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

Thu 17 Sep 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Save

←

17 Sep

tap to pick date

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Today Tomorrow Sat 19 Sep

📍 Collaroy Beach

waxing crescent · 28%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: S 189° · 23 km/h Swell: 1.5 m @ 8 s SE Water: 17.8 °C Pressure: 1031.6 hPa → steady

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind SW 17 km/h

Moon waxing crescent all day

Water temp 17.8 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:27 am Last light 6:12 pm

Low 4:50 am High 11:35 am Low 6:30 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 6:30 am

1h 30m

Good

4:00 pm → 7:30 pm

3h 30m

First light

5:27 am

Last light

6:12 pm

Sunrise

5:51 am

Sunset

5:47 pm

Moonrise

8:57 am

Moonset

12:00 am

Low tide

4:50 am

High tide

11:35 am

Low tide

6:30 pm

High tide

11:54 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

12°

↓︎

197°

25 km/h

1am

☁️

12°

↓︎

200°

24 km/h

2am

☁️

11°

↙︎

205°

22 km/h

3am

☀️

11°

↙︎

213°

20 km/h

4am

☀️

10°

↙︎

222°

18 km/h

5am

☀️

10°

↙︎

231°

17 km/h

6am

☀️

9°

↙︎

240°

17 km/h

7am

☀️

10°

↙︎

241°

17 km/h

8am

☀️

11°

↙︎

227°

17 km/h

9am

☁️

13°

↙︎

208°

20 km/h

10am

☁️

14°

↓︎

197°

23 km/h

11am

☁️

15°

↓︎

193°

24 km/h

12pm

☁️

15°

↓︎

189°

23 km/h

1pm

☀️

16°

↓︎

185°

22 km/h

2pm

☀️

16°

↓︎

181°

21 km/h

3pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

176°

20 km/h

4pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

173°

18 km/h

5pm

☀️

14°

↓︎

169°

16 km/h

6pm

☀️

14°

↓︎

167°

13 km/h

7pm

☀️

13°

↓︎

166°

11 km/h

8pm

☀️

12°

↓︎

175°

8 km/h

9pm

☀️

12°

↓︎

195°

6 km/h

10pm

☀️

11°

↙︎

224°

6 km/h

11pm

☀️

10°

↙︎

241°

7 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 1.5 → 1.1 m S

12am

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

1am

1.6 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

2am

1.6 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

3am

1.6 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

4am

1.7 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

5am

1.6 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

6am

1.6 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

7am

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

8am

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

9am

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

10am

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

11am

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

12pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

1pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

2pm

1.5 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

3pm

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

4pm

1.6 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

5pm

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

6pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

7pm

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

8pm

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

9pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

10pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

11pm

1.1 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

Water Temp (°C)

↘ cooling — down 0.5° over the last 3 days

Mon

14 Sep

18.3°

Tue

15 Sep

18.4°

Wed

16 Sep

18.2°

Thu

17 Sep

17.8°

Fri

18 Sep

17.9°

Sat

19 Sep

18.0°

Sun

20 Sep

18.2°

Mon

21 Sep

18.2°

Tue

22 Sep

18.4°

Wed

23 Sep

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 23 km/h S (189°).

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 → 6:30 am

1h 30m

Good

4:00 pm → 7:30 pm

3h 30m

First light

5:27 am

Last light

6:12 pm

Sunrise

5:51 am

Sunset

5:47 pm

Moonrise

8:57 am

Moonset

12:00 am

Low tide

4:50 am

High tide

11:35 am

Low tide

6:30 pm

High tide

11:54 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Sand Whiting
Yellowfin Bream
Tailor
Australian Salmon
Dusky Flathead
Dart
Tarwhine