Moira Parade Wharf

Moira Parade Wharf sits on the Hawks Nest foreshore of the Myall River, a short cast across from Tea Gardens and the Singing Bridge. It is the jetty and floating pontoon at Moira Parade Reserve, where a deeper channel runs hard against the bank and tide funnels bait past the pylons twice a day. That mix of pontoon shade, pylon structure and a drop-off into the channel is why it holds bream and flathead year-round, with luderick stacking up in the deeper water through the cooler months. It is one of the few genuinely accessible land-based spots on this river where a kid with a handline and a serious bream angler can fish the same patch of water and both go home happy.

Most of the fishing is done off the fixed jetty and the floating pontoon, dropping baits tight against the pylons and letting the run-out tide swing them along the channel edge. The bream crowd fishes light — unweighted or lightly weighted nippers, peeled prawn or a strip of mullet drifted back into the current on the last of the run-out into the bottom of the tide. Flathead come from working soft plastics and the odd surface lure across the sand and channel drop-off on the run-out, when fish sit on the edges waiting for bait to wash off the flats. Luderick anglers float-fish green weed or cabbage under a float along the deeper channel line through autumn and winter, trotting the bait with the tide. Early morning and late afternoon on a moving tide are the windows that consistently outfish the middle of the day.

Yellowfin bream are the backbone here and feed year-round, firing hardest through the warmer months and around the spawning run into winter. Dusky flathead are a spring-to-autumn proposition, best on the run-out tide from roughly September through April, with the bigger females mostly turning up over summer. Sand whiting move through on the flats and channel edges from October into autumn, taking nippers and worms. Luderick are the cool-season prize — Tea Gardens and the Myall channels are well known for the size and number of blackfish — and they hold from about April through September. Leatherjacket are a constant pylon pest-cum-target, with no size limit and a bag of 20 shared across the leatherjacket species, silver trevally show in the deeper water, and a mulloway is a genuine chance after dark in the deeper holes on a live poddy mullet around the tide change.

Fish the change of light on a moving tide and you have done most of the work. Pump your own nippers and catch poddy mullet on the exposed sandbars at low tide rather than buying bait — they are the standout offerings for everything in this river, and poddy mullet under 15 cm are live-bait only with a limit of 20 per person. The Myall River sits inside the Port Stephens–Great Lakes Marine Park and there is a no-take sanctuary zone in both directions: the Jimmys Beach Sanctuary Zone about 1.2km downstream toward the river mouth, and the Myall River Sanctuary Zone roughly 3km upstream, both closed to fishing by any method. Neither is far in a boat or a long walk along the bank, so check the marine park zoning map or the FishSmart NSW app before you move off this mark. If the after-dark session comes off, mulloway are 70 cm minimum with a bag of one per person, and a boat limit of two per boat per day when two or more people are aboard. Keep berley light and steady to hold a school under the pontoon without feeding every bream in the system. The wharf gets busy with families and casual fishers over summer school holidays, so the keen sessions are the quiet early mornings before the swimmers and the pelicans arrive. Mind the oyster-encrusted pylons and leases nearby — they will shred light leader, so check your line after every solid fish.

Park at Moira Parade Reserve at 30 Moira Parade, with the jetty, floating pontoon and gangway only metres from the car park — there is effectively no walk in. Public toilets, a picnic shelter, BBQ and a playground with views straight out over the Myall River are all on site, plus a boat ramp with a four-person fish-cleaning table and a small sandy swimming area beside the wharf. The flat, sealed approach and the gangway make this one of the more mobility-friendly fishing spots on the river, though the floating pontoon moves underfoot with boat wash. It is about as kid-friendly as land-based fishing gets — short rods, a bucket of nippers, a playground twenty metres away and a swimming beach for when the bite goes quiet.

Tucked inside the Myall River, the wharf is well sheltered and fishes through most wind and weather that would shut down the open coast — a westerly or a fresh nor-easter barely ruffles it. Tide does the heavy lifting here: the run-out into the bottom of the tide is the prime flathead and bream window, while the incoming pushes bream and whiting up onto the flats. Big spring tides from the full and new moon move the most water and the most bait, but they also rip current hard past the pylons. The main thing that puts it off is heavy rain — a big freshwater flush dirties the river, drops the salinity and pushes the better fishing downstream toward Tea Gardens and the river mouth for a few days.

This is calm estuary fishing, so the risks are the small ones that still ruin a day. Oyster-covered pylons and nearby leases will open a hand or a shin in a heartbeat — watch your grip on the ladder and the gangway, and rinse any cut. The floating pontoon shifts with boat wash and can be slick when wet, so keep an eye on small kids near the unfenced edge. Boat and ski traffic is constant near the ramp and channel over summer, so keep lines clear of the navigation line and the ramp. Sun and bluebottles after a strong nor-easter are the usual estuary nuisances, and flathead spikes and leatherjacket teeth account for more injuries here than anything in the water — handle both with a wet towel and long-nose pliers.

Mainly yellowfin bream and dusky flathead year-round, with sand whiting on the flats through the warmer months and luderick (blackfish) in the deeper channel over autumn and winter. Leatherjacket and silver trevally turn up around the pylons, and there is an after-dark chance at mulloway in the deeper holes — 70cm minimum, bag of 1 per person, with a boat limit of 2 per boat per day. The Myall River is inside the Port Stephens–Great Lakes Marine Park, so check the zoning map or the FishSmart NSW app before you fish. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish anywhere in NSW, including off this wharf.

Fresh nippers (yabbies) and live poddy mullet are the standouts, and both can be gathered for free on the exposed sandbars at low tide. Poddy mullet under 15 cm may only be used as live bait, with a limit of 20 per person. Peeled prawn and a strip of mullet also work for bream and flathead, while soft plastics and small surface lures take plenty of flathead on the run-out tide.

Dusky flathead must be within a slot of 36cm to 70cm to keep — anything under 36cm or over 70cm must be released — with a daily bag limit of 5. Releasing the big females over 70cm protects the breeders, so handle and return them quickly. Always check the current NSW DPIRD rules before you keep a fish.

Yes — the jetty and floating pontoon are metres from the car park with no real walk, and there are public toilets, a playground, picnic shelter and a small swimming beach right there. Bream, whiting and small flathead bite readily on simple bait rigs, which makes it one of the easier spots to start out on the Myall River.

A moving tide around dawn or dusk is best. The run-out into the bottom of the tide is the prime window for flathead and bream along the channel edge, while the incoming pushes bream and whiting up onto the flats. Big run-out tides on the full and new moon move the most bait, though heavy rain can dirty the river and push the better fishing downstream for a few days.