Can you fish at Clontarf Beach?

Yes. Line fishing and squid jigging are allowed from the beach and the sand point at Clontarf Reserve, as long as you stay outside the netted swimming enclosure and clear of swimmers. Middle Harbour is part of the Sydney Harbour Intertidal Protected Area, so you cannot collect crabs, worms, nippers, cunjevoi or shellfish for bait — bring it with you. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required unless you are exempt.

What fish can you catch at Clontarf?

Yellowfin bream are the headline — DPIRD's Middle Harbour guide lists Clontarf Park as a bream hot spot — alongside dusky flathead and sand whiting on the sand, southern calamari over the weed, luderick in the cooler months, and silver trevally, tailor and the odd summer yellowtail kingfish on the channel edge.

Is it safe to eat fish caught at Clontarf?

Clontarf is east of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where the NSW dietary advice is generally no more than 150 g of harbour fish a month because of dioxins. The guidance varies by species: DPIRD's table allows dusky flathead and luderick 12 serves of 150 g a month, sand whiting 8 and silver trevally 5, but bream and tailor only one 150 g serve a month, and each figure assumes that is the only harbour species eaten that month. Many anglers here keep a flathead and release the bream.

Where do you park to fish Clontarf Reserve?

Clontarf Reserve has a paid Northern Beaches Council car park directly behind the beach at the end of Sandy Bay Road, with toilets and a picnic area. The sand point is a short, flat walk from the car park, and the Manly to Spit Bridge walk passes through the reserve if you would rather walk in.

Is Clontarf or the Spit better for fishing?

They suit different days. The Spit, across the channel, has the bridge pylons, the deeper channel and the big Spit West flats for flathead. Clontarf is a single sand point dropping into the same channel, with an easy beach, a picnic lawn and DPIRD's bream hot-spot tag — better for a relaxed bait session, worse on a hot summer afternoon when the beach is full of swimmers.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Clontarf Reserve (Middle Harbour)

Sun 25 Oct 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated 7:02pm AEDT

Bite Alert

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25 Oct

Today

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Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Clontarf Reserve (Middle Harbour)

full · 99%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: N 20° · 16 km/h Swell: 1.1 m @ 6 s NE Water: 18.7 °C Pressure: 1003.8 hPa → steady Sheltered water: wind direction matters less here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Minor window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind NW 17 km/h

Moon full all day

Water temp 18.7 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Now

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:36 am Last light 7:42 pm

Low 1:39 am High 8:00 am Low 2:11 pm High 8:16 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

6:30 pm → 9:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

11:30 am → 1:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

1:00 am → 2:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:36 am

Last light

7:42 pm

Sunrise

6:02 am

Sunset

7:16 pm

Moonrise

6:23 pm

Moonset

4:58 am

Low tide

1:39 am

High tide

8:00 am

Low tide

2:11 pm

High tide

8:16 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

20°

↑︎

16°

12 km/h

1am

☀️

20°

↑︎

19°

10 km/h

2am

☀️

19°

↑︎

17°

9 km/h

3am

☀️

19°

↑︎

358°

13 km/h

4am

☀️

20°

↖︎

336°

17 km/h

5am

☀️

20°

↖︎

331°

17 km/h

6am

☀️

20°

↖︎

324°

15 km/h

7am

☀️

21°

↖︎

330°

15 km/h

8am

☀️

24°

↖︎

335°

15 km/h

9am

☀️

25°

↑︎

358°

14 km/h

10am

☀️

27°

↑︎

8°

16 km/h

11am

☀️

28°

↑︎

17°

18 km/h

12pm

☀️

29°

↑︎

11°

19 km/h

1pm

☀️

30°

↑︎

13°

20 km/h

2pm

☀️

29°

↗︎

32°

18 km/h

3pm

☀️

28°

↗︎

36°

19 km/h

4pm

🌧️

26°

↗︎

34°

19 km/h

5pm

🌧️

24°

↗︎

32°

16 km/h

6pm

☁️

24°

↗︎

32°

16 km/h

7pm

☁️

24°

↑︎

20°

16 km/h

Now

☁️

23°

↑︎

19°

16 km/h

9pm

🌧️

24°

↑︎

360°

19 km/h

10pm

☀️

24°

↖︎

331°

21 km/h

11pm

☁️

23°

↖︎

329°

20 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~1.1 m NE

12am

1.0 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

1am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

2am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

3am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

4am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

5am

1.1 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

6am

1.0 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

7am

1.0 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

8am

1.0 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

9am

0.9 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

10am

0.9 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.8 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

12pm

0.8 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

1pm

0.8 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

2pm

0.8 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

3pm

0.8 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

4pm

0.9 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

5pm

0.9 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

6pm

1.0 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

7pm

1.1 m

@ 6 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

Now

1.2 m

@ 6 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

9pm

1.1 m

@ 6 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

10pm

1.1 m

@ 6 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

11pm

1.1 m

@ 6 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 16 km/h N (20°).

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 → 7:00 am

Good

6:30 pm → 9:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

11:30 am → 1:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

1:00 am → 2:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:36 am

Last light

7:42 pm

Sunrise

6:02 am

Sunset

7:16 pm

Moonrise

6:23 pm

Moonset

4:58 am

Low tide

1:39 am

High tide

8:00 am

Low tide

2:11 pm

High tide

8:16 pm

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

Keep Tabs on Clontarf Reserve (Middle Harbour)

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