General

You are not permitted to:

• Fish in waters that are closed to fishing.
• Use any methods/gear to take fish or invertebrates that are not specified in permitted methods.
• Take or be in possession of fish or invertebrates in excess of the bag limit or of a size outside the legal size limits. All prohibited size fish must be released immediately. You must not hold prohibited size fish or fish in excess of the legal bag limit in a live well or use them for bait even if they are injured or dead on capture. If you have purchased fish or bait from a commercial vendor, retain the receipt to present to an I&I NSW Fisheries Officer.
• Take, attempt to take, harm or be in possession of threatened or protected species.
• Use a chemical or explosive device to take or assist to take fish.
• Use a cast net in NSW waters.

• Possess excess fishing gear in, on, or adjacent to waters.
• Sell any recreational catch.
• Interfere with commercial fishers or fishing gear.
• Alter the length of a fish or invertebrate by filleting/ shucking and/ or removing the head/ shell until well away from the water. This rule does not apply at areas normally used for cleaning fish such as boat ramp cleaning tables, if the fish are for immediate consumption or immediate use as bait, or for fish that do not have a legal length. You may clean fish by gilling and gutting only.

Line Fishing

You are not permitted to:

• Carry excess fishing lines in, on, or adjacent to waters. Spare lines should not be rigged and should be properly stowed.
• Jag fish (hooking or attempting to hook fish other than in through the mouth).
• Use drift lines. Lines must be held in the hand or fixed to a boat or the shore.
• Use abalone gut as bait. This is due to the AVG virus.

Invertebrates

You are not permitted to:

• Use hammers, mattocks, chisels, crowbars, dredges or other instruments not specified in permitted methods.
• Retain lobsters or crabs carrying eggs, they must be returned immediately to the water. It is an offence to remove any eggs.

• Retain any rock lobsters caught whilst line fishing.
• Collect invertebrates within Intertidal Protected Areas such as Sydney Harbour and some zones within aquatic reserves and marine parks.
• Collect octopus from ocean rock platforms or from rock platforms in Sydney Harbour
• Alter the length of an invertebrate by shucking and/or removing the head/shell until well away from the water. This rule does not apply at areas normally used for cleaning fish such as boat ramp cleaning tables, if the fish are for immediate consumption or immediate use as bait, or for fish that do not have a legal length.