Middle Harbour shore fishing: Balmoral, The Spit and the upper bays

By Andrew Hestelow

Middle Harbour changes from beach sand to fast bridge water and steep bush-lined bays. A whiting rig that suits Balmoral is quite different from a blackfish float at The Spit or a bream bait beside Fig Tree Point's reef. Choose the water and tide first, then pack the appropriate outfit.

Choose the water for your session

For a short beach session, start at the public foreshore beside Balmoral Park with a small worm bait for whiting at first light. The park has public parking and toilets. Fish the open sand clear of swimmers and the enclosure; bring the float outfit instead if the pylons are the intended job.

Put the outfit together

A 2–4kg spin outfit is a useful light bait-and-plastics starting point in the Harbour shore guide. Add small hooks, several light sinkers and leader suited to the edge. The blackfish work needs its own balanced float, weed hooks, shot and net. At The Spit, choose a float you can control in the current and mend line as it travels; on Balmoral sand, leave most of that weight in the box. See line and leader selection before increasing line strength simply because the next bay looks deeper.

Balmoral: pylons, sand and blackfish

The public wharf beside the baths brings structure close to deeper water. Yellowtail are a useful small-hook target, with garfish and occasional slimy mackerel in season. Winter livebait fishing has produced john dory and tailor here. Keep bait gear out of the swimming area and clear of other wharf users.

The blackfish job is much closer. In July 2024 I saw solid fish among the pylons while people cast service-station prawns well beyond them. I have caught plenty of blackfish at Balmoral on earlier visits. Weed presented at their feeding edge is the relevant method, and a quiet float may need careful line control where there is little natural drift.

The beach gives you another plan: worms or nippers on light tackle for whiting at dawn or after dark. Rocky Point and the eastern beach end add higher-water bream near low light. Do not carry the heavy wharf sinker onto the shallow sand and expect the bait to behave well.

Edwards Beach and Wyargine Point

Edwards Beach suits a small whiting bait around a night high tide. Its rocky corner gives bream somewhere different to feed, especially with a lightly weighted pilchard or worm as the water rises.

Wyargine, also written Wy-ar-gine in the old account, separates the beach-side reef from a less productive northern bream front. The Edwards side is the useful starting edge for bream at dawn or into the evening near the end of the rise. Cast lures for tailor if a school moves along the rocks. Blackfish use the washing reef, but rough seas are not a reason to seek a low exposed platform.

Castle Rock and the Chinamans shore

Castle Rock has deeper water towards The Spit end and sand in the direction of Grotto Point. A fresh bream bait near high water in the evening suits the rock edge; a longer pilchard cast reaching sand is a flathead alternative.

Chinamans, or Rosherville Beach, is shallower. Worms and nippers suit whiting, with small fresh baits for bream at dawn, dusk or after dark. The beach and the rocks either side should not receive identical casts. The sand needs a light bait on bottom; the rock edge needs enough clearance to keep it out of weed and snags.

The shallow weed-and-sand water towards the yacht-club district was called Shell Cove in the source. It has low-light bream and summer whiting or flathead possibilities. This is not Cremorne's Shell Cove, and it does not establish a continuous public route along every waterfront.

Clontarf and Fisher Bay

Clontarf has a useful drop-off close to the beach. Worm or nipper baits suit whiting, bream and flathead around the hours either side of high water. A small metal can find tailor, although many are small. Quiet water-traffic periods make the shore easier to fish.

At Fisher Bay, west of Clontarf, the eastern rocky point gives a more deliberate bream edge for nippers, worms or pilchard pieces. The point shared with Clontarf is also blackfish water. Fish weed with a small sand-and-weed berley trail around high water, following the actual rock edge rather than casting into the middle of the bay.

The Spit: moving water changes the method

The Spit is a narrow, busy channel with strong tidal flow. The shore walls give bream and blackfish positions without turning the bridge or its supports into fishing platforms. At night a small nipper or worm bait suits bream; winter tailor take pilchards or a lure worked through clear water.

The historical shore account favours the northern/eastern wall on the run-in and the southern/western wall on the run-out. Use that as a starting relationship, then watch where the current actually goes beside your position. The first and last portions of a moving tide are easier to present a bait in than peak flow. Slack water can still be worth fishing; the important change is that the rig stops travelling.

Blackfish need their own depth and drift. In 2024 I recorded long float drifts at The Spit. Mend line so the float follows the feeding lane without dragging the weed upwards. A small alteration in shot or depth is more useful than repeatedly adding berley to a bait that never reaches the fish.

There is also a documented Spit tailor on a soft plastic from 2018. That is a useful alternative for searching clear water when small bait-stealers are making bait fishing difficult.

