Last few trips up that way I have come back full of it... LOL If your headed for that sort of a trip take a tour boat and catch a cab LOL.

If your after some info on cruising the Murray River (Mandurah) send me a PM. As for the Swan sorry never be up there.

CCC

 Hi DBP.  We have done the river 4 times recently as the winds on the coast were too high, the river doesn't really get affected by the wind, accept near Melville waters.  We mostly launch from Maylands, off Penninsula Rd, near the Police Headquarters.  We have also lauched at Belmont ski area, but that can get busy, and messy as the ramp isn't the best and you get the wake from all the boats.  

We mostly go to an area called Fish Markert Reserve.  It is a little past the railway and traffic bridge in Guildford.  The river does a 90 deg bend and on the southern side there are a few sand beaches that we stop at. See below photo.

One thing though, I don't know if you have a fibreglass boat but the water is pretty dirty and the fibreglass that is near the water gets brown, which you need more then soap to get off.  It's worth it though becuase it is so calm, and you can even go for a swim, the water is warmer up river, then say near Freo.

The white areas is where I have cleaned the fibreglass with a waterline stain remover.

Awesome up that way just remember it is now 5 knots from Belmont ski area onwards towards the wineries so it is a slow trip...  I haven't made it as far as the wineries yet but we often pull up on the courtesy mooring bouys and hang off them for a few hours...

it's great up there, way to win her over,  We didn't do the wineries though, took a bbq, our own wine and a couple of friends to Lilac Hill which has electric and wood bbqs, tables, toilets and everything else you need for a good day and then just explored the river and threw a line in.   

This might help you  http://fishwrecked.com/node/22755

hows the water depths further up,  is it easy to navigate through...

and Whipass if your reading this what's the name of the anchoring device your using on the bank ...I want to grab one of those cheers

provided there is no weddings booked there for lunch that day (it is really busy in peak season) then Caversham house on the river will certainly win the mrs over!!

they have their own private jetty, gardens and a waterfall second to none and the staff are always friendly.

try and book in advance for a table outside at lunch time and kick back with a glass of chilled white or 2.

This should put you in good stead with the mrs for future boating trpis for sure.

with a bit of luck you can drop a quick line in at the heaps of bream snags along the way back and try your luck at some bream fishing too.

as mentioned previously launch at maylands Peninsula boat ramp or even Katanning st in Bassendean.

Sandalford winery also has a jetty but it is rather small so can't tie up big boats. You could possibly pack some lunch and grab a bottle from their cellar door and have a picnic at their large grassed surrounding gardens.

just some suggestions to go by but Caversham House is definately a 100% winner for me!!

scano

 Its called a wombat rapid anchor.

http://www.rapidanchor.com/The_Wombat.htm

They work great hey, I picked mine up for $15 from Hayway Marine just before Christmas.

Cheers.

 What you on about Bod? Please explain.

But if someone asks what something is called, then I will answer no matter what the thread is on about.

apologies whipass, I missed Chris Raff's post.  Usually try to tie my hands behind my back when I'm enjoying a beverage.  Now I've seen it, the wombat looks a great idea.

 cheers

 You should be able to go just past the new bridge close to the Women's prison just past cavesham.

There is also a courtesey buoyin the middle of the river next to the camping spot.

Further up it gets to shallow and snaggy.

As stated it is 5knts all the way. 

Another spot to win over the trouble and strife is East Perth inlet with the little jetty to tie on to and stroll to the restaurants on the foreshore or up to the wood fired Pizzaria on the corner!

This is very civilised indeed.

Maylands ramp is the better one to start from with a floating jetty of some sort.

 we have often done the river cruise with the Trophy I had and the Bertram as well, now with the new Donzi as well.

biggest thing to remember is many fo the marine charts are not fully uptodate after about Ascot Waters area and beyond Guildford Bridge you in areas of snags and many moving sand banks, so becareful

Having said that a few nice wineries can be accessed from the river and a great little riverside cafe up at Guilford with a jetty to get some tea and food too.

I also find picking up and dropping off people is best done from the Maylands boat ramp, as parking is good and the new flaoting jetty easy to get too.

Launching there is a piece of cake and we infact launched the Donzi there a few weeks back with ease!!! 

Talking about snags and moving sandbanks, we we cruising down river during the Christmas break, just north of the Katanning street boat ramp, about 30 metres from the Eastern side bank and we hit something in the water. It was a fair bump too.  It was lowish tide, I looked at the sounder and it showed a big spike coming up from the bank.  I was a bit worried I had done damage to the boat. We pulled the boat out, and there was a grazing on the bottom, nothing too bad.

Next time we went back, we got out and tried to work out what it was. We first thought it was an old boat, then a trailer coz we were able to pull a light off, then we realized that it was a car. It was a Holden becuase on light it had a GM serial code.

I called the water police the next day and they went out there, I met them there and tried to pull it out with a tow truck, but it could n't do it, and it got bogged. Unfortunately we had to go but a front end loader was called out, and they eventually pulled it out.

The water police called me later that day and said that the car was listed as stolen in 2010.  You never know what is in the river.

The diver in the water is on the car roof.

 bugger you guys just removed our bream artificial wreck & FAD we been waiting for to work!! 

That's not a bad effort to get it that far out

 Well here is a photo of the car under the water. This photo was taken when we checked it out on the second trip, where the tide was higher  then when I hit the car.  There is some fish down there.

By the way it was a Toyota Lexcen, same as a Holden Commodore hey.

Cheers.

At the ramp under the tonkin hiway bridge.  Anybody with a larger boat Ak over 6meter used this ramp before.  might be a better spot to launch from if doing the winery lunch thing..

Yea we used it last week. Do you mean the Katanning St ramp? It's fine for a 6+ metre boat.  The crappy thing about this jetty is though, there is only one cleat to tie your boat to. Normally you have one for the back and one for the front. You actually have to hold the back or the front of the boat against the jetty to stop it from swinging away.  I reckon the shire council or the Swan River people, who ever put it there needs to know this coz it is useless having only one cleat.

cool Thanks for that..  Yeah I am not sure what street its on but thats probably it about 50 odd meters up river from the bridge...