Wedge Island & Grey (4WD Beaches)

Wedge is the shack settlement time forgot — around 400 privately owned shacks on the Turquoise Coast about 150km north of Perth, wedged between Wanagarren Nature Reserve and the sea, with the smaller settlement of Grey sitting inside Nambung National Park further north. For anglers it's the classic West Australian 4WD beach fishery: drive on, find a gutter, and work it for tailor, mulloway, herring and whiting with salmon passing through in season. The sealed Indian Ocean Drive ended Wedge's isolation years ago, but the beach still decides who fishes it — four-wheel drive only, tyres down, and the sand changes its mind week to week. The area is Yued country and one of the most significant Aboriginal heritage sites in the south-west, which is worth knowing before you treat it as just another beach.

It's gutter fishing, start to finish. Read the beach for the deeper, darker water inside the banks, then fish the progression: whiting and herring on light gear in the shallows, flathead on the drop-offs, and tailor and mulloway in the proper gutters. Ganged mulies cast into the wash at dawn and dusk cover the tailor and any salmon moving through; metals buy casting distance when the wind gets up. For mulloway, set a fresh bait — squid on a double snell, or a strip of tailor or mullet — on a running-sinker rig in a gutter on the rising tide into dark, and let the bait soak. The beach south toward the tied island often runs firmer and fishes well; north toward Grey is softer sand and more weed.

Tailor are the bread and butter, with mixed bags of thirty-plus fish reported when the schools are in. Mulloway are the serious target — dawn, dusk and night tides in the gutters. Herring and sand and yellowfin whiting fill the sessions between, flathead sit on the banks, and Australian salmon push through in season during autumn. The occasional pink snapper and samson fish come off the beach as a bonus rather than a plan, and sharks are a regular after-dark catch whether you wanted one or not.

Tyre pressures make or break the trip: locals run around 25 PSI on the inland track, 15 PSI on soft beach, and down to 10 PSI only to escape a bogging — then reinflate before firmer ground, because a rolled-off bead is its own afternoon. The sand swings between concrete-firm and axle-soft within a tide, so read it constantly rather than trusting last trip's memory. The tied island is walkable at low tide — somewhere between 100m and 300m of wading depending on the day — but watch the tide unless you want to swim your rods back. Buy bait and fuel in Lancelin; Wedge sells nothing.

Turn off the sealed Indian Ocean Drive onto Wedge Road — bitumen to the settlement area, with unsealed tracks running to the beach. A 2WD gets within about 100m of the sand at North Wedge and about 20m at North Grey, so parking at the track end and walking on with a rod is a real option; driving the beach itself is strictly 4WD or AWD. There are no visitor facilities — no shops, no fuel, no public amenities — and the shacks are private. Camping is not permitted unless a shack licensee invites you, though DBCA has flagged campgrounds at North Grey in the coming years. Nearest services are Lancelin, about 30km south. The drive from Perth is around two hours.

The beach faces open west-coast swell, so gutters form, fill and move with every blow — the structure that fished last month may be a flat bank today. South toward the island the sand often sets hard; north toward Grey expect soft going and drifts of seaweed after a swell event. Mornings before the seabreeze are the comfortable window for both casting and driving, and a rising tide into dusk is the prime combination for the predators. After big winter fronts the weed can make stretches unfishable until it clears.

Soft-sand boggings are the signature incident — one regular reports recovering at least ten vehicles here, and the beach can go from firm to bottomless within a tide. Recovery help is a long way off, so travel with gear, ideally a second vehicle, and don't push on to Grey alone on a falling afternoon tide. Phone coverage is patchy at best. Beach traffic moves fast and not always predictably — keep kids and rod buckets off the running lanes. Sharks work the same gutters you're baiting after dark, which is worth remembering before wading a bait out. The tide can cut the island walk, and swell washes the exposed rock at its base.

To the edge of it. Indian Ocean Drive and Wedge Road are sealed, and a 2WD can park within about 100m of the beach at North Wedge — from there you walk on with your gear. Driving on the beach itself is 4WD or AWD only, with tyres down; the sand is properly soft in patches and boggings are the local pastime.

No — camping is not permitted unless you're invited by a shack licensee. The roughly 400 shacks are privately owned under DBCA licences and visitors can't stay in the settlements otherwise. DBCA has flagged plans for campgrounds at North Grey Beach in the coming years, but until those exist the nearest legal overnight options are Lancelin or the Nambung National Park area.

Locals run about 25 PSI on the inland sand track and about 15 PSI on the soft beach, dropping to 10 PSI only to get out of a bogging. Reinflate before hitting firmer ground or bitumen — at 10 PSI a tyre can roll off the rim, which turns a fishing trip into a tyre-changing clinic.

Tailor are the mainstay, with mulloway the prize target in the gutters at dawn, dusk and after dark. Herring, sand and yellowfin whiting and flathead fill out the bag, Australian salmon pass through in autumn some years, and the occasional pink snapper or samson fish turns up off the beach. Sharks are a regular after-dark hook-up.

Autumn, when it happens. Wedge sits near the northern end of the salmon migration, so the run is patchier than on the south coast — some autumns the schools push this far up in numbers, others they don't. Plan an autumn trip around tailor in the gutters and treat any salmon school that arrives as the bonus.