Fishing Shute Harbour

Shute Harbour is one of those suprising little fishing spots that only the locals seem to take the trouble to fish. It's suprising, because the fishing is great and the facilities although small, are good too. There is relatively deep water under the wharf structures, and with the strong tidal flows and nearby mangrove and fringing reefs, there's always plenty of bait fish and other bigger predators chasing them around.

The best times to fish here seem to be the late afternoon and evening. Night time brings on some spectacular catches and it's not uncommon to bring in very nice sized Coral Trout, Barramundi and Giant Trevally in season. Night time often brings out the sharks as well, so you'll find some of those as well.

Where to fish

You are not allowed to fish from the Wharf structure itself, which is a shame as in days gone by, plenty of big catches were recorded here. As a replacement, there is now a floating pontoon dedicated to dinghies and fishermen. It has a couple of rod holders and even a tap and fish cleaning board. The pontoon is small though and only really has room for no more then about 6 anglers comfortably. If there are a few other people fishing, be considerate and don't hog all the real estate.

Fishing from here can take all forms. Throwing poppers out wide along with stick baits will often produce large GT at the edge of the shadows and lights at night time. Soft plastics always rate a mention in catch reports, but by far the biggest winner is live bait. Best to throw a cast net around the boat ramp on the high tide and you'll catch plenty of live herring. A single hook through the back and a light rig will almost always produce results.

Got a boat ?

If you've got a boat and the weather is not so great, Shute Harbour provides quite a bit of protection if it's unsuitable to get out to the islands. The boat ramp at Shute Harbour is 2 lanes and well positioned. The problem lies though in the lack of boat trailer parking. There is very limited space to put your car and trailer along the road side, and when the weather is good, you may have to walk a very long distance to park your car. The only way to fix this is to turn up early, but with everyone else doing the same, you will need to be an early bird indeed.

Once you do get your boat in the water, you can fish around the islands inside the harbour which have plenty of tidal flow and coral to give the fish somewhere to hunt and hide. Even heading up into the mangroves and casting lures amongst the roots on the rising tide can produce some excellent fish.