Oz fishing advice

[SHARKIE]

I am visiting Australia in September and would like to take a charter boat for 1 trip. I have a week in each of the following, Sidney,Gold coast, Sunshine coast and Whitsunday islands which would be the best area for a charter.
Thanks for any information

[rocket]

The more North you head on the East coast the better the fishing gets.
But here is a good site to find out more: http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/

[skippy]

I am visiting Australia in September and would like to take a charter boat for 1 trip. I have a week in each of the following, Sidney,Gold coast, Sunshine coast and Whitsunday islands which would be the best area for a charter.
Thanks for any information

hi sharkie
can only help u on the goldcoast bit as that is were i am from
what u need to do is make your way down to a place called the spit
u will drive passed the versace hotel get down near the end and u will find a load of charter boats u can haggle the price a bit
expect to catch marlin tuna wahoo bonito shark ray very big mackrel
if live baiting from the boat u shold be using a bait called slimey mackrel
if u also get the chance to fish from the shore do it
get your self a cast net takes soe time to suss but great when u do
throu bed in to the sea in aclean sandy area give it 10 mons then throw the net over it to catch live herring use this freelined dont forget the wire trace
u will get ray gts i had bronze whaler on them mangrove jack
if u can get out in a boat at night u have a very good chance of some huge jewfish
hope that helps
try these for e boat fishing
http://www.goldcoastbroadbeach.com/fishing_charter_booking.htm
this 1 is more like a tourist job
but this 1 if u have the doe is much better and a very good skipper
MISTRESS SPORTFISHING CHARTERS
15 The Peninsula
Sovereign Island Gold Coast 4216
Australia

Ph: 617 55641432 Mob: 61418739834 Fax: 617 55771475
Email : barryalty@bigpond.com

[SHARKIE]

I'm a bit dubiuos about tourist charters as I got ripped off in Lanzarote, so I would prefer a private charter. I think that I would like to try for a big game fish, it would have to be catch and release as I would only want a photo.

[skippy]

private charter mate

MISTRESS SPORTFISHING CHARTERS
15 The Peninsula
Sovereign Island Gold Coast 4216
Australia

Ph: 617 55641432 Mob: 61418739834 Fax: 617 55771475
Email : barryalty@bigpond.com
__________________

[lucky]

Hi Sharkie I'm from Sydney originally. I can't really give you much advice on charters but I think the further north you go on the east coast the better it would be as has been suggested before however if you're going to be spending some time in Sydney and are interested in some shore or estuary fishing from small dinghies I might be able to help. Here's some info on a place called Berowra Waters in Sydney. I haven't been there for many years but in those days we used to fish the Hawkesbury River which is a fair size river about 45 mins drive north of the city centre. It's estuary fishing with a lot of saltwater species found in the river. We used to hire a dinghy with a small outboard for the day from the marina at Berowra Waters - when I first went there as a kid it was a rowing boat. It was quite cheap back then but I think they now hire aluminium open boats called "tinnies" which is slang for can of beer in Oz. The boats are fitted with canopies, lifejackets and a 6hp outboard and don't require a licence to operate. They charge about AUS$125 these days - about £58 for an nine hour day from 8am to 5pm. Gas is included in the price - still pretty good if you can manage to split it between two or three of you. Bait, ice and fuel were available at the marina. It's a good idea to take a packed lunch and some cold drinks. You will probably need a car to get there as the marina is inside Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. There is a rail station at Berowra and I reckon it's about 4 or 5k down to the marina itself so maybe you could catch a cab. Being surrounded by national park Berowra Waters still remains a beautiful and relatively unspoilt spot. When you fish there you're pretty much completely surrounded by gum trees. Common fish species included bream, flathead, flounder and leatherjackets - all good eating. There's also some large jewfish caught in certain spots in the Hawkesbury proper which has a pretty strong tidal run. The usual size for these is 2 to 7kg but 30kg monsters are caught fairly regularly. We always used to fish with bait which was mainly fresh prawns and sometimes beach worms but I believe they fish for flathead these days quite successfully with lures. You would normally also catch the odd Yellowtail a small fish which were good for bait. Another fish to target in the river is luderick or blackfish - the bait for these is green weed wound around the hook. You can either fish Berowra Creek - a good size body of water itself or head down it to the main stream of the Hawkesbury. Here's a couple of links:

http://www.sportsfish.com.au/

In the Locations section of the Sportsfish site there's sections on both Berowa Creek and the Hawkesbury River.

http://www.berowrawaters.net/

Here's another link.

http://www.marinews.com/fishing

Here's a link to maps of various fishing locations around Sydney.

http://www.sydneyfishfinder.com.au/Maps.html

Also here's a link to some guidebooks on fishing in Australia. Ther's a couple which focus specifically on marks in Sydney. The Fishing Guide to Sydney - Hawkesbury maybe helpful as it would probably give information on a lot of shore marks in Sydney that are accessible by public transport. I believe a lot of fishing is now done in the harbour and on the Parramatta River which runs into the harbour. This wasn't the case many years ago due to pollution so I don't know much about marks on these waters now that the Parramatta river and the harbour are much cleaner. Another river we used to fish was the Georges River which is in the southern suburbs of Sydney for much the same variety of fish as we caught in the Hawkesbury.

http://www.guidesgalore.com.au/defau...=97&ParentID=3

and here's some Aussie fish:

http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fi...calcaratus.htm

I suspect that you may now need some kind of fishing licence these days in Oz so it may be worthwhile asking over on one of the Aussie forums.

