What fish can you catch in Budgewoi Lake?

Mainly yellowfin bream — the lake's signature species — along with dusky flathead, sand whiting and luderick, plus mullet, leatherjackets and the odd tailor. School and king prawns run through the shallows in summer. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish here, as it is anywhere in NSW, and you must carry the receipt while fishing.

Where can you fish Budgewoi Lake from the shore without a boat?

Toukley Bridge is the standout — fish around either end at night for bream and work the pylons in the channel beneath it through the day. The foreshore reserves around Toukley, Budgewoi, Buff Point and Gorokan give easy grassy land-based access right around the lake, including Osborne Park on Peel Street, Wallarah Point Park on Wallarah Road at Gorokan, and John Pete Howard Reserve on Matumba Road at Buff Point.

What size and bag limits apply to flathead and bream at Budgewoi Lake?

Under NSW rules, dusky flathead have a 36–70cm slot with a bag limit of 5 and 10 in possession — any fish over 70cm must be released. Yellowfin bream are a 25cm minimum with a bag of 10 shared across bream and tarwhine, sand whiting 27cm with a bag of 20 shared across the whiting group, and luderick 27cm with a bag of 10. Check the current NSW rules before you head out, as limits change.

Is Budgewoi Lake good for bream?

Yes — it has a long reputation as one of the better bream waters on the Central Coast. The bridge pylons hold them year-round, fishing best at night on a moving tide, and the bigger fish move through in autumn. Light bait or soft plastics worked around structure and the seagrass edges are the way to target them.

When do the prawns run in Budgewoi Lake?

School and eastern king prawns run through the shallows over summer, roughly December to March, and are traditionally taken by wading the edges at night with a light — a dip or scoop net is the lawful tool, and on Budgewoi Creek up towards Lake Munmorah nothing but a dip or scoop net or a landing net may be used. They double as the best bream and flathead bait you can carry, and the fish follow them in. Keep out of the old power station outlet canal at the northern end of the lake on winter evenings, where an all-methods closure runs from 6pm to 6am between 1 May and 31 August.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Budgewoi Lake

Sun 01 Nov 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated 1:02pm AEDT

Bite Alert

←

1 Nov

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Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Budgewoi Lake

last quarter · 66%

Weather: Rainy Wind: SE 139° · 16 km/h Swell: 0.6 m @ 5 s NE Water: 18.8 °C Pressure: 1013.0 hPa → steady Sheltered water: wind direction matters less here

★★★★☆

High Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind W 20 km/h

Moon last quarter all day

Water temp 18.8 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:28 am Last light 7:46 pm

High 2:00 am Low 7:18 am High 1:55 pm Low 9:10 pm

Tide is approximate here. Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 8:00 am

Good

5:30 pm → 10:00 pm

4h 30m

Good

1:00 am → 2:00 am

First light

5:28 am

Last light

7:46 pm

Sunrise

5:54 am

Sunset

7:20 pm

Moonrise

1:01 am

Moonset

11:06 am

High tide

2:00 am

Low tide

7:18 am

High tide

1:55 pm

Low tide

9:10 pm

Tide times here are a rough model estimate. Check the BoM tide tables before you fish the change.

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

🌧️

21°

↖︎

302°

17 km/h

1am

🌧️

21°

↖︎

297°

21 km/h

2am

🌧️

20°

↖︎

294°

24 km/h

3am

☀️

20°

←︎

292°

24 km/h

4am

☀️

20°

←︎

290°

22 km/h

5am

☀️

20°

←︎

288°

20 km/h

6am

☀️

21°

←︎

284°

18 km/h

7am

☀️

22°

←︎

280°

16 km/h

8am

☀️

22°

←︎

271°

13 km/h

9am

🌧️

23°

↙︎

238°

8 km/h

10am

🌧️

23°

↓︎

173°

9 km/h

11am

🌧️

23°

↘︎

149°

14 km/h

12pm

🌧️

23°

↘︎

139°

16 km/h

1pm

🌧️

23°

↘︎

130°

16 km/h

2pm

🌧️

23°

↘︎

121°

16 km/h

3pm

☁️

23°

↘︎

113°

16 km/h

4pm

☀️

22°

→︎

105°

16 km/h

5pm

☀️

22°

→︎

98°

15 km/h

6pm

☀️

21°

→︎

90°

14 km/h

7pm

☀️

21°

→︎

82°

12 km/h

8pm

☀️

20°

→︎

76°

10 km/h

9pm

🌧️

20°

→︎

79°

8 km/h

10pm

🌧️

19°

→︎

94°

5 km/h

11pm

🌧️

19°

↘︎

122°

4 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~1.0 m S

12am

0.9 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.9 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

4am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

5am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

6am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

7am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

8am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

9am

0.6 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

10am

0.6 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.6 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

12pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

1pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

2pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

3pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

4pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

5pm

0.7 m

@ 4 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

6pm

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

7pm

0.9 m

@ 5 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

8pm

1.0 m

@ 5 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

9pm

1.0 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

10pm

1.0 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

11pm

1.0 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 18.8°

Thu

29 Oct

18.6°

Fri

30 Oct

18.8°

Sat

31 Oct

18.7°

Sun

1 Nov

18.8°

Mon

2 Nov

19.2°

Tue

3 Nov

19.2°

Wed

4 Nov

19.5°

Thu

5 Nov

19.2°

Fri

6 Nov

19.1°

Sat

7 Nov

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 16 km/h SE (139°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 8:00 am

Good

5:30 pm → 10:00 pm

4h 30m

Good

1:00 am → 2:00 am

First light

5:28 am

Last light

7:46 pm

Sunrise

5:54 am

Sunset

7:20 pm

Moonrise

1:01 am

Moonset

11:06 am

High tide

2:00 am

Low tide

7:18 am

High tide

1:55 pm

Low tide

9:10 pm

Tide times here are a rough model estimate. Check the BoM tide tables before you fish the change.

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