Narooma Breakwall (Wagonga Inlet)

Two rock walls guard the entrance to Wagonga Inlet: the northern arm runs about 300 m out from the end of Bar Beach, and the southern arm runs about 250 m off Wagonga Head below the Bar Rock lookout and Australia Rock. The northern wall is the easy one to reach from the Bar Beach car park, and the southern wall fishes the same entrance. Every tide in and out of the inlet squeezes between them, so salmon and tailor hunt the bar, bream and luderick hold along the rocks, and flathead and mulloway follow bait in and out of the channel. Salmon and tailor take gang-hooked pilchards and metal slices off the walls, and the sheltered Bar Beach between the walls makes it a family stop as well as a fishing one.

On the northern wall, fish the channel side into the run of the tide rather than the beach side, which is shallow sand. Salmon and tailor come to a ganged pilchard or a 20–40g metal slice cast across the current at dawn and dusk, especially on the run-out when bait is flushed over the bar. Bream take peeled prawn or a soft plastic worked down the rocks, and luderick want green weed under a float tight to the wall in the cooler months. Flathead sit on the sand edges inside the walls and suit a soft plastic hopped back along the bottom. For a mulloway, soak a fresh squid or live bait in the deepest part of the channel at night around the tide changes.

Australian salmon have no minimum size in NSW and a bag of 5, and tailor are 30 cm with a bag of 10. Yellowfin bream are 25 cm on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine and luderick 27 cm with a bag of 10. Dusky flathead are kept only between 36 cm and 70 cm, with a bag of 5. Mulloway are 70 cm with a bag of one per person, and a kingfish chasing bait through the entrance in summer has to reach 65 cm, with a bag of 5.

The run-out is the session to plan around — it drags bait out through the entrance and lines the predators up along the walls. The local fur seals haul out on the southern wall and patrol the entrance, and they are quick to steal a hooked fish; when one moves in, move along. Bring your own bait: the water off the walls is a habitat protection zone of Batemans Marine Park, where cunjevoi cannot be collected, and the Wagonga Head rocks south of the Bar Rock lookout are a restricted habitat protection zone where line fishing is allowed but no marine vegetation or invertebrates (including abalone and rock lobster) may be collected by hand. Inside the inlet, hoop and lift nets, hand-hauled and push prawn nets, crab traps and lobster traps are all banned.

For the northern wall, take Centenary Drive to the Bar Beach car park, which has toilets, and walk out along the wall from the end of the beach. The southern wall and Bar Rock are reached from the town side via Bar Rock Road, with the lookout and Australia Rock beside its root. Both walls carry a rough track along the top, but the edges are armour rock, so footing is uneven and they are not suited to prams or wheelchairs. Bar Beach itself is calm, shallow sand between the walls and an easy place for kids to drop a bait for small bream on a quiet tide.

The walls take the full force of any easterly swell at their outer ends, so the tips are only safe in small seas, while the inner sections stay fishable in most weather. Westerlies flatten the sea, and north-easterly sea breezes blow across the entrance on summer afternoons. Tide is the trigger — the run-out for salmon, tailor and mulloway, the flood for bream and luderick along the rocks. Heavy rain flushes dirty water and bait out of Wagonga Inlet, which can fire up the entrance for a day or two.

In an easterly the swell that makes the Narooma bar dangerous breaks over the outer ends of both walls — check the swell forecast, watch the sets for ten minutes first, never turn your back on the sea, and stay off the tips when sets are washing the rocks. The walls are uneven boulders with gaps and weed near the waterline, and there are no rails, so wear closed shoes and carry a headlamp at night. The channel runs hard on the tide, so do not wade the entrance or let kids play at the water's edge on a falling tide. Watch your casts for passing boats, and keep back from hauled-out seals, which bite. Eurobodalla is not on the NSW declared rock fishing list, but a lifejacket is strongly recommended on the walls, with light clothing you can swim in. Don't fish the tips alone; if you go in, swim clear of the wall, float, signal and have your mate call 000, and know your retreat.

Most anglers walk out along the northern wall from the Bar Beach car park on Centenary Drive and fish the channel side for salmon, tailor, bream and luderick. The southern wall below the Bar Rock lookout is reached from Bar Rock Road on the town side and fishes the same entrance.

Bar Rock is the headland at the south side of the Wagonga Inlet entrance, with a lookout over Australia Rock and the southern breakwall where fur seals haul out. Anglers fish the southern wall there, but the rocks south of the lookout are the Wagonga Head restricted habitat protection zone, where line fishing is allowed but collecting marine vegetation or invertebrates by hand — weed, abalone and rock lobster included — is banned, so bring your luderick weed.

Yes, Narooma is in Batemans Marine Park. The water off the breakwalls and the inlet are habitat protection zones where line fishing is allowed, but cunjevoi cannot be collected, sharks and rays other than gummy and school shark are protected, and hoop and lift nets, hand-hauled and push prawn nets, crab traps and lobster traps are banned in Wagonga Inlet.

Yes. Australian fur seals regularly haul out on the southern breakwall near Australia Rock and patrol the entrance. Keep well back from them, never feed them, and expect them to steal the odd hooked fish.