Imagery: Esri, Vantor, Earthstar Geographics

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Jervis Bay

Stillwater

124 km²

Water area

Access places

A big, clear, sheltered bay south of Sydney inside a marine park. Fish the seagrass and sand edges inside the bay with small baitfish flies, and leave the offshore game grounds the NSW fishing guide describes for a later trip with someone who knows them.

Jervis Bay is a big, clear, sheltered bay south of Sydney, and the reason to bring a fly rod is that you can walk a calm beach over seagrass in the morning with the open sea a headland away. The NSW fisheries department’s Go Fishing guide puts it about two and a half hours’ drive south of Sydney and describes it as a popular holiday spot for estuary, beach, rock and game fishing.

Think of the bay in three parts. Inside the headlands is sheltered water: beaches, seagrass beds and reef, in the guide’s description, and clear enough to see into. The northern headland carries The Tubes, a rock ledge the guide calls famous. Outside them is open ocean, where the guide places the bay’s famous game-fishing grounds. The guide describes the marine park as taking in the whole of the bay.

The easiest trip, and the one to start with, is on foot inside the bay. River garfish, sea mullet and small bait such as glassfish and hardyheads have all been recorded here, and in our view a small baitfish fly stripped along the edge of the seagrass is how you find whatever is hunting them. No water-specific rule was found, and because the bay is a marine park that means checking the park’s zoning for your beach and the current NSW fishing guide before you cast, not after.

The second trip is a small boat or kayak from one of the Maritime NSW ramps the access card names, working the reef edges and seagrass inside the bay that you cannot reach on foot. Keep to sheltered water and come back in if the wind gets up.

The third trip is offshore, and it is for later. The guide describes boat anglers chasing yellowfin tuna, dolphinfish, yellowtail kingfish and three kinds of marlin on the outer grounds. Do not drive down for that on your first visit unless someone who knows those grounds is running the boat.

The same guide describes land-based specialists catching black marlin each summer from The Tubes, a famous rock ledge inside the northern headland. It is worth knowing about. It is not a fly trip.

Rig a six or seven weight with an intermediate line, fill a box with small sparse baitfish flies, and walk the first beach you have checked against the zoning map.

No live gauge

No gauge readings are available for this water.

Season

Access & parking

Driving directions

Water and habitat

Inside the bay the water is sheltered and, in the NSW guide’s description, clear, over seagrass beds and reef, with protected beaches. In our experience that mix decides where fish sit. Seagrass holds the small bait. Sand beside it gives a predator a clean lane to run the bait down. Reef edges add shelter and current. The line where seagrass gives way to sand is the one to walk first.

Clear water cuts both ways. You will see fish and weed edges well, and fish will see you just as well, so a long leader and a quiet approach matter more here than on murky estuary water.

Outside the headlands is open ocean, with the banks and canyons the guide names as game-fishing ground. That is a different kind of water altogether and belongs to experienced boat crews.

Fish and forage

The fish recorded in the bay are mostly small. River garfish, sea mullet, goldspot mullet and yelloweye mullet have all turned up, along with Port Jackson glassfish, smallmouth hardyheads, Pacific blue eyes and several gobies and gudgeons. Smooth toadfish are recorded too, and in our experience toadfish will pick at a slow fly. Crescent grunter, diamondfish and bull sharks have also been recorded.

Freshwater fish such as common galaxias, longfin and southern shortfin eels appear in the records too; in our read they most likely come from fresh water draining in, not the open bay.

For the fly box, that list is a menu of bait. Garfish are long and slim, glassfish and hardyheads small and bright, and mullet a little stockier. A sparse white or olive-over-white fly around size 4, with a longer slim pattern for garfish, covers most of it.

Offshore, the guide lists yellowfin tuna, dolphinfish, yellowtail kingfish and blue, black and striped marlin as the targets of boat anglers on the outer grounds.

When to fish it

No fixed calendar sets the fishing inside the bay, so this is a guide’s read. Small bait is there in any month, and a calm, clear morning matters more than the date. Wind puts a chop on the water and hides the weed edges, so go early before a sea breeze gets up.

The one seasonal note the guide gives is summer, when land-based specialists take black marlin at The Tubes. The guide calls the bay a very popular holiday destination, so in our read expect busy beaches and ramps in the school holidays; a weekday outside them is a good bet for quieter water.

THE YEAR ON THIS WATER

Small baitfish over the seagrass

Food · Jan–Dec

River garfish, sea mullet, Port Jackson glassfish and smallmouth hardyheads have all been recorded in the bay. In our read there is small bait over the seagrass and sand in any month, so a slim baitfish fly is never the wrong choice.

Sparse baitfish fly on the edges

Fly · Jan–Dec

A sparse white or olive-over-white baitfish fly, about size 4, stripped along the line where seagrass meets sand. This is our suggestion for the shore trip on any calm morning.

Black marlin at The Tubes

Fish run · Dec–Feb

The NSW fishing guide describes land-based game specialists catching black marlin each summer from The Tubes, a rock ledge inside the northern headland. The months shown are our read of “summer”, and this is specialist rock fishing, not a fly trip.

How to fish it

A six or seven weight with an intermediate line suits the sheltered water in our view, with a floating line on a spare spool for very shallow edges. Fish a long leader, around twelve feet, because the water is clear.

Walk slowly along the seagrass edge with the sun at your back and cast along the edge rather than straight out, so the fly spends its whole retrieve in the lane where fish hunt. Strip in short, uneven pulls with pauses; a small baitfish fly that stops and darts looks like bait that has seen trouble. If nothing follows after a few dozen casts, move further along the beach and try again.

From a kayak or small boat, drift the reef and seagrass edges and cast in toward them. The streamer fishing page covers the retrieves and line control.

Access and safety

The access card names the Maritime NSW boat ramps on the bay. That is where the ramps are, not a statement about parking or fees; follow the signs at each ramp.

Inside the bay, the beaches are the obvious way in on foot. Treat any private land, jetty or fenced area as closed unless a sign says otherwise, and check the marine park zoning for the beach before you fish it.

As on any coastal water, wear a lifejacket in a boat or kayak, keep an eye on the wind, and turn back while it is still easy. As on any rock ledge, watch the swell for a few minutes before you step down and never fish one alone. Bull sharks have been recorded in the bay, so in our view it makes sense not to wade deep.

Shallow At Times

View place

Directions

Regulations

No water-specific rule was found for Jervis Bay. The NSW guide describes the whole bay as lying inside Jervis Bay Marine Park, so check the park’s current zoning for the spot you plan to fish, and the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recreational fishing guide for the licence and the bag and size limits for each species, before you fish.