Category Archives: Fishing Spots

Stanley, Tasmania

Stanley is a fishing village on Tasmania’s north-west coast about 90 minutes from where the mainland ferry berths in Tasmania at Devonport.

Stanley is almost three hours by road from Launceston and five hours from Hobart.

Stanley’s wharf is a somewhat famous spot, with big summer runs of snotty trevally being the main attraction.

There are also Australian salmon, pike, flathead, flounder, tailor, leatherjackets, jackass morwong, sweep, drummer, boarfish, barracouta, elephant fish, yelloweye mullet, wrasse and large squid.

Yellowtail kingfish, skate, stingrays and sharks have also been caught from the wharf, along with occasional snapper and silver trevally.

The snotty (blue warehou) run has been historically popular, with the fish usually in biggest numbers from December to April.

Warm water brings the fish on, and they leave when it cools down as the year progresses, so the action can be hot and cold.

When the fish are on there can be many people fishing the wharf, with multiple hookups.

Given the crowds and hot bites, don’t mess around with excessively light tackle, as you want to get fish in quick.

Snotties take most baits, with peeled prawn, bluebait, whitebait all working well, as does fresh chicken meat.

Nearby Godfreys Beach and its rocks produce mostly salmon, mullet and flathead.

Stanley is famous for its large headland, the 152m high “Nut”, and the East and Western Inlets either side of the headland are good boating areas to target much the same species as caught off the wharf.

The shallow parts of the inlets can be speared for flounder at night.

Crayfish are caught around Stanley in season.

In recent years northern Tasmania’s shallow coastal grounds have produced big king george whiting in growing numbers, any patchy seagrass and broken ground is worth trying.

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Stanley tides
Tasmanian FADs
Tasmanian fishing regulations
Tasmanian marine reserves
Tasmanian saltwater fishing seasons
Trout fishing spot access programs
Fisheries assessment reports
Buy a freshwater fishing licence
Tasmanian lake levels (hydro)
Tasmanian river flows (govt)
Bag and size limits
Private Tasmanian trout fisheries
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Strahan, Tasmania

Strahan is a fishing village on Tasmania’s West Coast, about a four-hour drive from the island’s major centres of Hobart and Launceston.

The West Coast is a wild and woolly remote area, which must be kept in mind when fishing the region.

The coastline is subject to turbulent weather, with huge swells rolling in unimpeded across hundreds of kilometres of open ocean.

Strahan township is on northern-most part of Macquarie Harbour, a relatively sheltered body of water covering an area six times the size of Sydney Harbour.

The harbour provides some great fishing opportunities, and is hopefully returning to health after recent challenges to its water quality.

The harbour has an average depth of only 15m, going down to 50m, with a narrow entrance to the open ocean.

This shallow entrance, combined with strong freshwater inflow into the harbour from the King and Gordon Rivers, has created an ecosystem of stratified water, some of which is naturally low in oxygen.

The arrival of salmon farms in the early 2000s saw water quality decline, with problems escalating fast after salmon tonnage peaked around 2015/16.

Read an ABC report on the salmon farming timeline here.

Also, the inflowing King River is biologically near dead as a result of legacy mining tailings, which polluted the river’s sediments and some of the adjacent harbour with heavy metals.

Salmon farming has since been pulled back to some degree, and good fishing can again be had in the harbour.

Read about Macquarie Harbour’s improvement here in this ABC report.

Relatively sheltered boating can be had throughout much of the harbour, keeping in mind it is a large area that can quickly become rough and cold.

The King and Gordon River keep the harbour brackish for much of the year.

Freshwater tends to flow on the surface through the harbour, with the middle layer of water containing the least oxygen.

Incoming saltwater wedges tend to flow along the bottom.

The narrow harbour entrance and freshwater inflow creates what are called “barometric” or weather tides, with rain, wind and storms sometimes being the main driver of tidal movement.

There is a range of fish available to boat and shore-based anglers in and outside the harbour.

Fishos will find in this region Atlantic salmon (escapees from farms), rainbow trout (both escapees and wild stock), brown trout, Australian salmon, bream, mullet, flathead, flounder, cod, ling, barracouta, silver trevally, tuna, gummy and school sharks, striped trumpeter, morwong and crayfish.

