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 and flathead on the channel edge and in the gutters; bream are best around the top of the tide. 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

Sat 31 Oct 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated 11:19am AEDT

Bite Alert

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31 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Ettalong Beach

waning gibbous · 75%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: NE 39° · 13 km/h Swell: 0.6 m @ 5 s E Water: 18.8 °C Pressure: 1014.4 hPa ↓ falling 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 Turning

Wind NW 5 km/h

Moon waning gibbous all day

Water temp 18.8 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:30 am Last light 7:46 pm

High 12:42 am Low 6:15 am High 12:51 pm Low 8:00 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

4:00 am → 7:30 am

3h 30m

Good

7:00 pm → 9:00 pm

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

Good

4:30 pm → 6:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:30 am

Last light

7:46 pm

Sunrise

5:56 am

Sunset

7:21 pm

Moonrise

12:11 am

Moonset

9:54 am

High tide

12:42 am

Low tide

6:15 am

High tide

12:51 pm

Low tide

8:00 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

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18°

↗︎

23°

16 km/h

1am

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17°

↑︎

19°

14 km/h

2am

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17°

↑︎

21°

13 km/h

3am

☀️

16°

↑︎

18°

12 km/h

4am

☀️

16°

↑︎

345°

10 km/h

5am

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15°

↖︎

335°

5 km/h

6am

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15°

↑︎

2°

9 km/h

7am

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16°

↑︎

4°

11 km/h

8am

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18°

↑︎

10°

9 km/h

9am

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20°

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38°

10 km/h

10am

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22°

↗︎

38°

11 km/h

11am

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23°

↗︎

38°

12 km/h

12pm

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24°

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39°

13 km/h

1pm

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24°

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45°

15 km/h

2pm

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24°

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48°

19 km/h

3pm

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24°

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46°

20 km/h

4pm

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24°

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49°

23 km/h

5pm

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4°

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6pm

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7°

17 km/h

9pm

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3°

16 km/h

10pm

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20°

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356°

16 km/h

11pm

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20°

↑︎

345°

15 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.7 m NE

12am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

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Slight

chop

1am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

2am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

3am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

4am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

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Slight

chop

5am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

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Slight

chop

6am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

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Slight

chop

7am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

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Slight

chop

8am

0.6 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

9am

0.6 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

10am

0.6 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

11am

0.6 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

12pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

1pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

2pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

3pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

4pm

0.6 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

5pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

6pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

7pm

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

8pm

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

9pm

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

10pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Slight

chop

11pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

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Slight

chop

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.4° over the last 3 days

Wed

28 Oct

18.4°

Thu

29 Oct

18.6°

Fri

30 Oct

18.8°

Sat

31 Oct

18.8°

Sun

1 Nov

18.9°

Mon

2 Nov

19.3°

Tue

3 Nov

19.3°

Wed

4 Nov

19.5°

Thu

5 Nov

19.4°

Fri

6 Nov

19.2°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 13 km/h NE (39°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

4:00 am → 7:30 am

3h 30m

Good

7:00 pm → 9:00 pm

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

Good

4:30 pm → 6:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:30 am

Last light

7:46 pm

Sunrise

5:56 am

Sunset

7:21 pm

Moonrise

12:11 am

Moonset

9:54 am

High tide

12:42 am

Low tide

6:15 am

High tide

12:51 pm

Low tide

8:00 pm

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