Where and when to catch Australian Bass in New South Wales: the NSW season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find NSW's current size and bag limits.
Australian bass are the native sportfish of the coastal rivers that drain east from the Great Dividing Range, from the far north coast down to the Victorian border. They live in the freshwater and upper brackish reaches, run down to the estuaries to spawn in winter, and are also stocked into many impoundments. NSW protects that winter spawning run with a seasonal closure in rivers and estuaries, so the season below is when you can keep one, not when you can fish for them. Most bass anglers release everything anyway: a 40 cm bass in a creek you can step across is a fish you want to catch again.
Western Australian limits don't apply in New South Wales.
Where to Catch Australian Bass in NSW
Bass hold in the upper, fresher reaches of coastal rivers, under overhanging trees, along fallen timber and rock bars, and they push upstream as far as flows and weirs let them through summer. The spot below lists them; the stocked dams and the rivers above them are the other big bass fishery in NSW.
Live shrimp, small yabbies, crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas and scrub worms. Most bass anglers fish lures and release their fish, but live shrimp drifted past a snag is the old bait method.
Lures
Surface lures (poppers, fizzers, cicada imitations and walk-the-dog stickbaits) at dawn, dusk and after dark in summer; spinnerbaits, small diving minnows and lipless crankbaits through the day; and 2–3 inch soft plastics on light jigheads worked slowly down the snags. Small flies work too.
Rigs
A light baitcaster or spin outfit, 1–4 kg, with 6–10 lb braid and a 8–12 lb fluorocarbon leader of about a rod length. Bass bolt straight back into the snag they came from, so fish a leader you can lean on, and set the drag firm. For bait, a small 1–2 hook on a running sinker rig, or unweighted under a tiny float.
Technique
Cast tight to structure: under overhanging branches, against fallen timber, along rock bars and weed edges. The cast that lands a metre short catches far fewer fish. On surface lures, let the ripples settle before the first twitch; many strikes come on the pause. Once hooked, turn the fish away from the snag immediately. Kayaks and small boats let you cover river bends quietly; land-based, work every pocket of a bank you can reach.
Best Time
Summer evenings into dark are the classic surface sessions, and first light is nearly as good. Cicada season can produce daytime surface fishing. Warm, stable weather and a slightly rising river are good; cold snaps and big floods shut them down. Through winter, when the adults move downstream to spawn, the upper rivers go quiet.
In NSW, the seasonal closure covers coastal rivers and estuaries, while stocked impoundments and rivers above dams are treated differently. Check NSW DPIRD's freshwater rules for which applies where you're fishing.
Fishing a freshwater stretch in NSW needs a NSW recreational fishing licence, the same as saltwater, unless you're exempt.
Identification
Also known asBass, Aussie bass
A compact, perch-shaped fish, silver to olive-green or bronze above and paler below, with dark fins, a slightly forked tail, a large eye and a short snout. Juveniles often have dark blotches on the fins. The only real look-alike is the estuary perch, which shares the lower rivers: estuary perch have a longer, more tapered snout with a dipped (concave) forehead, while a bass's head profile runs fairly straight from the snout up to an arched back. Bass also tend to be darker and less silvery. The two can hybridise, so the odd fish really is hard to call.
Size & Growth
Most river bass run 25–40 cm and well under a kilo. A 45 cm bass is a good fish, and the species tops out around 60–65 cm and 4 kg. Females grow much bigger than males, so the trophy fish are all females. They're long lived for their size, up to about 22 years, which means a big bass in a small creek has been there a while.
Diet & Habitat
Bass live in rivers, creeks, lakes and impoundments, sheltering under overhanging trees, fallen timber, undercut banks, weed beds and in rocky pools, and they push well up into the freshwater reaches in summer. Adults are general carnivores: insects falling from the bank, cicadas, shrimp, small fish and crustaceans. Each winter (roughly May to August) adults migrate downstream to spawn in brackish estuary water, usually after floods, then return upstream. Females tend to live higher upstream and males nearer the estuary.
Eating Quality
Bass are good eating, with white, mild flesh, but most anglers release them. They are slow-growing, long-lived river fish, and a snag that loses its big females takes years to recover. If you do keep one, bleed and ice it and keep it to a rare feed.