Eraring Outlet Canal (Myuna Bay)

Eraring Power Station returns its cooling water to Lake Macquarie through an outlet canal that runs beside Rocky Point Road and opens into the lake at Myuna Bay, and that water comes out warmer than the lake around it. Fish notice: when NSW Fisheries brought in a night closure here in 2004, it said juvenile fish congregate where the warm water is discharged, and the canal mouth has drawn anglers ever since. That crowding is why the rules here, and at the Vales Point outlet on the southern lake, are tighter than anywhere else on the lake — from 6pm to 6am every night in May, June, July and August, the whole outlet canal and all water within 100 metres of its end are closed to every method of fishing, from the bank or from a boat. Outside those hours the canal and its mouth are open; during closed hours the simple answer is to fish somewhere else, because section 25 of the Fisheries Management Act also makes it an offence to have fishing gear in, on or adjacent to waters while they are closed, so a rod on the bank beside the closed canal can draw a fine even if the bait never lands in closed water. The spot mapped here is the public foreshore reserve on the lake shore, about 250 metres south-east of the canal mouth and about 290 metres from the end of the training wall, outside the mapped closure but still too close to it to fish on a winter night. Origin has scheduled Eraring to close on 30 April 2029, so the warm-water effect comes with an end date.

By day, and on any night from September to April, the canal banks and the grass reserve beside the mouth are where the rods go, with bream the usual target along the outflow. Peeled prawn or a strip of mullet on a size 2–1/0 circle hook, under just enough weight to hold bottom in the current, is the standard bream approach. A 6–10 cm paddle-tail on a 9–14 g jighead, hopped slowly along the sand off the mouth, covers flathead, and a small metal kept handy covers tailor when they show. On a winter evening, pack up and leave before 6pm — the closure binds anglers on the banks and the shore as much as boats, and the law on carrying fishing gear beside closed water means the lake shore next to the mouth is no workaround.

Expect to measure a lot and keep a little. The closure exists because anglers were taking juvenile fish that gather in the warm water, so a fair share of what bites here is undersize and goes straight back. Yellowfin bream are 25 cm on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, sand whiting 27 cm on a bag of 20 shared across the whiting, tailor 30 cm on a bag of 10, and dusky flathead sit in a 36 to 70 cm slot with a bag of 5. Bream are the year-round mainstay, while flathead and whiting are best from October to April and tailor turn up in every month.

The closure in plain terms: 6pm to 6am, 1 May to 31 August, the whole canal plus 100 metres from its end, any method, bank or boat — and NSW Fisheries said in 2004 it would back it with signs and stepped-up patrols. Whiteheads Lagoon, just north of the canal, is closed to hoop and lift nets all year upstream of the road bridge near its mouth and to crab traps under the 2026 Lake Macquarie crab-trap order, and the lake-wide closure on spade-or-fork digging and on traps other than a bait trap applies here too. Crab traps in Lake Macquarie are governed by a separate DPIRD order, so check the current order and its entrance-size rule on DPIRD's fishing closures, restrictions and permits page before setting one, and if you keep crabs, the NSW Government's cadmium advice for the lake is up to six 150 g serves a week of blue swimmer crab or six a month of giant mud crab (six a month in total if you eat both) for anyone aged six or over, and three 75 g serves on the same basis for children under six. Release undersize fish quickly with wet hands and a circle hook, which DPIRD recommends because most fish released that way survive. Anyone 18 or over who isn't exempt needs the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee — $7 for three days or $35 for a year — with the receipt on you.

The outlet reserve runs along the south side of the canal off Rocky Point Road at Myuna Bay, with a car park beside the canal where it widens toward the mouth and grass along the bank from there to the lake. From 6pm to 6am in May to August, do not fish here at all; Toronto Wharf, on the same western shore to the north-east, has no closure. Unsealed Foreshore Street carries on south-east from the end of Rocky Point Road beside the lake, and the treed strip along the water there is a Crown reserve set aside for access and public recreation; the spot mapped here is on that strip, about 250 metres south-east of the canal mouth, with private land behind, so keep to the foreshore. The bank is unbuilt grass and rock rather than a platform, so access beyond the car park is uneven, and there are no toilets to count on at the reserve. Wangi Wangi and Toronto are the nearest towns for supplies.

The warm discharge is the whole point: the canal and mouth hold fish through winter when much of the lake slows down — but winter nights are exactly when the closure applies, so cold-month sessions here are daytime sessions. The canal mouth opens east into the lake, so an easterly blows straight into it and a westerly blows off the land behind you. There is no ocean swell inside the lake and the tide range is modest, so the outflow current and the time of day matter more than the tide chart.

The canal carries discharge water from a working power station, so treat it as moving water: do not swim, wade or climb down the bank to free a snag. The narrow western section of the canal runs right beside Rocky Point Road, so park in the car park rather than on the verge and keep kids away from the road side. The banks are uneven grass and rock with no rails, the reserve is unlit, and the closure means nobody should be fishing the canal after 6pm in winter anyway. Lake Macquarie is a declared rock-fishing lifejacket area for its ocean-swell rock; on this canal bank a lifejacket is strongly recommended, especially for children. Fishing inside the closed area during closed hours is an offence, and NSW Fisheries cited illegal fishing at the outlets as the reason for the closure in the first place.

Yes, outside the seasonal closure. From 6pm to 6am each night in May, June, July and August, the whole Eraring outlet canal and the waters within 100 metres of its end are closed to all fishing, from the bank or a boat. At all other times the canal and its mouth at Myuna Bay are open to line fishing under normal NSW bag and size limits, with a Recreational Fishing Fee receipt.

Every night from 6pm to 6am from 1 May to 31 August inclusive, under a DPIRD location closure. It covers the whole outlet canal and the water within 100 metres of the canal's end, any species and any method. The rule was introduced in 2004 to protect juvenile fish that crowd into the warm water, and the Vales Point outlet canal on the southern lake has the same closure.

Eraring Power Station discharges its cooling water into Lake Macquarie through the outlet canal that opens at Myuna Bay, so the water around the mouth is warmer than the open lake, and fish — juveniles especially — gather there in the cooler months. Origin has scheduled Eraring to close on 30 April 2029, after which the warm outflow is expected to stop.

Yellowfin bream are the main catch, with dusky flathead, sand whiting and tailor also on the cards. Plenty of what bites is undersize, so carry a measure: bream are 25 cm, sand whiting 27 cm, tailor 30 cm, and dusky flathead must be between 36 and 70 cm with a bag of 5.