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Child friendly fishing spots on George's River or Port Hacking River


Deschanel

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I used to take my kids to Lugarno as it has fencing to they don't easily fall in to the water. There's a wharf near the restaurant at the end of Forrest road. Sad thing is sometimes other fishos like to leave rubbish all over the place even though there is more than enough bins supplied right on the wharf.

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sand flats are the safest and most interesting place for small kids, when they get bored with fishing they can build sandcastles, chase soldier crabs, splash in the shallows and they have nowhere to fall on (rocks,wharves etc). The flats at Gunnamatta on lowtide , beach at Kurnell etc

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If you give us an age range on the kids it might help with the most appropriate spot. If you are hoping to get/keep them interested you will need pretty instantaneous results of something on the end of the line. A jetty like Wally's Wharf, Yowie Bay, Gunamatta or Lilly Pilli gets crowded but there are often small fish straight under it. A bait jig with small hooks cut in half so it only has three hooks, at least a half ounce sinker to hold it straight from tangles and tiny bits of peeled prawn are the go. Take  a loaf of bread and grind it up for berley. This way there is no casting and if you dont drop to the bottom, no snagging.

An alternaitve would be a sand flat like gunamatta or grays point, berley with bread and a tiny hook and piece of peeled prawn under a small fixed bubble float. This is exciting because you see the fish and the float move but does require some skills/timing to set the hook when float fishing .Or you could cast the half a bait jig rig mentioned above for the jetty and let it sit on the bottom under the bread berley.

Dehooking - If you take a piece of coathanger wire with the end bent like a hook you can hook that hook around the line just above the hooked fish and pull the mainline tight, the coathanger hook will slide down to the fish hook and with a little flick you can flip the fish of the hook and into a bucket of water or back into the river without anyone having to get hooked, fish spiked or slimy and most importantly it will minimise handling trauma to the fish. This is how we remove all our livies into the bait tank so they are never handled and stay in the best possible health. It is always handy to have a rag ready if you need to grab something or a wet rag if the kids want to hold the fish for a picture

Don't forget that anything like Bream and snapper that have a minimum fisheries size need to be legal to swim around in your bucket. So little yakkas, poddy mullet, leatherjacket, sweep etc. will be your target if the kids want to look at them swim in a bucket before letting them go.

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6 hours ago, PaddyT said:

The flats at Gunnamatta on lowtide

2nd this. In warmer months tho as you need to get ankles / knees wet.

Started my 6 year old here. At low tide you can get close to the channel which is alive with fish. In summer, betley will bring on schools of whiting & mullet they can target. If lucky, occasionally you'll get a bust up of Bonito or other predators through your school which are exciting for the kids & great fun on light gear.

When the tide rolls in, retreat to the beach area & they can feed the schools of fish with bread, swim, or play on the sand whilst you fish.

Gets crowded though - so be early.

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I took my 4 year old Grand-daughter down to Gunnamatta Bay baths for her first go at fishing on Sunday. With a cold Southerly blasting up the Bay, there was nothing biting, but she had a good time anyway and showed much more patience than I would have had at that age. It is a good spot for kids, and under better conditions, we would have had something small to show for the effort. Gymea Bay baths gets a vote from me too, as does the new jetty at Swallow Rock, Grays Point. If the jetty is crowded, then there will be a spot along the beach/picnic area anyway.

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On ‎11‎/‎07‎/‎2017 at 0:27 PM, PaddyT said:

sand flats are the safest and most interesting place for small kids, when they get bored with fishing they can build sandcastles, chase soldier crabs, splash in the shallows and they have nowhere to fall on (rocks,wharves etc). The flats at Gunnamatta on lowtide , beach at Kurnell etc

Second this.

Another spot is to take a trip to Mainbar. Pump some nippers and fish the channel.

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