Georges River shore fishing: bridge banks, Baldface Point and Little Moon Bay
The lower Georges rewards an angler who can keep a bait working in the current. The right tide is not the same everywhere. Shipwrights Point suits rising-water bream, Baldface is easier on the last of the run-out, and Como's luderick fishing favours smaller tides in either direction.
Choose a reachable bank edge and fish it properly. A few metres beside rock can be better water than the middle of the river, particularly when the main flow is dragging a bottom rig into trouble. Bream, whiting, flathead and luderick give plenty to work with before a dedicated mulloway outfit enters the picture.
| Bank or locality | Starting target and tide | Presentation |
|---|---|---|
| Captain Cook Bridge, northern bank | Bream or trevally on rising water | Choose a close-bank bait or a wider bottom cast. |
| Sans Souci Park Fishing Pier | Yellowtail or jackets by day; bream on a rising evening tide | A defined public platform; tiny baits beside structure for the smaller fish. |
| Shipwrights Point | Bream on the rise | A lightly weighted bait beside the rock. |
| Baldface Point | Whiting late in the run-out | From the reserve's open bank, let a bloodworm bait travel along the bottom. |
| Como | Luderick on a smaller tide | A weed float whose drift you can control. |
| Little Moon Bay | Luderick on the flood; bream later in the rise | Keep the bait and berley beside the rocky bank. |
Start with a light bank outfit
For bream on a manageable bank edge, a 2–4kg spinning outfit with 2kg line and a 2–5kg leader is a useful starting point. Use a size 2 to 1/0 non-offset circle hook with a compact prawn or fish-strip bait, unweighted where it will fish properly or with a small running ball sinker. Let the circle hook load under steady pressure. The Captain Cook flow may require more lead, but first choose water in which you can control the bait.
For Baldface whiting, a light 7-foot spinning rod with 3kg line, a small ball sinker above a swivel and a size 8 or 10 long-shank hook suits a small worm bait. Keep the rig travelling within reach rather than pinning it to the bottom. If the bank edge needs more rod length for line clearance, use it.
For Como or Little Moon Bay luderick, take a soft rod long enough to manage the bank, a 3000-size spinning reel, about 3kg line and leader, a size 8 sneck hook and a balanced float. Carry a few weighted spare rigs and a long-handled landing net. This is a useful light-tackle kit; a large live bait for mulloway needs its own outfit.
Captain Cook Bridge: two different casts from the northern bank
The Sans Souci bank below Captain Cook Bridge gives two distinct presentations. A wider cast reaches towards deeper pylon water for bream, silver trevally and flathead, with an occasional school mulloway. Close to the bank, the rocks suit luderick and leatherjackets, with bream coming along the edge after dark.
For the wider bait, a rising tide early or late in the day is the useful starting window. Fresh bait prawns, bloodworms or nippers suit the mixed catch. The current can race here, so use enough sinker to stay in contact. That does not mean fixing the heaviest sinker in the box to every rig. Make a cast, see whether the bait holds or travels, and adjust for the part of the flow you can fish without tangling others.
The close-edge job needs a different approach. A weed bait under a balanced float can be carried alongside the rock for luderick. For bream, a small bait following a controlled berley trail gives the fish a reason to come within range. Keep the trail beside the bank; feeding fish in the main channel will not help if you cannot present a bait there.
Fish from open public bank ground. Do not fish from the bridge deck or climb its supports. Have a landing net ready before putting a bait into deeper water. Its handle needs enough reach for the tide you are fishing; lifting a fish by the line is a poor plan.
Sans Souci Park Fishing Pier
Just west of the bridge on the northern side, the public fishing pier gives a more defined place to fish than the uneven bank. Georges River Council identifies it as a fishing location, with a hook-and-line disposal bin.
The wharf water in this locality has long been used for yellowtail and leatherjackets during the day. A tiny bait on a small hook makes more sense for those fish than a large bait meant for a bream. Lower it beside the structure under control and watch for the bite. For bream and the occasional flathead, a rising tide into evening is the more useful bait-fishing plan.
A pier does not gain room because somebody carries more rods. Keep tackle together and casts clear of people. If catching a few yellowtail for another session, have the aerated bucket ready first. The live-bait guide covers that job in detail.
Taren Point bank: the luderick side
The southern bank at Captain Cook Bridge has a more specific luderick role. Weed baits are presented towards the submerged bridge-side structure. Its aspect gives some lee from a southerly, but the useful feature is a float drift you can control, not simply standing on the sheltered side of a bridge.
Use a longer light rod to lift and mend line above the near edge. Start with the bait clear of the bottom and deepen the rig in small steps. A float that repeatedly stops at the same place may be finding a snag rather than a fish. Work out that path before feeding more berley into it.
Keep to the open public foreshore and leave the bridge structure alone. This is bank fishing; the mid-channel holes and the pylon blocks are separate water.
Kogarah Bay: rocks south of the baths
Kogarah Bay's shallow sand is a contrast to the main-river points. The rock margin south of the baths is the shore option, where bream, flathead and whiting can be reached from the edge. Keep hooks outside the swimming enclosure.
Fish the meeting of rock and sand. A small bait presented on the sand is the whiting or flathead option; a bait kept closer to the rough edge gives bream another way to find it. There is no need to add sinker merely because the nearby river channel runs hard. Let the movement at this quieter bank decide the weight.
