Woronora river and Cowan creek fishing?

[Idan]

Hi all, newbie here and just moved to Sydney from Auckland.

 

I want to do a a camping/fishing trip on Christmas, I have no problem hiking with my travel rod.

Do you know if the back end of the Woronora river, for example near lake Eckersley, has any fish? And what about Cowan creek, Jerusalem bay area?

Any tips for these spots - species, tackle to use?

I was thinking of these 2 spots for the simple fact that I don't have a car yet, and their accessible by train!

 

Thanks

Idan

[Rebel]

Hi,

Welcome aboard.

Sorry to correct Dave. There is a train station at Cowan.

[Fun2fish]

Hey guys I live at berowra Cowan stn is nowhere near the water.if you want to fish the hawkesbury best stn is brooklyn 

[scottyboy]

Ok folks I'm going to clear this up. Firstly welcome to fishraider IDAN . I hope you enjoy the wealth of knowledge that this site provides, it is world class, there are so many fantastic people on here willing to share there experiences. 

You can reach the beautiful jeresulm bay by a walking track that starts on the eastern side of the station  then a bridge over the F3 then a nice 30minute walk down hill to the bay. There are plenty of places to camp ,just got to use your inner bear grills and remember no fires. The fishing on and at the edge of the sand flats is fantastic about 3 hours either side of low tide. You can pump nippers and plenty of poddy mullet. You can wade across to the rocky outcrop at the NE end of the bay and has a deep drop of on the southern side. Watch out for stingrays when wading. This is exactly the same for berowra station (which is the stop before Cowan) which will take you to beautiful waratah bay. I hope this gives you a heads up mate.  

Cheers Scotty 

[Idan]

Sounds like I'm going to have a great time, amazing info guys! Thanks a lot!

[XD351]

I would check with the National parks website ( Kuringai chase national park) before camping in  jerusalem bay as  it was prohibited when we used to hike in and fish for jewfish there , we got pulled up by a ranger in a boat one morning but  fortunately for us it was summer and we used to sleep on the rocks and didn’t have a tent or sleeping bags so he couldn’t prove we camped there. If you cross the creek or sand bar at the end of the bay try to do it at low tide , we waded / swam across the creek one night at high tide completely oblivious to the sharks that frequent there !
You can also hike down to flint and steel point  ( end of west head rd ) and access the little beaches either side - the one on the west side has pit toilet but please don’t swim on any of these beaches especially the one on the eastern side of flint and steel - sharks frequent these as well .  Please be aware that it is now summer and total fire bans will be in place a lot of the time and you really need to be ultra careful entering the park as you can get trapped in there a fire breaks out .  There are walking tracks all through the park and the National park website should put you on to some maps.
Strange that ! I was only thinking about doing an overnight trip to Jerusalem in my boat  a day or so ago ! 
HTH!

[Rebel]

Hi,

Juast another suggestion. You can catch a bus to the Northern Beaches. There are plenty of fishing spots to go to and only ten minutes from the main road. Have a look at a map of the area.

Cheers.

[wazatherfisherman]

Hi Idan and welcome, you can't camp anywhere in Kuringai Chase National Park other than at the "Basin" camp ground on the other of Cowan. We took a fly to keep the dew off one night when Hairtail Fishing from the shore in Jerusalem Bay and got in strife with the ranger who arrived by boat, only the fact that we had a rubbish container which had cigarette butts and used matches in it (he scoured the area even for butts) stopped us getting fined. 

The argument we put forward was we weren't camping, only fishing and had no sleeping bags, stove etc and also hadn't had a fire (illegal anywhere in the park) was simply put down by his official definition of "it is considered camping if any sort of shelter is erected" -which included placing a fly over any gear (we had used the fly to sit under during the night while it rained, so we were therefore guilty) so there is no defence if you take any "covering"- the ranger had no objection to us fishing there, just check the park rules.

There are often people camped in tents at the end of the bay adjacent the sand flats, but the ranger said rangers on foot regularly fine them, so it isn't a good idea.

As Scotty said, the fishing is really good, just remember if you wade the sandflat to access the Pinta Bay side, it's too deep from half tide onwards to get back. There are a couple of really comfortable rocks at the mouth of Pinta Bay and there are Bream all along the shoreline (you can see them). There are also prawns on the sandbank at night but beware of sharks as there are plenty up in Jerusalem Bay, mostly small Whalers and Hammerheads, but you never know.

Waratah Bay accessed from Berowra station is a marginally harder walk out and the track goes above the water all the way back up Cowan towards Appletree Bay. Good fishing on the lower part of the tides, when you can fish the sandflat, but not many decent spots for shore based fishing as the tide rises.

Lake Eckersley used to have a few Bass and Silver Perch when I was a teenager,(40+years ago) but haven't heard of anyone fishing there for a long time, check Heathcote National Park for regulations.

[Idan]

Hi Waza, yes I realised this about Kuringai, I should only go there for day trips or camp at the basin, which is fully booked on Christmas anyway. I didn't find such regulation in Heathcote anywhere so I'm keen on trying that option. I might go there this weekend to check it out. Thanks heaps for the tips.

[XD351]

You will find camping anywhere in Sydney around Christmas will be booked out pretty much a year in advance and most in coastal NSW will be booked out 6months in advance .

If you get onto the National parks and wildlife website there is plenty of info on where you can camp in the parks in NSW . You will have to pay for a permit in the parks but there are a few free ones dotted along the coast but they are dwindling in numbers .