NSW Department of Primary Industries

Recreational & Charter Fishing

NSW is renowned for having some of the best fishing locations of anywhere in the country. The industry is an extremely valuable one to coastal and inland communities.

The information and data on this page details the results from the fourth comprehensive assessment of recreational fishing in NSW undertaken as part of the NSW-DPIRD Fisheries’ Recreational Fisheries Monitoring Program (RFMP) 98 The survey commenced in November 2021 and ran until the end of October 2022.

The survey period encompassed a combination of extreme environmental and social factors that likely impacted on recreational fishing activity including some of the highest rainfall and flooding on record. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to disrupt society throughout the survey, with continuing restrictions on travel in the early stages of the survey affecting the ability of fishers to travel throughout the state.

Recreational Fishing Participation and Effort

Recreational fishing continued to be one of NSW’s most popular sporting and social pastimes. Understanding the effort, catch, and participation rate of recreational fishers is an important part of sustainably managing NSW fisheries.

The 2021-22 survey estimated that 339,334 residents of NSW recreational fishing licence holders and other members of their households aged five years and older fished at least once in NSW waters during the twelve months from November 2021 to October 2022 across a variety of freshwater and saltwater environments. This equated to a total estimated fishing effort of 1,699,665 fisher-days. 98

Overall, saltwater fishing represented 70% of the total fishing effort while fishing in freshwater accounted for the remaining 30%. The majority of saltwater fishing (71% of saltwater effort) occurred within estuaries with

the remainder (29%) in ocean waters. For freshwater fishing, the majority of effort (64%) occurred in rivers, with the remainder occurring in lakes and dams (36%). 98

Shore-based fishing accounted for 64% of all effort and line fishing (with bait or lures) was the dominant fishing method at 96% of the total effort. 98

Regionally, three coastal saltwater fishing zones accounted for the vast majority (70%) of all state-wide effort, and the Central and North coastal regions (33% and 23% respectively) had the highest activity levels among these coastal regions. Within the three freshwater zones, the majority of state-wide freshwater effort (76%) occurred within the Murray-Darling region. 98

Total state-wide fishing effort through time

  • Fisher days
Download data (.XLSX)
Source: Murphy et al (2023)

Participation by region for Recreational Fisher Licence Holder households during 2021-22

  • Saltwater
  • Freshwater
Download data (.XLSX)
Source: Murphy et al (2023)

Catch

Survey participants recorded the capture of a diverse range of finfish, elasmobranchs (sharks and rays), crustaceans, molluscs, and other taxa, with 123 species and species groupings caught during 2021-22.

Overall, the total state-wide recreational catch of recreational fishing licence holder households was estimated to be 7,736,592 individual organisms, with 3,658,098 being kept (47% of total catch) and the remaining 4,078,494 released (53% of total catch). 98

In terms of saltwater fish, Bream was the most common species/group caught (an estimated 1,112,741 individuals), followed by Dusky Flathead (515,197), Snapper (306,850) Sand Whiting (302,238) and Yellowtail Scad (217,202). Among freshwater fish, Redfin Perch (349,576) was the most common species caught, followed by Murray Cod (335,478), European Carp (292,598) and Rainbow Trout (176,437). 98

Catch by species Estuary Chart

  • Released Catch
  • Kept Catch
Download data (.XLSX)
Source: Murphy et al (2023)

Catch by species Lake/Dam Chart

  • Released Catch
  • Kept Catch
Download data (.XLSX)
Source: Murphy et al (2023)
The smaller crustacean species dominated the remainder of the total catch, including saltwater nippers (708,532), followed by freshwater shrimp (342,106) and saltwater prawns (332,866). Freshwater yabbies (259,616) accounted for the majority of the larger crustaceans, followed by Mud Crab (48,538), Rock Lobster (36,989) and Blue Swimmer Crab (18,180). 98

