hay river

Healthy river with lots of wildlife. I wonder down to it at sun-up and it is teaming with wildlife. Just take a seat by the river and "smell the roses". Soak in peace and solitude. There are also walks you can take by the bank and enjoy the wildlife.

It was a majestic little river in flood when we visited there; brimming its banks and looking a little threatening.

I live locally and I love to canoe this river; although, it has been some time since I did so! The river is vegetated on both sides, for most of its length, and it provides easy paddling upstream from South Coast Highway. The rivermouth is a fantastic spot to picnic while the sun goes down in summer.

My 13 foot canoe has seen a lot of rivers and estuaries - I've fished many of them, but today was just a paddle (assisted by the electric motor against the tide and wind on the return downstream) for my wife and I. It's a peaceful river from around 7 metres at the narrowest to 20 metres, runs for at least a couple of kms northwards from the South Coast Hwy east of Denmark. People evidently fish the river but I wouldn't expect much. The canoe trip was pleasant. As another reviewer said, watch for sudden weather changes including increased wind.

We took the fishing kayaks out and didn't realise how bad the weather would turn (50km hour winds). So it was hard paddling and not very pleasant. The other thing we noticed was the amount of lawn grass clippings in the water (it was not like this in the Denmark river) which came in after every cast and made it hard to pull the anchors up. Makes me wonder if someone is dumping their clippings in the river.

en route to Albany and just a few kms from Denmark- plenty of fishing spots on the banks ( both sides) but more importantly its accessible by boat- good launching spot just across the bridge on the left and ideal for small run abouts , canoeing etc.We have yet to pass another craft on the river on any of our trips, but we haven't been during a holiday period, when Denmark expands considerably with visitors .You can potter up river for several kms passing fishing spots on the banks on either side , and eventually reaching farmland - nowhere to really stop and get off to picnic, but a wonderfully quiet river experience with plenty of birdlife. Not sure about the fishing as we have never tried that .Going down river , the Hay river runs into the Wilson inlet, but access is limited by a sandbar and a low bridge although, canoes can probably navigate happily this way, but it is then quite a long paddle on the inlet to Denmark ( or the Nullaki )in relatively open water, which can get very choppy .

Just 6km east of Denmark is this great under used river, just cross over the bridge and turn left immediately, left again into the car park and launching area. If you go south its just a short paddle up to the Wilsom Inlet. Quiet part of the inlet here, lots of swans and pelicans.If you go north you can paddle for kms in a beautiful wide river, natural bush on each side. We saw eagles, falcons as well of lots of bird life. This river is much wider than Denmark River and you can kayak much further