47 am

High tide

2:07 am

Low tide

10:23 am

High tide

7:00 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

20°

↙︎

205°

20 km/h

1am

☀️

20°

↙︎

204°

18 km/h

2am

☀️

19°

↓︎

202°

15 km/h

3am

☀️

19°

↙︎

210°

13 km/h

4am

☀️

19°

↙︎

208°

13 km/h

5am

☀️

19°

↙︎

211°

10 km/h

6am

☀️

19°

↙︎

224°

8 km/h

7am

☀️

19°

↙︎

247°

7 km/h

8am

☀️

20°

←︎

284°

8 km/h

9am

☀️

20°

↖︎

294°

11 km/h

10am

☀️

20°

↖︎

297°

12 km/h

11am

☀️

19°

↖︎

295°

12 km/h

12pm

☀️

19°

←︎

280°

16 km/h

1pm

☀️

19°

←︎

276°

18 km/h

2pm

☀️

19°

←︎

272°

17 km/h

3pm

☀️

20°

←︎

256°

23 km/h

4pm

☀️

20°

←︎

258°

28 km/h

5pm

☀️

20°

←︎

263°

26 km/h

6pm

☀️

20°

←︎

270°

23 km/h

7pm

☀️

20°

←︎

272°

23 km/h

8pm

☀️

20°

←︎

272°

24 km/h

9pm

☀️

20°

←︎

272°

24 km/h

10pm

☀️

21°

←︎

269°

24 km/h

11pm

☀️

21°

←︎

271°

24 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.4 m SW

12am

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

1am

0.4 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

2am

0.4 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

3am

0.4 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

4am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

5am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

6am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

7am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

8am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

9am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

10am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

11am

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

12pm

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

1pm

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

2pm

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

3pm

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

4pm

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

5pm

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

6pm

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

7pm

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

8pm

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

9pm

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

10pm

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

11pm

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 1.0° over the last 3 days

Tue

27 Oct

20.6°

Wed

28 Oct

20.9°

Thu

29 Oct

21.2°

Fri

30 Oct

21.6°

Sat

31 Oct

21.8°

Sun

1 Nov

21.9°

Mon

2 Nov

22.1°

Tue

3 Nov

22.1°

Wed

4 Nov

22.2°

Thu

5 Nov

22.5°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 24 km/h W (269°).

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

2:00 am → 6:30 am

4h 30m

Good

6:30 pm → 8:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

2:30 pm → 4:30 pm

Good

8:30 am → 10:00 am

1h 30m

First light

5:14 am

Last light

7:05 pm

Sunrise

5:38 am

Sunset

6:41 pm

Moonrise

11:26 pm

Moonset

8:47 am

High tide

2:07 am

Low tide

10:23 am

High tide

7:00 pm

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

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