The Berowra Waters community is one of the most welcoming and helpful you will ever find, but do not expect that this welcome should extend to giving away hard-earned fishing spots or techniques – even the wonderful people of Berowra Waters must draw the line somewhere!
The truth is that most of us are not too scientific about fishing – it’s not that hard to find a fish in Berowra Waters at the end of the day. Whilst there are no doubt fewer fish available than many years ago, there are still plenty of good and remarkable fish in the river – probably sitting under or passing by your pontoon.
You will need a NSW recreational fishing licence available for 3 days to 5 years to fish in Berowra Creek. The funds from these licences are all spent on preserving fish stocks and recreational fisheries so please do the right thing. Fishing licences are available online by clicking here.
You will probably see the serious fishers with their fancy gear and electric motors and very expensive boats sneaking up on the fish under your pontoon. You will also see plenty of people pounding up the river toward iconic Hawkesbury fishing spots like Bar & Juno Point – and if that is your thing so be it.
But you can bring a comfortable chair, some nibbles, a nice cold beverage or coffee to your wharf or waterfront and think of the effort that poor blighters go to in search of the fish you might be just as likely catch from your pontoon! In some river homes, you have the luxury of doing all of this from your own balcony.
If you fish at dawn or dusk from your pontoon on any day of the week, any tide, any moon, any weather you have a great chance to catch a fish ……. and equally a chance that you will not. Fisher folk do like to make it more complicated than it probably is and the advice below is really designed only to improve your chances. Bigger high tides and lower low tides are probably better especially if the last few hours of the high or low coincide with dusk or dawn.
Generally, fish the run-up tides for bream and jewfish and the run-out tides for flathead, whilst other spots outside Berowra Creek often work better on the turn of the tide, in Berowra Creek the best fishing happens before the tide stops running (up or down).
Fresh or frozen prawns do work, peel them and they will often work better. Bigger fish love a prawn ball with three or four peeled prawns all squashed up on your hook.
Though monster jewfish are hard to find, fish to 12 pounds are not uncommon in Berowra Creek and the big ones are still out there. For flathead and jewfish, fish the bottom with sinkers just big enough to hold your bait down. For bream, light lines with unweighted or barely weighted baits are best (essential).
Fishy berley can be a bad idea as it brings in rays, eels, catfish, and the like but a bread or wheat based berley can be very helpful. Remember to put it out while the tide is running though and give it plenty of time to start working.
Shhhhhhh!!! Noise emanating through your pontoon into the water will scare fish away. Especially any sounds that are unfamiliar to the fish in that environment. The wash from a passing vessel banging your boat against the pontoon probably won’t matter, but stamping your feet, dropping your sinkers or a beer or even yelling back to Mum in the house can spook the fish.
Never take more than you need or can eat and always observe the legal size and bag limits, which are still overgenerous. Bream must be at least 25cm (maximum of 10), Jewfish 70cm (maximum of 2) and Flathead 36cm (maximum of 10). Current bag and size limits are available from the Department of Primary Industries website.
You will no doubt encounter some prickly and dangerous characters in catfish, stingrays and pike eels (which some people mistake for hairtail). Our best advice is to just cut the line and let these critters go. They do bite and sting and hurt if handled incorrectly.
Please put your plastic bags and old fishing line in a bin and prevent fishing rubbish ending up in the water. Do not clean fish or cut up bait on your pontoon. It can smell for days, stain the timber and is just plain unpleasant for the next person who passes by.