hey mate

unfortunately lowies in the river are like a plague and u will struggle to get away form them.

couple of spots i used to fish with varied success:

freshwater  bay jetty in mosman park near the restaraunt at the bottom of the hill, usually peeled prawns, or a whitebait on a small set of gangs, may score the occasional tailor. also cast the whitebait on the gangs and slowly retrieve, this seems ot pick up les sblowies.

fishing in freshwater bay furtehr a long near the yacht club, the flats there can ve very good for flathead. walk knee deep, casting out and retrievinig small scorpion lures while yur walking along. wear shoes as get a few cobbler in this area. found early morning best

also the jetty there casting towards the fueling area of the yacht club can yield silver bream.

if you walk furtehr along, just past the scotch college rowing shed, there is a bit of a deep pacth where sometimes some schools of tiilor hang aorund.

underneath the traffic bridge ini freo, cast towards the pylons and let the current take out in a loop, then cast back good for bream, skippy, tailor, though this may not be the best spot for a youung one. current rips through and form memory a bt of climbing involved.

best of luck! cant wait till my litte one is old enough to go fishing!

 I'd probably suggest heading further up the river say Ashfield/Bassendean and beyond and specifically for bream.

The rest of the river, above all closer to the mouth, the Blowies are in plague proportion and just not worth the frustration

Thanks for all the great suggestions, troops.
I think I'll try my luck further up the river – Success Hill and Fishmarket Reserve look like good kid-friendly spots.
Watching a few cracking episodes of River Monsters during lockdown has got me fired up again! ha ha.
He was in the Congo right enough.
In saying that, I've been on the night train to Gosnells and it's probably quite similar ;-)
 

 Sad thing is we snorkelled around chidley point for crabs a couple of summers back and we were actually pleasantly surprised at the diversity of fish we came across. Cobbler, flatties, herring, bream, tailor and even squid (just the one).

The problem is the swarms of blowies. Like massive schools of them. You may certainly catch one of the above as people obviously do but for every 10 cast you're sure to lose bait 8, 9 times to blowies.

I'd be interesting to hear any suggestions as to how we can rid our lovely river of these pests or at the very least reduce them greatly...

 Speaking of snorkelling in the river, I was also surprised last year snorkelling in freshwater bay as were heaps of little brown seahorses when u looked closely at the weed patches! Must have seen at least a dozen in less than 20 mins snorkelling. Cute little things, never expected them in the river!

 I fish at Point Walter. 

Got loads of squid their 2 years back in April, but last year didn't get any.

When the sun goes down the tailor start biting. Cast a mulie or whitebait on gangs and slowly retrieve. No shortage of 25-30cm fish. Some bigger. 

If you throw out bigger baits later in the evening there is a good chance of catching a ray.

 I fish at Point Walter. 

Got loads of squid their 2 years back in April, but last year didn't get any.

When the sun goes down the tailor start biting. Cast a mulie or whitebait on gangs and slowly retrieve. No shortage of 25-30cm fish. Some bigger. 

If you throw out bigger baits later in the evening there is a good chance of catching a ray.

Just to second what people above are saying, I dive the river all year round. the amount of life through there is fantastic

In winter when its been raining the top 3-4m will be filthy brown and cold, below that the water is the normal river quality so the fish are a bit deeper, just keep that in mind when picking spots

 I have always done well under the causeway bridge near casino and if you are further downstream where there is alot of blowies then switch to lures in the day and try a floating mullie at night 

 If its fun with the young bloke your after, on the lowest of the tide grab a small bucket and walk the banks around freo flipping any rocks that are covered on a high tide and collect some rock crabs from under them. Leave the females with eggs and only take enough for a quick fish. After the young fella is bored of that find any structure to fish. Jettys bridges rockwalls snags, i would normally head to canning bridge or mt henry bridge but any structure will work old traffic bridge on slack tide is great but too sketchy for the young one. The blowies dont hassle you as much and if the bream are around they absolutely destroy them. Hook the crab through the back making sure not to break the shell on an unweighted rig or if there is current you need just enough weight to get it to the bottom and slowly move along the bottom as a crab would. Ive caught big tarwine and blackies this way, if your fishing down river around freo, small pinks aren't uncommon. If fishing any further upstream than the stadium get some zman grubz in bloodworm or motor oil on a 1/16oz jig head 4lb fluro leader and walk the banks casting and slow rolling. Keeps you moving and interested and will catch bream of all sizes as well as flatties soapies tailor and grunter.