Brett Wilson has grown up with Botany Bay as his playground. He shares his knowledge of the bay including details on significant fishing areas and the options they provide. This location maintains a reputation of being a great fishing destination despite it being situated immediately adjacent to a large and growing population. If you are new to fishing here or a seasoned hand, Brett provides an insight into where and how to catch a few quality residents!
By Brett Wilson
Introduction
Sitting on the southern doorstep of Sydney, lies Botany Bay and its tributaries. It includes an expanse of water better known for historical reasons as a birthplace of a nation, rather than its diverse fishery. I’ve been lucky enough to spend my life on or near the bay and have first hand seen its ability to be a great fishing destination. It has been most pleasing to see great fishing sustained over the years with smart fisheries management and closures to commercial fishing and the introduction of no fishing zones.
Botany Bay is home to acres of shallow flats and plenty of lure and bait munching bream.
History
A commercial fishing industry operated in Botany Bay from 1790 until monies raised by recreational fishing licenses were used to help buy out the remaining commercial fishing fleet in 2000. Subsequently, we have seen fishing in the bay go from strength to strength. The bay and the George’s River are steeped in history with close ties to the aboriginal custodians of the land from the northern side of the bay and in the Salt Pan Creek area and Lugarno regions further up the river. Oyster Bay was the birth place of the oyster industry in Australia and thrived only up until recent times where disease stopped the industry. The Lugarno ferry was a play thing as a kid but has since been replaced as a means for river crossing by the Alfords Point Bridge. The bridge now provides great structure for resident estuary perch and bream, and gives me continued reasons to play in the area!
Local cricket legend Brett Lee with a cracking Botany Bay bream
The Current Landscape
Botany Bay and her rivers are today being managed and cared for by not only fisheries but also National Parks and Wildlife, which means that the Bay has the support team it needs to revive and remain. The bay fishes extremely well for its location and the warmer months see the bay come alive from October through to April, with a plethora of species and opportunities. With its extensive weedbed system and the closed area of Weeny Bay behind Towra Point, piscatorial breeding and feeding are always on the cards during spring and summer. This means there is plenty of opportunity for fishers.
One of the appeals to the area is its accessibility, the many boat launching facilities and options for land based fishing. In recent years there have been thousands of juvenile mulloway released into the system and we are now seeing great benefit from this program, and applause must go to fisheries for this. Kingfish traps have been banned and subsequently the kings have returned in good numbers and the size of the fish being caught is amazing for an estuary!
The Georges River
The Georges River is the dominant tributary that feeds Botany Bay. This system runs from above Liverpool in Sydney’s southwest through to Sylvania in the Sutherland Shire. The river holds many angling opportunities for some great fishing year round but is a favoured haunt of local anglers during summer. As a kid, I spent countless hours prospecting the shores of Lugarno for bream, whiting, mud crabs and luderick in the winter. The luderick fishery is still amazing and those with the patience still reap rewards in the cooler months. Areas like Lugarno, Oatley and the Woronora River arm still produce good numbers of fish for the weed and float brigade every year. Up river, the Liverpool and Chipping Norton areas provide bass, estuary perch and some good sized mulloway around most of the highway bridges in the higher reaches. Soft plastics worked on the bottom of the tide around most bridge pylons will show anglers the results of the mulloway stocking. Anglers fishing with lighter tackle in the same areas in late winter and spring are often treated to good catches of estuary perch.
The Georges Bream fishing can be amazing, and as a kid it was THE fish to chase, and there were typically plenty of them. And it is great news that not much has changed! The river fishes very well from the upper reaches all the way to the mouth of the bay and is best targeted on the last of the run out tide. At this stage, the rocky shore lines are draining and the bream become very active. The increase in activity can be predicted like clockwork on most days! Areas around Illawong, Como and Oyster Bay all fish well under this tidal situation and as the tide slows you can chase it up the river to catch more of that feeding time. Soft plastics worked along the rocky shore and under structures will usually produce fish. In the heat of summer, surface lures make for a great and enjoyable alternative for catching fish both early and late in the day. The Woronora River is a side arm that provides great fishing and has various sandy flats near the mouth that have good flathead and whiting fishing year round. Those that wish to navigate or kayak the upper reaches through to the weir will find the fishing and scenery well worth the effort.
The Georges is certainly a place worth exploring and during a busy summer weekend is a great place to find a location to get away from the boat traffic of the bay.
Woolooware Bay
Woolooware is an old oyster farming bay and there are still remnants of old farming activity in the bay which hold good numbers of fish year round. Fringing the bay are very productive mangrove forests which are best fished at high tide and are a great place to fish surface lures in the summer months. On both sides of the entrance to Woolooware Bay are large sand banks with subtle drop offs that can be easily identified by a pair of polarized sunglasses. These drop-off areas make for a great place to target flathead with jigged soft plastics or a well presented bait.
The Cooks River
The Cooks River is a short but productive arm of the bay. It is often referred to as a river that looks like a canal and fishes like a coastal river. With its rocky shoreline and bridges there is plenty of fish holding structure to try, and there are land based options throughout. Like the Georges, it fishes well on the last of the run out tide and the first airport tunnel bridge has a reputation for good size rat kingfish and large silver trevally. The launching ramp in the Cooks River is easy to use and find, and gives all boaties immediate access to the bay.
