Category Archives: NSW

New South Wales Fishing Reports

Fishing Reports, NSW

NSW recreational fishing news update

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WFS Admin

NSW fishing news briefs for 2025 … 

1. Fish Stocking Program

A renewed Freshwater Fish Stocking Plan was opened for public feedback, closing May 16, 2025. It proposed stocking of species like bass, trout and salmon across numerous inland waterways.

2. Seasonal Closures & Harvest Strategies

The Bass & Estuary Perch Closure was under way from May 1 to August 31, 2025, to protect spawning estuarine populations, with only catch-and-release fishing allowed above impoundments. The  Trout & Salmon Closure was under way from June 10 to October 4, 2025, on rivers and streams, with anglers still allowed to fish many dams with a 5-fish limit, but only two fish in artificial fly/lure zones. A draft Mulloway Harvest Strategy was released, with public feedback invited.

3. Youth Engagement & Grants

A FishTok meetup was held on July 10 in Sydney’s Inner West, which drew about 160 teenage anglers as part of a Get Hooked school program in partnership with TikTok. The state government’s “Gone Fishing Day” grants to $2000 and fishing equipment packages were opened for application until July 24, 2025.

4. Hatchery & Research Updates

Dutton Trout Hatchery (Ebor) reopened mid‑July 2025 with tours. It produces more than two million trout a year. An oyster reef habitat study near Port Stephens used funds to track dusky flathead and yellowfin bream, showing the reef’s impact on fish behaviour.

5. Species Protection & Enforcement

The state’s eastern blue groper line‑fishing ban was extended from March 1, 2025, to March 2028, to support scientific monitoring, despite fish stocks being sustainable. Recreational Fishing Trusts Advisory Council pushed for transparent allocation of fishing license revenue, at around A$16 million/year.

6. Incidents

During a February fishing competition off Newcastle 58‑year‑old Paul Barning was pulled overboard by a mako shark. He had become caught in the fishing gear. The search for him was suspended on February 25. In other tragic news, there were four rock fishing fatalities over the Easter long weekend in NSW, highlighting the dangers of ocean rock fishing.

NSW

Kingfish swims from SA to NSW in a month

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WFS Admin

How far do kingies travel? A kingie caught and tagged on October 5, 2023, in SA’s Coffin Bay was recaptured less than a month later on October 31, 2023, by a commercial vessel fishing off NSW’s Jervis Bay.

This 126cm fish travelled almost 2000km in 26 days, about 70km a day!

Tagging programs have revealed a lot about fish movements.

Young mangrove jacks for example, don’t sit on snags all their lives, they often move along the coast, before moving out to sea as adults.

Lastly, a thought. Kingfish – being mobile – don’t stick around in polluted areas long enough to pick up a lot of contaminants in their flesh, possibly making them a safer bet for the table than less mobile species.

Fish such as bream, which love to hang around manmade structure, are likely more vulnerable to contamination.

Perhaps less well known is that freshwater fish taken from dams near coal plants are often a risk for high mercury levels, as are fish from dams that had legacy gold mines on the catchment, as mercury was used to extract gold.