South Whale, Avalon and Bilgola shore fishing
The Ovens offers deep pelagic water, while Avalon's boulders and gutters reward a controlled weed or drummer bait. Bilgola adds beach gutters and a low shelf where casting distance changes the target. Choose the water first, then take the outfit that will fish it properly.
Choose the water
| Area | What changes | Starting plan |
|---|---|---|
| South Whale and the Ovens | Deep outer water; close washes and a bait gutter | Live yellowtail or a moving lure for pelagics; weed or a small bait close in |
| North Avalon | Boulder pockets, reef breaks and the cave-bight gutters | Luderick on a controlled weed drift; stronger tackle for close drummer water |
| South Avalon | Mostly shallow reef, with particular holes and wider sand lanes | Small close baits; a separate longer bottom cast where it clears the reef |
| Bilgola Beach and southern shelf | Changing beach gutters beside a very low rocky coast | Worms for beach whiting; pilchards for tailor; weed in the shelf gutters |
Pack for the presentation: for a close beach gutter in manageable surf, a six or seven foot rod, 3000-size reel and 6–12 lb line is the light outfit I recommended at North Narrabeen. Match the hook to a worm or fish bait and the rod to the sinker it must cast. For luderick, take a responsive float rod, small reel, balanced float, spare weighted leaders and a landing net. The blackfish rig guide explains the setup. Drummer in the rough pockets need a separate, stronger outfit: the 7–10 kg recommendations below concern particular broken-rock holes. Live bait and a wide snapper cast are separate jobs again, with casting load and landing room deciding the outfit.
South Whale: the Inner and Outer Ovens
The pool-side water and boulder coast
Separate the water beside Whale Beach's southern pool from the deeper Ovens platforms farther around the headland. The pool-side gutters have a winter bream-and-tailor history on pilchards. In warmer months, the larger bait option is mulloway on live bait or a substantial fish strip. Luderick use the rock-side water on the eastern side, where cabbage under a float is a more suitable presentation.
Along the boulder coast towards the Inner Ovens, the close sandy cuts are bream water. A wider bottom cast changes the job to snapper. Mullet or tuna strip, squid and octopus are the durable baits in the older accounts. Find a retrievable lane beyond the close boulders before committing a heavy rig. The useful post-southerly observation is to look after the sea has settled, when the position itself is usable.
The Inner Ovens wash and bait gutter
The small wash corner before the main Inner Ovens platform is a luderick, bream and drummer proposition. A rising-tide weed drift makes sense here: keep the bait travelling through the feeding water rather than letting the float drag it across the adjoining shelf.
The main inner ledge gives a different choice. Open water outside suits spinning or live bait, a longer bottom cast suits snapper, and the close holes are drummer country. The gutter on the eastern side features in the old yellowtail accounts, with bream and trevally also drawn by berley. Small fish pieces or a bait jig are useful for yellowtail; early arrival helps, but berley cannot manufacture a supply of baitfish.
I remember fishing the Inner Ovens in the late seventies with cunje under a bobby cork. Mados and sweep kept whittling the bait away. Eventually a big silver drummer took it and the strike nearly brought me to my knees. That was a very different outfit from the light blackfish tackle I use today. The point is to recognise the pickers and the rough country before a drummer tests the lightest part of the rig.
The high rocks, Outer Ovens and Gulf
The higher-rock position beyond the inner ledge has both wide live-bait water and close feeding water. A floating pilchard gives tailor, salmon, bream and trevally an option without immediately sending the bait into the bottom. A snapper bait needs a separate, longer cast to suitable ground.
The Outer Ovens is the best-known pelagic part of this coast. Yellowtail, slimy mackerel and garfish feature in its live-bait history. A spinning outfit ready for a passing school is useful alongside the live-bait rod. Match the lure to the baitfish you can see; a small slimy or frigate school is a reason to reduce lure size, rather than throw the largest metal in the bag.
Shaun Alexander's photograph below records an Ovens mixed bag: kingfish, mackerel tuna and bonito, all caught on live yellowtail. It is a useful example of why the bait gutter matters to the larger-fish session outside.
The outer tip has a separate mulloway history on live or large bottom baits, especially higher tides into the afternoon and night during the warmer months. The Gulf lies behind the outer tip on its southern side in the older fishing accounts. Its close water can hold yellowtail, with berley bringing bream, trevally and drummer into the same neighbourhood. Small lures worked outside that gutter are a different proposition again, aimed at slimies and frigates.
