Narooma is one of New South Wales’ great fishing holiday towns, with sea access for trailerboaters, and several good estuaries nearby.

Narooma is the gateway to Montague Island, with gamefish such as yellowfin tuna and marlin caught in this area, as well as kingfish and snapper.

If fishing the island note that there are marine sanctuary zones, part of the Batemans Marine Park which encompasses this region.

Narooma Bar can be hazardous and should be used only in good conditions.

The entrance rock walls produce big mulloway, bream, salmon and tailor, but the tide rips through and the rocks are large, making fishing difficult.

The local beach fishing is good with salmon and tailor at the main beach can be good, which is located near the local golf course.

There is rock fishing also, with kingfish and more.

When it is rough outside, Wagonga Inlet has quality bream, luderick, whiting and flathead.

The long rock walls hold quality luderick. Bream fishos should try driving around the lake, as there are many fishable jetties.

Footpaths near the mouth fish well for salmon and trevally on an incoming tide, and the area around the bridge is good for big flathead and summer.

Try near the sand boat ramp early in the morning during the week when boat traffic is low.

West of the bridge, near Narooma Quata Park, bream, flathead and mulloway are caught.

Wagonga Head has mainly salmon, tailor, bream and luderick.

The beach alongside Surf Beach Holiday Park has salmon, flathead and bream. The mouth of Little Creek has bream. Try morning and late afternoon.

Other beaches and headlands can be seen here.

Dark nights (no moon) in summer are best for Wagonga prawns, and mulloway often run with them at the lake mouth.

Offshore there are winter and summer snapper runs, with winter fish coming closer inshore.

Here is a list of recommended tackle for NSW waters.

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com

Narooma tides
Narooma coastline
Batemans Bay Marine Park
Batemans Bay Marine Park User Guide
Narooma bar crossing web cam
NSW fishing regulations
NSW marine parks

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Pambula is a holiday town with a great river, tidal lagoon, and many nearby beach and rock fishing spots.

Pambula River produces flathead, tailor, black and yellowfin bream, luderick, trevally and whiting.

Upstream, Pambula Lake has much the same, with an emphasis on bream and whiting.

Fishing the lake shallows in summer with small surface lures is a popular method, and works on whiting, flathead and bream.

Tee Tree Point is a popular area, but boat fishos can fish any sandbanks on the high tide.

The shallows around Mangrove Island are good.

Fish the channel edges on a falling tide for flathead.

Haycock Point is a popular rock fishing location, with snapper, mulloway, kingfish, salmon and tailor, but care is required when fishing this spot.

Boaters can try Hunters Rock about 1km north of Haycock Point for kingfish.

Popular offshore fish in this area include morwong, pigfish, snapper, leatherjacks and tiger flathead, with plenty of good fish caught on grounds around the 50m mark.

Access to the sea is problematic as Pambula and nearby Merimbula require good conditions for safe crossings.

Educate yourself about bar crossings here).

Merimbula has a bar crossing web cam here.

For landbased fishos, Hayock Road gives access to fishing at the river mouth, the headland and Haycock Beach.

Severs Beach Access track leads to a shallow beach which drops off sharply into the channel.

Salmon, tailor and bream are caught on the beaches in winter.

When fishing within South Coast estuaries, use light leaders, as the water is usually very clear.

Fishing is often better when current flows on bigger tides, or after heavy rain, when the lower estuaries tend to fire up.

While the NSW’s southern limit for reliable mangrove jack fishing is around Coffs Harbour, these fish have turned up as far south as Eden, so you might crack one fishing any South Coast estuary, including Pambula.

Lastly, the NSW South Coast is not far from some of the state’s best trout fisheries, such as Lake Eucumbene and Jindabyne, giving fishos plenty of options.

Here is a list of recommended tackle for NSW waters.

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com

Pambula tides
Pambula coastline on Beachsafe
NSW fishing regulations
NSW marine parks

Email corrections, additions, pictures or video here.

Bermagui is popular with trailerboaters because it has one of the better NSW sea entrances, and the Continental Shelf is only 22km out.

Everything from flathead to broadbill swordfish can be caught.

When rain opens local lake entrances to sea for extended periods, there is fish recruitment and estuary fishing improves greatly.

The bluewater produces good runs of kingfish.

Seasonal timing is the key to fishing.

For snapper it is May, for marlin it is all year but best Dec-June (peak Feb-Mar), yellowfin tuna are Nov-Aug (peak April-June), and kingfish are all year, but best in April.

Offshore fishing also depends on water temperature and prevailing currents.

Recent seasons have been exceptional for striped marlin and bluefin tuna.

Bermagui River is shallow but has luderick, flathead, flounder, bream and mullet. Try midstream east of bridge. Use nippers or worms on early rising tide.

There are offshore reefs at various depths. The 4-Mile is east of Bermagui at 60m, the 6-Mile is south-east in 65m and the 12-Mile is further south-east at 120m.

Brothers Reef is south in 50m and south of Bermagui there is shallow reef off Goalen Head.

Reef fish include snapper, morwong, cod, wrasse, sharks, gurnard, mackerel, coutta and kingfish.

The 12-Mile Reef has trumpeter in summer.

flathead are caught all year over sand to 120m deep, with prime grounds east of Mount Dromadery, between 28m to 40m.

Other areas are Camel Rock in 40m, inside 4-Mile Reef at 50m, Beares Beach in 18m and Cuttagee Beach in 25m.

Near Bermagui, Mystery Bay is a quieter location and is only 7km from Montague Island, and adjacent to Lake Corunna.

Mystery Bay’s inshore reefs have morwong, snapper, flathead and kingfish, with rock and beach fishing for salmon, tailor, mulloway and kingfish.

Mystery Bay launch site is basic but holds up in average conditions.

Bass and estuary perch are available 30km west of Bermagui in Brogo Dam, which fishes best in summer and has an annual competition.

Bermagui GPS Marks

Tilba Cemetery – flathead
36 20.832S 150 07.198E
4-Mile Reef
36 24.000S 150 08.400E
6-Mile Reef
36 24.440S 150 10.000E
12-Mile Reef
36 27.000S 150 15.000E
Bermagui Canyon – gamefish
36 17.175S 150 24.152E
The Kink – gamefish
36 18.000S 150 19.000E

Here is a list of recommended tackle for NSW waters.

Book your fishing stay early at Booking.com

Bermagui tides
NSW fishing regulations
NSW marine parks

Email corrections, additions, pictures or video here.