Overall, 53% of all species/groups caught were released (or discarded), with the highest rates of release (>75%) observed for key saltwater finfish species/groups such as Mulloway, Australian Salmon, Bream, Yellowtail Kingfish and Sergeant Baker. For key freshwater finfish species/groups the highest rates of release (>75%) were for Trout Cod, Silver Perch, Murray Cod and Freshwater Catfish. 98

In terms of reasons for release, ‘small size’ was the primary release reason for over two-thirds of all species groups and especially for sought after edible species, such as Bream, Dusky and Sand/Bluespotted Flathead, Sand Whiting, key freshwater finfish such as Murray Cod and Golden Perch, the various crustaceans and squid. Large catches (‘too many’ or ‘over bag limit’) were the primary release reasons for Freshwater Yabbies and various small bait species. ‘Catch and release’ was the primary release reason for Murray Cod and Australian Bass, with ‘unwanted’ the main reason for species/groups such as Red Rock Cod, and sharks and rays. 98

Catch by species Ocean Chart

  • Released Catch
  • Kept Catch
Download data (.XLSX)
Source: Murphy et al (2023)

Catch by species River Chart

  • Released Catch
  • Kept Catch
Download data (.XLSX)
Source: Murphy et al (2023)

Recreational Fishing Licences

Licence sales and renewal figures have shown a steady decline over past 10 years. For 2021-22 sales for all licence categories combined were ~12% lower than for 2019-20, and ~20% and ~29% lower when compared to 2017-18 and 2013-14 respectively. This decline in sales was more evident amongst the short-term licence categories (1 month and 3 days duration) with a drop of about 26% when comparing 2021-22 to 2019-20, and much lower sales than 2017-18 (~41%) and 2013-14 (~53% lower than 2021-22). However, sales for long term licences remained relatively steady over the same time periods and were <1% lower than 2019-20, and slightly higher (~1%) than in 2017-18. 98

DPIRD Initiatives in Focus

Forster and Terrigal Offshore Artificial Reefs

DPIRD continues to facilitate the deployment of large-scale offshore artificial reefs. These artificial reefs contributes to increased biodiversity and increased productivity of marine life, providing new habitat for a range of species, including iconic recreationally targeted fish species.

Forster

Artificial reefs are utilised world-wide to create new, high quality habitat for marine life and enhance fishing opportunities. In NSW, the DPIRD artificial reefs program facilitates the building of large-scale offshore artificial reefs for recreational fishers to enjoy. These specially designed artificial reefs increase productivity of marine life and increase biodiversity in the marine environment. They also provide new habitat for a range of species, including iconic recreationally targeted fish such as kingfish and snapper.

In October 2023, artificial reefs were constructed off the Forster and Terrigal coasts. These are the latest of 11 offshore artificial reefs deployed across the State’s coastline since 2011, spanning from Merimbula to Tweed Heads. The reef at each location is comprised of two steel towers of around 50 tonnes in weight, rising 12 metres from the ocean floor with footprints of 16 x 16 metres.

The reefs are engineered to withstand enormous coastal storms and are designed to last many decades, ensuring that the benefits from today's investment can be enjoyed by future generations of recreational fishers. Purpose-built artificial reef designs like these are very effective thanks to their ability to divert currents and create eddies and upwellings. This concentrates plankton and small fish up into the water column while the structure is also used for protection and settlement. The reefs provide a cost-effective method to improve sustainable recreational fishing opportunities and drive economic growth through enhanced fishing tourism, while also providing significant ecological and productivity benefits.

The Ballina and Coffs coasts have been announced as the next two regions for artificial reef placement and are on schedule to be completed simultaneously in 2025. Recent scientific studies by DPIRD indicate that recreationally targeted fish species frequent up to more than 100 metres from steel artificial reef structures, and that concrete reef fields can create biologically productive fishing areas up to three times the size of the reef footprint. Once installed, the Ballina and Coffs reef structures will tip the scales at almost 1 million square metres of productive offshore fishing area created across the NSW coastline since this program was introduced.

These reefs are built by DPIRD using funds from the Recreational Fishing Trusts. The Forster, Terrigal, Ballina and Coffs reef projects also been supported with funds from the Marine Estate Management Strategy.

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