Tag: Jurien Bay

Popular fishing jetties around WA set to benefit from the budget

Jetties are the heart of local coastal communities, providing accessible fishing for everyone and essential nearshore habitat for a range of important fish species.  

In good news for fishers, numerous jetties around WA will receive some love, following the Government’s recent budget announcement.  

From one of the Metro’s most popular land-based fishing spots at Ammo Jetty, to the Mount Henry Jetty in the Canning River and the Bunbury fishing platform that caters for fishers with mobility issues – these are just a few landmarks set to receive millions of dollars in improvements for fishers to utilise and enjoy.  

To help us advocate for more and better jetties, please take a couple of minutes to take our jetty survey below. We want to know what jetties and platforms are most important to you and what makes a good jetty. Everyone who completes the survey will go in the draw to win a Shimano Sienna 2500 flick rod and reel combo that is perfect for their favourite fishing jetty!

Some of the jetties the Government has committed to investing in include:  

  • Ammo Jetty – $20 million in total to be injected into completing the design and construction of a new jetty, which will include a 50-metre long, three-metre-wide T-head, which will double the current fishing space in the deeper water at the end of the jetty to the benefit of fishers. Recfishwest is on the Ammo Jetty Working Group and has had input into the design of this one to ensure it is best optimised for fishing. 
  • Mount Henry Jetty – $1 million to replace the existing jetty 
  • Bunbury fishing platform – The Government has set aside $4 million for a new fishing platform in Bunbury following the closure of the Bunbury Service Jetty.  
  • Extension of the northern breakwater at Jurien Bay Boat Harbour – $17.5 million will be invested on improving water quality at the marina, mitigating against the fish kills in the harbour and  opening up more fishing opportunities off the extended rock wall.   

In addition to the measures to support jetties announced in the budget, the Government also recently committed $5 million to build a new small boat facility to replace the defunct Taylor Street Jetty in Esperance. The plan is for the currently closed jetty to be demolished and replaced with a 70m pontoon jetty, with a 50m wing for use by the Port of Esperance, and a 20m section open to the community (as pictured below).  

A new breakwater spur will also help enable year-round access as it should protect the area during storm events, allowing fishers to wet a line more easily and comfortably. 

Southern Ports new draft design of the Taylor Street Jetty in Esperance, which shows improved land-based fishing options and protection for fishers.

We welcome these commitments from the Government, but we want to see more! 

The pleasure and value jetties provide is priceless and every coastal town or those located next to an estuary deserves a town jetty for local and visiting fishers. Jetties are the first places people learn to fish and they offer everyone the opportunity to access deeper water and a wider variety of species than is usually available from shore. 

On behalf our cast of 700,000 recreational fishers, Recfishwest will continue to advocate for investments in fishing infrastructure such as jetties to boost land-based fishing access and fishing experiences.  

Jurien Bay FADs fire up, bringing great new fishing options to the Mid-West

The sportfishing action in Jurien Bay has cranked up since the deployment of four FADs off the coastline! 

It is great to see fishers reap the benefits of catches from FADs across WA, with Recfishwest and local fishing community members pushing hard since 2019 to cement a fully established State-wide FADS program.  

Now thanks to all that effort, the State Government has committed to funding and coordinating the program in future from June of this year – a fantastic result for WA boat fishers with another great alternative to purely fishing for demersals, which will also have flow-on sustainability benefits. 

Along with the numbers of catches of sportfish improving – the sizes of some of the fish has been particularly impressive, with a few thumping dolphinfish caught recently on the Jurien FADs. 

One of those brutes, a 19kg dolphinfish landed by Daniel Woodman pictured below, was just one of multiple catches during his recent fishing trip with the Dawesville man making the 300km journey north just to have a crack at the Jurien Bay FADs.  

Daniel Woodman’s bull of a dolphinfish landed from one of the Jurien Bay FADs came in at a whopping 19kg, which is one of the biggest we’ve seen landed in WA and came close to the Australian record of 22kg.

“The day started at 4am when we left the marina and steamed out to FADs number 3 and 4 out from Jurien Bay. It wasn’t long before we were watching the sun rise out from the back of our boat named Goodtimes and the FAD came into view,” said Daniel. 

“We fished a mixture of gear and had a Nomad deep diver in close with a couple of large Pakula skirts trolled out the back.  

“In all, it was an amazing time catching dollies, tuna and wahoo next to the FADs. Living in Dawesville, I’m looking forward to getting out to the recently deployed FADs off Mandurah to see what we can catch on ‘home turf’!”  

Daniel had a few good tips to help other fishers increase their hook-ups out on the FADs .  

“As for the gear used in trolling and flicking lures around, any simple mid to heavy rod and reel that can handle bottom bouncing is more than sufficient. We were also using a homemade teaser setup with a mixture of pushers and birds on a daisy chain.” added Daniel.  

Some of the kind of gear that works well out on the FADs include skirts and stickbaits like the ones above produced by FADs photo comp supporter Richter Lures.

More fishers, more catches brings benefits for Jurien

Not only have the FADs attracted more fish, they’ve also attracted more fishers to Jurien Bay, all of whom spend money in the coastal town.  

Owner of Jurien Bay Seasports and Tackle, Shane Younger, said it has led to more boat fishers venturing into his store intent on spending their bucks on lures to fish the FADs. 

“After all the hard work it’s great to have got the FADs in for fishing in Jurien and we’re looking forward to seeing them go in earlier next year so we can reap the full benefits,” said Shane. “It’s certainly helped bring in more visitors to the shop and to town – and it all helps for a community like ours.”  

The Perth Game Fishing Club also held its recent fishing classic competition in Jurien Bay, with a huge majority of the contestants making their way out to the FADs to battle it out with some solid specimens landed.  

Talented Salty Bones artist Adam Ashdown’s visit out to the Jurien Bay FADs during the recent Perth Game Fishing Classic competition paid dividends, with this nice yellowfin tuna engulfing his lure.

Recfishwest is proud that the FADs we have deployed over the last four years have provided such exciting and memorable fishing experiences for so many, with the deployments and catches set to only increase in the future. 

“It has been a journey to get to this stage but all of the hard work and support we have had from so many in the fishing community and fishing clubs like Perth Game Fishing Club has paid off now that we have a fully established FADs program backed by the State Government moving forward,” said Recfishwest Operations Lead Matt Gillett.  

“We’re looking forward to seeing how DPIRD will continue to develop and coordinate the FADs program in the northern parts of the State during the winter months.”  

Want to have a crack at fishing any of the FADs currently deployed across WA? Find all of WA’s FADs coordinates here!  

Want to see the ten winners of our recent two-month long State-wide FADs photo competition? Check out the awesome FADs snaps on the Recfishwest Instagram page!