What fish can you catch off the beach at Ettalong?

Sand whiting, yellowfin bream and dusky flathead are the mainstays off the sand and the channel edge, with tailor and Australian salmon through the cooler months, luderick on the weedy rock edges, silver trevally as bycatch and the occasional mulloway after dark. It is an estuary-mouth beach rather than an open surf beach, so it fishes more like a channel than a wild ocean gutter. Remember a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish anywhere in NSW, salt or fresh, and the receipt must be on you while you fish.

What is the best tide for fishing Ettalong Beach?

The run-out (falling) tide is the prime time, because it drains bait out of Brisbane Water across the bar and concentrates whiting, bream and flathead on the channel edge and in the gutters. Fish the last couple of hours of the drop around dawn or dusk for the best result. The slack at the very bottom and top of the tide tends to go quiet.

What bait works best for whiting at Ettalong, and can you pump your own?

Fresh nippers and beachworms are the best baits, fished on a light running-sinker rig with a small long-shank hook — and yes, you can gather your own. A NSW digging closure covers Brisbane Water from the boat ramp at the southern end of Ettalong Beach up to the Rip Bridge, banning any method involving a spade or fork between the mean high water mark and mid-estuary, but DPI states plainly that a nipper pump is permitted, and beachworming with hands and pliers is not a digging method either. Leave the spade and fork behind, keep off seagrass, mangrove and saltmarsh, and stay inside the bait limits of 100 nippers and 20 beachworms per person. Beachworms are tough on the hook and also pull bream, flathead, trevally and dart.

Is Ettalong Beach good for fishing with kids?

Yes. The water is calm and shallow, the walk from the car is short and flat, and the Ettalong Foreshore Playground has toilets, free barbecues, picnic facilities and a playground for when the fishing goes quiet. Keep younger ones away from the channel drop-off, where the current runs hard on the run-out tide, and watch for boat and ferry traffic in the channel. The beach itself is unpatrolled, with no lifeguards. Most adult anglers need a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee — limited exemptions apply, including under-18s and Pensioner Concession Card holders.

What are the size and bag limits for flathead and whiting at Ettalong?

In NSW, dusky flathead have a 36–70cm slot with a bag limit of 5 and 10 in possession, and any fish over 70cm must be released as they are important breeders. Sand whiting are a minimum of 27cm inside a 20-fish bag shared across the whiting group, and yellowfin bream are a minimum of 25cm with a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine. Mulloway are 70cm with a bag of one fish per person. Check the current NSW rules before keeping fish, as limits can change.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Ettalong Beach

Sun 20 Sep 2026 · Australia/Sydney

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20 Sep

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Today Tomorrow Sat 19 Sep

📍 Ettalong Beach

first quarter · 59%

Weather: Sunny Wind: W 288° · 3 km/h Swell: 0.3 m @ 7 s E Water: 18.5 °C Pressure: 1018.7 hPa ↓ falling

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind W 12 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 18.5 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:23 am Last light 6:13 pm

High 2:45 am Low 7:54 am High 2:50 pm Low 9:56 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

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

11:00 am → 11:30 am

30m

First light

5:23 am

Last light

6:13 pm

Sunrise

5:47 am

Sunset

5:49 pm

Moonrise

11:27 am

Moonset

1:43 am

High tide

2:45 am

Low tide

7:54 am

High tide

2:50 pm

Low tide

9:56 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

12°

↖︎

296°

7 km/h

1am

☀️

11°

↖︎

301°

9 km/h

2am

☀️

11°

↖︎

299°

10 km/h

3am

☀️

11°

↖︎

295°

10 km/h

4am

☀️

11°

←︎

292°

11 km/h

5am

☀️

12°

←︎

291°

12 km/h

6am

☀️

14°

↖︎

293°

12 km/h

7am

☀️

17°

↖︎

294°

11 km/h

8am

☀️

19°

↖︎

298°

10 km/h

9am

☀️

22°

↖︎

300°

9 km/h

10am

☀️

23°

↖︎

301°

7 km/h

11am

☀️

25°

↖︎

298°

6 km/h

12pm

☀️

26°

←︎

288°

3 km/h

1pm

☀️

26°

↙︎

243°

2 km/h

2pm

☀️

27°

↓︎

180°

2 km/h

3pm

☀️

27°

↓︎

165°

4 km/h

4pm

☀️

27°

↓︎

164°

3 km/h

5pm

☀️

26°

↓︎

201°

2 km/h

6pm

☀️

25°

↖︎

307°

4 km/h

7pm

☀️

24°

↖︎

316°

9 km/h

8pm

☀️

23°

↖︎

318°

14 km/h

9pm

☀️

21°

↖︎

316°

17 km/h

10pm

☀️

20°

↖︎

313°

19 km/h

11pm

☀️

20°

↖︎

304°

19 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.2 m S

12am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Calm

1am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Calm

2am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Calm

3am

0.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Calm

4am

0.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Calm

5am

0.3 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

6am

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

7am

0.3 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

8am

0.3 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

9am

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

10am

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

11am

0.3 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Calm

chop

12pm

0.3 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

1pm

0.3 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

2pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

3pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

4pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

5pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

6pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

7pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

8pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

9pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

10pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

11pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Calm

chop

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.4° over the last 3 days

Thu

17 Sep

18.1°

Fri

18 Sep

18.2°

Sat

19 Sep

18.4°

Sun

20 Sep

18.5°

Mon

21 Sep

18.7°

Tue

22 Sep

18.8°

Wed

23 Sep

18.9°

Thu

24 Sep

—

Fri

25 Sep

—

Sat

26 Sep

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 3 km/h W (288°).

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

5:30 pm → 8:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

11:00 am → 11:30 am

30m

First light

5:23 am

Last light

6:13 pm

Sunrise

5:47 am

Sunset

5:49 pm

Moonrise

11:27 am

Moonset

1:43 am

High tide

2:45 am

Low tide

7:54 am

High tide

2:50 pm

Low tide

9:56 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Sand Whiting
Yellowfin Bream
Dusky Flathead
Tailor
Australian Salmon
Luderick
Mulloway (Jewfish)
Silver Trevally