Fly fishing Sydney and the Hawkesbury

The big system is the Hawkesbury-Nepean, which drains the longest coastal catchment in New South Wales. The Nepean rises south of the city and is held back by Nepean Dam; above the dam it runs through catchment country with no listed access. Below the dam it runs north along the western fringe past Camden, Wallacia and Penrith, and where the Grose comes in it becomes the Hawkesbury, winding east past national parks to the sea at Broken Bay. The trout rivers high in the same catchment belong to the Blue Mountains.

South of the city the Georges River is split by a weir at Liverpool, tidal below and fresh above. The Parramatta River runs east into the harbour, one of what the state’s guide calls its connected tidal waterways. Middle Harbour is deep and river-like, with arms and bays of its own, and on the north side sits Manly Reservoir, a small storage the state’s notices call Manly Dam.

Bass carry the fresh water. On the Nepean River, walk the bank in daylight and mark the snags and rock ledges, then fish a floating line and a large dry, cicada or popper tight to cover from dusk into dark. Through the day, and after heavy rain, which the river’s anglers rate alongside dusk, a weighted streamer on an intermediate line goes down to fish a dry would not reach. The upper Hawkesbury River adds estuary perch along its creeks and banks, and a kayak reaches most of it. Below the Georges River’s weir, bass sit on timber and shade and come up at first and last light. These rivers are full of small fish, smelt, gudgeons and blue-eyes among them, so a sparse olive or grey baitfish fly in size 4 to 8 covers most of what a bass is eating.

Carp are a sight-fishing game. The upper Parramatta is one of Sydney’s recommended carp waters, and Manly Dam’s shallows are a quieter place to stalk them. Pick a bright, calm day, find a fish feeding head-down, and land a small weighted nymph just ahead of it.

In Sydney Harbour, salmon, tailor, kingfish, bonito and frigate tuna can all feed on the same bait school; an eight weight, an intermediate line and small white baitfish flies is the rig. Middle Harbour’s bays are the gentler start: strip a sparse size 4 fly from the shallow edge out over the drop. The tidal Hawkesbury is deep enough to need a fast-sinking line, with a weighted fly bumped down the drop-offs for flathead and a large heavy fly fished slow at slack water for mulloway.

If you have one evening between November and March, go to the Nepean. Pick a listed access site, arrive a couple of hours before dark, and fish the snags within a short walk of the car.

If you have a boat or kayak, launch on the harbour before sunrise; salmon anglers put in at Roseville and Little Manly to be out early. Without a boat, a wharf with deep water close in, at first light with a small baitfish fly, will find flathead, bream or silver trevally.

Save the deep Hawkesbury mulloway for a later trip, once you know how a fly sinks in moving water.

Bass run with the warmth, from late spring into early autumn, and the surface fishing is best from about November to March. Winter is quiet for bass on every river here.

The harbour turns the other way. Its best run of salmon is said to last from July into January, so a winter dawn is the time for the boat trip, and kingfish and bonito arrive as the water warms. Mulloway follow the tide more than the season. On the Hawkesbury the change arrives later the further you are from the mouth, so you can move upstream through a day and meet slack water at each stop.

Seasons, closures, limits and licence requirements change, and freshwater and saltwater rules often apply on the same river; check NSW DPIRD’s current freshwater fishing rules and closures before you fish.

A line on the map is not access permission, and a ramp is not leave to cross the land around it. Use listed access sites and public ramps, follow the signs, and keep out of flooded rivers. Bull sharks are recorded in the harbour and the Georges, so fish from the boat rather than wading murky edges at dusk.