Western Sydney Harbour shore fishing: Balmain, Drummoyne and the north shore

By Andrew Hestelow

West of the Harbour Bridge, walls, sand banks and rocky reserves call for different presentations. A prawn lowered into kelp is a leatherjacket method. A lightly weighted fish bait beside the same edge is a bream method. Weed and a controlled float make it a blackfish session.

Plan this as catch-and-release fishing. The Food Authority advises against eating fish caught west of the Harbour Bridge.

Choose the water for your session

Put the outfit together

A 2–4kg spin outfit is a useful light-tackle starting point in the Parramatta and Lane Cove shore guide. Match a small bait hook and light running sinker to the sand or clear lane. Carry a separate balanced weed float and small strong hook for the walls, with spare leader and a landing net. For plastics, use a weight that reaches the bottom without burying in the close reef. Plan the netting and release before casting; this is catch-and-release water.

Balmain East and Simmons Point

The old Darling Street wharf locality is now the Balmain East ferry district. The walls either side have blackfish water close in. Fish weed with a little berley along the feeding edge; small prawn baits among nearby kelp suit jackets. Bream and flathead justify a cast beyond the close structure, especially at dawn, dusk or into a high-water night.

Simmons Point is a more wind-exposed blackfish position. The source favours the last part of the rising tide and a drift roughly three to three-and-a-half metres down towards the old pole line. Reset the depth to today's water and bottom. A crosswind can spoil that controlled drift even when the Harbour looks reasonably calm.

Ballast Point, Birchgrove and the Balmain baths

At Ballast Point and Mort Bay, distinguish the public shore edge from the deep boat mark out in the bay. Close structure is blackfish and jacket water; bream and flathead are secondary targets. The old end wharf is not assumed to be an available modern platform.

Longnose Point, in the Birchgrove ferry locality, has a history of weed-and-berley blackfish fishing beside shore structure. At night, small worm, nipper or pilchard baits close to the bank change the target to bream. Historical wharf bans and modern ferry operating rules are recorded separately.

Dawn Fraser Baths marks another change of water. Fish only outside the swimming enclosure. The adjoining shore has winter trevally, bream and tailor possibilities around higher water. Farther west, White Horse Point's shallower bottom suits winter bream and summer flathead. A bait reaching open sand is more useful than dropping it into the closest weed.

Elliott Street and Drummoyne's sand

Elliott Street combines close structure with open casting water. Small prawn baits beside the edge target jackets; worms or nippers beyond it suit summer flathead and whiting. For bream, a cast parallel to the shore can work the feeding edge better than a cast straight out.

Across at Drummoyne, the historical sandspit in front of the tennis-court district was a last-of-the-rising-tide whiting position. Small worms or nippers on light tackle suit that shallow water. The flounder photograph records Andrew Nash's actual shore catch at Drummoyne; it does not identify one precise sandspit.

Half Moon Bay's old prawning and squid notes describe a shallow summer bait ground. They are not a current invitation to net or gather bait there. Bring bait and keep the modern closures separate from the historical fishing record.

Birkenhead Point and the bridge shores

The Birkenhead and Renwick Street district puts higher-water bream beside shallower sand. Fish near structure in the evening; worms or nippers reaching open bottom can find whiting and flathead in summer. Luderick and leatherjackets use the closer edges.

At Wolseley Street, the historical advice distinguishes wider daytime casts from closer bream fishing at dusk and night. The old wharf ban is not permission to stand on its modern structure. The offshore mussel-bed anchoring and drift are boat methods, separate from the shore wall.

Gladesville Bridge and the old bridge rocks

The southwestern shore of Gladesville Bridge gives access to a deeper casting line for bream and trevally. Small pilchard or mullet pieces, worms and nippers are the useful baits, with autumn favoured in the account. The depth of the boat channel is not the depth immediately below the bank.

At the old bridge-rock district, fish the last rising and first falling tide with a lightly weighted or unweighted pilchard piece. A small berley trail and twilight into night suit bream; small diving lures give a separate way to search the rock edge. Blackfish stay closer to the rocks, while summer flathead justify a wider cast onto sand.

Blackwall Point and Abbotsford

Blackwall Point's shore bream fishing is a close-bank, late-rising-tide proposition into the evening. It should not inherit the mulloway instructions for the mussel bed well offshore.

Werrell Reserve is the public visitor reference at Abbotsford. Fishing at Abbotsford and Chiswick commuter wharves is prohibited from 5am to 10am; follow the current signs for any further restrictions.

Greenwich, Manns Point and Berry Island

Around the Greenwich ferry locality, the source distinguishes wider casts on the early falling tide from night bream close to the bank near high water. Weed and a float address the close blackfish edge; prawn pieces address jackets. The baths and private sheds are separate facilities, not proposed platforms.

At Manns Point, bream use the public shore and the wall in the boat-ramp district. A small fresh bait worked near the local eddy at night is a more precise approach than trying to reproduce an offshore shipping-fixture mark. Winter trevally and tailor add possibilities. Keep the ramp and sailing-club facilities clear.

Berry Island has its own useful division: kelpy reef close in for summer jackets, western-side weed edges for higher-water blackfish, and the southern front for casts onto open bottom. Bream can come closer at dusk and after dark, especially near an autumn high tide. A small prawn lowered into kelp is deliberately different from a wider flathead bait.

Balls Head: distinguish the reef from the boat hole

Balls Head's rocky public shore gives bream edges near high water around dawn or dusk. Use a small berley trail and a lightly weighted bait, working the nearer reef rather than simply adding lead for distance. The shallower eastern-tip district suits bream and jackets; the western-light district has historical blackfish water.

The very deep mulloway hole off the head is a boat ground. Fish the reachable reef edge rather than trying to reach that hole.

I was chasing blackfish at Balls Head in July 2018.

Blues Point and Lavender Bay

Blues Point brings deeper water close to the public shore. The western-facing wall has bream, trevally and tailor farther out, while blackfish and jackets use the close edge. The southern point adds summer flathead and the possibility of a mulloway. The last rising tide early or late is a useful starting window. Prawns, worms or nippers can be fished with enough lead for control without pinning every bait to the bottom.

At McMahons Point, the kelp beside the ferry district gives a closer blackfish drift on falling water. The older account describes three to four metres; adjust to the actual edge. Small prawn baits target jackets. Near high water at night, bream can feed much closer to the wall than a daytime cast suggests.

The Milsons Point, or old Luna Park-wharf district, has another deeper close blackfish edge, historically fished around four to five metres. A correctly set float and modest berley belong alongside the kelp, clear of ferry operations. High-water bream are a separate small-bait option beside the public shore.

Bait, wharves and a practical shore note

Follow current public ferry-wharf rules, local signs and temporary closures. Lines come out for ferries and passengers. Drummoyne Wharf also has overnight restrictions: Monday to Saturday 11pm–6am, and Sunday 7pm–6am. These wharf-specific limits are separate from the public shore nearby. Public parks do not establish permission to use every nearby pontoon, old wharf or club structure.

Bring lawful bait. Harbour intertidal protection and shellfish restrictions rule out gathering crabs, cunjevoi, oysters or mussels. Eastern blue groper cannot be targeted or retained. Release the catch with brief handling and a suitable landing net.

Allow for boat wake and wet edges, keep paths clear and wear an approved lifejacket where swell-exposed rock-fishing rules apply. The Lane Cove River guide continues into the tributary; Mosman to Kirribilli covers the shore east of the Bridge.

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