Illawarra Fishing Spots: Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama

The Illawarra is a strip of coast squeezed between the escarpment and the Pacific, which leaves very little room for anything except beaches, headlands, a steelworks and people fishing off all three. Within an hour of each other you get surf gutters, two working harbours, a lake entrance, a proper estuary and some of the most productive land-based kingfish rock in the state.

Here are 12 land-based spots, north to south, each linked to its Bite Compass page with live tides, wind and bite times. Mid-October is the changeover: the last of the cool-water Australian salmon are still about, flathead and whiting are building on the sand from October, and yellowtail kingfish turn up off the headlands from November.

One thing first. Wollongong and Kiama are both declared areas under the NSW Rock Fishing Safety Act, and five people drowned rock fishing at Hill 60 alone in the first seven weeks of 2021. Every ocean ledge in this guide gets a lifejacket, whether the law says so or not. The rules are at the bottom.

Northern Illawarra

Stanwell Park Beach

Stanwell Park Beach is the first proper surf beach south of the Royal National Park, under the hang gliders on Bald Hill. Gutters form against the lagoon sandbanks at each end and hold salmon and tailor at first and last light on ganged pilchards or 40–65 g metals. The southern corner against the headland fishes like a small rock platform for bream, trevally and drummer, and it fires for a day or two after a southerly pushes bait into it. Whiting take beach worms on the open banks from October to April. The southern rocks are inside Wollongong’s declared area, so the lifejacket goes on there. If you’re coming from the north, our Royal National Park guide covers the stretch you just drove through.

Coalcliff Rock Platform

Coalcliff sits under the Sea Cliff Bridge, which exists because the old road kept getting hit by falling cliff. The wide shelf south of the beach is classic Illawarra float-and-berley water: rock blackfish — black drummer — year-round on bread, prawn or weed, and luderick peaking May to September on green weed. Fish a making tide into high on a swell under about 1.5 m. The beach and rock pool end is the family half; the shelf is not.

Bellambi Boat Harbour Breakwall

Bellambi is a small harbour left over from the coal jetties, with a rock breakwall that puts moving water within a short cast. Flick 20–40 g chrome slugs off the wall at dawn on the run-in for tailor, salmon and bonito, drift baits into the eddies for bream and silver trevally, and jig squid off the ramp. Keep clear of the ramp lane — it’s a working ramp, and casting across trailers makes no friends. The natural rock around Bellambi Point is in the declared area.

Wollongong and Port Kembla

Wollongong Harbour (Belmore Basin)

Belmore Basin is the Victorian-era inner harbour under Flagstaff Point, still home to the Wollongong fishing fleet. The stone walls and breakwaters block the southerly swell, so this is where locals go when the coast is a washing machine. Luderick on green weed are the backbone from April to September — a slow trickle of bread-and-pellet berley is the difference between a session and a sulk. Bream and trevally take prawn or cunjevoi in the same trail, and squid come on 2.5–3.0 jigs after dark under the harbour lights. The car park is metres from the wall, which makes it the easiest kid spot in the city. The breakwater tips still take surge, so stay off them in a big east to north-east swell.

Port Kembla Breakwall

Port Kembla’s two harbour walls give you two fisheries a few hundred metres apart. Off the outer side of the Eastern Breakwater, kingfish hunt the washes through the warm months — catch yakkas and slimies on bait jigs on the sheltered side first, then float them out under a balloon on 40–60 lb leader. Tailor, salmon and bonito take 40–65 g metals in the same water. Inside the walls it’s luderick, bream, trevally, squid and school mulloway after dark. NSW Ports opens the Eastern Breakwater dawn to dusk and closes it for weather, port operations or repairs, so check its access status before you drive out.

Know the closure line. The water inside the breakwaters is the Outer Harbour and it’s open to line fishing, though nets and traps other than a landing net are banned. West of the navigation lights at the inner harbour entrance canal is the Inner Harbour, closed to all fishing all year.

Red Point (Hill 60)

Red Point at Hill 60 is one of the Illawarra’s most productive land-based rock marks and its most dangerous. Deep water and current sweep past the point, pulling salmon and tailor in through the cool months and bonito and kingfish on the warm East Australian Current from November to May, with snapper and drummer on the reefy ground year-round. Fish it on a swell under about 1.5 m with light westerly to northerly winds, at dawn or dusk. If the bureau is showing 2 m or a southerly is building, fish the breakwall next door instead. Hill 60 is a declared Aboriginal Place, so stay on the formed tracks.

