Tacking Point Lighthouse Rocks

Tacking Point is the headland at the southern edge of Port Macquarie, with the squat 1879 lighthouse on top and a skirt of dark, broken rock running into deep water below it. Tailor are the point's best-known fish, with luderick and drummer in the wash for anyone floating cabbage. It is a short drive from the CBD, the car park is beside the lighthouse, and on a calm morning the rocks are a short scramble from the car. The lighthouse has watched worse casting than yours.

Drummer and luderick are fished close in with bait and berley: cunjevoi, bread or peeled prawn for drummer, cabbage or green weed under a float for luderick, both worked into the white water along the ledge edges. Bream come from the same washes on prawn or mullet strip. Tailor are a dawn and dusk spin with 30–40 g metals or ganged pilchards cast into the foam off the point. Keep the rig simple — the bottom here eats sinkers.

Black drummer and luderick are the cool-season staples, with drummer around the rocks all year. Tailor come through from autumn into winter and are the most reported fish off the point. Bream fill in throughout. Eastern blue groper can't be taken by any method in NSW until the end of February 2028 — release any you hook.

The northern side of the point gets some protection from a southerly; save the exposed eastern face for genuinely calm days. A loaf of bread mashed with sand and a little tuna oil is enough berley to hold drummer in the wash. Black drummer are 30 cm minimum with a bag of 10, tailor 30 cm and 10, luderick 27 cm and 10. Octopus cannot be taken from ocean rock platforms in NSW.

Drive to the end of Lighthouse Road off Pacific Drive, south of the CBD; there is a small car park beside Tacking Point Lighthouse. Paths lead around the lighthouse to the headland, and the ledges are a scramble down over broken, uneven rock. The lighthouse area and lookout suit everyone, but the fishing rocks do not suit prams, wheelchairs or small children. The nearest shops and toilets are back toward Lighthouse Beach and Port Macquarie.

A small swell — under about a metre and a half — with a westerly or light north-westerly is the pick. Southerly swell wraps hard around the point and washes the low ledges; a north-easterly sea hits the eastern face directly. A little foam on the ledges suits drummer and luderick, and the rising tide into dawn or dusk is the window for tailor. Big seas make the rocks dangerous rather than merely unproductive.

The rocks below the lighthouse are exposed to the open ocean: sets wash the low ledges without warning, the weed-covered rock is slippery, and the broken rock cuts on a fall. Check the swell forecast, then watch the water for 15 minutes before climbing down, stay on the higher dry rock, never turn your back on the sea, and leave if spray is reaching your feet. Port Macquarie-Hastings is not one of the ten council areas declared under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, but a lifejacket is strongly recommended on every ledge here, with cleated boots and light clothing you can swim in. Fish with a partner and carry a phone in a dry bag. If you are washed in, swim away from the rocks, float, signal and have your partner call 000, and pick your retreat before you cast.

Yes. The rocks below Tacking Point Lighthouse in Port Macquarie are fished for tailor, black drummer, luderick and bream. The ledges are exposed to the open ocean, so fish them only in a small swell, and wear a lifejacket and cleated boots. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt is needed unless you're exempt.

Autumn into early spring is the best season for tailor, drummer and luderick. On the day, a small swell, a westerly wind and a rising tide into dawn or dusk give the best fishing and the safest ledges.

Cunjevoi, bread and peeled prawn are the standard drummer baits, fished close to the rocks on a strong line with minimal weight, with bread-and-sand berley to hold the fish in the wash. Black drummer are 30 cm minimum with a bag of 10.