Bring bait. Kogarah Bay's closure covers bivalve molluscs and whelks, and the system-wide oyster closure applies as well.
Shipwrights Point: bream on the rising tide
Shipwrights Point is on the northern shore just downriver of Baldface, associated with Shipwrights Bay and the Woodlands Avenue reserve. It has its own tide preference: rising water, particularly in autumn and spring, for bream along the rock.
There are two useful casting distances. Float a lightly weighted bait close to the bank through a little berley, or make a wider cast and fish the bottom. Try them as alternatives rather than assuming the farthest cast wins. The close presentation asks less of the lead; the wider one needs enough weight to keep the bait where you can follow it.
Luderick and leatherjackets add another use for the same rising water. A weed float belongs beside the rocky edge. Flathead are the wider-water option, with a bait allowed to move along the bottom rather than hung above it. These distinctions are more useful than carrying one rig and hoping it covers everything.
Shipwrights Bay Reserve is the public landward setting. Stay on open reserve ground and keep clear of adjoining private waterfront.
Baldface Point: let the run-out work the bait
At Baldface, upstream of Tom Uglys Bridge on the northern bank, the main channel swings close to the rocky shore. That makes the moving water useful, but it also makes the strongest part of a big tide hard work. Plan around the last few hours of the run-out.
For whiting, a live bloodworm is the bait to start with. Cast a little upstream, let the current carry it along the bottom, then retrieve and repeat. You are covering a strip of feeding water, not waiting for the sinker to wedge itself into a crack. Use enough weight to feel the bottom while allowing that controlled movement.
For bream, bring the bait closer along the rocky drop-off. Dusk, especially in autumn and spring, is the more focused plan. Trevally are a possibility farther out in the same seasons. Keep the distinction between those casts: a fine bream bait near the rock need not be anchored like a long cast into the main flow.
Slack water between tides gives another option in autumn and winter. Tailor may take a pilchard on a suitable gang, lightly weighted or free-floating. That is a different session from bouncing a worm along in the ebb. Change the presentation when the movement changes.
Bald Face Point Reserve provides the public locality. Use its established open ground, without treating the entire rock shoreline as a continuous walking route. The council reserve information identifies the reserve; current signs decide which areas are open.
Como: a smaller-tide float session
The banks at either end of Como Railway Bridge have a history of luderick fishing. Here the important choice is tide size rather than insisting on flood or ebb. Either can work when the run is manageable.
Take the float outfit and make that the job. Balance the float so it registers a fish taking the weed, then adjust depth to the bank water you are fishing. Do not start with a fixed deep setting borrowed from somebody fishing a bridge pylon by boat. A bank edge, a pylon eddy and the middle of the channel are not the same depth.
A longer rod helps keep line clear of the near rocks and control the drift. Carry a net with enough reach for the tidal level. When the current is too strong to keep the bait travelling naturally, use the quieter part of the tide rather than loading the float with more and more lead.
The public Como foreshore and Pleasure Grounds are the landward setting. Keep fishing clear of the tidal baths and obey their signs. Neither the railway structure nor its pylon blocks is a fishing platform for this trip.
Little Moon Bay: luderick on the flood
Little Moon Bay lies on the southern shore opposite Lugarno. The rocky bank is the feature, with luderick the first target. Rising water is the preferred starting tide, although a small run-out can also be fished effectively.
Keep the weed bait moving along the rock edge at a controlled depth. Feed a little matching weed berley into the drift and watch how it travels. If it leaves the bank immediately, change position or angle so the bait and berley stay together. A float carrying weed well above the feeding depth will not be rescued by a bigger handful of berley.
Bream give the bay a second plan. The latter half of the rising tide, especially when it falls around dawn or dusk, is the more specific window. Boat traffic can be heavy in this narrower reach, so a quiet period helps both presentation and bite detection.
The NPWS map identifies Little Moon Bay and its park setting. Keep to open public bank. The river has soft margins and sudden underwater drop-offs, so wading is not the way to extend a cast.
The upstream point beside Little Moon Bay
The small point immediately upstream offers a useful close-versus-wide choice. Bream and luderick belong beside the rocks; farther out, the channel margin offers summer flathead and a few whiting. Fish only the water reachable from open public ground, keeping clear of residential walls.
Start close for the weed or bream presentation, then change to a bottom bait or plastic if searching wider sand. The advantage is having different water within reach, not simply gaining another place to put a rod. Check the line angle as the tide changes so a wider presentation does not sweep into the rocks below you.
Rules and a workable river session
Bring lawful bait and use the Botany Bay and Georges River closure maps for their exact boundaries. Oysters cannot be taken anywhere in the system. Kogarah Bay has its bivalve and whelk closure. Upstream of Woronora Bridge, nets are prohibited apart from a landing net.
The EPA dietary advice varies by species and at Tom Uglys Bridge. Fish from the Georges River upstream of Rabaul Road boat ramp, and from the specified upper Salt Pan Creek waters, should be released rather than eaten. Release protected species without targeting them, including eastern blue groper.
Wear shoes that grip wet edges, keep a landing net ready and stay off steep or unstable banks. Leave public paths, ramps and swimming areas clear. One well-managed bait or float is enough to learn what the current is doing.
For a first session, choose the species and tide together: rising-water bream at Shipwrights, late-ebb whiting at Baldface, or smaller-tide luderick at Como. The blackfish guide covers the complete float setup. For sand beaches outside the river, continue with Botany Bay shore fishing.