Towra Point
Towra Point is mostly surrounded by water and stretches from the mouth of Woolaware Bay to the mouth of Quibray Bay and Weeny Bay. The flats and shallow ground that form the perimeter of the point hold many fishing opportunities, with extensive weed beds and sandy patches for fish to breed and feed. Towra Point is a prime flathead region and there are miles of ground to cover with soft plastics and bait. Many local anglers choose to fish predominantly with plastics as they enable so much more ground to be covered. The combination of showing a lure to greater numbers of fish and the ability to selectively target the sandy patches amongst the weed produces good numbers of fish for anglers. There is no need for fishing larger plastics in the shallow grounds. Small lures around the 100mm mark with light heads allow you to skip your lure through the weedy patches and into the sand without snagging up. An upgrade to larger plastics can be made when you choose to drift across deeper wider grounds.
Silver trevally are suckers for baits and lures.
The small mouth of Quibray Bay is a well-known flathead zone. The northern side of this bay along the drop off adjacent to Bonner Point Kurnell is the place to jig a plastic on the run out tide. Beyond this area is Weeny Bay and this is a no go zone for fishing of any kind and is dutifully marked by yellow buoys. Please note that there is no fishing allowed past this point and this includes there being no entry with any tackle at all in your boats. This no fishing zone has encouraged this area to become a nursery and provide the bay with a future and although it looks very inviting please stay clear and respect the rules.
The bream and silver trevally (blurters) fishing around Towra is excellent and small hard bodies and soft plastics worked across and through the weed beds produce not only numbers but some of the best quality bream I’ve seen and caught. When the blurters are in numbers there is much fun to be had here and with the use of light tackle and small lures, these little scrappers can provide hours of fun. The water can get clear here at times so a rod length of light leader around 4lb is required. Long casts and soft rods will not only see more hook ups but give the angler a lot of enjoyment.
Flathead technique
Soft plastics are the best way to cover ground, search for fish and get the results. I use a tail around 100mm long with a 6gram head when fishing shallow water this allows you to skip across weed. Make sure you’re on the bottom and retrieve with short sharp lifts of the rod tip. Pay attention on the drop as this is when you will get the hits.
Bream technique
When fishing the rocky shoreline I like to use light tackle and light jigheads with a small plastic, e.g 80mm Squidgie wriggler on a 1.5gram jighead. Work the bank on a 45 degree angle casting at the bank and working the plastic down the drop off towards the boat. Watch the hi-vis braid for bite detection. Small hard body lures slow rolled over the weed beds is another way to catch summer bream, using a rod length of light leader 4lb and under.
Given the option – my favourite estuary retrieves are shallow water ones.
The cessation of commercial fishing resulted in growing numbers of pelagics being caught in the bay.
Kurnell and Surrounds
At the mouth of Botany Bay lies Kurnell, a monument of Captain Cooks landing place and a large oil wharf used by Caltex. Kurnell, as with Towra, contains great flats fishing and the stretch along Silver Beach in front of the groins is great bream and flathead territory. In contrast to Towra, these flats tend to fish better in slightly deeper water, with three to four metres being the best depth and where most of the fish tend to congregate. Next to the oil wharf on the southern side is the hot water outlet which is a popular and often productive spot and it is best tried at first and last light for tailor and kings. The oil wharf itself is obviously a major fish holding structure but a 100m exclusion zone does apply. Most that fish the wharf with success do so with a berley trail drifting back to the structure. The results can be amazing with trevally, bream and kingfish being the major residents of the wharf.
Watts Reef is a popular bait fishing area on the northern side of the wharf. It is a good reef for squire, bream and any other species that traverse the inner mouth of the bay. The shallow rocky and weeded structure along this shoreline holds some good squid almost year round. There are also rock fishing options around the front of the heads at Cape Solander with the winter being best for black drummer and luderick. The summer months provide some good fishing for anglers spinning from the rocks for tailor and Australian salmon.
La Perouse and Yarra Bay
Bear Island and La Perouse are situated on the northern side of the bay. This is another historical site and a great fishing destination that bends back into Yarra Bay and then Molineux Point. In recent years this area has been a great location for big kingfish and the method of choice has been down rigging live and slow trolled squid while at all times watching the sounder for drop offs, fish and depth. This season saw many larger fish caught with fish up and over a meter being a regular occurrence. There are many land based options here and good access points are available due to it being a popular spot in the summer months.
Molineux Point is a very popular deep water spot and it can resemble a car park in summer for good reason. Fishing this area with live baits such as yellowtail and squid will often provide good results on a variety of species. There is a large sea wall that runs from inside Yarra Bay around into Port Botany that is always worth a fish either with plastics or hard bodies. This area is a fish highway and there is usually some sign of action with the summer months providing pelagics like salmon, tailor and bonito. These fish can often be found feeding on bait schools during early morning and late afternoon. Anglers that fare well in this area are usually in possession of small metal lures to match the size of local bait.
Summary: A Worthy Fishery
Botany Bay and its rivers provide an impressive fishery for anglers prepared to spend some time getting to know the area. Its deceptive diversity and results surprise many anglers. I continue to be surprised and entertained as to how well it can fish after all my years fishing these waters. It’s a place I’ve taken friends and overseas visitors, all of whom have had a blast. It is now a place where I am teaching my children to fish whilst telling them stories of how it was. The beauty of Botany Bay is that the quality and numbers of fish I used to catch are still available and the fun is still there to be had. So whether you want to try a new spot or you live nearby and haven’t realised a great fishing location is so close at hand, Botany Bay won’t disappoint.
