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