Cosy Corner (Tallow Beach, Cape Byron)

Cosy Corner is the sheltered northern end of Tallow Beach, tucked under the southern side of Cape Byron, and the most straightforward legal place to fish around the cape. It sits inside the Tallow Beach habitat protection zone of Cape Byron Marine Park, where recreational line fishing is allowed — unlike The Pass and Wategos on the other side of the cape, which are sanctuary zones where you can't fish at all. The corner gives a beach gutter and a rocky edge in one spot, with the cape blocking the north-east sea that shuts most of Byron's beaches in summer. It is a beach session with a lighthouse view, not a deep-water ledge.

Read the gutters from the car park before walking down — look for a gutter running along the rocks where the beach meets the cape. Dart, whiting and bream come to beachworms, pipis or peeled prawn on a light running or paternoster rig cast into the gutter on the run-in. Tailor are spun with metals or fished on ganged pilchards into the white water at dawn and dusk, and jew are a night job in the deeper gutter with a fresh fillet or whole squid. Fish the beach and the rocky corner, not around the point toward the lighthouse.

Dart are in the gutters for most of the year (no size limit; general bag of 20), with sand whiting from spring through autumn (27 cm, bag 20 shared across whiting) and bream all year (25 cm, bag of 10 shared with tarwhine). Tailor run the beach through the cooler months (30 cm, bag 10). Mulloway are an after-dark prospect year-round (70 cm, bag 1). Sharks and rays must be released: in Cape Byron Marine Park's habitat protection zones all sharks and rays are protected.

The zone lines here are tight, so fish the beach. The rocks at the corner are part of the same Tallow Beach habitat protection zone. Round the cape the rules tighten: the East Cape Byron zone on the cape's eastern face allows only shore-based line fishing and runs only about 100 m out from the rocks, with the Byron Bay Sanctuary Zone beyond it, and Wategos and The Pass are inside that sanctuary zone with no fishing at all. Tallow Creek, about 3 km south down the beach, is a special purpose zone where fishing needs a Marine Parks permit — don't fish the creek mouth. Pipis are bait-only in NSW and can't be taken more than 50 m from the high-tide mark; bringing your own bait is simpler. Arakwal National Park, which surrounds the corner, does not allow dogs.

From Byron Bay, follow Lighthouse Road and turn into Tallow Beach Road, which ends at the Cosy Corner car park in Arakwal National Park. The park is always open, though it can close in storms or high fire danger, and mobile reception is limited. A short track leads down to the sand. The soft sand makes it hard going for wheelchairs and prams.

The cape shelters the corner from north-east wind and sea, which is why it is busy all summer; a southerly or a big south-east swell runs straight up Tallow Beach and makes it rough. Fish the run-in tide at dawn or dusk in small to moderate swell. Gutters move after every blow, so the corner that fished last month may be a sandbank now. Dirty water after rain helps the jew and tailor.

Tallow Beach is unpatrolled, and the gutters that hold the fish are rips. Don't wade out to reach a gutter, and keep kids out of the water while you fish. The rocks at the corner are slippery and swell-washed; stay off them in any real swell and never turn your back on the sea. A lifejacket is strongly recommended if you fish from the rocks — adults AS 4758 level 50S or greater, under-12s level 100; Byron Shire is not a declared lifejacket area. The corner is popular with surfers and kitesurfers, so watch your casts.

Only in some places. Cosy Corner and Tallow Beach, on the south side of the cape, are in a habitat protection zone where line fishing is allowed. The rocks on the cape's eastern face, below the lighthouse, allow shore-based line fishing only, and only within a strip about 100 m wide — the Byron Bay Sanctuary Zone starts beyond it, so a long cast or a drifted bait from there lands in a no-take zone. The Pass and Wategos Beach, on the north side, are in the Byron Bay Sanctuary Zone, where all fishing is banned.

No. The Pass and Wategos Beach are inside the Byron Bay Sanctuary Zone of Cape Byron Marine Park, where fishing of any kind is prohibited. The nearest legal beach fishing is at Cosy Corner on Tallow Beach, on the other side of the cape.

Dart, bream and, from spring to autumn, sand whiting in the gutters, and tailor and mulloway through the cooler months. Sharks and rays are protected in Cape Byron Marine Park's habitat protection zones and must be released.

There's no licence as such, but you must pay the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee and carry the receipt to fish anywhere in NSW, salt or fresh. It's $7 for three days, $14 for a month, $35 for a year or $85 for three years. Some people are exempt, including anglers under 18 and certain concession holders.