Fishing Basics: A First-Trip Guide for Australian Beginners

Your first trip doesn’t need a boat, a sounder or a $500 outfit. It needs a spot where fish come to you, a simple rig, fresh bait and a bit of timing. Get those right and you’ll catch fish at most jetties and estuaries.

This guide walks through a first session from start to finish: licences, picking a spot, a starter setup, casting, tides, then landing, releasing and keeping fish. Some days you’ll still go home with nothing. Everyone does.

Do You Need a Fishing Licence in Australia?

It depends on the state. NSW and Victoria license almost all recreational fishing, while the other states and territories license only some activities, or none.

In the states that charge, licence money goes back into fishing through stocking, fish habitat and research, so it’s money well spent. A few things catch beginners out:

• No licence doesn’t mean no rules. Bag limits, size limits, closed seasons and sanctuary zones apply everywhere, licence or not.
• Boat fishing is different. In WA, for example, you need a licence to fish from a boat even though you don’t from the shore. Check the DPIRD licence list before you launch.
• Freshwater can be separate. Tasmania licenses inland waters separately from sea fishing, as the Fishing Tasmania licence page explains.
• Rules change. Check your state’s current rules before every season, not once.

Check our fishing regulations guide before you go, and download your state’s fishing app if it has one. It puts limits and closures in your pocket.

Where Should You Go on Your First Fishing Trip?

Go where fish come to you and the footing is safe: a jetty, a calm estuary bank or a sheltered beach.

Skip rock platforms until you have a few sessions behind you. You’ll learn faster where you can concentrate on the fishing rather than the swell.

Jetties and Wharves

A jetty puts deep water and structure at your feet. Pylons grow weed and shellfish, small fish shelter there, and bigger fish come to eat them. Railings, flat decking and lights at night make it the safest place to learn. Busselton Jetty is a good example, and the Perth metro herring spots such as Hillarys and North Mole give steady bites on light gear.

Estuaries and Rivers

Estuaries are sheltered, and the tide brings fish past you twice a day. Bream, whiting, flathead, herring and tailor all feed along drop-offs and weed edges. The boardwalks of the Mandurah estuary are made for beginners and kids, and the Swan River has easy access points from Point Walter to Claremont.

Sheltered Beaches

A calm beach teaches you to read water. Look for gutters, the darker, deeper strips running along the shore between sandbanks. Fish travel and feed in them. North-facing Bunker Bay is a good example of a beach that stays fishable when the open coast is too rough.

Stocked Dams

Freshwater is a good start if you’re inland. Stocked dams hold plenty of fish, and a live shrimp, yabby or worm fished near submerged timber is about as simple as fishing gets. Glenlyon Dam is one such spot for golden perch. Remember the Queensland permit.

A good first spot usually has:

• Parking, toilets and a flat, non-slip place to stand
• A few other anglers already fishing, which tells you fish are around
• Some structure, such as pylons, weed beds, a drop-off or a rock wall
• Water that moves with the tide

What Fishing Gear Do You Need to Start?

One light spin outfit covers almost every first trip: a 2.1m (7ft) rod rated 2 to 4kg, a 2500 size reel and 6 to 8lb monofilament.

That outfit handles bream, whiting, herring, flathead and small tailor from jetties, estuaries and calm beaches, and it’s light enough that a 30cm fish still feels like a good one.

Start with mono, not braid. Mono stretches, which forgives a clumsy strike and keeps small hooks pinned. It also ties knots easily and tangles less for new casters. Move to braid with a leader once casting feels natural. A pre-spooled combo from a tackle shop is fine for a first outfit.

The Running Sinker Rig

Learn this rig first. The line runs freely through the sinker, so a fish can pick up the bait and move off without feeling the weight. Tie both knots with a uni knot, covered step by step in our fishing knots guide.

Once that feels easy, learn the paternoster, which hangs hooks on dropper loops above a sinker. It holds bait off the bottom and away from crabs and snags. Both are covered in our fishing rigs guide, and tackle basics explains how to step up when you start chasing bigger fish.

What Bait Should You Use?

Fresh beats frozen every time. Prawns, pilchards (mulies in WA), squid and worms catch most estuary and jetty fish. Frozen servo prawns will still catch fish, but I’d take a dozen fresh prawns from the tackle shop over a bag of tired frozen ones. Fresh bait stays on the hook longer and smells like food. A little bread mashed with water and thrown in now and then works as burley around jetties. See our bait guide for more.

How Do You Cast a Spinning Reel?

Trap the line on your finger, open the bail, swing the rod forward and let go at about 10 o’clock. Timing that release is the whole skill.