The old bait-catching instructions under the bridge concern a boat among the poles. They are not directions for getting onto bridge infrastructure from shore.

Pearl Bay and Beauty Point

Pearl Bay, at the southern end of Spit Reserve, combines a small beach, wall and rocky side. Bream use structure near higher water; summer whiting belong on the sand. Fish pieces suit a coloured-water bream presentation, while worms or nippers are useful in clearer water. Bring bait rather than collecting the little rock crabs mentioned in old accounts.

Beauty Point has close depth except for a shallower sand-and-rock finger. Low water around dawn or dusk is a useful bream window with a lightly weighted bait. Small bream can be persistent pickers. A pilchard cast beyond the close rough ground is the separate flathead option. Use an established open public approach; the source's old steps do not establish every present route.

Quakers Hat Bay and Willoughby Bay

Quakers Hat has higher-water bream around shore structure, with jackets and flathead adding variety. Winter dory or tailor are historical possibilities. The old Carrington Avenue jetty needs its own permission check, so it is not a recommended platform here.

Willoughby Bay has a clearer distinction between shallow reef for bream and open bottom for flathead. Fish strips or pilchard pieces can search the latter without repeatedly feeding a hook into reef. Historical crabbing advice does not override current gear and local closure rules.

Fig Tree Point and Clive Park

Fig Tree Point's projecting reef gives bream a feeding edge on either side. Around high water, cast over a clear part of the reef or along its margins with a lightly weighted pilchard. Evening into night is worth attention; the source particularly favours autumn and early winter. This is Middle Harbour's Fig Tree Point, not Fig Tree Bridge on the Lane Cove River.

Clive Park, between Sailors Bay and Long Bay, gives deeper point water. Small fish can dominate by day, so dawn or dusk is a useful change for a bream bait. Nippers or fresh fish pieces suit the edge; a wider pilchard cast can interest flathead. The deep boat hole northeast of the point is a different location, and club wharves are not automatically public bait-catching platforms.

Sailors Bay and Sugarloaf Point

Sailors Bay rewards a quiet bream presentation around structure at night, when small pickers are less troublesome. Fish small nipper, worm or pilchard baits in a restrained berley trail. The sand margins have occasional whiting, but mooring and marina reports do not authorise use of private landings.

Sugarloaf Point has deeper close water than the inner flats. Bream and flathead can be reached at low water, with dusk the stronger reason to fish close to the rocky shore. Small fish pieces or nippers need little lead in a manageable current. The detached rock islet can become isolated at high tide and is not a destination in this shore plan.

Sugarloaf Bay, Seaforth and Powder Hulk Bay

Much of Sugarloaf Bay is steep bush shore. Its rocky margins are bream habitat, but most detailed source methods are boat drifts or anchored positions. Do not turn that information into a continuous bank walk.

The Seaforth and Powder Hulk district has bream near rocky point margins, with jackets and flathead beside suitable structure. The historical landing's present public fishing permission remains unconfirmed. Use established open public foreshore rather than assuming the landing is available.

Bantry Bay is a different sort of outing

The supplied Bantry account is explicitly a boat-fishing account: steep oyster-covered shore, sharp drop-offs and channel drifts. It is kept separately rather than presented as a walking circuit to the old ammunition depot. The same distinction applies to boat drifts beside Yeoland and Killarney points.

Roseville Bridge and Davidson Park

Upstream, sandbanks suit flathead on small lures. The flathead plastic-rigging and retrieve guide shows how to straighten the lure and keep contact with the sand; its trip examples are mainly from a kayak or boat. Use the reachable bank edge here. The public park's wall and reachable structure give bream a different feeding edge. A lightly weighted bait can travel beside the wall without sitting among debris. Worms or nippers on the sand can also find whiting and an occasional flounder.

Rain-coloured bream reports are useful historical observations, but they do not justify collecting crabs or ignoring water-quality conditions. Keep away from bridge supports, the traffic structure and private marina facilities. Davidson Park's public picnic area is the visitor reference.

Bait, food advice and a practical shore note

Bring lawful bait. Harbour intertidal and shellfish restrictions protect crabs, cunjevoi, oysters and mussels from casual collecting. Eastern blue groper cannot be targeted or retained. Follow the Food Authority's Harbour seafood advice, which includes allowances for fish from east of the Harbour Bridge.

Wear an approved lifejacket where swell-exposed rock-fishing rules apply. Allow for wake and rising water, use a suitable landing net and keep shared paths and boating facilities clear. Current signs and closures govern each public wharf; club and residential landings are separate.

For the ocean-facing ground continue to Middle Head and Bradleys Head. See how to catch blackfish for float balance and line control.

Return to Fishing Guides