Castaway articles: Fishing the Hastings River, Port Macquarie

All the typical estuarine fish species are abundant in the Hastings River, with excellent numbers of flathead, bream, whiting, luderick, tailor and mulloway (jewfish).

During the warmer months, many parts of the Hastings River can also hold a variety of trevally species, Moses perch and the occasional mangrove jack. School-sized mulloway are pretty common year round, with steady numbers in the system over spring and into winter. The Hastings River also hosts a healthy population of Australian bass; and a short ride up river from Port Macquarie will see you fishing in some likely-looking bass country!

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DOWN RIVER

With so much good fishing ground to cover, the Hastings River can be a little overwhelming for many visiting anglers who are accustomed to fishing busier, highly-developed waterways with plenty of man-made structure.

Aside from the sprinkling of oyster racks and pontoons, rockwalls and jetties in the lower reaches, the Hastings River is practically pristine. The water is usually crystal clear across the high tide. Considering this, we often concentrate our fishing effort in the morning and/or evening onboard Castaway.

Starting at the mouth of the Hastings River, the two breakwalls – known locally as ‘North Wall’ and ‘South Wall’ – are great places to catch all manner of species. The two walls also produce some trophy mulloway at the right times. There are ‘croc-sized’ flathead around these big rockwalls, too.

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Over the high tide, the flats are prime shallow-water whiting and bream territory. During the warmer months, the fish in these areas take small surface or topwater lures – which is great fun! The shallows are also awesome places to cast bigger surface lures, glidebaits, swimbaits and big soft plastics for monster flathead.

Just upstream from the rivermouth, Limeburners Creek spills into the Hastings River. The mouth of Limeburners Creek Is littered with oyster farms (producing some of the best Sydney Rock oysters in the country!). The sandy flats and deeper channels here hold good numbers of flathead and are terrific places to target them on soft plastics and hardbody lures. Big blue-nose bream also patrol the oyster racks and pontoons and respond well to lightly-weighted plastics, crankbaits and surface lures.

UP RIVER

Heading further upstream, the outside bends of the river that are exposed to decent tidal flow can be fairly deep just a few metres off the bank. These bends create swirling ‘back eddies’ and offer predatory fish perfect ambush structure. Working lures along these stretches can produce some nice fish at times.

Man-made structure just about finishes upstream from Riverside, with the Maria River arm forking northwest and the Hastings River continuing west-southwest to Wauchope. The lower reaches of the Maria River hold good numbers of flathead and bream with some bigger fish occupying the deeper holes. The Dennis Bridge and the newly-finished Hastings River bridge, along with a few smaller bridges, cross the river between Riverside and Wauchope. The bridge pylons in deeper water produce mulloway, bream and flathead.

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Further upstream of the Hastings River and its tributaries is where we target the iconic Australian bass. These fish fight hard and respond to a huge variety of lures. The best bass action is experienced from late spring into summer, when these fish feed aggressively on surface lures that imitate natural prey like cicadas, frogs and lizards. The water is ‘brackish’ around Wauchope and the Hastings River is generally accessible from small dinghies and kayaks only upstream of Beechwood.

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HASTINGS RIVER TACKLE

It’s always a good idea to use a few different outfits and lure styles to get the most out of the Hastings River. Generally, a light 6lb spinning outfit and a slightly heavier 10lb spinning outfit covers most lure fishing in this productive East Coast estuary.

The main baitfish species in the Hastings River are whitebait, mullet, herring and various small crustaceans. Natural lure colours work well, with 50-100mm plastics and soft vibes some of the most used lures on Castaway. Small surface lures all work well for whiting, bream and flathead in the shallows.

Recognised as a NSW Recreational Fishing Haven, there’s no question the Hastings River is one of Australia’s premier estuary fisheries!