Bass Fishing Around Sydney: A Short Session That Works

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One of the best things about local bass fishing is that you can squeeze it in after work. A little kayak, a light outfit and a few lures, and you're fishing instead of staring at the weather forecast wishing you could get offshore.

In November 2018 I had ten bass in an evening at Lake Parramatta, including three in five casts. Earlier that month, three outings had produced only five fish between them. I was still enjoying myself. If you spend most of your working life at a computer, a paddle is a pretty good start. The fish are a bonus.

Pick water you can actually fish

Lake Parramatta suited those short trips. The bends gave me a choice of bank relative to the wind, and the little kayak fitted inside the station wagon. A place you can reach and fish comfortably for an hour is often more useful than a grand plan that never gets you out the door.

Lake Parramatta: plan to release your bass. Council's reserve booklet lists fishing but advises against eating fish from the lake because of water-quality issues. Kayaks are permitted outside the buoyed swimming and dam-wall exclusion areas. Everyone aboard must wear a suitable lifejacket. Council recommends using the shared jetty, and there is no trailer or boat parking in the reserve. Check the current visitor information and gate signs before setting out.

Manly Dam: another stocked bass water, with lily-pad edges and plenty of shoreline to look over. It is shared with other users. During approved water-skiing times, the dedicated ski area between picnic areas 2 and 3 is closed to swimming and non-motorised activities. Use the council water-sports information to check the current arrangement.

A bank session is a perfectly good way to start where access is permitted. A kayak lets you approach more edges and change banks, but borrow one first if you're unsure. Wear your lifejacket, allow for the paddle back and choose conditions you can handle.

Keep the outfit light and the load small

My local outfit was our light three-kilo spinning combo. In the 2019 Lake Parramatta sessions I used the six-foot 602 outfit with small black diving hardbodies. A short, light rod is easy to manage in a little kayak, and it makes a modest bass good fun.

The current Light Spinning Combo is a useful starting point if you need an outfit. If you already have one, check that the rod's lure-weight range suits the small lures you want to cast. Set the drag so line comes off smoothly, check it before fishing and inspect the leader after a fish or a rub against timber. For the line and leader choice, use the braid, monofilament and leader guide to balance casting, abrasion and the complete outfit.

Take a landing net, pliers, a few spare lures and enough leader to retie. Put the things you'll need while holding a fish within reach. My old, inexpensive sounder did the job in shallow water.

Start with the edges and cover

Look for shade, timber, the outside of lily pads and a change in depth beside the bank. Don't assume the deepest water is down the middle. On the Colo in January 2026 we found shallow sand through the centre and deeper gutters under the banks. We stopped along the sandbanks and fished around timber and snags. The bass there were small, but the shape of the water was a useful lesson.

From a kayak, get into position before casting. Aim to bring the lure past the cover, rather than landing on top of it and immediately dragging it back into open water. Give yourself room to turn the fish away from timber when it takes.

Small diving hardbodies

The small black diving lures were working beautifully at Lake Parramatta in November 2019. Fourteen bass in a little over an hour, with the best about 33 cm. Here's the start of that session:

A diving lure lets you work below the surface and alongside the edge. Start with a steady retrieve slow enough to keep control of it. Watch it beside you first: it should swim cleanly rather than roll over or drag a tangled hook. If it keeps ploughing into weed, choose a shallower-running lure or move the cast farther from the weed edge. If it is passing well above the cover you want to fish, try a deeper-running model.

Make a few casts from different angles before moving on. The point is to fish the useful bit of water properly, not just keep casting as far as possible.

Surface cicadas: give them time

At Kangaroo Valley in February 2018, the method that caught fish for me was six-pound line and a black cicada with pop-out wings. Cast close to structure, then leave it there for at least 30 seconds. After that, a steady, slow retrieve, with the rod tip low so you're ready to strike.

That pause is part of the retrieve. Don't land beside a likely snag and immediately pull the lure away from it. Get the lure settled, then make it work slowly across the surface. Deep shade and a warm evening were the sort of conditions I was looking for.

Check the hardware as well as the colour. I liked the tougher wings on one of the Kokoda cicadas I was using in 2016 because wings were the first thing to fail. Its smaller trebles also kept the front and rear hooks apart. In a later Manly Dam session, another lure drove me mad because its two trebles kept tangling.

Swing the hooks towards one another before you fish a lure. If they catch each other easily, sort that out before spending the evening retrieving a tangled lure. Check that the wings open freely and that nothing is fouling the hook points. The lure-hook replacement guide explains fit and clearance checks before changing trebles or fitting inline singles.

When they won't play

Manly Dam in February 2026 was one of those sessions. I started with bait, changed to cicada poppers and worked the lily pads. Two lame little strikes. That was it. I was ready to go back to flathead!

Before blaming the fish, check that the lure is actually working. Clear weed off the hooks, look for tangled trebles and watch the action beside the kayak. Then change one useful thing: try a different edge, move into shade, or swap the surface lure for a diver. Give yourself a chance to learn what made a difference. There is no point changing five things at once and having no idea which one helped.

And remember what you're out there for. This was the best of that productive 2019 Lake Parramatta session:

Before the next trip

Pay the NSW recreational fishing fee unless you're exempt. Australian bass and estuary perch share a daily limit of two and a possession limit of four; in rivers, only one may be over 35 cm. In rivers below freshwater impoundments, May to August is catch and release only. Impoundments and rivers above them are open all year under the general bass rules. Check the current limits and local closures for your water.

If you also fish bait rods from the bank, keep within the two-attended-line rules. An alarm doesn't let you leave them behind while you paddle away.

For the whole local-session story, read Backyard Bassing. The later Bass, Kingfish and Salmon report includes the 2019 bass outing and the separate saltwater sessions that followed.

Andrew