Winter's Gold: Perth to Geraldton's Best Bites in Short Light

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your West Aussie coastal fishing report. Along most of the Western Australian coast today we’ve had a classic winter pattern: cool to mild temps, light to moderate southerlies in the morning, freshening sea breeze and a bit of swell pushing in by arvo. The Bureau of Meteorology has been calling it pretty settled, with only a slight chance of a shower along the lower coast. Sunrise was around twenty past seven, with sunset just after five, so that short golden window at first and last light really mattered. Tides up and down the coast have been on a moderate run – enough flow to fire things up without making the inshore stuff unfishable. Around the metro coast the early morning rising tide lined up nicely with sunrise, and the evening turn pushed bait into the gutters. In the **Perth metro and outer reefs**, the inshore weed beds produced a steady pick of **herring**, **sand whiting**, and a few chunky **skippy**. Small metal slices, tiny white bucktail jigs, and 2–3 inch paddle‑tail plastics in natural pilchard colours did the damage. Bait fishos did best on half‑pilchards, squid strips, and old‑faithful mulies on gangs. A few land‑based crews also found **tailor** in the low‑light sessions, mostly choppers but with the odd better fish around the river mouths and rock walls; 15–25 g metal slugs and shallow‑running stickbaits worked fast across the wash were the go. Down **Rockingham to Mandurah**, the beaches with good structure – darker water, defined gutters, and a bit of whitewater – fished well for tailor, herring, and a few **school mulloway** after dark. Fresh mullet fillets and live herring or whiting have been the standout mulloway baits. If you’re soaking baits tonight, run lighter sinkers where you can and keep your rigs neat; the fish are there, but a bit shy with the clearer water. Further south around **Bunbury and Busselton**, the broken ground and reef edges held **pink snapper** for boaties fishing the late arvo into dark. Soft plastics in 5–7 inch jerk‑shad styles, in glow or pink, slow‑worked near the bottom, matched the hatch and out‑fished straight bait at times. That said, fresh squid and fillets of scalies or herring are still hard to beat for bigger snapper. In Geographe Bay, squid have been thick over the seagrass; pink and natural‑brown jigs in the 2.5–3.0 size have been the pick. Up the **Mid West**, around **Geraldton and Kalbarri**, tailor numbers along the beaches and reef platforms have held up well, with a few solid greenbacks mixed in for those putting in the dawn and dusk hours. Chrome slices, stickbaits, and shallow divers in blue‑silver have been producing, while bait anglers are doing well on garfish and mulies rigged ganged. Offshore, mixed bags of **dhufish**, **baldchin groper**, and **snapper** came from the 30–60 m line where the swell allowed; fresh squid and octopus heads are still prime cut baits. Two quick hot spots to circle: - **North Mole and surrounding metro rock walls**: good mix of herring, skippy, tailor, and the chance of a mulloway after dark on live bait. - **Mandurah to Tim’s Thicket gutters**: tailor at first light, herring through the day, and mulloway on fresh fillet baits on the evening high. Overall, fish activity has been best around the tide changes and that short light window at each end of the day. Keep your leaders light where you can get away with it, match the hatch on your lures, and don’t be afraid to move until you find bait and structure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a session with Artificial Lure. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn