Queenfish
Fast inshore predator of the tropical north, hunting bait schools across flats, channels and creek mouths from Ningaloo to the Kimberley. One of WA's best lure targets — they smash surface poppers and small stickbaits with abandon, jump repeatedly when hooked, and most are released. Ordinary on the table.
Overview
Queenfish are the inshore lure angler's gift in northern WA — aggressive, abundant, and willing to chase a popper across a sand flat. They school heavily around creek mouths, harbour entrances and shallow reef edges from Exmouth north through the Pilbara and into the Kimberley. Sight-casting to schools busting bait at change of light is one of the better fishing experiences available in WA. Most anglers fish them as sport-and-release because the flesh is thin, soft and not especially good eating, though smaller fish are passable when iced down quickly.
WA Size & Bag Limits
| Minimum size | No minimum size |
|---|---|
| Bag limit | 8 |
| Counts toward | Counts within the statewide nearshore/estuarine finfish mixed daily limit of 16. |
Bag limit: 8 per individual species within the trevally and queenfish group (Family Carangidae). This limit applies to each species separately, and queenfish also count toward the statewide nearshore/estuarine finfish TOTAL mixed-species daily bag limit of 16. No minimum legal size applies to queenfish (the 250 mm size in this group applies only to silver trevally). Needleskin queenfish and yellowtail scad are excluded from this group.