Rye Back Beach (Rye Ocean Beach)
Summary for 10 Oct 2026
Bite Compass is showing a medium fish activity bite score on 10 Oct 2026. Wind is around NW at 24 km/h. Solunar feeding windows are listed below.
Feeding Windows
Local Knowledge
Rye Ocean Beach — the Rye back beach, with Number Sixteen Beach at its western end — is a stretch of reef breaks and sand gutters on the Bass Strait side of the Peninsula. It's one of the Peninsula's best surf-fishing beaches, shared with surfers and walkers. It is unpatrolled and rough, so the people on it at dawn are mostly surfers and salmon anglers eyeing each other's gutters. It is about ten minutes from Rye Pier, which makes it the obvious plan B when the bay is flat and lifeless.
Read the beach from the car park or dune tops first: gutters show as darker water and breaks in the wave line. Fish them on the rising tide with metals for salmon or a paternoster with pipi, squid or pilchard. Night sessions into the deeper gutters with fresh bait target gummies.
Salmon are the reliable fish, with gummy sharks after dark, mullet in the wash and whiting near reef-edge sand in summer. Salmon 21 cm and 20 combined with Australian herring. Gummy shark 45 cm partial length and 2 combined with school shark. King George whiting 27 cm and 20. Mullet no minimum and 40 combined.
The beach is in Mornington Peninsula National Park: no dogs anywhere in the park, including the beaches and car parks. Stick to the formed tracks through the dunes. Fish away from surfers on the reef breaks and leave them the peaks.
Access & Conditions
The main car park is at the end of Sandy Road, St Andrews Beach, and the western end at Number Sixteen Beach is reached from Number Sixteen Access Road, Rye. The beach is unpatrolled. Sandy tracks and dune steps make it unsuitable for wheelchairs and prams.
Faces Bass Strait, with reef breaks shaping the gutters toward Number Sixteen and more open sand further east. A moderate south-westerly swell shapes good gutters; a big swell makes the beach unsafe. Northerlies are offshore and best. Dawn, dusk and a rising tide.
Rye Ocean Beach has powerful waves, reef breaks and strong currents, and it is unpatrolled — it is not a swimming beach. Don't wade out to cast. Any rock platform on this coast falls inside VFA's mandatory-lifejacket zone — all rock platforms between Point Nepean and West Head — so if you step off the sand onto the rocks you must wear one (AS 4758 level 50S or greater, children in your care Level 100 or greater), and fines apply.
Gear & Rigs
A 10–12 ft surf rod, 4000–6000 reel and 20–30 lb braid, with a heavier mono leader for the reef edges toward Number Sixteen. 20–40 g metals. Paternoster with 1/0–3/0 hooks. Heavier 5/0–7/0 rig with fresh bait for gummies. Sinkers of 4–6 oz.
Seasons
Salmon peak in autumn and winter. Gummies are an after-dark chance all year, peaking on warm summer and autumn nights. Summer adds whiting near the reef-edge sand on calm days. In January the bay side of Rye is wall-to-wall towels, while the back beach is wind, salt and a few salmon anglers who prefer it that way.
If This Spot's Blown Out
Frequently Asked
Yes. It is a popular surf-fishing beach, unpatrolled and in Mornington Peninsula National Park, so no dogs.
Australian salmon from the gutters are the main catch, with gummy sharks at night and mullet and whiting on calmer days.
No. Rye Ocean Beach is unpatrolled, with powerful waves, reef breaks and strong currents, so it is not a swimming beach.