The lake is best known for producing big prawns in summer, which can be caught at night with a scoop net and light.
The summer prawn seasons are usually better if there has been good winter rain.
The Wallagoot sea entrance opening is intermittent, yet snapper have been caught in the lake in years past, along with bream, salmon, flathead and tailor.
The lake is not a highly regarded spot for fishing, perhaps because it has opened to sea less often in recent times.
Wallagoot is best suited for fishing by cartopper dinghy or yak.
The surf beaches outside the entrance put on excellent fishing at times for salmon, tailor, mulloway and bream.
Expect mulloway around the sea entrance during major rain events.
Wallagoot Lake is a pleasant spot but a better choice for general estuary fishing in this region is to the north at Blackfellows Lagoon off the Bega River at Kalaru, on Blackfellows Lake Road, where you can expect quality bream and flathead.
Large flathead are a highlight of the Wonboyn system. Fish for them where the channel drops off, at tidal drains, and creek entrances.
The local rocks and surf outside produce tailor, snapper and salmon.
Offshore fishing is good and can be accessed through the sea entrance when it is sufficiently open and conditions are suitable, with snapper, kingfish, morwong, gurnard, gummy sharks and more.
The bar crossing is shallow and hazardous and the entrance sometimes shrinks to almost nothing.
There is a boat ramp on the southern side of the lake, and a private ramp at a local resort.
Small boats are best for the lakes.
If the sea entrance is poor then local reefs can be accessed from the Quarantine Bay launch site to the north.
Shallow Sydenham Inlet forms the lower Bemm River, part of a prime estuary perch, bream and bass fishery.
The river sits at the boundaries of Cape Conran Coastal Park, Croajingolong NP and Bemm State Forest.
The Bemm is 60km long, with the upper section running through rainforest, much of it in rugged country, before reaching Sydenham Inlet, a tidal estuary.
The inlet’s sea entrance opens only occasionally.
When the inlet is closed the water tends to be slightly deeper.
Salmon are caught in the entrance channel when it opens, with a chance of mulloway.
The river is deeper than the inlet.
There is some bankside access, but most of the many fishable snags can only be exploited by boaters.
The flats in the inlet have useful bait-pumping areas.
The upper Bemm is isolated and difficult to access.
Bass exist in the upper reaches, and in the Genoa River.
Bream and estuary perch are also found in Swan and Mud Lakes on the east side of the inlet.
Surf beaches can be accessed by taking a boat to near the lagoon entrance and walking.
To the west there is a 4WD track leading to beach fishing at Pearl Point, with salmon and sharks, and snorkelling for abalone and crays.
To reach Bemm River township, take the turn-off on the Princes Highway between Cann River and Orbost.
There are two boat ramps in the inlet.
Bankside access for fishing is limited.
Bemm River township has Telstra mobile coverage, a bottle shop, general store, boat hire, fishing platforms, and some sports facilities. There was no fuel outlet at the time of writing.
