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Luderick

Fish · Last reviewed 2026-10-22

A schooling, weed-eating fish of south-east Australia's estuaries and rock walls, fished under a float with a strand of green weed for bait.

Catching Luderick

Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.

Lives in
Sea and estuary
Rules
Set where you fish, not recorded here for the species. Who to ask
Methods
Ground
Where
16 places FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: regular local target
How
From the shore at 16 · Fly fishing at 3 · From a boat at 8 — the number of places that record it that way.Kayak: kayak anglers' accounts record it at 4 places.

Luderick are one of the commonest coastal and estuary fish of New South Wales and one of its most popular angling fish, and they are caught in a way that surprises people who have only fished with meat: on a strand of green or cabbage weed, hung under a slim stem float.

The reason is the diet. The Australian Museum describes luderick as eating mainly algae, grazed from rocks and from drifting material, and the state fisheries department's guides build the whole method around it — a long, soft rod, a stem float weighted with split shot, a small hook baited with weed, and berley of chopped weed and sand where the current is slack along a rock wall. A growing number of anglers fish weed flies instead.

They school in coastal and estuarine water down to about twenty metres, from southern Queensland to central South Australia and northern Tasmania. Their young grow up in estuary seagrass and mangrove creeks. In New South Wales they are also called blackfish, which is worth knowing because the same word is used for other fish elsewhere.

Catching it

How it is caught

Where and whenBack to the questions

Where Luderick is documented

Places where public sources describe this species as fished, with how it is fished and how strongly the evidence supports it. This is not a range map and it is not a recommendation — it is what has been written down about a fishery rather than a record of any individual catch, and being listed is never permission to fish.

See these by shore, boat, kayak, fly or fresh water in the species finder.

New South Wales

16 documented places

  • Sydney Harbour · EstuaryRegular local target · from the shore
  • Middle Harbour · EstuaryRegular local target · from the shore, fly fishing
  • The Spit Bridge · BridgeRegular local target · from the shore, fly fishing
6 more places here
  • Federation Point · HeadlandRegular local target · from the shore, fly fishing
  • North Harbour Aquatic Reserve · BayRegular local target · from the shore
  • Hawkesbury River and Broken Bay · EstuaryRegular local target · from the shore, from a boat
  • Hawkesbury River bridges at Brooklyn · BridgeRegular local target · from the shore, from a boat
  • Dangar Island · IslandRegular local target · from the shore, from a boat
  • Jervis Bay · BayRegular local target · from the shore

7 more documented places on this coast

What these strengths mean
Regular local target
Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.

The fishBack to the questions

Identification

No photograph of Luderick is published yet, so none is shown. A photograph is published only once the animal in it has been checked against the diagnostic features described on this page, and its rights to be used here have been checked at its source.

Scientific name
Girella tricuspidata
Family
Girellidae
Water
Saltwater, Brackish
Conservation status
Not assessed
Regions
Australia, New Zealand
  • A deep-bodied fish with evenly arched upper and lower profiles, a small mouth, a small eye and a large tail.
  • Eleven or twelve thin, tapering dark bars run down the sides and fade to silver on the belly.
  • Bluish-grey in the sea and darker grey to brown in estuaries.
  • The teeth are flattened and three-cusped, which is what the species name means.
  • Spawning males can turn pale with a dark head while the females keep their bars.

Size

Typical
Not given as a figure by the sources read
Large
About 60 cm at most, according to the Australian Museum

Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 71 cm, 4 kg and an age of 24 years

Lifecycle and reproduction

Larvae are found mainly in estuary seagrass beds and sometimes in rock pools; juveniles move into mangrove-lined creeks and estuaries in their first year, then after a few months return to the sea or to the deeper parts of the estuary. FishBase gives a maximum age of 24 years and low resilience.

Luderick breed offshore, and the Australian Museum describes annual spawning aggregations at a Queensland seaway, with males pale and dark-headed following barred, ripe females. The sources read give no spawning season for New South Wales.

Feeding and senses

Mainly algae, grazed from rocks or from floating material — the reason weed is the bait. The state department notes luderick are also taken occasionally as a bycatch by anglers fishing marine worms for bream and whiting.

The pages read do not describe how luderick find food. What they describe is a grazer schooling over shallow rocky reef and along rock walls, which is where the float method puts the bait.

Through the year

The state department's Sydney guides give luderick as a year-round target. The sources read give no seasonal movement for the adults beyond the offshore spawning.

Distribution

Western Pacific: south-eastern Australia, from southern Queensland to South Australia including northern Tasmania, and New Zealand, in coastal and estuarine water to about 20 m (FishBase; the Australian Museum gives central South Australia as the western limit).

This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.

Why anglers care

A popular angling fish in New South Wales, and a key target in the state department's guides to Middle and North Harbour, Sydney Harbour and the Hawkesbury, all year. The method is specific: three-metre slow rods, a stem float weighted with split shot, a small hook baited with strands of green or cabbage weed, set about a third of the depth off the bottom, and berley of sand and chopped weed in slower water along rock walls. Weed flies on fly tackle are a growing alternative.

Handling and returning

The sources read give no handling instructions for luderick. In Sydney Harbour and its connected waters, the state's dietary advice also applies: it recommends against eating any fish caught west of the Harbour Bridge and gives a monthly limit for luderick caught east of it.

