Docklands

There are a huge number of places to dangle a line along with many varied types of fish to

catch .So far the types of fish I have taken here are Bream ,Trevally ,Pinkies , Yellow Eye Mullet and there are reports of Snapper up to 5 kilo's and Mulloway of an evening .Large amounts of undersized fish are often caught here and when you consider that a Bream of 27 cms is about 8 years old it's well worth throwing some of the smaller ones back to catch another day .

The erea between wharfs 4/5/6 are now closed off to the public due to the construction zones for housing

Nth Wharf .

You can access here by going down Piggot St and turning RIGHT at

the custom gates .Most of the Sth side of the wharf is fenced off but if you drive all the way down the end of Nth Wharf Rd you can park the car and walk onto the wharf , it is not fenced off to pedestrians only cars .There is so much erea to fish along here so it's best just to go with what feels right ,by that I mean look at the suroundings and try to imagine where the fish will be hiding within the structure of the pier .There is so much timber with all the pylons , everywhere is a potential fish holding site .

On the opposite side of the wharf there are qiute a few boats moored up along here and it's pretty much the same as what i described above .The beauty of this part of the wharf is that you can drive right up to the edge and set up and fish ,easy . You can drive all the way around to berth No 8 and fish around the boats .There are times when you may be asked to move on but only when there is a function on one of the boats moored there.

Central Pier

This one is in the middle of the Docklands precinct and is most likely one of the most productive places here .

You can drive out onto the pier past 9/10/11 berths but there are businesses along here so it may pay to ask them if you can go up there first ,this is accessed from berth 8 .The next access road is in between berth 9 and 14 , this is most likey the best place in the whole of the Docklands to fish . From the edge of the access rd all the way around to berth 16 there are some very good sized Bream along with some excellent Pinkie Snapper .Also around at no16 there have been Mulloway taken at dusk .

VICTORIA DOCK ( now closed to public )

Unfortunately the erea ranging from Docks 17 & 18 all the way to the end of Victoria Dock is now almost totally closed to the public , the bits that are not are pretty much all taken up by constuction equipment in the Wharf 21 - 22 erea ,they are rebuilding the docks .

In summary this is a wonderfully enjoyable place to fish ,there are a large variety of fish to catch and at times they almost jump on the hook .There are some places that you must be carefull of as they have collapsed ,most have been fenced off but people still insist in ignoring the danger signs and fences ,and if they keep doing this perhaps we will be stopped from fishing there because after all it's not public land .

Have fun , keep safe and by all means respect the wishes of the maintenance division that looks after the erea and the tennants who work here .

Docklands Diagram

To the left is the rig that i use with the best effect at the docks .It consists of a VMC baitholder hook (size 2) and two small split shot pressed on the line at 30 cm intervals above the hook .

The technique that I use is to drop the bait slowly down until you feel it touch the bottom and then lift it up about 1 foot off the bottom.

Doing this stops any crabs that may be lurking around from grabbing the bait first .Also here we have an introduced tube worm that feeds of a night and if you have your bait on the bottom they will pull it in stopping the fish from getting to it .The fish do not eat this introduced pest .

The line I have been using is about 2 kilo .

Even though I have recently caught a 1.2 kilo Bream on it I think it would be best to go for about 4 kilo line strength or even have a go with braided line to reduce the bustoffs when the fish get to the poles covered in sharp mussels .

The other rig i use is just a paternoster rig with a clip on sinker at the bottom and the dropper being

30 - 50 cm above the sinker .

Baits.

Since i added the bait section I have found that the best bait for big bream is the humble

fresh water yabbie .Using these i have been able to hook a 37 cm bream weighing in at 1.2 kilos .

Yes this does seem a bit strange but it does work ,it looks like the yabbie will fight off the smaller fish cos

they want to fight everything .They go into the water with all guns blazing .

Where do we get these live baits from ?

Malones Bait & Tackle

365 Douglas Pde Newport . ph : 9399 3066

There is a huge variety of baits that can be used here , one of the best is the Sand Worm .These are

sometimes hard to get but if you can get some of these you won't go fishless . When all other baits are

pretty well doing nothing these really can save the day/night . The only fault these worms have is that

they will get a pick from even the smallest fish in the sea . Depending on what size hook you are using

you will most likely catch them as well .

Second on the list is the peeled Prawn . They are not as good at getting bites as the worms but they

are still very good , especially due to the fact they are a bit bigger and mostly the bigger fish tend to go for them .One word of warning though ,they must be fresh ! Don't use ones from the day before that have been re-frozen or all you will catch is a cold .

Mussel Gut is another good bait but it's a mongrel to keep it on the hook ,perhaps a baitholder type hook will work the best .Pippies also work ok but they are a poor 4th place in the bait race around here .You tend to find that the people that catch all the fish do the right preparations in the bait erea .If you roll up at the local servo and but a pack of frozen stuff you WILL get outfished by someone that has gone to the trouble of accessing some fresh bait .I have used Bass Yabbies a few times now and they seem to be pretty good .One night they outfished sandworm 2-1 ,I havn't worked out the best rig for them yet but when i do I will put it up in the rigs section .

At this time I have not decided on what rig works best ,although I have caught fish on both major Bream type rigs i find that when using long shanked hooks the fish have a go from the back of the hook and whan using prawns the fish suck the middle out and leave the shell .Smaller type bream will tap the bait over and over until they get the bait off ,bigger bream will suck on the bait and you will see a slow dip in the rod tip when this happens . As soon as they feel any resistance they drop the bait .I tend to have the bail arm open with a small cloth over the line so that when the fish moves the line goes with it with little resistance .