Some North Coast Exploration - Wooli River

[Hfisho77]

Hi all,

Recently, I headed slightly off the beaten track down to a small town on the mid north coast of NSW known as Wooli for a week of fishing and surfing. Although a quiet little place, a sizeable river meanders through it, which is littered with sunken trees, sand banks, weeds beds and oyster racks. With the lack of people, I hoped the river would have received a relatively small amount of fishing pressure, and I wasn’t disappointed!

Most of my sessions were done from a kayak, which in many ways helped as it allowed me to get right in amongst the tight metropolis of oyster racks, which is where I did most of my fishing. A few sessions were also had from the boat which allowed me to explore more remote areas of the river and discover some new honey holes.

It turned out the fishing was good to say the least, with bream, flatties, whiting, silver trevally, luderick and tailor being the most common captures. Some of the bream in these waters were absolute brutes, and had to be seen to be believed! I struggle to see how your standard bream gear could possibly stop these fish in amongst the unforgiving structure I was fishing. As such, many spectacular bust-offs occurred, however, a number of memorable battles also resulted in some solid fish being landed, and I managed a handful of fish which exceeded the magic 40cm mark.

Mostly fishing solo, I was pretty slack with the photos, but enjoyed the chance just to appreciate my surroundings in this pristine place. I’ll leave you with pictures of some of the better captures below, although some of the photos may be a bit dodgy due to me not being able to control my shaking after some of the more intense fights!

Hope you enjoyed the read.

[Hfisho77]

[rathabfishin2]

That's an area I have always wanted to fish! Some stomping bream there mate, well done!

[Angus]

Wow some horse bream Hugo nice!

[sweresy]

love smaller systems.... they seem to be more exciting to fish for some reason. Looks like you had an awesome time, nicely done mate

[teckee7]

Nice fish there, you were using Zman Grubz Motor Oil right? Do you rig the Grubz with the tail facing up or down? Which way do you find more productive in terms of fish being attracted to it?

[Hfisho77]

Nice fish there, you were using Zman Grubz Motor Oil right? Do you rig the Grubz with the tail facing up or down? Which way do you find more productive in terms of fish being attracted to it?

Hi mate, the colours I used were bloodworm and pumpkinseed, although different colours will work in different systems, where water colour is different etc. I normally rig the tail pointing upwards, although I doubt it really matters due to the constant spinning/wriggling action of the tail in the water.

[upwindoverdrive]

Wooli is a brillant place to pass time. The caravan park backs right onto the river. My last time their was drinking rum and cola from the table of my camper trailer while soaking a line.

Highly recommend all to stop in there for some real R&R time.

[EZY]

fished there a few times over past couple of years for good amounts of trevs always a good spot for a feed, but havn't seen many bream on my travels there (over min sizeish) to get them especially at that size is awesome! top effort

[wombat3163]

Great report Hugo ~ my 14 year old son and I are heading up that way shortly for the first time chasing a few fish , and after reading your report and seeing the pics has just made me keener to get there. thanks mate.