Lake Illawarra and Shellharbour

Lake Illawarra Entrance (Windang)

The Windang entrance funnels every fish moving between Lake Illawarra and the sea past the bridge pylons, rock training walls and sand flats. Dusky flathead and bream are year-round, whiting peak November to April, luderick run the pylons in the cooler months and mulloway turn up in the channel holes after dark. The run-out is the tide that matters: get there at the top and fish it down. Fish the walls and banks — the bridge deck is signposted no-fishing. Summer brings the lake prawn run on the dark of the moon. A dip or scoop net is fine, but hoop and lift nets, hand-hauled prawn nets, push and scissors nets, crab traps and lobster traps are banned on Lake Illawarra all year. Reddall Reserve, just west of the bridge, is the flat, grassy family base. Keep kids away from the channel, where the current is genuinely strong.

Shellharbour Boat Harbour

Shellharbour Boat Harbour is the old stone-walled harbour at the foot of Addison Street in Shellharbour Village, with a tackle shop two minutes up the hill. Inside the harbour, bream are year-round, flathead and sand whiting work the sand from spring to autumn, and luderick take weed off the walls through autumn and winter. Salmon and tailor come off the points either side at first and last light. Don’t confuse it with the newer Shellharbour Marina at Shell Cove, which has its own signed fishing restrictions. Keep casts clear of the swimming beach and the ocean pool.

Bass Point

Bass Point is a 4 km basalt promontory at Shell Cove and the headland the region reaches for when the kings are on. Live yakkas float-lined over the wash on a rising tide take kingfish from November to May — mostly undersized rats, with the odd legal fish over 65 cm. Metals and stickbaits through the foam pick up salmon, tailor and bonito at dawn, and drummer and luderick work the suds on cunjevoi and weed.

The hard rule: Bushrangers Bay, at the eastern point, is a no-take aquatic reserve. Fishing by any method and collecting anything, dead or alive, are banned in the whole bay. Fish the open ledges either side, cast out to sea rather than back into the bay, and note the angel rings at The Peg and The Chair on your way down. The reserve gate is typically open 6am to 8pm and closes on total fire ban days.

Kiama

Minnamurra River

The Minnamurra River is a small, shallow estuary whose name is usually translated as “plenty of fish”, and it has spent a couple of centuries trying not to embarrass anyone. Flathead lie on the sand flats and channel drop-offs from October to April, bream hold on the road and rail bridge pylons year-round, and whiting take nippers or small surface poppers on the clean sand near the mouth. Upstream, Australian bass hold from September to April. They’re catch-and-release only from May to August. Trevethan Reserve has the boat ramp, toilets and shade. The whole river is closed to nets other than a dip or scoop net for prawns and a landing net. The headland at the mouth is a declared rock-fishing location, so the estuary rules stop at the rocks.

Bombo Beach

Bombo Beach runs 1.2 km between Kiama and Kiama Downs, with the basalt columns of Cathedral Rocks at the north end and the railway station metres from the sand — the rare surf beach you can fish without a car. Walk it at low tide to find the gutters, then fish them on the run-in with beach worms, pipis or prawn for whiting, dart, bream and flathead from spring to autumn. From autumn into winter the focus moves to salmon and tailor off the rock points. The Bombo headland is one of Kiama’s declared rock-fishing locations, and the beach has persistent rips and is only patrolled over summer.

Kiama Harbour and Blowhole Point

At Kiama Harbour and Blowhole Point, two spots share one car park and fish nothing alike. The walled Robertson Basin holds bream, leatherjacket, luderick and squid in almost any weather, with toilets, a playground and a cafe on hand. Two minutes east, Blowhole Point drops into open ocean for salmon, tailor, bonito and kingfish on balloon-floated pilchards or live yellowtail, and 40–65 g metals at first light. The blowhole draws around 900,000 visitors a year, so the dawn session is also the only one where you’ll have elbow room. Blowhole Point is a declared rock-fishing location, a freak wave swept seven sightseers off these rocks in 1992, and the swell above 2 m makes it a harbour-only day.

