Crooked River (Gerroa)

Crooked River is the small estuary that winds out of the Gerroa farmland and spills across the sand at the northern end of Seven Mile Beach, right under the Gerroa headland. A long pedestrian footbridge crosses it from the Burke Parade foreshore to the beach, and the spot is the village end of that bridge, where the river, the mouth and the beach all meet within a few minutes' walk. The mouth is a known spot for bream, flathead and prawns, the sand flats upstream hold whiting, and Seven Mile Beach starts on the far side with its long gutter for whiting, salmon and the occasional mulloway. Few places give you an estuary, a surf beach and a choice of the two depending on the wind, all from one car park.

In the river, work the channel edges and the drop-off beside the sand flats with a soft plastic or a lightly weighted whole prawn for flathead and bream, concentrating on the first of the run-out when bait drains out of the system. Whiting fishers pump their own nippers on the flats west of the road bridge at low tide, then fish them on a long-shank hook over the sand as the tide floods. Luderick come to a float with green weed through the cooler months along any rocky or weedy edge. Cross the footbridge for the beach, where the gutters that open up further along the sand are the summer whiting address and a place to spin metals for salmon at first light. The mouth itself is best fished from the sand either side rather than from the footbridge, which is a busy walkway.

Dusky flathead are the estuary backbone, kept inside a 36–70cm slot with a bag of 5. Yellowfin bream are year-round at 25cm on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, luderick 27cm with a bag of 10, and sand whiting 27cm on a bag of 20 shared across the whiting. On the beach, Australian salmon have no minimum size but a bag of 5, and mulloway are 70cm minimum with a bag of one fish per person and a boat limit of two per boat per day when two or more people are aboard. Saltwater nippers count toward a bag of 100, beach worms 20 whole or part, and pipis are for bait only and must not be taken beyond 50 metres of the high-tide mark.

Fish the run-out in the river, when the flats drain and flathead line up along the channel edges waiting for whatever comes off them. Pump nippers on the low and you have the best whiting bait on the coast for the rest of the session. The road bridge is a traffic bridge, not a fishing platform, so fish the banks either side of it. In summer the river is full of paddlers and kids in the shallows, so dawn and late evening are the quiet, productive windows. Keep an eye on the mouth — it shifts with every big sea and the best channel edge one month may be a sand bar the next.

Park along Burke Parade on the Gerroa foreshore, where the footbridge leaves the river bank, with toilets, a park and shops in the village close by. The river bank on the Gerroa side is grassed and mostly level, and the footbridge gives easy, flat access across to the northern end of Seven Mile Beach. Seven Mile Beach National Park takes over about a kilometre down the beach, and its Gerroa picnic area is open 6am to 8pm in summer and 6am to 6pm in winter. The calm, shallow river edges make this a good family spot, as long as children stay off the channel edge near the mouth on a falling tide.

The estuary is sheltered and fishes in most weather, though a strong southerly or north-easter makes light-line work hard on the open flats. Beachsafe notes that Black Head and its reefs shelter the northern end of Seven Mile Beach, where waves average under a metre, so the beach near the river mouth stays fishable in seas that shut down more exposed beaches. The run-out tide is the river's trigger while the entrance is open — Kiama Council puts it closed over with sand about 15% of the time — and the mouth's shape changes after big swells and floods. Heavy rain dirties the river for several days, which pushes bream and whiting off the bite but can switch on the flathead at the mouth.

The river is calm and shallow on most tides, but Beachsafe warns that the mouth can cause problems on the falling tide, when the current runs out to sea across the beach — do not wade the mouth or let children play in it on the run-out. Kiama is a declared rock-fishing area, so a lifejacket is compulsory on any ocean-swell rock in the municipality — Black Head, the Gerroa headland whose rocks start a few hundred metres east of the river mouth at the end of the same beach, included — the moment you take a rod onto that rock. Seven Mile Beach develops rips about every 300 metres further south as the waves build, and bluebottles and sharks are listed hazards. The road bridge carries traffic, so keep rods and casts off the deck, and watch for walkers and cyclists on the footbridge.

Crooked River and the northern end of Seven Mile Beach are the easy land-based options. The river mouth is known for bream, flathead and prawns, the sand flats upstream hold whiting, and the beach gutter on the far side of the footbridge fishes for whiting in summer and salmon in the cooler months. Black Head is also fished, but it is exposed ocean rock where a lifejacket is compulsory.

Kiama is a declared rock-fishing area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, and Black Head is one of the seven high-risk locations on the council's map, so a lifejacket is compulsory when fishing with rod, line or handline from the rock there. Adults need AS 4758 level 50S or greater, children under 12 level 100 or greater, and the fine is $100 on the spot.

Yes. Nippers are pumped on the sand flats west of the road bridge at low tide, and they are the standard whiting bait here. Saltwater nippers are limited to a bag of 100 per person, and a current NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt is needed, as with any fishing in NSW.

Whiting are the summer headline, with flathead, bream, Australian salmon and mulloway also caught along the beach. Mulloway must be at least 70cm with a bag of one per person, salmon have no minimum size and a bag of 5, and sand whiting are 27cm with a bag of 20 shared across the whiting.