Kiama Harbour / Blowhole Point

Two spots share one car park here, and they fish nothing alike. Kiama Harbour — the Robertson Basin, dug out in the 1870s and walled in stone — is the sheltered side: bream and leatherjacket nose around the moorings and the basin walls, blackfish work the weed, and squid hang off the rock edges. A two-minute walk east puts you on Blowhole Point, the basalt headland under the 19th-century lighthouse, where the water goes from millpond to open ocean and the target list jumps to salmon, tailor, bonito and kingfish. Blowhole Point is one of the seven high-risk rock fishing locations Kiama Council has declared, so the lifejacket law applies out on that headland. It is one of the few places on the South Coast where a kid can dunk a bait in a calm basin while someone else spins metals at deep blue water a two-minute walk away.

In the harbour, locals fish light — a small running sinker or a float over the basin walls and moorings for bream and leatherjacket, peeled prawn or squid strip the standard offering, fished into the run-in around dawn or after dark. Squid jigs worked along the southern side of the blowhole platform and the basin edges pick up calamari, best on the change of light over clean water. On Blowhole Point proper it is float-and-livie or spin: drift a whole pilchard or a live yellowtail under a balloon off the front ledge for kingfish and salmon, or cast 40–65g metals and stickbaits across the wash at first light. Drummer and luderick fishers take the lower platform in winter with bread, weed and cunjevoi, fishing tight to the cabbage and white water.

The harbour holds bream and leatherjacket year-round — bream at 25cm with a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, leatherjacket with no size limit and a bag of 20 across all the species — with squid showing on jigs through most of the year and thickening in the warmer months, no size limit and a bag of 20 shared with cuttlefish. Luderick and drummer are the cool-season prizes from the platform, roughly April to September, taken on weed and cunjevoi close to the wash at 27cm and 30cm respectively, both with a bag of 10. Off the point the pelagics arrive with the warm water — bonito at dawn through summer and autumn once the water warms, kingfish mixed through spring to autumn, and tailor about most of the year with the best chopping from April to August. Salmon hang around through the cooler months, and in a good run kingfish and bonito stay in numbers until late April. Keep the numbers straight on the pelagics: kingfish are 65cm with a bag of 5, tailor 30cm with a bag of 10, bonito no size limit with a bag of 10, and Australian salmon no size limit at all but a bag of only 5. Land-based game anglers do work the front in mid-summer, but a tuna off these rocks is the exception, not the everyday catch.

The blowhole pulls 900,000 tourists a year, so the platform near the lighthouse is a shared space — set up early, keep gear tight, and expect a crowd of phone cameras by mid-morning. Get the dawn bite done before the swimmers and sightseers arrive. The squid are reliably on the southern, sheltered side of the platform rather than the exposed front. Check the swell forecast the night before, not on arrival — the point looks fine right up until a set lifts over the lower ledges. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required, and Fisheries officers do work the headland.

Blowhole Point Reserve sits at the end of Blowhole Point Road with sealed parking on the headland and overflow parking nearby, both a short flat walk from the harbour and the lighthouse. There are public toilets including an accessible one, change rooms, showers, BBQs, a playground, undercover picnic tables, a cafe, a caravan and holiday park and an ocean rock pool a short stroll away — unusually civilised for a fishing spot. Parts of the rock shelf around the blowhole itself are fenced and signed, which decides where you can actually set up. The harbour, basin walls and rock pool are easy and pram-friendly; the blowhole platform itself is uneven basalt and not suitable for small kids or anyone unsteady. Families do best fishing the calm basin side while the headland is left to the spin and game crowd.

The harbour side fishes in almost anything short of a gale — it is walled and sheltered, which is the whole point of a basin. The blowhole platform is swell-dependent: it switches on in a light-to-moderate southerly or northeast swell under 1.5m and becomes genuinely dangerous above 2m, when sets break clean over the lower ledges and the blowhole erupts to 25 metres. Dawn on a rising tide with a gentle morning offshore is the window for the point. Big southerly swells, king tides and any forecast of building seas mean fish the harbour or go home.

This is a serious rock-fishing headland, not a novelty stop. Blowhole Point is named in Kiama Council's declared list of seven high-risk rock fishing locations, alongside Pheasant Point, Church Point and Kendalls Point, and Kiama is a declared area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016 — so a lifejacket is required by law on that headland, AS 4758 level 50S or greater for adults and level 100 or greater for under-12s, covering children and anyone helping you fish, with a $100 on-the-spot fine. An inflatable has to be professionally serviced every twelve months and cannot rely on oral inflation alone. The point has killed before: a freak wave swept seven people off these rocks in 1992 — families sightseeing, not anglers — and more deaths followed. The basalt is slick with spray and algae, sets arrive without warning, and the blowhole itself can erupt 25 metres beside you. Wear cleated boots, never fish the front ledge alone or with your back to the sea, and know before you cast where the angel rings on the north and south sides of Blowhole Point are and where the council's Emergency Relay Beacon is — activating it connects you straight to the Surf Life Saving NSW Operations Centre. The sheltered harbour carries the usual smaller risks — oyster-cut hands on the basin walls, bluebottles after a northeasterly, and full sun on an exposed headland.

Yes — Blowhole Point is a long-standing land-based spot for salmon, tailor, bonito, kingfish and drummer, with squid on the sheltered southern side of the platform. It is also one of the seven high-risk rock fishing locations Kiama Council has declared, and Kiama is a declared area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, so a lifejacket is required by law on the platform and the fine is $100 on the spot. A paid NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish anywhere in NSW.

The harbour basin holds yellowfin bream, leatherjacket, luderick and southern calamari (squid) more or less year-round. Light bait rigs with prawn or squid strip work for the bream and leatherjacket, a float and weed for the blackfish, and squid jigs along the basin and platform edges for calamari. It's the sheltered, family-friendly side of the point and fishes in almost any weather, though the lifejacket law reaches the headland rock a two-minute walk away, so carry one if you plan to work both sides.

You need to pay the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, which covers you for both salt and fresh water across the state — there's no separate paper licence. It runs $7 for three days, $14 for a month, $35 for a year or $85 for three years, and you must carry proof of payment, which can be a receipt number. Fisheries officers do patrol the harbour and the headland. Limited exemptions apply, including for under-18s and holders of a Pensioner Concession Card.

The warm-water months. Bonito fire up at dawn through summer and autumn once the water warms, and kingfish run from spring into autumn, often holding until late April. Float a live yellowtail or spin metals across the wash off Blowhole Point at first light on a low swell. Kingfish must be 65cm to keep, with a bag of 5.

The harbour basin and the rock pool are the safe, easy option — flat walking, public toilets, a playground, BBQs and a cafe right there, with calm water for bream and squid. Keep children well away from the blowhole platform and lighthouse rocks, which are uneven basalt exposed to sudden swell, carry a legal lifejacket requirement, and have a history of fatal wave wash-overs. Parts of the shelf near the blowhole are fenced off. Fish the calm side and leave the headland to the spin crowd.