A luderick rig: weed on a small hook under a stem float, a third of the depth off the bottom

A luderick rig: weed on a small hook under a stem float, a third of the depth off the bottomA single side view of the water, under a heading saying this is a luderick rig as the NSW fisheries guides describe it. A horizontal line marks the surface and another, lower down, the bottom. The fishing line comes down from above, through a slim stem float standing upright at the surface, labelled stem float. Below the float a split shot sits on the line, labelled split shot weights the float. The line ends in a small hook about two-thirds of the way down, labelled small hook baited with strands of green or cabbage weed. An arrow rises from the bottom to the level of the hook, labelled about a third of the depth. A note at the foot says the guides berley with sand and chopped weed in slower water, that no hook size, shot weight or spacing is drawn, and that it is not to scale.A LUDERICK RIG AS THE NSW FISHERIES GUIDES DESCRIBE ITSURFACEBOTTOMSTEM FLOATSPLIT SHOT WEIGHTS THE FLOATSMALL HOOK BAITED WITH STRANDS OFGREEN OR CABBAGE WEEDABOUT A THIRD OF THE DEPTHBERLEY OF SAND AND CHOPPED WEED, IN SLOWER WATER.NO HOOK SIZE, SHOT WEIGHT OR SPACING IS DRAWN. NOT TO SCALE.

A luderick rig: weed on a small hook under a stem float, a third of the depth off the bottom

Float setup · Reference linked — a canonical reference is named, the check is not signed off — reference: Go Fishing — Sydney's Middle and North Harbour parks and reserves; Go Fishing — Sydney's mighty Hawkesbury River

A canonical reference for this drawing has been identified, but the check against it has not been completed and signed off. Treat the drawing as an aid to the text rather than as an authority.

Describe this diagram in words

A single side view of the water, under a heading saying this is a luderick rig as the NSW fisheries guides describe it. A horizontal line marks the surface and another, lower down, the bottom. The fishing line comes down from above, through a slim stem float standing upright at the surface, labelled stem float. Below the float a split shot sits on the line, labelled split shot weights the float. The line ends in a small hook about two-thirds of the way down, labelled small hook baited with strands of green or cabbage weed. An arrow rises from the bottom to the level of the hook, labelled about a third of the depth. A note at the foot says the guides berley with sand and chopped weed in slower water, that no hook size, shot weight or spacing is drawn, and that it is not to scale.

How this drawing was produced

Drawn from coordinates written for this figure in the site's shared vocabulary, from two guides by the same state fisheries department read on the same day: its Middle and North Harbour guide and its Hawkesbury guide. No picture in either was traced. The one setting drawn — the bait about a third of the depth off the bottom — is the Hawkesbury guide's; hook size, shot weight, number and spacing are not drawn.

Safety and rulesBack to the questions

MoreBack to the questions

Sources and evidence

5 sources cited on this page
  • FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment and distribution for Girella tricuspidata.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Luderick, Girella tricuspidata — Australian Museum (Mark McGrouther), updated 31 July 2024 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Identification, size, range, habitat, diet, breeding and the species' standing as a New South Wales angling fish.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Go Fishing — Sydney's Middle and North Harbour parks and reserves — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, 2024 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: The luderick method: stem float, split shot, a small hook baited with green or cabbage weed, long slow rods, weed flies; year round.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Go Fishing — Sydney's mighty Hawkesbury River — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, 2024 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Luderick plentiful on the Hawkesbury's rock walls, fished with green weed under a stemmed float a third of the depth off the bottom, with sand and weed berley.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • Go Fishing — Sydney Harbour's wharves, piers and parks — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, 2024 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: Luderick as a common harbour fish, and the dioxin dietary advice including its limit for luderick caught east of the bridge.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 4 connections on this page are here, and the sources

How it is caught

Official guidance — 2 connections

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • Float fishing

    The NSW department's guide gives the stem-float and weed rig as the standard luderick rig; its Hawkesbury guide says the same and gives the depth.

    • Go Fishing — Sydney's Middle and North Harbour parks and reserves — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, 2024 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That luderick are fished with green or cabbage weed under a stem float weighted with split shot, on a size 6 to 8 hook and long slow rods.States this directlyPassage read and verified
    • Go Fishing — Sydney's mighty Hawkesbury River — NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, 2024 (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That luderick are fished with fresh green weed under a stemmed float set a third of the way off the bottom.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Saltwater fly fishing

    The NSW department's guide reports fly fishing with weed flies as a growing method for luderick.

    • Go Fishing — Sydney's Middle and North Harbour parks and reserves — relied on for: That a growing number of anglers target luderick with fly fishing outfits and weed flies.

Where it lives

Official guidance — 2 connections

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • Estuary

    The Australian Museum's factsheet places luderick in coastal and estuarine water.

    • Luderick, Girella tricuspidata — Australian Museum (Mark McGrouther), updated 31 July 2024 (Scientific institute)Relied on for: That adults live in coastal and estuarine waters to 20 m and juveniles move into mangrove-lined creeks and estuaries.States this directlyPassage read and verified

  • Rocky shores and reefs

    The NSW department's guide puts luderick along rock walls; the museum describes them over shallow rocky reef.

    • Go Fishing — Sydney's mighty Hawkesbury River — relied on for: That luderick are plentiful along the many rock walls of the Hawkesbury.

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.

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