Guys, I am looking to start fishing anywhere that is 1 hour drive from Sydney. I will buy whatever kit is required but I need to catch good fish, fish that I can grill on the spot and have a nice day out. Please suggest your favorite spots and the species of fish available there and if those species are easy to cook. Thanks
Today I saw some carp in the Parramatta River at Parramatta around 60cm. Can't say if they are any good to eat. But just a week ago some kids caught a turtle from the river too while fishing. (They put it back in).
First up you will need a fishing license. Apply for a recreational fishing licence If you get caught without one you can have your gear confiscated. Do you have a boat or access to one ? That can make a huge difference.
If you want to cook/eat on the spot, avoid Sydney Harbour for a start (anywhere west of the bridge anyway). Beyond that, too many places and fish species to mention. I assume no boat, that is shore fishing? You'll go hungry in most places until you learn about them. Flathead may be your best bet, most predictably caught in the right places, tasty, easy to prepare/cook on the spot. For more infor you need to say more about your preferences...
That changes everything. Stop thinking too much about it, just hire a good boat. Skipper will provide gear, lead you to the fish, and help you cook them. Easy.
Drifting near/under the Brooklyn railway bridge. Boat hire required. Linky - this beastie was about 75cm Otherwise fish the run out tide at Ettalong beach. You can catch plenty of leather jacket in the weed at Blues Point while enjoying the view using prawn on long shank hooks. You'll also find the odd bream, tailor and school of kingies.
Hard to think of anywhere that doesn't have them. But the best places are estuaries and lagoons, such as Narrabeen in North Sydney, or the Lake Illawarra. I'm off this weekend to pester the flatties at Lake Durras further south.
I would be reading the dioxin levels as per the signs in Homebush/Meadowbank/Silverwater etc. The land may have been rehabilitated for units at Rhodes but no-one is game to disturb the silt.
One issue is that the best fishing times are sometimes not the most convenient. Much depends on the tides and weather. There is a company that does charters in the harbour called Fishabout, I think. Craig Gill is one of the guides. I have been out with him a few times. Typically, he will fish around the eastern suburbs for some squid to use as bait and then head toward the harbour mouth and fish around there. Structures are important for fish, so people look for reefs and man made structures. I have caught good fish around the wedding cakes (the channel markers) in Sydney harbour. My brother-in-law, who is a great fisherman said the important thing is to try and think like a fish. I'm up in South West Rocks at the moment with him fishing the ocean and the river. Today we caught a dozen flathead in the river. It was mid morning around the tide change. We went up the river a bit and hung around where some of the small tidal creeks drain from the mangroves into the main river. Flathead will often head to those junctions on a falling tide and wait for food to come to them. We just had to hope they mistook our plastic lures for that food and a dozen of them did. We were only there for an hour. On the way back we picked up the crab traps we had put down on the previous high tide and got some nice mud crabs. the most common species I catch in Sydney harbour are bream, flathead and leatherjacket. All of them are good to eat and can be caught from the shore. Kingfish are more likely caught from a boat, as are mulloway (jewfish). Though people often catch the latter from the shore at night. There would be more Internet forums on fishing than there are on property investing - lots of knowledge out there. Scott
Do this! Nothing beats going out with an experienced guide to learn how to fish and where to fish. +1 to everything else @Depreciator said too. I've caught Flathead and Bream in Rose Bay 100m off the beach + Bream and others around the deep water moorings east of Shark Island.
Yeah Rose Bay is quite good, especially if you can hire a kayak or something. Soft plastics will be the go. But your best bet would be to go with Craig McGill or another charter called 'Raptor Charters'. They specialise in kingies which can be fun. I personally wouldn't eat anything in the harbour, especially flathead that sit in the contaminated mud/silt, or bream that live for 30 years bio-accumulating all the chemicals.. Also you will need a fishing licence, and stick to the legal lengths for keeping fish.
That's right, it's Craig McGill, not Craig Gill. He's great. And yes, Rose Bay in a hire tinnie would be a good place to start. The south eastern corner has sand flats that go out a long way. I would fish the last couple of hours of the run out tide where the sand flats fall away to deeper water. And yes, plastics would be the go. I've eaten fish from the harbour all my life and have suffered no ill effects, though that third ear sometimes gives me pause for thought. Scott.
Speaking of inconvenient times to fish, my brother-in-law woke me up with a kick to the foot before 5am yesterday. 'We're going fishing', he said. The boat was mostly ready, so we were on the water before I had fully woken up. The sea was like a lake. He said we were heading to the 'killing field' off shore. He's got code names for his favourite spots probably so when he talks about them nobody knows where they are. We headed 25klm north east in a boat way too small for the trip. We would have only fished for a bit over two hours in 80 meters of water and caught a tub of snapper and pearl perch. As we headed back in, there were other boats heading out to sea. He shook his head and said they weren't going to get much. Being that far out put us in the middle of the whale highway. This was a mother and calf that hung around for a while and then unnervingly went under the boat - I was hoping the baby knew the score and was going to hold its breath long enough.
