Category Archives: Fishing Spots

Lake Macquarie (Newcastle) Offshore Artificial Reef

Lake Macquarie (Newcastle) Offshore Artificial Reef produces some great fish.

This reef is 3.5km north-east of Lake Macquarie’s Swansea bar, offshore from Blacksmiths Beach, at a depth of 28.5m.

The reef was deployed in August 2019.

The reef is two single steel pinnacle towers of 7.8m wide by 10.9m deep and 6.4m high, each having a central vertical tower of 12m.

Yellowtail kingfish, snapper, silver trevally, mulloway, yellowtail and slimy mackerel exist around the reef.

GPS co-ordinates
Site 1. 33 04.300S 151 42.018E
Site 2. 33 04.380S 151 41.891E

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com


fish finder book

Lake Macquarie tides
Lake Macquarie coastline
NSW fishing regulations
NSW marine parks

Lake Macquarie Artificial Reef, New South Wales

Lake Macquarie is a large estuary with 170km of shoreline and its own artificial reefs.

The artificial reef system is off Galgabba Point in 6m of water.

There are six sites, comprising 600 hollow concrete reef balls, each 1m square, within a 3sqkm area.

About 42 species are known to live on the reefs.

The reef is usually most productive for flathead, bream, tailor and leatherjackets.

The GPS co-ordinates supplied here are the central marks followed by four corner marks for each site.

Site 1.
33 05.604S 151 36.612E
33 05.614S 151 36.616E
33 05.605S 151 36.602E
33 05.597S 151 36.607E
33 05.606S 151 36.624E
Site 2.
33 05.680S 151 36.738E
33 05.697S 151 36.738E
33 05.670S 151 36.748E
33 05.666S 151 36.739E
33 05.692S 151 36.728E
Site 3.
33 05.764S 151 36.790E
33 05.755S 151 36.787E
33 05.759S 151 36.782E
33 05.773S 151 36.791E
33 05.770S 151 36.799E
Site 4.
33 05.814S 151 36.891E
33 05.807S 151 36.885E
33 05.813S 151 36.877E
33 05.822S 151 36.899E
33 05.817S 151 36.905E
Site 5.
33 05.880S 151 36.879E
33 05.879S 151 36.870E
33 05.885S 151 36.874E
33 05.884S 151 36.888E
33 05.875S 151 36.881E
Site 6.
33 05.985S 151 36.942E
33 05.978S 151 36.949E
33 05.976S 151 36.942E
33 05.990S 151 36.933E
33 05.997S 151 36.942E

There are also some ‘private’ (illegal) artificial reefs in the lake.

Read more about Lake Macquarie fishing spots here.

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com


fish finder book

Lake Macquarie tides
Lake Macquarie coastline
NSW fishing regulations
NSW marine parks

Kolan River, Queensland

The Kolan River is the Bundaberg region’s second largest river and produces much the same species as the bigger Burnett River to the south.

However the Kolan is a shorter, shallower river than the Burnett with substantial drying flats.

The Kolan has good prawn runs and these can bring the predatory fish on.

There are usually schools of small mullet and herring available for bait, and productive nipper beds.

The main launch sites are the Booyan ramp on the south bank, side, and the Miara ramp on the north.

The Kolan has excellent flats fishing at times for whiting and flathead with a chance of queenfish and tailor off sandy points and beaches near the mouth.

There are miles of mangrove forest to fish, with bream, cod, jacks and mud crabs found around the trees.

Big barramundi are taken by trolling lures or dropping livebaits in the Kolan’s deep holes, but these fish can also be caught around mud gutter drains and where bait congregates.

Moore Park Creek is a smaller associated waterway, with whiting, flathead, bream and jacks.

Much like Baffle Creek to the north, bream, whiting, flathead, salmon, cod and grunter can all be caught in a day on the Kolan.

Fishing is seasonal, with barramundi and mangrove jacks best in warm weather and bream, flathead and trevally better in winter. However most species can be caught all year.

The Kolan is fished quite hard and small tides can make the fishing become harder, and may require using light tackle and fresh or live bait, or fishing at night, for best results.

As with most rivers, heavy rain pushes marine fish downstream, while extended dry periods see them move back upstream.

There are rock patches marked on our Queensland Kolan River map that are good spots to fish for bream, grunter, cod and jacks.

The Yanadaran Creek tributary is shallow and rocky but fishable by yak or cartopper and has jacks, bream, cod and occasional barramundi.

Email updates or corrections to [email protected]

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com


fish finder book

Kolan River tides
QLD fishing regulations
QLD marine parks
GBRMPA marine parks

Book your fishing B&B early at Booking.com



Buy Redback on eBay