Good luck Sharkie and have a great time in Sydney.

[SHARKIE]

Thanks for the info lads, makes me wants to go more than the once. Maybe I'll try each location I'm sure the missus wouldn't mind.

[Roller]

The best advice would be head for the nearest tackle shop, I lived in Oz believe me you'll be spoilt for choice, but bait shops are your best source for local info

[lucky]

Sharkie you also might find a bit of info over on he Vertical Jigging forum in the Oceania section. A few of the members are based in east coast Australia.

http://www.verticaljigging.com/

[PanamaJack]

Thanks for the info lads, makes me wants to go more than the once. Maybe I'll try each location I'm sure the missus wouldn't mind.

Hi Sharkie
Come September a number – but by no means all - of the larger gameboats, those not already fishing for the juvenile Black Marlin and Sailfish around the Townsville/Cape Bowling Green area, will be travelling north to start their heavy tackle season on the Great Barrier Reef.

But do you have any thoughts on what you'd specifically like to target? As well as billfish, and as someone's suggested the further north you go the better, although big Blues can be encountered offshore from Sydney - there're some BIG Tiger Sharks along that coast. Then there's a whole host of light (and medium) tackle species that you can target trolling, casting lures, jigging, bottom or fly fishing.

Can't at the moment think of any of our Club members who've fish the Whitsundays. And I don't think too many ' serious' skippers/guides are actually based there. Most seem to run out from the mainland. Any rate I did pick up this guide's site - http://www.andysfishing.com.au/Chartersreport.htm - who looks 'half reasonable'. Certainly seems to get a number of overseas clients - although that just might be his web site attracting them. So he might well be worth contacting And, as well as lure and fly fishing, for saltwater species there's a dam he targets for some quite big Barramundi.
Dave

[dentix]

hi sharkie,

my wife is from mooloolaba (sunshine coast) i've been going every year for the last 15 years, plus i've lived there for 3 years (don't ask why i came back here i'm still asking myself) you'll find a lot of charter service over there, in my experience the best one in mooloolaba is flat dog charters, www.flatdogcharters.com the skippers is allan harvey nice guy knows the area really well, the boat is great very fast, if you are planning to go there call him and book as soon as you land the boat only takes 6 fishermans at the time and can be quite hard to get a spot, if it is too busy to get in with him, i can suggest you to avoid those massive boats that take up to 18 people out at the time they are crap, after so many years of going there if i can't get on allan's boat i won't go out.
if you want to do any shore fishing pm me i can tell you about a few spots, tactics etc.......
shame you're not coming in march, that's when i usually go i go fishing every day and night.

i caught a 13.5 kg snapper on allan's boat 3 years ago, it fedd us all for 3 weeks.

enjoy your trip australia is an awesome place, and a fisherman's paradise.



I am visiting Australia in September and would like to take a charter boat for 1 trip. I have a week in each of the following, Sidney,Gold coast, Sunshine coast and Whitsunday islands which would be the best area for a charter.
Thanks for any information

[SHARKIE]

Dentix,My sister lives in Coolum, is that close to Maloolaba? I am going to take all this information with me and maybe try a couple of people. Alan will definately be one of them. As a typical fisherman I would like to try and catch everything. Will the charters split the day half on billfish and half on other species? and would anybody know the cost as I might hire a smaller charter for myself for a day?

[dentix]

coolum is only a 20 minutes car ride from mooloolaba, coolum is probably the best for beach fishing, i don't know about bill fish, if you go out with alan he will take you to the burrow banks about 1 hour away with his boat (2 hours with other's charters) you can do a half day or a full day, it's either 5am till 11 or 5am till 4pm, where he goes, you will do drift fishing for snapper, pearl perch, parrot fish, and many more reef fishes i think it is about 120 dollars for a half day, you can ask him to get the whole boat for a party it doesn't mind.


Dentix,My sister lives in Coolum, is that close to Maloolaba? I am going to take all this information with me and maybe try a couple of people. Alan will definately be one of them. As a typical fisherman I would like to try and catch everything. Will the charters split the day half on billfish and half on other species? and would anybody know the cost as I might hire a smaller charter for myself for a day?