Fishing In Port Stephen

[Little Hooker]

hey raiders,

Been awhile since ive posted something up, jus got back from working overseas for 6months!!! So im hangin for a decent day out on the water.

Whats there to fish to the in the bay??? Also, should i be watchin out for certian black spots that i should stay clear from?? I been headin to maritime to get a map of this place jus to been sure my boat comes home with me when i finish my stay there.

Are there any good baitin grounds eg YT or squid grounds i should been hittin??? IF anyone has any gps reading they could pass on that would be super?? most probably goin to fish inside as my crew and i are to scared to head out..

[chocofallon]

Gday mate,

If you head out the heads around to the right you usually see guys getting bait..Slimeys Yellow tail. They say the weed patches in Havn't used it Shoal bay has squid. We got a couple of squid from the first island straight out of the heads. Also there is a bay on the south side of the island where we berleyed up and got alot of yakkas..accompanied by sweep and everything else.

Good luck.

[loxo]

I'm actually going up there this weekend, never been there before and would love to get some fishing in over the weekend. We are staying at Halifax in Nelsons bay. Any land based advice for around there? Would love to just catch a feed of bream, whiting or flathead for the missus and I Won't have a boat but will definately be getting a line in the water. Thanks for any tips.

[Geoff]

I'm going up next Tuesday for a few days , hopefully the weather will be OK for a trip to the island directly off the heads or Fingle headland.

For bait fish ,as previously mentioned , just outside the southern headland , Tomaree headland . Take plenty of berly.

There are sandbars at the eastern end of the port & extend around 1 - 1.5 westward. Most are exposed at low tide . These can be viewed from the marina or Little Beach boat ramp. If you keep to the southern shoreline then should be OK

As mentioned go to the MSB office in the Marina , they have heaps of information

Fishing the port. Generally I'v found it to be pretty average. The western end is more productive , launch a Soldiers Point ( Salamanda Bay)

Land based , the marina break wall , jetty at Little Beach & Fingle Bay beach , from the surf club up to the northern headland

[Little Hooker]

Cool thanks for the tips fella's.

Will post up some pics if i land something decent up there...

[Narra Rooster]

I was up there on the weekend and went out in the Bay in my 12 foot tinny. We launched at Little beach and headed north across the bay. Absolutely nothing bitting, saw heaps of Dolphins though.

I have fished up there a few times and found it to be very, very average. Anyone know a half decent spot?

[Little Hooker]

Narra rooster thats not what i wanted to hear mate... What baits did you use up there???

[Narra Rooster]

Narra rooster thats not what i wanted to hear mate... What baits did you use up there???

lol wasn't the best experience

We were targeting whiting/bream/flatties etc using prawns & worms.

Also threw a few plastics around for an hour or two.

[loxo]

Was up there all weekend. Had a heap of beers on Friday after arriving so just threw out a few prawns off the little beach jetty that night to unwind and caught a couple of little bream for fun. 2 young blokes with there dad caught a nice PJ and seemed to be having a ball.

Sat was the Mr's b'day so we spent the day together and I looked forward to spending the day Sunday fishing. I watched a heap of boats come in at little beach all day Saturday and the fish cleaning tables there were flat out. A heap of Snapper was being cleaned and there was some beauties amongst them up to 5 kilo's on occasion. Later in the day some of the guys that had been out wider came in and some awesome Kingies were seen to be being cleaned. My Mr's had never seen one up close and was pleased as punch when one of the blokes let her touch one.

Anyway I could see why the locals can get annoyed at the tourists. We had been talking to these blokes and been pretty friendly. I know enough about fisho's to not push my luck and had just asked a couple of basic questions about there day like how they had caught them ect, nothing in depth and just friendly chat, (turns out they had been jigging for them), anyway I'm explaining to my Mr's that you can catch these beautiful fish in the Harbour if you know what your doing and about how hard they fight and all the good stuff when another bloke decides to enter the convo.

Tourist, "so where did you catch them"

Local, "oh we were a fair way out"

T, "how far"

L, "oh fair way, bout 20km's"

T, "well which way, left right what? where did you get them????"

L (getting agitated), "straight out mate"

T, " so straight out 20km,s. is it a reef? what's it called.......blah blah blah

On and on he went. He was annoying us so I can only imagine how they felt, they'd obviously had a big day, and were friendly enough they just didn't need to be hassled. It got to the point where the 2nd guy (at this stage cleaning a kingie that was definately over a metre) spits out "we caught them off the back of the bloody boat mate!" We had a nice laugh at that and decided to let them be, said thx for the chat and headed off. Once again they were sweet with us.

So after seeing all these fish I'm looking forward to Sunday, but I'm trustworthy and stupid. I left my tackle box (jam packed because I'm the kinda bloke that cant walk past a tackle store without buying something) and 2 rods on our cabin deck the saturday night after the Mr's B'day dinner. Of course come Sunday morning someone has decided they needed them more than I did and all my gear is gone. I had 2 more rods in the car but no gear and with the foul taste in my mouth I couldn't be bothered buying anymore so no fishing for me. Luckily for me they took it on the Sat night because I'd left the car keys in the top of the tackle box after my little Friday night fish. That would have been bad!!

Anyway apart from that it was a great weekend. Moral of the story I guess is 1. don't leave anything valuable outside (I'm sure most know this) and 2. there is plenty of quality fish up there if you know where to look. If you're only going up for a couple of days maybe a charter might be the go. Tap into the local knowledge and give youself the best chance to score some good fish.

Good luck and enjoy the trip.

Oh, and PS. The snapper fillets we bought from the co-op on Sunday afternoon went down a treat even if the King Prawn's were a tad expensive at $35 bux a kilo. Gotta keep the boss happy on her b'day weekend!