Mandurah

Mandurah is located on the coast approximately 72 klms south of Perth. The waters of the Peel Inlet and Harvey Estuary (one of Australia’s larger inlet systems) form the centre of Mandurah. The estuary is approximately twice the size of Sydney Harbour, and covers an area of approximately 136 km² in total with an average water depth of about 2 m. The city lies in and around this freshwater system which in turn feeds into the Indian Ocean. The city and its suburbs have many klms of ocean coastline most of which is sandy beaches. Mandurah also has a number of artificially created canal systems that extend from the Peel Inlet.

The estuary is heavily used for recreational boating and fishing with numerous boat ramps along the extensive foreshore.

Some of the species that are caught by fly fishing in the estuary are Herring, Tailor, Salmon Trout, Skippy and Whiting. The most popular areas for shore based fishing are where the estuary flows out to the sea under the Mandurah rd traffic bridge (enter along Leisure drive Halls Head), and at ‘The Cut’ (enter along Rees pl Wannanup). The shoreline at Erskine (enter Sticks bvd) also has several areas suitable for wading.

The region also holds a good number of Black Bream, mostly in the Murray and Serpentine rivers which flow into the estuary. Unfortunately fly fishing from the banks is severely restricted due to the thick vegetation which lines both these rivers. Fishing the snags from a small boat should give fly fishers the opportunity to hook up with these most sought after fish.

Fly fishing along the ocean side of the area is difficult due to the surf. Although the rocky area between Halls Head and Falcon (enter Seascapes bvd) offers very interesting fishing in an offshore breeze for Herring and various reef species in the deep lagoons and rocky headlands that are exposed at low tide.