Long Jetty (Tuggerah Lake)

Long Jetty is the walkway that gave the suburb its name — the present structure dates from a 1927–28 rebuild and runs about 350 metres out into Tuggerah Lake from the end of Archbold Road. That length is the point for an angler, because Tuggerah is a broad, shallow lake and the jetty carries you well past the weedy margins to sand patches and slightly deeper water you would otherwise need a boat to reach. Bream, flathead and whiting are the regulars, luderick move through in winter, and summer brings the prawning crowd with scoop nets and torches. It sits about 1.4 kilometres south-west of The Entrance channel, but it is a completely different session — still water, no channel current, and room to spread out along a long deck.

Spread out along the jetty and fish the sand patches either side, moving until you find fish rather than parking at the end. Flathead take a soft plastic hopped slowly across the bottom or a whole prawn or strip of mullet on a light running rig, and bream come to the same baits fished close to the piles, especially after dark. Whiting want a nipper or worm on a long-shank hook over clean sand, and luderick a float and green weed through the cooler months. Through summer, the classic Long Jetty move is prawning — a scoop net and a torch, working the shallow edges as the water moves at night.

Yellowfin bream are the year-round staple at 25cm, on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine. Dusky flathead must be between 36 and 70cm to keep, with a bag of 5, and every fish over 70cm goes back. Sand whiting are a warm-water target at 27cm on a bag of 20 shared across the whiting, and luderick run through the cooler months at 27cm and a bag of 10. Prawning counts as fishing in NSW: the bag is 10 litres of prawns per person per day, and a scoop net's hoop can be no more than 0.6 metres across.

Tuggerah is a perched lake whose level is set more by rainfall and the sand berm at The Entrance than by the moon, so read the wind and the light before the tide chart. A breeze that puts a ripple on the water and a bit of colour along the edges usually fishes better than a glassy calm. Night sessions suit the bream, and the jetty is long enough that a headlamp makes the walk back safer. The trap and prawn-net bans at the lake's entrance cover a defined area around the channel at The Entrance, but a hand scoop or dip net is the tool for prawning here anyway.

The jetty starts at the lake end of Archbold Road, beside the Long Jetty foreshore pathway that runs about 3.5 kilometres along the lake. Council rebuilt the Archbold Road amenities block in 2024 with accessible unisex toilets, and there is parking along the foreshore. The deck is flat and level from the shore, though at 350 metres the walk back is longer than it looks. The grassed foreshore reserve makes it an easy family spot, with kids kept back from the jetty edges.

Because the lake is shallow and mostly enclosed, wind direction and strength shape the session more than tide does. Light winds from most directions are workable, but a strong southerly or north-easter makes light-line bait work miserable on an exposed 350-metre deck. Warm water from spring through autumn brings the flathead and whiting on. After heavy rain the lake rises and colours up, and in warm, still spells the Tuggerah Lakes are prone to blue-green algae blooms, so it is worth checking council water-quality notices before a session.

This is a calm lake jetty with no ocean swell, so the risks are the everyday ones. The deck is long and exposed, so a squall or a summer storm can reach you a long way from the shore — watch the sky on hot afternoons. The deck can be slippery when wet and a fall off the side is a fall into open lake, so small children need an adult beside them. Blue-green algae blooms occur on the Tuggerah Lakes in warm, still weather; avoid contact with discoloured water and follow any council warnings. There is little shade out on the jetty, so sun protection matters on summer days. Night prawning means wading the lake edges in the dark, so take a light and a buddy, and shuffle your feet for stingrays on the sand.

Yes. Long Jetty runs about 350 metres into Tuggerah Lake from the end of Archbold Road and is a popular spot for bream, flathead, whiting and summer prawning. As anywhere in NSW, you need a current Recreational Fishing Fee receipt unless you are exempt.

Yellowfin bream, dusky flathead and sand whiting are the regulars, with luderick in winter and prawns in summer. Bream are 25cm on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, dusky flathead must be between 36 and 70cm with a bag of 5, and sand whiting are 27cm on a bag of 20 shared across the whiting.

Through the warmer months, on dark nights. Prawners work the shallow edges either side of the jetty with a hand scoop or dip net and a torch. Prawning counts as fishing in NSW, so the Recreational Fishing Fee applies, and the defined entrance area at The Entrance channel has its own bans on hoop and lift nets, hand-hauled prawn nets, push or scissors nets and crab and lobster traps.

No. The Entrance channel is the tidal outlet of Tuggerah Lake about 1.4 kilometres to the north-east, with current, a road bridge and rock training walls. Long Jetty is a long timber jetty on the still lake itself, better suited to families, light tackle and prawning.