International and interstate travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in intrastate travel in Western Australia and anecdotal evidence suggested knock-on impacts on recreational fisheries. Conservation culturomics (mining large digital databases to monitor social perception of the environment) was used to detect rapid changes in recreational fishing during pre (January 2016 – February 2020), acute (March 2020 – March 2022) and acclimated (April 2022 – December 2023) phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two readily available data were analysed: recreational fishing licence sales (an indicator of fishing participation) and internet search volumes for fishing-related search terms (an indicator of interest in fishing). Licence sales increased during the acute-pandemic phase in comparison to the pre-pandemic phase, then returned to pre-pandemic levels in the acclimated-pandemic phase. Multivariate analysis revealed significant changes in location-based internet search terms during the acute phase of the pandemic (ANOSIM, R = 0.76, p <0.01) as searches for accommodation in regional locations increased during winter and spring in 2021 and 2022. This work highlights the use of licence sales and relative search volume of internet search terms as useful social and economic indicators to detect rapid change in recreational fisheries, of which there are few alternatives.