Best Spots for Kids and Beginners

Wollongong Harbour (Belmore Basin) — car park at the wall, flat stone walls, calm water.
Shellharbour Boat Harbour — flat promenade, toilets and an ocean pool.
Kiama Harbour — toilets, playground, cafe and a sheltered basin.
Reddall Reserve, Windang — flat grass and shallow edges, away from the channel.
Minnamurra River — Trevethan and Rangoon reserves, shallow flats and grassy banks.

Light spin gear, a size 1 hook and peeled prawn will catch bream at all of them. Keep kids off every ocean ledge in this guide.

Rules Before You Go

Checked against NSW DPIRD and the NSW Government on 11 October 2026.

Licence: you need a paid NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt to fish anywhere in NSW, salt or fresh. See our NSW fishing licence guide for prices and exemptions.
Size and bag limits: kingfish 65 cm with a bag of 5, dusky flathead a 36–70 cm slot with a bag of 5, mulloway 70 cm with a bag of 1, and Australian salmon no size limit but a bag of 5. The full table is in our NSW size and bag limits guide.
Rock fishing lifejackets: Wollongong and Kiama are declared areas under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016. On rock exposed to ocean swell there, you, children with you and anyone helping you must wear a lifejacket — AS 4758 level 50S or greater for adults, level 100 or greater for under-12s. Inflatables must be professionally serviced every 12 months. The fine is $100 on the spot. Shellharbour isn’t on the declared list, but Bass Point takes the same swell.
Bushrangers Bay: no-take aquatic reserve. No fishing or collecting by any method.
Port Kembla: Inner Harbour closed to all fishing; Outer Harbour open to line fishing, no nets or traps other than a landing net. Details on DPIRD’s Port Kembla page.
Lake Illawarra: hoop and lift nets, hand-hauled prawn nets, push and scissors nets, crab traps and lobster traps banned all year.
Minnamurra River: no nets other than a dip or scoop net for prawns and a landing net.
Blue groper: line fishing for eastern blue groper is prohibited, a ban DPIRD continued for three years from 1 March 2025. They’re common on the Illawarra ledges, so release any you hook in the water.

FAQ

What are the best land-based fishing spots in the Illawarra?

For sheltered fishing, Wollongong Harbour (Belmore Basin), Shellharbour Boat Harbour, Kiama Harbour, the Lake Illawarra entrance at Windang and the Minnamurra River all hold bream, luderick, flathead or squid in most weather. For pelagics, Port Kembla’s Eastern Breakwater, Red Point at Hill 60, Bass Point and Blowhole Point at Kiama are the best-known rock and wall marks, and all of them need a lifejacket.

Do you need a lifejacket to rock fish in Wollongong and Kiama?

Yes. Wollongong and Kiama are both declared areas under the NSW Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, so if you fish from rock exposed to ocean swell there, you, any children with you and anyone helping you must wear an appropriate lifejacket: AS 4758 level 50S or greater for adults and level 100 or greater for under-12s. The on-the-spot fine is $100. Shellharbour isn’t a declared area, but Bass Point takes the same swell, so wear one there too.

Can you fish at Bushrangers Bay at Bass Point?

No. Bushrangers Bay, at the eastern end of Bass Point near Shellharbour, is a no-take aquatic reserve covering the whole bay. Fishing by any method and collecting marine life, dead or alive, are banned. The open ledges either side of the bay are fishable.

Can you fish in Port Kembla harbour?

Partly. The Inner Harbour, west of a line between the navigation lights at the inner harbour entrance canal, is closed to all fishing by any method all year. The Outer Harbour inside the breakwaters is open to line fishing, but nets and traps other than a landing net are banned there all year.

Where can you take kids fishing in the Illawarra?

Wollongong Harbour’s Belmore Basin, Shellharbour Boat Harbour, Kiama Harbour, Reddall Reserve beside the Lake Illawarra entrance and the Minnamurra River reserves all have flat access, calm water and facilities nearby. Light gear and peeled prawn will catch bream and whiting at all of them. Keep children off the ocean rock platforms.

Heading north instead? Our best fishing spots in Sydney guide picks up where the Royal National Park leaves off. Browse every NSW spot or pick a window on the NSW bite forecast before you go — the swell forecast decides more Illawarra sessions than the fish do.