Do not confuse handsome water with a guaranteed bite. On a December 2018 visit I saw six anglers at South Whale, and the only one doing much was targeting sweep. Have the smaller-fish outfit available, and be prepared to change the session.
Bangalley to North Avalon: Hole in the Wall
This is a long run of rocky water between Bangalley Head and North Avalon Point. The old Hole in the Wall accounts distinguish the northern reef edge, the bight around St Michael's Cave, and the boulders towards Avalon Beach. They are not interchangeable blackfish spots.
Bangalley reef edge and Step Rock
At the northern end, the flat-boulder water has close bream and drummer cover, with room outside for a moving lure. The next point has reef extending out before deeper water. Keep the close crab or other lawful bait presentation separate from the longer cast beyond the reef. The latter adds snapper, trevally and passing kings, bonito, salmon and tailor, but landing a good fish across broken reef is the hard part.
Step Rock, also called Snapper Rock in this northern account, is the freestanding boulder south of a small bommie. Pilchards or lures towards the bommie suit tailor, salmon and bonito. A longer bottom cast beyond it is a snapper, bream and trevally job. Squid, octopus or a firm fish strip stays together better through that cast than a soft, oversized offering. Drummer are a close-water alternative.
At the northern corner of the bight, the higher rocks overlook close drummer and bream water, with snapper farther out. The following low shelf adds a winter first-light tailor session on pilchards or a moving lure. Those are separate decisions from working weed in the adjoining wash.
The northern gutter, The Wedge and St Michael's Cave
The rough gutter before The Wedge has a late-afternoon drummer history. The old account specified at least 7 kg line, which tells you more about the broken bottom than about the average fish. Use a compact bait and keep it in the pocket without allowing the rig to settle deep into the cracks.
The Wedge is the small ledge farther along the same bight. Its close water adds luderick and bream to the drummer option. A balanced weed float gives more control over the luderick drift; a stronger, lightly weighted bait outfit is the separate drummer tool.
The gutter below St Michael's Cave has a long luderick history, using weed and berley through the year. Drummer taking a weed bait are the complication, especially on light line. Carry spare prepared leaders and stop the drift before the float drags the bait into the rocks. The cave is fenced off because of instability. It is a landmark above the water, not an entrance to the fishing ground.
Snapper Rocks, The Corner and the southern boulders
South of the cave gutter, the old name is Snapper Rocks, plural. This is distinct from northern Step Rock and the Snapper Rock at South Avalon. The wider cast is for snapper; lightly weighted crab close to the rock is the drummer option. When small baitfish gather outside, tailor, salmon and tuna may require a small lure and a lighter spinning presentation.
The Corner follows these rocks. Its particular feature is a shallow reef with a drummer pocket behind it. Keep a crab bait, or another lawful drummer bait, behind that cover rather than dropping heavy lead into the reef. A further gutter south of the cave has bream as well as drummer, again making a small close bait more useful than an indiscriminate long cast.
Nearer North Avalon Point, the freestanding boulders change the water again. A deeper pocket behind the first rock has silver drummer and bream in its history, while a long cast beyond the boulders reaches the snapper water. The deeper hole behind the southernmost rock was called a drummer cave. The older roughly 10 kg tackle recommendation reflects the rough cover and the need to turn a fish promptly.
North Avalon Point and the beachward platform
North Avalon Point is the open-water spinning option. Pilchards, garfish and moving lures suit the pelagic water outside. On its southern side, the long low shelf faces wider sand where bottom baits have produced snapper, mulloway, trevally and bream. Yellowtail gathered closer in have also supported the live-bait session.
The little platform nearer the beach has a useful distinction: boulders close, cleaner gravel farther out. Work weed or a small bait close for luderick and bream. Change the cast to the gravel for flathead, tailor, trevally or snapper. Simply adding more sinker to a rig stuck among the boulders does not reach that different water.
South Avalon to Bilgola Head
The beach corner, baths and boulder shelf
South Avalon begins with a straightforward beach decision. The southern sandy corner has a bream-and-occasional-tailor history around first light or late afternoon into the evening, particularly on the run-in tide. A small fish bait at the sand-and-rock junction is a manageable starting point.
Outside the northeastern corner of Avalon baths, small holes and gutters suit luderick, drummer and bream. Keep the weed presentation above the rough floor. Farther along the boulder-strewn shelf, the water is very shallow. The old bream accounts favour crab baits after dark, while luderick use the same broken country with weed. This is close fishing, with little to gain from casting across every patch of rock.
