If you love throwing in a line, then Moruya should be on your top fishing destinations list. Fishing around Moruya will spoil you for choice with river, beach and rock fishing options within a short drive of the picturesque riverside town.
Moruya Heads
Moruya heads is the perfect place to fish. The mouth of the Moruya River meets the ocean at the heads creating tidal currents, shoals and channels that attract a range of fish species. Sweeping long beaches either side of the heads form gutters where fish like to congregate.
During winter, offshore fishing rewards bottom-bashers with morwong, snapper, trevally, pigfish, ocean perch and leatherjackets over broken reefs at a depth of around 45-60 metres. Over gravel or sand, expect to find gummy sharks, flathead and gurnard.
Take care crossing the Moruya River bar. On an outgoing tide the bar can be treacherous for inexperienced skippers. Winter westerly winds are the boaties friend as they will flatten the seas and make conditions for boating offshore safer.
Hunting for kingfish is usually more successful during the summer months, although don’t be too surprised to come across schooling albacore and yellowfin tuna. These are going to be more likely out toward the “shelf” and anglers have good results luring in the pelagic species with burley trails and cubing.
Beach fishing in the cooler months can be good. Tailor and Australian salmon patrol the suds on beaches on both sides of the heads. After dark, try your luck on the beach with slab baits and you might hook up a nice little gummy shark or mulloway.
Off the rocks, you can land a variety of reef dwelling fish. Snapper, bream, leatherjackets, drummer and luderick.
Dolphin Beach (main beach)
Moruya Heads main beach, opposite the BIG4 Dolphin Beach Holiday Park, offers great beach fishing in the gutters. Gutters form the length of the beach down to Pedro Point.
Australian salmon will school up in the gutters and will readily strike pilchards on ganged hooks or metal spinners retrieved at speed. You may also hook up bream, whiting and flathead although these are less common in the winter months. Beach worms, squid and prawns are good baits but you might have some luck with spinning some lures.
The beaches north and south of the heads will form regular gutters so it’s a good excuse to get out and about to see more of the amazing coastline of Eurobodalla.
Moruya River
Fishing on the eastern side of the Moruya bridge will produce better fishing. Towards the mouth, try spinning or trolling for tailor and salmon along the edges of channels and fringes of weed beds. Slow trolling hard lures across the top of weed at high tide will tease out some cracking bream!
Bouncing plastics around the current breaks provided by wharves, oyster racks, rocky outcrops, drop-offs and river bends will draw out bream, tailor, flathead and trevally. It’s worth anchoring over a shallow sand flat round patches of seagrass and casting fresh nippers, bloodworms, prawns or squid. This is a good way to catch bread-and-butter species like mullet, garfish, bream, luderick, flathead and whiting. Winter whiting in the Moruya River are huge!
During the warmer months, the Moruya River holds a fantastic Australian bass fishery right into the upper reaches of the sweet water. However, these waters are desolate through winter.
There’s plenty of shore-based opportunities along the river edge. Casting lures and flies along the edges and to snags almost anywhere along the river will flush out yellowfin bream, black bream and some thumping estuary perch.
Finding Bait
Bait is available for sale at the caravan park shop and in Moruya. But you can harvest your own if you want to use live baits.
Try your luck with a yabby pump for pink nippers at low tide on the sand flats on the northern side of the river, around Garland Town (near the airport). Pipis and beach worms can be found on the main beach. For crabs and cunjevoi, look around the rocks and on the northern break wall at low tide.
Remember to access the marine park zoning map and user guide before fishing or collecting bait in the Batemans Marine Park.
Common fish species around Moruya
- Whiting – best between November to March
- Bream – all year round but slower in winter
- Flathead – Best to target October through to May
- Australian Bass and Estuary Perch – November to April
Calm water fishing Moruya and surrounds
- Preddy’s wharf, South Head
- Moruya River
- Coila Lake
- Mossy Point wharf
- Tuross Lake
Beach fishing Moruya and surrounds
- Moruya Heads main beach
- Pedro Point Congo Point
- Shelly beach
- North head Moruya breakwall
- Bingie beach
Thanks to BIG4 Moruya Heads Easts Dolphin Beach Holiday Park for providing the information in this article.
