Harrington’s Manning River is the attraction here, being a great producer of estuary fish, along with bass in the upper reaches.
The lower river is a complex shallow estuary with two entrances, the main one at Harrington and the other 12km south, called Farquhar Inlet.
Farquhar Inlet at times closes over while Harrington is usually open.
The Manning River is about 150km long with tidal influence to Abbotts Falls, a gravel bar 54km from the mouth, and is navigable to Wingham, 30km from the entrance.
The lower Manning has many good landbased spots, especially from the rock walls.
The river has shallows where boaters must proceed with caution, and the bar entrance also requires care.
flathead and whiting are the main catch, along with bream and winter luderick.
The 2km Harrington wall (on the north bank) produces most estuary fish, including mulloway.
Yabbies are found on the inside flats.
On the south bank, Manning Spit is accessible by 4WD – the rock wall here produces good fish.
Upstream, Pelican Bay has oyster leases with bream.
Mud crabs, blue swimmer crabs and prawns are found in the estuary.
Crowdy Head, north-east of the Manning sea entrance, has good rock fishing platforms.
It is within Crowdy Head National Park, where there is a coastal campground.
Reef fishing is good along the coast, particularly off Diamond Head.
A lucrative tagged fish competition has been held on the lower Manning, which was affected by the COVID pandemic, keep an eye on this website for the event to hopefully kick off again some time in the future.
Local tides have up to about 1.41m movement, relatively small but enough to produce strong currents in the river and at the sea entrance.
The upper Manning River’s bass includes 40cm+ fish, though most are much smaller.
Harrington tides
Harrington coastline on Beachsafe
Crowdy Head National Park
NSW fishing regulations
NSW marine parks
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