Fly fishing Western Australia's South West

Wild brown trout and stocked rainbows in Lefroy Brook at Pemberton, and the tidal outlet of the Blackwood River at Augusta.

Waters

Blackwood River mouth boundary reach

Reach · WA

Lefroy Brook

River · WA

31.2 km

Western Australia’s trout live in the south-west corner of the state, and the water to go to first is Lefroy Brook at Pemberton. It is described as the best brown trout fishery in WA, and the reason is wild browns, many of them fish that have run up from the Warren River below. Rainbows are in the brook too, some of them big, though the big ones are usually hatchery fish.

Trout came to Western Australia by stocking, which has gone on for more than a hundred years. The Lefroy was first stocked in 1931, and the state still releases trout into the south-west’s rivers every year from its research centre at Pemberton. So this is a fishery of wild-spawned fish and stocked ones side by side, and the stocking plan is worth reading before a trip.

Castabout’s second water in the region is not a trout stream. It is the last short reach of the Blackwood River, where it meets the coast. We map it, and we say plainly below what we cannot yet tell you about it.

The country

Lefroy Brook and its tributary Big Brook run through the forest and paddock country around Pemberton and on into the Warren River. The top of the valley is dammed, with big farm dams that are stocked but are not stream fishing, and they need the landowner’s permission anyway. The stream that matters starts below them, in the middle and lower brook, down toward the Cascades.

Flow decides how the Lefroy fishes. In winter and spring it usually runs well and clear. From November, cool water released from Big Brook Dam carries it through the warm months. In February and March the hatchery flow-through from that dam can be the only water in it, and in a dry year that is very little.

The Blackwood reaches the sea at Augusta, through Hardy Inlet. The Blackwood River mouth reach is that final outlet stretch, and it is coastal water: tide, the bar and the wind decide the day, not the river’s flow.

The fishing

On the Lefroy, brown trout are the fish to plan around. The brook and Big Brook hold self-propagating browns and rainbows, and rainbows up to 3 kg turn up. DPIRD’s planned releases for 2025 put about 1,200 rainbow yearlings and 3,000 rainbow fingerlings into the Lefroy, with a small number of brown trout, alongside releases into the Warren River and Big Brook Dam nearby. That fits the description of the bigger rainbows as mostly stocked fish, and it is why the wild browns are the prize.

In spring the food is on the surface. Ants and caddis fall onto the water (beetles and ants, caddis), and an Elk Hair Caddis or a small Royal Wulff is a good bet when fish are looking up. When nothing is rising, get a weighted Pheasant Tail down into the deeper water; nymphing is the other half of the spring fishing. In winter, expect travelled fish, and work each pool and run methodically before moving on. Western galaxias and western pygmy perch are recorded in the brook, so a small baitfish pattern earns a place in the box. Redfin perch are reported in the Lefroy too.

At the Blackwood mouth we cannot tell you what to fish for yet. Our page there is a map and a pointer to the rules, not a fishing guide, and you will need local advice on target fish, a place to start and access. Upstream, the inland Blackwood is a different water: DPIRD names the Blackwood River among the most popular trout waters in the state and planned 2,000 rainbow yearlings for it in 2025, but that river is not this reach, and Castabout does not cover it yet.

Where to start

Make the first trip to the Lefroy in September to November, when the flows run clear and strong and ants and caddis are falling. Walk in on the tracks off Conte, Power and Glauders roads toward the Cascades. Keep low and stay back from the edge, because a wild brown notices a clumsy approach.

If spring does not suit, go in winter, June to August, when migratory trout move through the system as far as the Pemberton town dam wall. Skip the dammed headwaters, and in a dry year skip February and March.

Through the year

Spring, September to November, is the prime time on the Lefroy. From November the Big Brook Dam releases add flow and cool water, and January can still fish well if the warm weather has been late or the town dam is still overflowing. February and March are the weak months. April and May bring cooler weather, and the first big rains, usually in early May, stir the trout up. June to August the brook runs well and the migratory fish come through.

Rules and access

Seasons, limits, licence requirements and closures change, and the tidal Blackwood mouth is not freshwater; check DPIRD’s current WA recreational fishing rules for the exact place before you fish. DPIRD’s recreational fishing regions, the South West among them, are coastal reporting areas for monitoring, not rule boundaries. Clean and dry your gear before you move to another waterway.

A line on the map is not access permission. On the Lefroy, the signs and fences on the ground decide where you may go, and the farm dams in the upper valley need the landowner’s permission. At the mouth, confirm land tenure and launching before you go.

Castabout’s other Western Australian region is the Kimberley, sooty grunter country a long way north.