Wollongong Harbour (Belmore Basin)

Belmore Basin is the Victorian-era inner harbour tucked under Flagstaff Point, ringed by intact stone seawalls and protected by two breakwaters — the northern rock wall, added in the 1960s, and the eastern breakwater, built in 1867–69 out of the stone dug from the basin itself. That eastern wall carries the old iron Breakwater Lighthouse, whose light was permanently extinguished in 1974, while the working concrete lighthouse of 1937 stands on the headland above, so the point runs to two of them. It's a genuine working harbour, with the Wollongong fishing fleet still moored against the central pier, and that mix of deep berth water, current along the walls and weed over the broken bottom is exactly what bream, luderick, trevally and squid want. The shelter is the whole point: when the open coast is blown out and the rock ledges are unfishable, the basin keeps producing. It's a land-based spot you can fish in a southerly with kids in tow, which is rarer than it sounds on the Illawarra.

Most of the fishing is off the stone walls and around the fishing-fleet moorings — the calm inside water rather than the exposed breakwater tips. Luderick anglers float fresh green weed under a quill or stem float and trickle a bread-and-chook-pellet burley to bring the fish up, which on these walls is the difference between a session and a sulk. Bream and trevally come on peeled prawn, half-pilchard or cunjevoi suspended under a float in the same burley trail, fished best around tide change and into low light. Squid are worked over the weed and ribbon-weed patches on size 2.5–3.0 jigs, natural and pink the standbys, slow-hopped and best after dark under the harbour lights. Flathead get picked up on soft plastics and baits drifted across the sandier basin floor and the outer harbour edge.

Luderick are the backbone of the place, strongest April through September when fresh green weed grows on the walls and the schools push inside out of the rough — 27cm minimum with a bag of 10. Yellowfin bream and silver trevally fish year-round off the same walls, picking up after dark and around the moorings, at 25cm and 30cm respectively — the bream on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, the trevally on a bag of 10 across the trevallies. Southern calamari hold over the weed all year with the cleaner-water months producing best, no size limit and a bag of 20 shared with cuttlefish. Dusky flathead come on through the warmer half, roughly October to April, across the basin sand and the outer harbour, inside a 36–70cm slot with a bag of 5. Leatherjacket are a near-constant nuisance-or-bonus around the walls depending on your patience, with no size limit and a bag of 20. Autumn into winter brings runs of Australian salmon and tailor chasing bait around the harbour mouth and breakwater tips — salmon carry no minimum size but a bag of only 5, and tailor are 30cm with a bag of 10.

Burley is not optional for luderick here — a slow trickle of bread and pellets over the wall draws the school up and holds them, and the anglers who skip it tend to blank next to those who don't. Fish the moorings and the fleet with respect; this is a live working harbour and crews need clear water around their boats. Low light and tide change do the heavy lifting, so a dusk-into-dark session beats the middle of a bright day. Keep fresh green weed in a damp rag rather than baking it on the wall, and check the float drift to read where the current is funnelling bait — that line is where the bream sit.

There's a sealed car park right at Belmore Basin, so the walk to the wall is a matter of metres rather than the long rock trudge that defines the open headlands. Cafes and a restaurant sit around the basin alongside the slipway and workshops, which makes it one of the easier land-based spots to bring a family to. The stone walls are flat-topped and stable underfoot, so it's broadly workable for less mobile anglers and a sensible first harbour for kids learning to float-fish — keep them back from the wall edge and watch for the swell-driven surge near the breakwater tips. Check what is open around the fleet berths before you set up, because the working half of the harbour takes priority over the fishing half.

The basin's whole value is shelter: the seawalls and breakwaters block south-easterly swell and the prevailing southerly, so it stays fishable when the surrounding coast is a washing machine. That's when locals come here — persistent southerlies and rain that shut down the open beaches and rock platforms are exactly the conditions the inner harbour fishes best in. Tide change is the trigger for bream, luderick and trevally, with the run pushing bait along the walls. Heavy rain dirties the water and slows the squid and trevally, and a big east-to-north-east swell can still surge over the lower outer breakwater rocks even when the basin itself looks calm.

This is still the Illawarra coast, and people have lost their lives rock fishing around the 'Gong — the inner basin walls are the sheltered half, but the outer breakwater tips and the ocean-facing rocks around Flagstaff Point cop ocean surge and get slippery and washed by sets, so treat them with the same caution as any open rock platform. Wollongong is a declared rock-fishing area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, so a lifejacket is compulsory when you fish with rod, line or handline from naturally occurring rock exposed to ocean swell here, and the duty covers anyone helping you and any child under 12 in your care. Adults need AS 4758 level 50S or greater and under-12s level 100, and a $100 on-the-spot fine applies. Wear one on any swell-exposed rock or wall here rather than trying to work out where the line falls. The stone walls grow weed and are slick when wet, so grippy footwear matters. It's a working harbour, so mind boat traffic, mooring lines and the fishing fleet, and keep gear out of the way of vessels coming and going. Cunjevoi and oyster growth on the walls cut hands, and bluebottles wash in on a north-easterly.

Mainly luderick, yellowfin bream, silver trevally and southern calamari off the basin walls and around the fishing-fleet moorings, with dusky flathead over the sand in the warmer months and leatherjacket year-round. Runs of Australian salmon and tailor turn up around the harbour mouth and breakwater tips. You'll need a paid NSW Recreational Fishing Fee to fish here, as you do anywhere in NSW.

Yes — that's its main strength. The seawalls and breakwaters shelter the basin from south-easterly swell and southerly wind, so when the open beaches and rock platforms are blown out, the inner harbour keeps producing luderick, bream and trevally. A big east-to-north-east swell can still surge over the outer breakwater rocks, so stay off the exposed tips in those conditions.

Wollongong is a declared rock-fishing area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, so a lifejacket is compulsory when you fish with rod, line or handline from naturally occurring rock exposed to ocean swell here, and the duty covers anyone helping you and any child under 12 in your care. Adults need AS 4758 level 50S or greater and under-12s level 100 or greater, and the fine is $100 on the spot. The basin is the sheltered half of the harbour, but the breakwater tips take real surge, so wear one on any swell-exposed rock or wall here.

Float fresh green weed under a quill or stem float along the stone walls, and trickle a bread-and-chook-pellet burley to bring the school up and hold it — burleying is the difference-maker here. Fish tide change and low light, autumn through winter when the weed is freshest, with a 9–12ft float rod and small sneck hooks. Luderick have a 27cm minimum length in NSW and a daily bag of 10, with a possession limit of 20.

Dusky flathead in NSW have a 36–70cm slot — keep fish within that range and release anything over 70cm, with a daily bag limit of five. Those big breeding females over 70cm do most of the spawning, so they go back regardless of how good they'd look on the table. Always check the current NSW DPIRD limits, and carry your NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt.