NSW Piers

Pier Fishing

Pier fishing is different from fishing on a boat or on the beach or a river or a rock platform. It is easy to get to. The water is always changing which means the fish are always doing something different. Piers go out into the water so you do not need a boat to catch fish that are far away from the shore.

Structure

Pier fishing is land-based fishing from fixed structures that give anglers access to deeper water, current lines, channels, pylons and nearby reef or mud banks. Western Port examples such as Cowes, Corinella, Stony Point, Flinders, Grantville, Rhyll, Warneet and Mornington show that each pier fishes differently according to depth, tide, structure and target species.

Environmental Affecting Piers

The key condition is matching the pier and tide to the fish being targeted. Some species feed near the bottom, while salmon and trevally can be drawn into a berley trail around pylons. Snapper are more seasonal, with October to December highlighted for bay spawning movement, while elephant fish are noted from February to early May around several Western Port piers.

Practical tactics are simple but specific. Gummies and flathead require baits on or near the bottom, while salmon and trevally respond to small hooks, light outfits and baits cast into a surface berley trail near pylons. Whiting can be encouraged with a small berley pot on the sea floor, then repeated casts to the same patch once a fish is found.

Gear depends on the target rather than the pier itself. Heavy 12ft surf rods and 20-30lb mainline are supported for casting shark baits into deeper channels, while 2-4kg outfits and 12lb leader suit salmon and trevally around structure. Always take rubbish away from piers, because discarded bait bags and cans are specifically called out as a problem.

Best Times

The best time to go pier fishing is different depending on the time of year. As a general rule the best time of day tends to be dawn and dusk. Starting an hour or so before sunrise or sunset and extending a few hours after.

Some piers are better when it is warm and the fish that migrate are in the bays and the rivers and some piers are better when it is cooler and the fish that live there all the time are active around the pier.

Every pier is unique. The depth of the water and the way it is moving and what the bottom of the sea is made of and what is, around the pier all affect how the fish behave and how people who like to fish should fish there.

Where a pier is subject to large tidal variations between low and high a high tide might be the only time there’s sufficient water to hold fish.

Using Getfished To Find Out About A Pier

Choose a Victorian pier that you interested in from the piers above. Click it and then read the page to find out the current conditions, forecast and fishing reports collected about that pier. This will help you take into account water temperature, the wind, tides, solunar bite times and what other anglers have done.