Saltwater Fish Finder

By tapping into the behaviour patterns of saltwater species, you can confidently get on with some prime fishing: You can easily transfer the techniques and gear used to catch these Australian and New Zealand saltwater fish to other species that have a similar size range and behaviour pattern. (The number of stars in the Edibility column indicates the tastiness of the species.)

Type of Fish	Preferred Habitats	Best Baits	Best Lures	Edibility
Bream	Estuaries, bays, harbours, surf beaches, rocky shores	Prawns, worms, yabbies, crabs, shellfish, cut fish flesh	Small minnows and plugs, small soft plastics	***
Flathead	Estuaries, bays, harbours, offshore over sand or mud bottom strata	Small live and dead fish, prawns, yabbies, squid	Deep-diving minnows and plugs, metal spoons, jigs, soft plastics	****
Garfish (piper)	Estuaries, bays, harbours	Prawn pieces, worm pieces, strips of fish or squid, bread, maggots	Unlikely to be caught on a lure	****
Leatherjackets	Estuaries, bays, harbours, offshore reefs, near islands, jetties	Peeled prawn tails, squid, octopus, cunjevoi, strips of fish flesh, shellfish	Unlikely to be caught on a lure, but occasionally taken on soft plastics	****
Salmon (kahawai)	Surf beaches, rocky shores, offshore reefs, around islands, deeper bays	Small live and dead fish, pilchards, strips of fish, squid, prawns	Metal spoons, jigs, minnows, rubber squid	**
Snapper	Larger bays and harbours, rocky shores, offshore reefs, gravel patches	Prawns, pilchards, cut fish flesh, small fish heads, squid, octopus	Occasionally caught on metal jigs, regularly taken on soft plastics	****
Tailor	Surf beaches, rocky shores, offshore reefs, next to islands, bays, harbours, large estuaries	Small live and dead fish, pilchards, strips of fish, squid, prawns	Metal spoons, jigs, minnows, rubber squid	***
Trevally	Lower estuaries, bays, harbours, surf beaches, rocky shores, offshore reefs, next to islands	Prawns, squid, cut fish flesh, pilchards, shellfish	Metal spoons, jigs, minnows, soft plastics, surface poppers for tropical varieties	***
Tuna	Deeper offshore waters, but occasionally straying closer to shore and even entering bays	Small to medium live fish, pilchards, cut fish flesh, squid	Resin-headed trolling lures, feather jigs, rubber squid minnows, jigs	***
Whiting	Estuaries, bays, harbours, surf beaches, offshore sand, gravel patches	Marine worms, prawns, shellfish (especially pipis and cockles), yabbies, strips of squid	Once thought unlikely to be caught on a lure, now regularly taken on small surface poppers	*****

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Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/saltwater-fish-finder.html