Crookhaven Heads (south shore)

Crookhaven Heads is where the Shoalhaven and Crookhaven rivers actually reach the sea, through a channel framed by a training wall on the Comerong Island side and a low rocky shore under the lighthouse on the south side. It is the doorway to one of the best estuary systems on the coast: the whole river drains past this point twice a day. The spot is the rock shelf on the south shore below the lighthouse reserve, where the channel runs close and you can fish the river mouth without a ferry. The wall opposite is the better-known one, but from this side it takes the ferry, a boat or a long sand walk to reach.

Fish the shelf on the run-in and the top of the tide, when clean ocean water pushes into the mouth and the current along the rocks is fishable. Luderick anglers float green weed or cabbage along the weed line at the edge of the shelf, berleying lightly with sand and bread. Bream and trevally take peeled prawn, nipper or a strip of mullet on a lightly weighted running rig cast into the channel edge, and flathead sit on the sand where the rocks give out to the east and west. Tailor and salmon push through the mouth on the change of light — a 30–40 g metal cast across the current covers them. Mulloway are a night proposition with fresh squid or a live mullet into the deep water on the turn.

Yellowfin bream are 25 cm minimum on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, and luderick 27 cm with a bag of 10. Dusky flathead are kept inside a 36–70 cm slot with a bag of 5. Tailor are 30 cm with a bag of 10, Australian salmon have no minimum size and a bag of 5, and silver trevally are 30 cm on a bag of 10 shared across all trevallies. Black drummer work the washes off the rock end at 30 cm and a bag of 10, and mulloway are 70 cm minimum with a bag of one per person. Eastern blue groper can't be taken by any method in NSW until the end of February 2028 — release any you hook.

The run-out tide pulls hard through the mouth and drags floats and light rigs straight out to sea, so most locals pack up or move to the sand edges once it gets going. All traps except bait traps are banned in the Crookhaven entrance waters up to the Orient Point–Haven Island line, so don't set a crab trap here. Octopus cannot be taken from ocean rock platforms anywhere in NSW. Bring your bait — a nipper pump and the flats around the boat ramp at low tide solve that for whiting and bream. Watch the bar before you set up: if boats are idling outside waiting for a set to pass, the swell is coming into the mouth too.

Drive to the end of Prince Edward Avenue at Culburra Beach and park at the visitor car park or the lighthouse reserve, which has toilets and grassed picnic areas. From the reserve it is a short, uneven walk down to the rock shelf on the channel side. The Crookhaven Heads boat ramp and its small jetty are about 700 m west along the shore. The Comerong Island training wall on the north side is reached only by the Comerong Island vehicle ferry from the Nowra side, by boat, or on foot when the Shoalhaven Heads mouth is closed — it is not a quick trip from here.

The south shore sits inside the heads but faces the mouth, so a solid southerly or easterly swell rolls straight in and washes the lower shelf. Small swell, light winds and a morning run-in tide are the ideal mix. A big north-easter stirs the mouth, but the shelf itself stays fishable. After heavy rain the Shoalhaven pours brown water out through the Crookhaven, which slows the bream and luderick but can fire up flathead and mulloway on the edge of the dirty water.

This is a working bar crossing — boats come through at speed, and lines cast into the channel can foul a passing hull. Swell entering the mouth surges up the lower shelf without warning, and the rock edge is covered in weed and slippery whether wet or dry. Check the swell forecast, watch the shelf for ten minutes first, pick your retreat to the grass, keep off the low edge in any swell and never turn your back on the mouth. Shoalhaven is not one of the ten declared rock-fishing lifejacket areas, but a lifejacket is strongly recommended on any rock exposed to ocean swell, with cleated shoes and light clothing you can swim in; never fish the shelf alone. The ebb current through the heads is fast enough to carry a swimmer well out past the bar, so anyone who goes in should not fight it: swim away from the rocks, float, signal and have your mate call 000. Keep children on the grass, not on the shelf.

The only training wall at Crookhaven Heads is on the Comerong Island (north) side, so it is reached by the Comerong Island ferry, by boat, or on foot when the Shoalhaven Heads mouth is closed. From Culburra Beach, fish the rock shelf on the south shore below the lighthouse instead — same channel, no ferry.

Bream, luderick, dusky flathead, silver trevally, tailor, Australian salmon and black drummer, with mulloway on night tides. Dusky flathead must be 36–70 cm with a bag of 5, tailor 30 cm with a bag of 10, and mulloway 70 cm with a bag of 1.

No. Traps other than bait traps are banned in the Crookhaven River entrance waters up to the Orient Point–Haven Island line. Fish with rod and line and take crabs elsewhere.

Shoalhaven is not one of the ten declared rock-fishing lifejacket areas, but a lifejacket is strongly recommended on the south-shore rocks because swell surges into the mouth and the ebb current is fast.