If the rig flies straight up, you let go too early. If it slams into the water at your feet, you let go too late. Closing the bail by hand cuts line twist, the cause of many beginner tangles.

When Is the Best Time to Go Fishing?

Fish moving water in low light. Plan around the tide first, then aim for dawn or dusk, and you’ll be fishing when fish feed hardest.

Tides move baitfish, prawns and crabs, and predators feed when food is on the move. Slack water at the top and bottom of the tide is often quiet. The run-in floods shallow flats and edges, so fish push up into water you can reach from shore. In many estuaries, the last two hours of the rising tide and the first hour of the run-out are worth planning around. Our techniques guide explains tides in more detail.

Low light matters because many fish feel safer feeding when it’s dim. A rising tide at first light or sunset is the classic window. Tides are also bigger around the new and full moon, which means stronger flow.

A simple plan for your first session:

• Check the tide times and pick a session that covers the second half of the rising tide
• Try to have that overlap dawn or dusk
• Check the wind and swell forecast, and choose a sheltered spot if it’s blowing
• Arrive 30 minutes early to rig up and find your spot in the light

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How Do You Hook and Land a Fish?

Wait until you feel weight, lift the rod smoothly and keep the line tight. Let the drag do the fighting.

Plenty of fish are lost to slack line or a drag set too tight, rather than to the fish being too big.

Small taps are often small fish or crabs pecking at the bait. A steady pull or the line moving off means a fish has the bait, so wind until you feel it and lift. With circle hooks, don’t strike at all. Just wind steadily and let the hook set itself in the corner of the mouth.

Set the drag before you cast. A common rule of thumb is about a quarter to a third of the line’s breaking strain, so with 6lb line you want the spool to give line under a firm pull, well before the line feels close to breaking.

Landing is where a lot of first fish come unstuck:

• Keep the rod tip up and the line tight all the way in
• On a jetty, use a landing net for anything bigger than a hand, rather than swinging it up on the line
• On a beach, walk backwards and let a wave wash the fish up onto the sand
• Never grab the line near a fish that’s still kicking

How Do You Measure and Release a Fish Properly?

Measure on a wet ruler, handle the fish with wet hands, support its body and get it back in the water within seconds.

The why is the slime. Fish are covered in a protective slime layer, and dry hands or a dry towel strip it off, which leaves the fish open to infection after release.

Most species are measured by total length, from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail, but some are measured differently. Check how your target is measured in your state’s rules.

How Do You Keep Your Catch Fresh?

Dispatch the fish quickly, bleed it and put it straight into an ice slurry.

A fish left flapping in a bucket or lying in the sun goes soft and loses flavour fast. If you want a feed of herring or whiting that tastes like it should, the first ten minutes after capture matter most.

• Dispatch humanely. A sharp spike into the brain or a firm blow to the head kills the fish quickly.
• Bleed it. Cut through the gills and let it bleed in a bucket of seawater for a few minutes. Bled fish taste cleaner and the flesh stays whiter.
• Slurry it. Mix about two parts ice to one part seawater in your esky. The fish sits fully surrounded by icy water, which chills it much faster than ice alone.
• Keep the esky shut and in the shade.

Clean fish at the cleaning tables where they’re provided, and bin frames or take them home unless signs say otherwise. Some waters also carry eating advice. In Sydney Harbour, for example, NSW advises against eating fish caught west of the Harbour Bridge. Only keep what you’ll eat fresh.

What Etiquette and Safety Rules Should Beginners Know?

Give other anglers room, never cast over their lines, take your rubbish home and check the weather and swell before you go.

On a jetty or a crowded bank:

• Ask before setting up close to someone, and leave a few metres between rods
• Cast straight out in front of you, not across other lines
• Keep the walkway clear of rods, buckets and bait
• Take home line offcuts, hooks and bait bags, because birds and turtles get tangled in them
• Wash bait and blood off the boards before you leave

Your Questions About Fishing Basics

Do I need a licence to fish from a jetty?

Bag and size limits apply everywhere, licence or not.

What is the easiest fish for a beginner to catch?

What is the best bait for beginners?

What size hook should a beginner use?

Should I start with braid or mono?

Is a rising or falling tide better for fishing?

Why does my line keep tangling?

Can I keep every fish I catch?

What should I bring on my first fishing trip?

Is a cheap rod and reel combo good enough?

When you’re ready for your first session, browse our fishing spots for a jetty, estuary or beach near you, and read up on your target in our species guides. Learn the knots before the trip, not on the jetty.