Western Australia

Australia's largest state, with a coast running from tropical reef and mangrove in the Kimberley through the Ningaloo and Shark Bay coasts to the temperate south-west and the Southern Ocean shore, and a small freshwater trout and marron fishery in the south-west's rivers and dams.

Shore fishing with rod and line, which needs no licence; boat fishing, which needs the boat licence; crabbing, rock lobster potting and diving, abalone and marron, each under its own licence; and trout fishing in south-west rivers and dams under the freshwater angling licence.

Tropical reefs, tidal creeks and mangroves in the north; reef, sand and island coasts down the west; estuaries such as the Swan and Canning; the open Southern Ocean coast; and rivers and dams in the south-west.

Western Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development — the state's own, not the New South Wales department of the same name — sets the recreational fishing rules under the Fish Resources Management Act 1994 and its regulations. When its licence pages and guides were read on 25 October 2026, they said six activities need a recreational licence: fishing from a powered boat, or using one to carry catch or gear to a shore spot (the Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence); net fishing with haul, set or throw nets; freshwater angling south of Greenough, 29°S, above the tide; rock lobster; abalone; and marron. Apart from those, no licence is needed to fish from the shore. Licences from other states are not valid; fishing may not start before the department's receipt arrives; under-16s need no freshwater angling licence; and an Aboriginal person fishing under customary law for personal, family or communal needs needs no licence, though the 2026 guide says all fishing rules apply. Bag, size and possession limits and closures are set for four marine bioregions — North Coast, Gascoyne Coast, West Coast and South Coast — and the guide said boat fishing for demersal scalefish was closed in the West Coast bioregion until spring 2027. Protected species, spawning closures, crab closures, gear rules and banned methods are in the statewide guide; marine protected areas are managed by the department, the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions or Parks Australia, and their zoning is searchable by location on the state's rules site. FishingHQ does not state what any current rule is: what is said here is what the department's pages said when read. Check the current position with the department before going.

The state department's 2026 guide says fishers in Western Australia have drowned after being swept off rocks by large or unexpected waves, and advises a lifejacket, never fishing alone, watching a spot before fishing it and suitable footwear. It also points to Beach Emergency Number signs at beach access points, harbours, boat ramps and fishing platforms, whose code locates a caller to emergency services, and to the state's shark activity information. The Australian guidance on rock platforms, the open coast, sun and weather applies.

It depends on how you fish, not on fishing as such.

FROM THE SHORE WITH A ROD: NO. The state department's 2026 guide says that apart from the licensed activities, no licence is needed to fish from the shore.

FROM A POWERED BOAT: YES. The Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence is needed for any fishing from a powered boat — line fishing, squid jigging, crabbing, spearfishing, octopus, dip netting for prawns — even if everything is released, and when a powered boat carries your catch or gear to a shore spot such as an island or sandbar. The department's page, read on 25 October 2026, says it is not needed in a boat without a motor such as a kayak, aboard a licensed tour or charter boat, when fishing with a licence holder and keeping everyone's catch within that holder's bag limit, or when the only fishing aboard is under another licence you hold, such as rock lobster.

FOR FIVE OTHER THINGS: YES, EACH SEPARATELY. Net fishing with haul, set or throw nets; freshwater angling in the south-west; rock lobster; abalone; and marron.

FROM ANOTHER STATE: A LICENCE FROM THERE IS NOT VALID HERE. Fishing may not start until the department's receipt arrives, and the licence is carried while fishing. Under-16s need no freshwater angling licence and pay less for the others; an Aboriginal person fishing under customary law for personal, family or communal needs needs no licence.

THE FEES are on the department's licence page and are not restated here.

FRESH WATER. The freshwater angling licence covers all freshwater angling south of Greenough, 29°S, above the tide: lakes, dams, rivers and their tributaries. The department's September 2026 guide says fishing is not permitted in the Shannon River at any time, the Water Corporation's drinking water supply dams are closed to fishing, and most native freshwater fish are totally protected; it names trout waters such as the Blackwood, Donnelly, Murray and Warren rivers and several dams. A powered boat used only for freshwater angling needs no boat licence.

NETS. A licence is needed for haul, set and throw nets; crab drop and scoop nets need none. Netting is allowed only in tidal water, never in fresh, most rivers, estuaries and inlets are closed to it, and carrying a net on closed water or the land beside it is itself prohibited.

ROCK LOBSTER needs its own licence for any species. ABALONE needs its own licence and may be taken only in the open season of the zone being fished; on the Perth coast that season is a few early mornings each summer, which the department may shorten or extend. MARRON needs its own licence for a short summer season, and some south-west waters are closed to it.

Each guide is revised every season or so; the department publishes the current one.

THE FOUR BIOREGIONS. The state sets bag, size and possession limits separately for the North Coast (Pilbara and Kimberley), the Gascoyne Coast, the West Coast and the South Coast, and the 2026 guide's tables give a different figure for the same fish in different bioregions. A fish legal to keep at Exmouth may not be at Perth.

THE WEST COAST DEMERSAL CLOSURE. When read in October 2026, the guide said boat fishing for demersal scalefish was closed in the West Coast bioregion, from Kalbarri to Augusta, until spring 2027 — no fishing for them, keeping them or having them aboard, from a boat, a kayak or by spearfishing from a boat. Fishing for them from the shore, by line or land-based spear, was not closed, except that West Australian dhufish may not be speared. Outside the West Coast, the guide said demersal bag limits had been reduced from 1 June 2026.

SPAWNING AND CRAB CLOSURES. The guide lists seasonal closures for pink snapper in Cockburn and Warnbro Sounds and parts of Shark Bay, for baldchin groper at the Abrolhos Islands, and for all crabbing from the Swan and Canning rivers south to Minninup Beach in spring.

MARINE PARKS. Fish habitat protection areas and other closed areas are the department's; inshore marine parks and reserves are the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions'; offshore marine parks are Parks Australia's. Their zones are searchable by location on the state's rules site. The guide notes, for example, that spearfishing is prohibited in part of the Ningaloo Marine Park.

WHAT FISHINGHQ CANNOT TELL YOU. Whether any of this has changed since it was read, or what applies at a particular spot today. The department can.

PROTECTED SPECIES. The 2026 guide lists fish that may not be taken at all, among them grey nurse, white, speartooth and whale sharks, every sawfish, potato rockcod, Queensland groper, humphead Maori wrasse, both seadragons and most native freshwater fish. All rays and skates are protected in Hamelin Bay, and two large stingrays in the South Coast and West Coast bioregions.

GEAR. The guide says legal gear is what it lists and everything else is illegal: a shore fisher may use up to two attended lines; traps of almost every kind, set lines, dredges and deliberate foul-hooking are banned; and the number of hooks or lures per line is limited, more strictly for demersal fish on the West Coast. It warns that tackle shops may sell gear that is not legal in Western Australian waters.

SELLING THE CATCH. Selling recreationally caught fish is an offence.