Coffs Harbour: Fishermen’s Paradise

Fishing is Australia’s number one recreational activity. More people fish every day in Australia than play any sport or engage in any hobby. Many families insist on taking their holidays at places friendly to fishing, and this is another feather in the cap of Coffs Harbour, the fishing is beyond your wildest dreams.

Coffs Harbour fishing proprietors often say that Coffs Harbour is the only place where you can catch a marlin, a bass and a trout on the same day and it’s absolutely true. I’ll do you one better and say that you could feasibly do it within a couple of hours. Hop on a boat in the morning and head out to the marlin waters and land your black marlin. Come back to shore and head out to Bellingen and attack the bass. Fly up the mountain to Ebor and fish in some of Australia’s best trout streams.

Coffs HarbourErik K Veland 

There is something for fisherfolk of all ages and all experiences. The aforementioned marlin is a hot feature of Coffs Harbour’s ocean fishing scene and there are countless charter operators located down at the Coffs Harbour Marina that will gladly ferry you out to take on these magnificent sportfish. Both black marlin and blue marlin are caught in the waters off Coffs Harbour with November widely regarded as the best month to do it. Coffs Harbour is the absolute The deep sea fishing doesn’t end there with spanish mackerel, snapper, kingfish, longtail tuna and many more of Australia’s favourite fighting fish being an easy capture in waters off Coffs. Another fantastic feature of Coffs Harbour’s deep sea fishing is that the reef systems off Coffs are home to Australia’s biggest mangrove jack. The mangrove jack is known mostly as a tropical species caught as a bycatch, albeit happily, when targeting barramundi but when at full length they head offshore to spend their days growing massive and almost uncatchable on the reefs. Spearfisherman are its number one danger because as a sportfish it is almost impossible to land at the sizes you encounter.

There are some wonderful estuaries and rivers on the Coffs Coast. The Bellinger/Kalang system is the jewel in the crown with some of the East Coast’s best bread and butter fishing. You will find stud bream and flathead all year round and the Repton Railway Bridge is known Australia wide as a mulloway hot spot. When fishing these rivers you will encounter a massive variety of fish including trevally, moses perch, whiting. In addition luderick and bass are capable of being specifically targeted with much success.

Rock and beach fishing is a favourite pastime for local fisherman and as far as nationally, Coffs Harbour kills it in this regard too. On the eastern side of Muttonbird Island you will find a hidden jewel in the crown of the Coast Coast fishing scene, a tremendous land based game fishing platform that hardly anybody knows about. Flinging lures or floating a live bait under a balloon here can get you hooked up to literally anything, including sailfish, marlin and spanish mackerel, though you would have a hell of a time landing one here, it’s still good fun.

When fishing in Coffs Harbour, don’t take advantage of this wonderful fishery. Follow the rules and fish responsibility for the sake of current and future fishers alike.

[box]If you want to take your fishing equipment all around this town, you should look into a Coffs Harbour car hire for your trip. This post was provided by Skedaddle car hire.[/box]