Fishing the Manning River, Harrington

If you love estuary lure fishing, the Manning River at Harrington is one of the most rewarding systems on the NSW Mid North Coast. It’s home to some of our favourite estuary species – flathead, bream, whiting and mulloway – all within a few minutes’ run from the boat ramp. The Manning River also hosts a great Australian bass fishery; bass can be caught anywhere upstream of about Wingham.

THE MANNING ESTUARY

The Manning River is the only double delta river system in the southern hemisphere, featuring two permanent entrances to the ocean — one at Harrington and another at Old Bar. Every tide cycle on the Manning moves a lot of water at the entrances. This can make fishing the lower reaches pretty difficult for the uninitiated. But that’s what makes this system special – it’s constantly changing! Land based anglers can also do well fishing at Harrington along the rock walls and the lagoon.

Flathead are the backbone of the Manning’s downstream lure fishery. They’re aggressive, reliable, and love lures. We catch seriously big flathead guiding in the Manning, too! There's plenty of good ground for flathead: sandflats, mudflats, weedbeds, rock walls, oyster leases and deep holes on the river bends. Soft plastics between 80-100mm (or 3"-4") matched to jigheads of 1/6-3/8oz are the go-to lures when targeting flathead in the Manning. Jerkbaits like the Daiwa Double Clutch and Duo Tide Minnow and big swimbaits and glidebaits are also effective in shallow water for trophy-size dusky flathead.

Bream are also fairly abundant in the downstream section of the Manning, always hanging tight to structure in the heavy current. The Manning has no shortage of great structure for bream: rock walls, mangroves, and oyster racks all hold good fish at times. The Harrington training wall, the waters around Mitchells Island and the Croki area edges all fish well for bream. When the water’s clear, you'll need to downsize everything — lighter leaders, smaller lures, and slower retrieves. Small soft plastics, soft vibes, blades and crankbaits are all effective. 

Small surface lures like Bassday Sugarpens and Lucky Craft Sammys over the warmer months are also effective for bream and whiting – few things beat watching a pack of fish chasing down your lure across ankle-deep water! The Manning’s broad sandflats are perfect for it. Windy days on a high tide are usually the best.

Unfortunately the Manning is heavily netted for mulloway, which makes things more difficult trying to target them on lures. Nonetheless, the river still produces some good mulloway fishing at times. They’re unpredictable, powerful, and when you hook one, you’ll never forget it. During daylight hours, we target these fish in deeper holes when the tide slows working lures slow and deep. Light tackle gets the bites; heavier gear gives you control around rocks and structure like bridge pylons.

MANNING RIVER TACKLE

I always carry a few different outfits to get the most out of a day lure fishing on the Manning River. Generally, a light 4-6lb spinning outfit and a slightly heavier 10-20lb spinning outfit covers most lure fishing in this river system. That said, we'll always use specialist swimbait tackle when targeting trophy size dusky flathead with big lures.

Bream/Whiting: 6’8”–7’ Light Spin, 1000–2500 reel, 4–6lb braid, 4–8lb fluoro leader
Flathead/Mulloway: 7’ Medium Spin, 3000–4000 reel, 10–20lb braid, 12–25lb fluoro leader

The Manning River is one of New South Wales' most unique estuary systems, contact us now to book your spot Castaway Estuary Fishing Charters and see for yourself!