The most popular spots around Strahan are arguably Ocean Beach, Macquarie Heads, Swan Basin, Strahan jetty, Regatta Point, Lettes Bay, Kellys Basin and Cape Sorell.

Macquarie Harbour

To catch the harbour’s Atlantic salmon and trout, work the rocky points through the harbour at morning and dusk.

Look for current pressure points and bait schools.

Feeding trout will make visible disturbances.

Any small lures can work, as well as streamer-type flies.

There is usually a spring run of bait in the harbour and big trout follow.

The beach at Macquarie Heads produces good fish for landbased anglers, with sea trout around in the weeks before Christmas.

Australian salmon schools arrive in the harbour as the freshwater flow reduces in summer and more saltwater flows in.

Fish inside the heads at Hells Gates and cast to the channel.

Camping is available near the beach.

Boating

Macquarie Harbour has several launch sites.

Strahan has two sealed boat ramps, at Mill Bay and Letts Bay, with another nearby at Macquarie Heads.

Outside the heads, boaters fish around Cape Sorell and Pilot Bay, which have great fishing for barracouta, morwong, trevally and trumpeter.

Trips outside the heads should be done only in ideal conditions.

Crayfish and abalone are on local reefs in season.

Strahan surf fishing

Ocean Beach is 6km west of Strahan, with more than 30km of beach to fish, with big salmon and sharks.

The mouth of the Henty River produces sea trout in spring, and Australian salmon in summer.

There is soft waterlogged sand in this area that can suck vehicles down, making recovery difficult, so obtain local advice before driving the beach.

Another great Tasmanian coastal location, but on the usually calmer and warmer East Coast, is St Helens.

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com

Strahan tides
Tasmanian FADs
Tasmanian fishing regulations
Tasmanian marine reserves
Tasmanian saltwater fishing seasons
Trout fishing spot access programs
Fisheries assessment reports
Buy a freshwater fishing licence
Tasmanian lake levels (hydro)
Tasmanian river flows (govt)
Bag and size limits
Private Tasmanian trout fisheries
Return to the Tasmanian Fishing Map

Email corrections, additions, pictures or video here.

Mulloway in Tasmania

Are mulloway caught in Tasmania?

The answer is possibly yes, but in tiny numbers. As in, catching one is a freak event.

We asked Tasmanian Fisheries about mulloway, and they said they had no catch records.

No Tasmanians target mulloway, or even fish in ways that would maximise their chance of catching them, because the species has not historically been available.

Livebaiting of Tasmanian surf beaches rarely happens.

Today, many potential mulloway beaches are shark sanctuaries, so fishos are no longer chucking big baits out for gummy sharks at these places, further diminishing the chance of catching mulloway.

Mulloway have been rarely reported in Tasmania in online forums, but we haven’t seen any pix.

The habitat is there. With climate change, the species might become established.

The island state’s coastline has seen an increase in pink snapper, king george whiting and yellowtail kingfish numbers in recent years as waters warm and warming currents from the mainland persist.

There have been rumours of mulloway caught at the Tamar River, Arthur River, St Helens, Scamander and Garden Island.

But again, no pix.

With more people fishing shallow coastal reefs off Tasmania for pink snapper, it might just be a matter of time before mulloway start showing up in catches.

There is this online report of one caught on Tasmania’s east coast at Swansea (discussion starts at 9.43) … https://www.abc.net.au/hobart/programs/mornings/a-mulloway-caught-on-tasmanias-east-coast/12325336

Meanwhile, keep an eye on Tasmania’s Redmap for mulloway captures.

Leave a comment if you can add to the Tasmanian mulloway discussion.

Tasmanian FADs
Tasmanian fishing regulations
Tasmanian marine reserves
Tasmanian saltwater fishing seasons
Trout fishing spot access programs
Fisheries assessment reports
Buy a freshwater fishing licence
Tasmanian lake levels (hydro)
Tasmanian river flows (govt)
Bag and size limits
Private Tasmanian trout fisheries
Return to the Tasmanian Fishing Map

Email corrections, additional info, pictures or video to [email protected]

Book your fishing B&B early at Booking.com



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