Fishing

St Helens is know as the fishing capital of Tasmania. With Tasmania's mildest weather, you can fish all year round both in estuaries and offshore.

Georges Bay is a recreational only scalefishing area where you might expect to catch sand flathead, garfish, trevally, King George whiting and bream. It is also a shark refuge area, which means no taking of sharks, skates or rays other than elephantfish. Netting is also prohibited.

From a boat, you can also catch calamari and Australian salmon. Offshore species include tiger flathead, striped trumpeter, morwong, tuna, blue-eye trevalla and mako shark. More information is available in this guide.

There are five boat ramps in the area with three in Georges Bay (town foreshore, O'Connors Beach, Stieglitz) and two boat ramps with direct ocean access at Burns Bay and Binalong Bay. Poppa's Boat Hire offer boats, kayak and SUP hire in George's Bay and Scamander River.

You don’t need a licence for rod and line fishing in marine waters in Tasmania. An Inland Fisheries licence is required for any fishing in inland waters including some river mouths and estuaries. Licences are required for abalone, rock lobster, scallop, set line (longlines and droplines), graball net, mullet net and beach seine net fishing. Sea Fisheries licences: www.fishing.tas.gov.au/licence Inland Fisheries licences: www.ifs.tas.gov.au