Thank you for the fish

Like so many things in life, this website happened by accident.

My son loves fishing. Whenever he has time, he's out at Lake Macquarie with his mates, rods in the water. He's gone deep into it - knows all the right spots, which bait for which fish, what time of day, what tide, what wind. The kid has done his homework.

Me? I find fishing fascinating, but I don't have the time to study it like he does. I know exactly two knots: the Uni Knot and the Uni-to-Uni. That's it. And whenever we fish together - usually at Queens Wharf in Newcastle - he grumbles when I need help tying on a hook or getting my sinker right. Watching me cast is apparently painful for him.

But through all our conversations, I've come to understand something: fishing isn't just luck. It's skill and timing. There are patterns - windows when the odds are actually in your favour.

What's biting now?

Sure, there are fishing apps. Loads of them. They track your catches, log your spots, show you photos of blokes eclipsing their entire face with an oversized bream. Some want you to join a community. Some want your data. Most want you to sign up for something.

I just wanted to know: is it worth going fishing right now?

How I got hooked

So I started building an iCal calendar, marking the best days and times for different fish at different spots. That calendar became my rabbit hole. And that rabbit hole became this website.

The idea was to keep it dead simple. If you want to fish and you're wondering whether conditions are right in Newcastle or Lake Mac - whether the weather's decent and the fish are active - you just open Fish Newy and see at a glance if it's worth heading to the water. Or when the next good window is.

I've tried to strip it back to essentials: right spot, right time, right conditions, right fish. And then what bait and tackle to use when you get there. I've done that work so you don't have to.

What's changed since

In July I moved down to Lake Macquarie. So these days it's the lake more often than the harbour, and you'll mostly find me somewhere around Belmont Wharf.

Around the same time I started keeping a log. One line a day: sea temp, rain, swell, wind, and the best window the site found in each area. Partly to make the ratings better, because you can't improve a forecast you never wrote down. Mostly so that when the site tells you something about the water, I can go back afterwards and check whether it was right. That log is slowly turning into the blog.

The fish don't read websites

Now, I'm not making any guarantees. My son pulls eight fish out of the water while I'm still waiting for my first nibble. Same spot, same time, same bait. So I've included some technique tips too - because clearly there's something he knows that I'm still learning.

I hope you find it useful. And if you see a bloke at Belmont Wharf fumbling with his rig, or at Queens Wharf with his son sighing heavily nearby - come say g'day.