What fish can you catch at Collaroy Beach?

Sand whiting, yellowfin bream and tarwhine are the bread-and-butter through the gutters, with tailor and Australian salmon over the deeper holes — salmon in the cooler months, tailor year-round with autumn and winter the pick. Dusky flathead and dart show over summer. Anyone fishing here needs a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, which covers you anywhere in the state.

Where are the best gutters at Collaroy?

The Stewart Street to mid-beach section is the proven patch for whiting and bream, while the deeper holes further along hold the bigger tailor. Gutters shift with every swell, so walk the beach at low tide and look for the darker, calmer strips of water running between the white banks — that depth, ideally over a metre, is where the fish feed.

Can you collect beach worms and nippers at Collaroy?

Yes, but only north of the Collaroy rock baths. The southern end of the beach and Fishermans Beach sit inside the Long Reef Aquatic Reserve, where collecting worms, nippers, shellfish and other invertebrates is prohibited — line fishing for finfish is still allowed there, but bring your bait or pump it on the open beach to the north.

Is Collaroy Beach good for fishing with kids?

It is one of the more family-friendly surf beaches in Sydney, with a rockpool, a large playground, accessible parking bays, surf club toilets and lifeguards patrolling through the warmer months. Fish the quiet early and late shifts, keep kids well back from the wash and rips, and set up clear of the flagged swimming area.

What size do whiting and bream have to be to keep at Collaroy?

Sand whiting must be at least 27cm and bream 25cm. The whiting bag is 20 shared across all whiting species; the bream bag is 10 in total shared with tarwhine and black bream, and twice that in possession. Tarwhine themselves only need to be 20cm, which catches plenty of people out. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish here, as it is everywhere in NSW, and you have to carry the receipt.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Collaroy Beach

Mon 02 Nov 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated 1:02pm AEDT

Bite Alert

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2 Nov

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Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Collaroy Beach

last quarter · 55%

Weather: Rainy Wind: NE 64° · 15 km/h Swell: 0.5 m @ 6 s S Water: 19.4 °C Pressure: 1017.2 hPa ↓ falling Faces east · Offshore: SW, W, NW · Onshore: NE, E, SE · Forecast wind: onshore

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 7:30 pm

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind NE 20 km/h

Moon last quarter all day

Water temp 19.4 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:27 am Last light 7:49 pm

High 3:15 am Low 8:40 am High 3:14 pm Low 10:11 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:30 pm → 8:30 pm

Good

5:00 am → 8:00 am

First light

5:27 am

Last light

7:49 pm

Sunrise

5:53 am

Sunset

7:23 pm

Moonrise

1:46 am

Moonset

12:16 pm

High tide

3:15 am

Low tide

8:40 am

High tide

3:14 pm

Low tide

10:11 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

🌧️

17°

↙︎

229°

2 km/h

1am

🌧️

16°

↙︎

215°

2 km/h

2am

🌧️

16°

↙︎

207°

2 km/h

3am

☁️

16°

↙︎

216°

2 km/h

4am

☁️

16°

←︎

259°

1 km/h

5am

☁️

16°

↖︎

309°

1 km/h

6am

🌧️

16°

↖︎

323°

2 km/h

7am

🌧️

17°

↖︎

333°

2 km/h

8am

🌧️

18°

↑︎

360°

3 km/h

9am

🌧️

19°

↗︎

45°

5 km/h

10am

🌧️

20°

↗︎

62°

9 km/h

11am

🌧️

21°

↗︎

66°

13 km/h

12pm

🌧️

21°

↗︎

64°

15 km/h

1pm

🌧️

22°

↗︎

60°

16 km/h

2pm

🌧️

22°

↗︎

56°

18 km/h

3pm

☀️

22°

↗︎

54°

19 km/h

4pm

☁️

21°

↗︎

52°

20 km/h

5pm

☁️

21°

↗︎

49°

21 km/h

6pm

☁️

20°

↗︎

45°

20 km/h

7pm

☁️

20°

↗︎

41°

20 km/h

8pm

☁️

19°

↗︎

37°

19 km/h

9pm

☁️

19°

↗︎

34°

19 km/h

10pm

☁️

19°

↗︎

31°

17 km/h

11pm

☁️

19°

↗︎

28°

16 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 0.7 → 0.3 m SE

12am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

4am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

5am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

6am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

7am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

8am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

9am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

10am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.5 m

@ 6 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

12pm

0.5 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

1pm

Calm

2pm

0.4 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Calm

chop

3pm

0.4 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Calm

chop

4pm

0.4 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Calm

chop

5pm

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Calm

chop

6pm

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

7pm

0.3 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

8pm

0.3 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Calm

chop

9pm

Calm

10pm

Calm

11pm

Calm

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 19.4°

Fri

30 Oct

19.1°

Sat

31 Oct

18.9°

Sun

1 Nov

19.0°

Mon

2 Nov

19.4°

Tue

3 Nov

19.4°

Wed

4 Nov

19.6°

Thu

5 Nov

19.4°

Fri

6 Nov

19.3°

Sat

7 Nov

—

Sun

8 Nov

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 15 km/h NE (64°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:30 pm → 8:30 pm

Good

5:00 am → 8:00 am

First light

5:27 am

Last light

7:49 pm

Sunrise

5:53 am

Sunset

7:23 pm

Moonrise

1:46 am

Moonset

12:16 pm

High tide

3:15 am

Low tide

8:40 am

High tide

3:14 pm

Low tide

10:11 pm

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

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