Coffs Fishing For Snapper

[Ray R]

To all Raiders, thinking of a trip to Coffs in March, mainly flicking plastics for snapper,

1) is march an okay time for reddies ?

2) any places up that people might like to share as a good spot ?

3) is the bar at the harbour safe for non bar crossers like Hutch and myself ?

If we can gather some info from Raiders it would be greatly appreciated..

Cheers Ray R.....

[arpie]

Hi Ray

WHen are you planning on travelling - it could be weeks before the water levels drop - big chance of major flooding from today on!! Roads cut up Bellingen/Kempsey way already.

Having said that ....... I found this site some time back & it has good info on fishing in general around Coffs

http://www.coffs.com.au/huge/fishing/html/beach.html#I

http://www.coffs.com.au/huge/fishing/html/snapper.html

http://www.coffs.com.au/huge/fishing/html/chart.html

Good luck

Cheerio

Roberta

Edited February 17, 2009 by Roberta

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Ray,

1. yes... caught some nice fish on plastic there last March... good cobia may also be on the reefs and bait grounds too.

2. There is too much good ground to list mate... have a look on your GPS chart and just hit any of the reefs North and Northeast of the harbour... they all hold fish.

3. As far as I know there is no bar as such at Coffs... there's a good ramp near the fishing club which can get a bit washy on the wrong day but otherwise it's fine... this is worth checking with someone with more experience of the area than me though.

4. Not sure what sort of boat you'll be in but the Solitary Islands group has some awesome fishing... washes, reef edges, current upwellings, etc.... On the way there from the Harbour are good bait grounds that hold slimeys and hungry predators too.

5. Be careful of the Sanctuary Zones... there are quite a lot of them around Coffs but there's plenty of good water to fish still.

A couple of fish from Coffs last March....

Cheers, Slinky

[Ray R]

Thankyou Roberta and Slinky, lots of info to digest, still only a 50% chance yet but we do wanna get up there at some stage..

Thanks again.

Cheers,

[sportfish]

Hey Slinky thats cruel

Im not going to Coffs but I want to now

Hey Ray I watched an episode of fishing trip (i think) that I had taped last week

they fished Coffs and it looked pretty awesome

seeing Slinky's post confirms that it would be a great place to go for a fish

good luck

[pelican]

Not a propper bar at Coffs and a pretty safe harbour. Respect the entrance as a strong wave surge and different swells can confuse it 1/4 size of Sydney heads with same swells make it twice as bad but nothing major.. Beware the surge at the ramp as many a boat has had a bad recovery there or swamped on launch. There is also ice bait , deisel ( not sure on petrol) at marina that has a groyne completely around it. There is sometimes casual berths avaliable if you were doing late finishes and early starts and want to leave boat in the water overnight .

Check the leads on the way out and put it in the chartplotter or check your map in there as have had plenty of trouble there in bad visibility ( even sunset) working out exactly where we were in heavy rain etc. If you are out overnight take a book with all the lights the trawlers and commercial guys use as it is often hard to work out if they are towing nets and their direction and they can go all over the place zig zagging.

Once out of the Harbour you are very xposed so check teh weather as it can be a long beat home u there

Do a google earth and you will see the lay of the land. Some good shore based if weather blows in and river just South and it will be well open to the ocean with the floods in Bellingin , Urungan in the last 2 days.

Fishermans club is just above the ramp and good for a feed as well and have scales if you land a record - check if there is any recricrical rights or boat stowage on site

Coast guard / VMR are actually there at marina from memory so have a chat with them as the old blokes know what is going on.

Customs , police fisheries and MSB all very active there and good blokes -- so extra care with sanctury zones and get them all keyed into chartplotter or GPS before you go.

Edited February 18, 2009 by pelican