Swan River

The Swan River is famous for Black Bream fishing, perhaps since they are easy to catch on bait but often a challenge on lures. The Swan River also fishes well for Flathead during the summer, Flounder, Yellow Fin Whiting, Tailor, Herring and Grunter.

Fishing the Swan River can be productive from land and boat, however due to heavy fishing pressure some knowledge of where the fish are will increase your successes.

For targeting Bream, boaters and land-based anglers should seek out the bream instead of waiting for the Bream to eventually swim past. The usual Bream hideouts are snags, jetties, mussel banks and bridge pylons. Often the most active or feeding Bream are found on the sand banks near weed where they feed on shrimp, mussels and worms.

The Swan River in summer

During the summer months the Black Bream move upstream as far as the Middle Swan area and take shelter in the snags. Look for fallen down trees, rocky areas and shade areas.

Lure fishing for Bream in the Swan River becomes quite successful over the summer months, lightly weight soft plastics and suspending hard bodies are the go. The Bream tolerate the brackish water and will stay upstream until the rain returns.

Some places to look for Bream during summer in the Swan River are the Canning Bridge, The Causeway, Mt Henry and The Narrows. Land based anglers can walk the shore around Midland and Guildford flicking lures at snags – there are plenty of bream there and unweighted soft plastics are quite effective.

In the lower reaches of the Swan are Flathead, Flounder, Molloway and Tailor. The blowfish are overwhelming so a hard body lure is a must. Work the shallows and drop offs early morning for Flathead around Point Walter, Leeuwin Boat Ramp and Applecross Jetty. However flathead can be found as far up as Guildford.

 The Swan River in Winter

When the rain starts all the fish are pushed downstream into saltier water.

The winter rains push the bream downstream to saltier water and the best bet is targeting the Perth yacht clubs, jetties and the flats around Fremantle. The outgoing tides in June, July and August produce good fishing around the East Fremantle area for Whiting.

For black bream during winter try jetties around Mosman Park and Claremont.