Shorncliffe Pier

Shorncliffe Pier runs about 350 m out from the cliff-top suburb into Bramble Bay, which makes it one of the longest fishing platforms in Brisbane. The original 1880s pier was closed in 2012 after marine borers ate the timber, and the rebuilt structure reopened in 2016 to look almost exactly like the old one. The bay underneath is shallow and muddy, which suits bream, whiting, flathead and grunter that come up on the tide to feed. It is the north side's default Sunday stroll, so the fishing comes with a steady audience asking what you've caught.

Fish the last third of the pier on the rising tide, when there is enough water over the flats for fish to move in. A light running sinker with a small hook and a peeled prawn, a yabby or a strip of mullet covers bream, whiting and grunter. Flathead take a small soft plastic or a pilchard fillet worked back along the bottom. In winter, a ganged pilchard cast into the deeper water off the end picks up tailor at dawn and dusk. Remember you can only fish two rods or handlines with two hooks in total here, so a two-hook paternoster uses your whole allowance.

Yellowfin bream are the staple, with the better fish in the winter months, and sand whiting move onto the flats from spring through summer. Dusky flathead are around all year but bunch up in spring. Grunter (barred javelin) turn up through the warmer months, garfish school under the pier lights in the cooler months, and tailor push into the bay in winter. Bream 25 cm (possession limit 30, combined with tarwhine), whiting 23 cm (30), dusky flathead 40–75 cm (5), tailor 35 cm (20), grunter 40 cm (10).

The pier sits inside a Moreton Bay Marine Park conservation park (yellow) zone: maximum 2 rods or handlines and 2 hooks in total per person. The Bramble Bay marine national park (green) zone begins roughly 150 m beyond the end of the pier, and no fishing of any kind is allowed in it, so don't cast or drift a bait toward it. Snapper are closed from 15 July to 15 August. A high tide in the late afternoon is the sweet spot, because low tide here leaves a lot of mud and not much else.

The pier starts at the foot of Pier Avenue, Shorncliffe, with street parking along the foreshore that fills quickly on weekends. Shorncliffe railway station is about a ten-minute walk away for anyone coming from the city. The deck is wide, flat and railed, which makes it one of the easier family fishing spots in Brisbane. There are toilets and parkland at the foreshore end.

The pier faces north-east into Bramble Bay, so north-easterly sea breezes put chop straight down the deck in summer afternoons. Westerly and south-westerly winds blow off the land and leave the water flat, which is when the whiting fishing is best. Heavy rain colours the bay brown from Cabbage Tree Creek and the Pine River, which slows the whiting but can fire up the bream and flathead. Neap tides make for a gentler, more fishable flow than the big spring tides.

The deck is high above the water at low tide, so supervise children closely at the rails. The pier is heavily used by walkers and cyclists, so keep rods, hooks and bait buckets tucked in to the side. Summer storms build quickly over the bay in the afternoons, so leave the pier when you hear thunder. Bull sharks and stingrays use the bay, so don't wade or swim near the pier to retrieve gear.

Yes. The pier reopened in 2016 after being rebuilt, and fishing is a normal use of it. It sits in a Moreton Bay Marine Park conservation park (yellow) zone, so each angler may use at most 2 rods or handlines and 2 hooks in total.

Yellowfin bream, sand whiting, dusky flathead, grunter (barred javelin), garfish and winter tailor are the regular catches, with the odd small snapper in the cooler months.

Yes. The Bramble Bay marine national park (green) zone begins roughly 150 m beyond the end of the pier. No fishing of any kind is allowed inside a green zone, so keep casts and drifting baits well short of it.

The last couple of hours of the rising tide and the top of the tide. Bramble Bay is shallow, so a low tide leaves the end of the pier over very little water.