Agree, tailor are the most noticeable for sure. We used to try get down to Woodies groyne at least once a fortnight for the evening tailor run

 Cobbler used to be pretty much everywhere. Rarely see them nowadays.

Cheers,

BD.

 When I was a boy my uncles would encourage me to go and get some bonito from palm beach jetty. They thought I was just a terrible fisherman until my uncle came one morning. I also used to catch many slimy mackerel as a kid and they were dynamite bait. I remember one morning filling a bucket with garfish and slimy mackerel from woodmans point jetty with some friends but now it's just scaly mackerel. We used to catch heaps of yellowtail and slimies at e shed but now it's just dominated by Scaly Mack's. 

Now. Bigger ones . Beaches have died. For them . See heaps of cobbler every time I swim . Thing I’ve noticed most dhues /bonito and blue mackeral. Haven’t. Seen bonito or mackeral for long long time

 Just got back from a week on rottnest. Happy to say the herring where thick! Propped bull herring made me think I hooked a Taylor! Kids, mum's and dad's having a ball and getting a feed from the ferry jetty.

the one fish we have noticed is far less common for us is the old queenie ,,, once upon a time in the 80/90 s and early 2000s we would always get at least one every trip down south

and big queenies ,,now we hardly ever get one ,,,

have been some massive herring schools out off geo bay the last month ,,and plenty of bonito being seen on these oily calm afternoons smashing bait schools up

not just limited to Perth - when my folks first moved to K-town in the early 90's you could catch fish everywhere and pretty much target what you wanted for dinner that night, - wind forward 3 decades and you are travelling long distances to find fewer fish - i recall my first trip to the monte's in the 90's the place was (pleasantly!) plagued with crays, my last trip we saw hardly any and i was told a pro got a licence to fish there for them and cleaned them out (please correct me if this is incorrect) - not bagging pro's, rec fisherman for saying it is because of covid :-) - just stating my experience!

 Something I have noticed in the SW is the large schools of sambos have disappeared. Certain areas we use to jig for a bit of fun use to hold them all the time. Lucky to see one now. This seems strange to me because no one really targets them to keep. Maybe the shark carnage at the barges in Perth has had an impact somehow. Who knows. 

 Always remember as a kid going down to the old mandurah bridge fishing at night and the big gars were that thick you could just about walk across them. Used to come in for the lights hanging off the jetty underneath 

 I see many schools of large garfish while diving around port Kennedy. Seeing less crabs though basically disappeared 

 As a kid used to see heaps of prawns jumping in the shallows around freshwater bay, and used to catch. A few. Dint seem to be nearly as many now.

Certainly much less fish in numbers. The way I fish now is 1000 times more effective than when I was younger. Back in the 80's no GPS and smaller boats mostly had no sounder even. The average recreational boat was much smaller. So we used to blind drift for dhu's and get way more than we do now in much shallower waters or just fish lumps by aligning land marks from shore. LB dhu's were far more common too. 

Now we have a super fuel efficient and reliable out board so we can fish the grounds that were exclusive to the pro's much further out to sea. Return to the best spots, again and again. 

Then there is also the issue of people catch and releasing fish in numbers from very deep water. I think the mortalities from this has had a big effect on fish stocks too. 

 What about those couple of years when Bonito were smashing the Moles. Used to head down there early morning to catch a couple for my smoker. The Asian fellas with their bits of PVC pipe as reels and cheap Kmart rods lol. Gotta give it to them for ingenuity. 

 Those bontito where the first thing i thought of when i saw this thread. Would have been 20 years ago now used to get them off the south mole, i remember getting busted off by a few as well.

Sambos are a novelty catch for me now NOR, nannygai/red snaps used to be fairly common off 2 rocks. pig fish/ foxfish the same. Thankfully the N/W blowies have moved on!