Where and when to catch Dart 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.
The dart in a NSW surf gutter is the swallowtail dart, an east-coast fish that ranges from Queensland down to about the South Coast. They push into the beach gutters with the warm water from about November and stay through to autumn, mixed in with the whiting and bream. On a light rod with a beach worm they are about the most fun you can have standing in the shore break.
NSW Size & Bag Limits
NSW limits for Dart are set by NSW DPIRD and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them.
Check NSW DPIRD's limits before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in New South Wales.
Where to Catch Dart in NSW
Dart need surf: exposed sandy beaches with defined gutters and some swell running. The spots below list them: Northern Beaches surf at Dee Why and Collaroy, Cronulla's beaches, Pearl Beach and Bateau Bay on the Central Coast, Stanwell Park and Bombo in the Illawarra, and Bennetts Beach at Hawks Nest.
Beach worms, pipis, peeled prawn, bloodworms and small strips of fresh fish
Lures
Small metal slugs (10–30 g), small soft plastics and grubs, and small surface poppers and bibless lures worked through the gutter
Rigs
A light running sinker or paternoster rig with a size 2–1/0 long-shank or circle hook and a small ball or star sinker that just holds in the wash, on 6–12 lb line with a short, slightly heavier leader. For lures, a small metal tied direct to a light spin outfit. Keep everything small: dart have small mouths but pull hard.
Technique
Read the beach first and fish the gutters, rip edges and the corners of sand spits where the surf churns. Cast bait into the foamy water and let it tumble naturally, with just enough lead to keep contact. With lures, fan-cast small metals across the gutter and wind fast with the odd pause. Bites are sharp and the fight is all runs and head-down power, so let a light drag do the work and don't horse a fish through the shore break.
Best Time
The warmer months, when dart move into the surf gutters in numbers. A rising tide flooding the gutters and the hours either side of high are the classic windows, with early morning and late afternoon best, especially on a moderate, working swell rather than a flat or blown-out beach.
Identification
Also known asSwallowtail dart, southern dart, surf trevally, surf bream
A compact, silver surf fish, bluish-black over the back and silvery-white below, with a blunt snout, a small mouth, a deeply forked tail with long, pointed lobes, and long sickle-shaped front rays on the soft dorsal and anal fins. Adult swallowtail dart carry six or seven vertically elongated dark spots in a row above the lateral line; small fish often have faint spots or none. Small trevally get called dart too, but trevally have a row of hard bony scutes along the wrist of the tail and dart don't. The dart of the west and north (the common or large-spot dart) is a different species with fewer, rounder spots.
Size & Growth
Most NSW surf dart are 25–40 cm and well under a kilo; swallowtail dart top out around 60 cm. They mature at about 26 cm and two years old, spawn mostly in spring and summer, and live about six years, so the gutters are full of young, fast-growing fish rather than old trophies.
Diet & Habitat
Surf-zone feeders that work the turbulent water where breaking waves dig out the sand and expose worms, small crustaceans, pipis and other small shellfish; they'll also chase small baitfish, which is why a fast metal works. They hold in gutters, along the edges of sand spits and over shallow bars, moving in with the tide and dropping back with it, mostly off exposed sandy beaches and occasionally around nearby rocks.
Eating Quality
Good eating if bled and iced the moment they're landed: white, firm, mild flesh with a fine flake. The fillets off a typical dart are thin, so they suit pan-frying, crumbing or cooking whole on the barbecue. Scale them properly, because the skin crisps well. Like all surf fish they soften fast in the sun, so bring an esky with ice and eat them fresh if you can.