RECREATIONAL fishers are forever seeking the ultimate fishing experience.
Fishing Utopia, the jewel in the crown. Well, I have found it!
Two kilometres off the coast between Port Stephens and Forster sits an island wonderland where the fishing opportunities are endless.
Three kilometres long and two kilometres wide, Broughton Island is the only island off NSW that has inviting beaches where boats of all sizes can, in the right conditions, nudge onto the white sand.
Surrounded by an extensive reef system, the island offers a base from which to explore the beaches, rocky shoreline and the mountainous terrain.
If it’s the fishing that attracts you then you are in luck.
Snapper, mulloway, teraglin, kingfish and tuna can all be caught on the reefs, within a kilometre of the island.
Whiting and dusky flathead laze in the sandy shallows along all the island’s beaches while tailor, salmon, groper, leatherjacket and drummer are targeted off the rocks.
If that is not enough lobsters and squid call Broughton home.
A recreational fishing paradise, the island is available to all who wish to visit and there is a growing interest from fishers throughout NSW, interstate and overseas.
If you have the slightest interest, contact the Port Stephens Marine Rescue for safety information and National Parks and Wildlife for camping accommodation. You will not regret it.
Broughton Island is part of the Port Stephens – Great Lakes Marine Park and rules do apply. Send me a photo of the fish that you catch.
By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
