Newcastle is a busy harbour city at the mouth of the Hunter River.
The river mouth forms the harbour and is visited by coal carriers, which must be kept in mind when boat fishing around the shipping channel.
There is good fishing within the port area from the rock walls, and from nearby beaches.
The lower river has mulloway, bream, luderick, flathead, whiting, blue swimmer crabs and mud crabs.
Large mulloway are taken from the river mouth walls, but fishing is usually only easy at the turn of the tide.
Mulloway are taken on lures at night under the port lights.
As with most east coast rivers, the mouth comes alive with mulloway when heavy rain pushes baitfish down the river.
The upper Hunter River and its tributaries have bass.
Newcastle’s Grahamstown Lake has bass but at the time of writing was not open to fishing.
Newcastle’s Stockton Beach once made headlines when local fishermen were hooking white pointers and other sharks in the surf.
Stockton Beach is otherwise renowned for tailor. Vehicular access is permitted.
The tailor run at Stockton from December through to June.
Mulloway are best from October to May.
Bream and luderick are best in winter.
Local beaches have beach worms and pippis.
For boaters and rock wall fishos chasing mulloway and kingfish, yakkas (horse mackerel) are usually not to hard to find.
There are some offshore grounds handy to Newcastle, with snapper, morwong and flathead the main target, along with pelagic fish.
The Hunter and major tributary Williams River have bass in the upper reaches, with catches of large numbers of small fish the norm.
The Williams is arguably the better river, with Clarence Town and the Seaham Weir fine starting points.
For larger bass, work the undercut banks at dusk and get lures in tight under cover.
The Paterson River is another Hunter tributary that also fishes well for bass – some local enthusiasts launch in the Hunter River at Morpeth and motor up the Paterson.
Good bass are often seasonally available upriver at Paterson township.
Another great bass location is the upper Manning River, 120km to the north.
Newcastle fishing spots
1. Stockton Beach is renowned for tailor and sharks, but mulloway, bream and flathead are also taken. Vehicular access is permitted.
2. Stockton Bridge is productive for bream, flathead, luderick and small mulloway. Mud crabs upstream.
3. The seawall along the river channel has mulloway, luderick, bream, tailor.
4. The southern entrance rock wall is a big fish hotspot, but currents make fishing hard. kingfish, mulloway and most of the local estuary species are caught. An indentation half way along is a good spot.
5. Sheltered Horsehoe Beach near the base of the south wall has flathead and whiting, while rock walls upstream have bream, tailor and luderick.
6. Queens Wharf is a family hotspot with the chance of mulloway. Nearby Lee Wharves fishable by boat when no ship is berthed.
7. The bridge at Throsby Creek holds good fish, with a land-based fishing area and a wharf. A large floating dock downstream is a good spot to collect yakkas.
8. Walsh Point has flathead and whiting along the drop-off with mulloway in the deeper water.
9. There is rock and surf fishing at Redhead Beach.
Newcastle region fishing GPS marks
48m Reef – 7.4km off Newcastle
32 58.609S 151 50.031E
The Cave – 1.6nm off Swansea Hds
33 05.807S 151 40.066E
Dumping Ground – 3km off Newcastle
32 56.990S 151.49.245E
The Farm 1 – 16km off Swansea
33 08.909S 151 49.162E
The Farm 2 – 16km off Swansea
33 08.344S 151 49.678E
Fruitshed Reef – 8.14km off Swansea
33 01.751S 151 42.665E
Charted wreck – 13km east of Hunter River entrance
32 54.965S 151 56.461E
Charted obstruction – 11.6km east of Hunter River entrance
32 54.449S 151 55.528E
Spoil ground – 3km south-east of Hunter River entrance
32 56.151S 151 49.363E
Newcastle tides
Newcastle coastline on Beachsafe
NSW fishing regulations
NSW marine parks
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