NSW
Deep drop fishing at Macquarie PORT MACQUARIE
Kate Sheldon
One of my favourite types of fishing is deep drop fishing, and on the Mid North Coast you’ll find
local commercial fishers came home with fish that seemed bigger than me, and I dreamed how I’d love to catch fish like that. The most common species caught on the Mid North Coast are blue-eye
affordable for recreational fishers, and technology has advanced since the old days. Now I know a lot of you will say it’s cheating to use electric reels to catch fish. However, there is a lot of skill in deep drop fishing, and when you want to hit a fishing mark the size of a caravan in over 400m of water, the current and wind can make that a real challenge. One of my first deep drop sessions was with a local commercial fisher nearly 10 years ago, and I’ve
been hooked ever since. I used to own a big electric reel called a Miya Epoch, but I found these reels a bit slow for me. I now own two Shimano Beastmaster 9000s and I cannot fault them. These reels have hauled in fish up to 40kg and have lasted me through the years. My partner and I started making a few deep drop rigs for local fishers, and the rigs became so popular that we now sell them on eBay. WHAT’S BITING For the Macquarie Coast fishing update on
The author with a bar cod she caught off Crescent Head. Image courtesy of @bayexplorermarineservices. numbers have picked up noticeably, with both cabbage and weed flies successful. The break
schoolies along the Hastings River break walls, and a few fish have also been found in the Macleay River and in
Troy Boese with a cracking hapuka caught off Lake Cathie. Image courtesy of @troyboese. some of the best deep drop fishing spots in Australia. Deep drop fishing is a technique that commercial fishers have used for many years, targeting fish in depths of up to 600m. I remember as a kid, Dad and I would be at the boat ramp as the
trevalla, bass groper, bar cod, hapuka, kingfish and gemfish. These fish are some of the best tasting in the sea and can weigh over 50kg, so you will want an electric reel to bring them up from the depths. The good news is that electric reels are now more
Gary Randall with a great blue-eye trevalla.
Camden Haven fisho Chris Hayward with a tasty blueeye trevalla. Image courtesy of @chayward93. 60 JUNE 2023
Image courtesy of @gazzarandall.
the beaches, tailor are now consistently the target species, with most local beaches holding great numbers of fish. Lures, pilchards and whitebait will all prove successful, as will slab baits fished on or after dark for the odd larger model. Bream numbers have also picked up around Camden Haven. For those inclined to fish the darker hours, school mulloway remain in solid numbers from most locations, with fresh garfish the go for these school-sized fish. Now the mullet are migrating, look for the larger sized mulloway to shadow these travelling schools. In the rivers, flathead catches remain excellent as we head into the cooler months. Live herring and soft plastics are currently working quite well. On the luderick front,
Port Macquarie local Dan Croft with a monster bass groper he caught off Port Macquarie. Image courtesy of youtube.com/@dancroft4781.
walls and local wharfs are certainly worth a look, and it shouldn’t be long before a few luderick should show up in Lake Cathie. Further upstream in the local rivers, bream numbers remain solid, with both mullet strips and lures working well. On the mulloway front, there are terrific numbers of
Lake Cathie. • Kate is the proud owner of Bay Explorer Marine Services and specialises in making deep drop fishing rigs for blue-eye trevalla, bar cod, kingfish and bass groper. For more info look up ‘Bay Explorer Marine Services’ on Facebook and Instagram, or find her store on eBay.
