Must visit river systems up the east coast?

Hi all,

Taking a couple of weeks off in a month or so and will have a good week to travel and fish up the east coast. - Unless someone has some good suggestions in the southern direction.

Anyway, looking at anywhere between hervey bay and I guess rockhampton... thouh if I'm a few hours short of a must visit location then I'll just make it work.

Not asking for anyones special spots (though I'd be more than appreciate of any good oil shared)... just areas that one should try at least once, and what I should expect to catch there.

I won't have heavy enough gear for any of the big barra lakes, unfortunately, so its more or less estuary only. I also only have a 3.95m tinny.


On top of that, also would love to hear of places to stay too. Especially if they have power and I'll no doubt need to charge my deep cycles more than once.

Thanks in advance :)

matt.

Matt, this rain will be running fresh into most of the estuaries up north for some time. I would keep an eye of river heights up the coast to guage when it returns to normal, then give it a little.

The Fitzroy and Alma systems would be my choice given the rainfalls in the past 6 weeks.
Hervey bay won't recover in time with it's 3rd big flush in 5 months.
The Burnett is worth a look right in the city centre.
Ignore the creeks near 1770, they are in flood this weekend.

Hmmm maybe I should push back my time off until july or august.

I think all rivers north for you are going to be running a lot of fresh , they will be pretty difficult to fish for a while and ugly looking , maybe baffle creek might have cleaned up by then. Awoonga worth a look as it rose very little

2 months would be enough time though surely?

Matt, there is another rain event expected in a week, so depending on the catchment size and shape, the effects could go on for some time. The other option is to consider a trip inland to chase barra in a dam or below a stocked dam in the creek.

I've heard the Dawson has been fishing alright

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Originally Posted by Chamelion

2 months would be enough time though surely?

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with the amount of water that has come down those systems and what is coming it might pay you to phone ahead and just ask the tackle shop in those areas

Two months can have huge differences in the water quality but has nothing to do on whether the water quality is good in an area.
Look for systems with smaller catchments for faster clearing and salinity level rises.
Some rivers can be bringing water from many hundreds of km away for a year or more.

What about south? Yamba or Ballina. Did they cop much ?

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Originally Posted by gunna

What about south? Yamba or Ballina. Did they cop much ?

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I know the Clarence has been running dirty for a while now, had another fresh in the last lot of rain.

My mate just told me the Tweed area is not the best either.

With the wet season still going on the east coast it might be worth looking at Eden or Bermagui instead of most of the east coast....

Can confirm the Tweed is filthy. I reckon rabbits could walk on it and make some burrows. It's been like it since I moved here in January, don't think we have had more than 3 straight days without rain.

Well, my trip is on for the 25th July. Still not sure where to go and what to do. :D

I would love a report about what the river at Bundaberg/Bargara is like for fishing. Wouldn’t mind trying it sometime. That can be your first target.