Snapper Rock and Hopeless Gutter
South Avalon's Snapper Rock is the raised rock before Hopeless Gutter. The useful distinction is between the wider fish-bait cast for snapper, mulloway or kingfish and the close drummer hole. Rig for one of those jobs before casting. A lightly weighted crab bait close in does not need the terminal tackle used for a heavy fish bait outside.
Hopeless Gutter follows it towards Bilgola. The name is worth remembering: the older account describes water that looks excellent but only produces intermittently. Bream and snapper feature on cunje or fish bait, with luderick another option. Give a promising drift or bait lane a fair try, but do not spend the whole tide defending the appearance of an unproductive gutter.
The Pinnacle, submerged-rock gutter and The Trap
The Pinnacle is the high spire farther south, with a low ledge in front. Drummer, bream and occasional tailor feature in the account. The front ledge is exposed; the height of the spire does not make the surrounding water a dependable working position.
Between the Pinnacle and The Trap, a small gutter behind a large submerged rock is the close drummer proposition. Cabbage bait appears in the old account, along with at least 6 kg line because the bottom is so rough. A longer cast reaches sand for snapper, especially in the early morning or afternoon. A shorter cast falls back over reef and is more likely to find small reds and snags.
The Trap is the southernmost higher rock before the coastline turns into Bilgola Beach. Its fishing history is chiefly tailor spinning and other passing pelagics, with pilchard taking bream, snapper and trevally and drummer closer in. The old wave-timed gap crossing is not an approach to use. Treat the name as a description of the fishing water, not a direction to cross to an isolated perch.
Bilgola Beach and the shelf towards Newport
North corner and beach gutters
The north Bilgola rocks have close bream and drummer cover, with tailor using the gutter at the corner of the sand. The cliffs constrain the shore there. The beach itself gives more room to choose a clean gutter and keep a bait clear of rock.
The older seasonal pattern is bream and tailor from autumn into winter, with whiting in summer on worms. For whiting, inspect both the shallow sand flats and the deeper lane beside them. For tailor, a pilchard in a defined gutter is a better plan than a long cast onto an empty bank. Sand shifts, so choose the gutter on the day.
Bilgola baths and the deeper southern gutter
The shallow water outside the northern side of the baths holds a different presentation from the well-defined gutter immediately south of them. The shallows suit bream and drummer on a small lawful bait, or luderick on weed. The southern gutter offers more depth for a controlled luderick drift, with a stronger outfit useful for drummer.
The low shelf continuing towards Newport has shallow feeding edges for luderick, drummer and bream. In winter, first-light tailor on pilchards or lures is the separate moving-fish option. Keep the bait or lure working along a clean edge rather than dropping it into the shallowest reef.
Broken reef, wider sand and North Newport corner
At the outer southern part of the shelf, the account separates three casting ranges. Close rock holds bream and luderick. Broken reef farther out is snapper water, using a firm mullet strip, squid, octopus or pilchard. Farther still, sand adds flathead, mulloway and tailor. Winter tailor, salmon and trevally can also move through the wider water.
Wait until the sea has settled after a blow before considering this very low, east-facing shelf. Look for the casting lane that lets a bait work and come back. The small rocky outcrops nearer Newport suit a short bream presentation with fish bait or crab in calm water.
North Newport's sandy corner finishes the sequence with a lighter job: bream and whiting on worms around lower water. There is no need to bring the Ovens live-bait outfit into that session. The rest of Newport Beach and the reef-side mainland water are covered in Newport, Mona Vale and Warriewood.
Bait, parking and the rock-fishing note
Bring bait from a lawful source and check the current NSW collection and fishing rules. An old reference to gathering crabs or cunje is not permission to take them today. Use bait-shop prawns or lawful own catch, never prawns sold for people to eat. Do not target eastern blue groper, including the red and brown stages.
Public beach parking is available at Whale Beach, Avalon, Bilgola and Newport. Whale's pool precinct is reached from The Strand; Bilgola's car park is off The Serpentine. Use the signed public beach approaches. Pools are swimming facilities, and casts must stay clear of swimmers and surfers.
For the rocks, wear the required lifejacket, use suitable footwear, fish with someone and watch the full wave cycle before committing. Leave before tide or swell takes away the dry working area. There are no cliff, rope or flooded-reef approaches in this plan.
The blackfish guide covers the float rig in detail. North of this stretch, use the separate guides to North Whale Beach and Little Head and Barrenjoey and Palm Beach.