Can you fish Fingal Spit from the shore for mulloway?

Yes — the spit is one of the best land-based mulloway marks in Port Stephens. School jewfish to around 10kg come off the spit and the adjoining Fingal Beach, with almost all of them taken after dark on fresh beach worms, slab baits or live bait fished in the gutter. You will need to walk roughly 2km north along the beach from the Fingal Beach Surf Club car park to reach it. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish anywhere in NSW, including here.

Is it safe to walk across the Fingal Spit?

Only with great care and only at the right tide. The sandbar to Point Stephens and Fingal Island is awash on the tide and has a long record of drownings — people are regularly cut off by the rising water. Cross only around one hour either side of low tide, never when water is washing over the sand, and never with a big swell running. If in doubt, do not cross and fish the lower beach instead.

What's the best tide and time to fish Fingal Spit?

Fish the run-out and the bottom of the tide, around dawn, dusk and after dark. Tailor and salmon come on in the deep gutters just on dark, and mulloway fish best at night, often around a bright moon. The outer spit is only safely walkable about an hour either side of low water, so the low-tide window doubles as both the safe access and the productive session.

What can you catch at Fingal Spit?

Mulloway and tailor are the headline fish, with Australian salmon through the colder months, dusky flathead on plastics across the flats, and sand whiting on the shallow banks in the warmer months. Yellowfin bream are a year-round bycatch close in. Remember the NSW size and bag limits — mulloway must be 70cm with a bag of 1 per person, dusky flathead sit in a 36–70cm slot with fish over 70cm released and a bag of 5, sand whiting 27cm, and tailor 30cm with a daily bag of 10 — and that a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies.

Where do you park to fish Fingal Spit?

Park at the Fingal Beach Surf Life Saving Club car park off Marine Drive, reached via Shoal Bay Road. There are public toilets at the car park. From there it is around a 2km walk north over soft sand to the spit — there is no vehicle access onto the beach, so a beach cart is worth bringing for surf gear and bait.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Fingal Spit

Wed 21 Oct 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated Wed 21 Oct, 11:08pm AEDT

Bite Alert

←

21 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Fingal Spit

waxing gibbous · 73%

Weather: Rainy Wind: NE 66° · 21 km/h Swell: 1.1 m @ 5 s E Water: 20.0 °C Pressure: 1023.9 hPa → steady Faces several ways: wind direction isn't scored here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Turning

Wind NE 11 km/h

Moon waxing gibbous all day

Water temp 20.0 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:39 am Last light 7:33 pm

High 5:33 am Low 11:00 am High 5:15 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

5:30 pm → 9:30 pm

Good

8:00 am → 11:30 am

3h 30m

Good

3:00 am → 4:00 am

First light

5:39 am

Last light

7:33 pm

Sunrise

6:04 am

Sunset

7:08 pm

Moonrise

2:09 pm

Moonset

3:03 am

High tide

5:33 am

Low tide

11:00 am

High tide

5:15 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

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17°

↗︎

35°

15 km/h

1am

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17°

↗︎

41°

14 km/h

2am

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17°

↗︎

41°

14 km/h

3am

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16°

↗︎

40°

12 km/h

4am

☁️

16°

↗︎

43°

12 km/h

5am

☁️

16°

↗︎

41°

12 km/h

6am

☁️

17°

↗︎

42°

11 km/h

7am

☁️

17°

↗︎

50°

11 km/h

8am

☁️

19°

↗︎

57°

12 km/h

9am

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19°

↗︎

44°

12 km/h

10am

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20°

↗︎

48°

15 km/h

11am

☁️

21°

↗︎

54°

14 km/h

12pm

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21°

↗︎

55°

14 km/h

1pm

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21°

↗︎

62°

15 km/h

2pm

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20°

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75°

14 km/h

3pm

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21°

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72°

17 km/h

4pm

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20°

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63°

15 km/h

5pm

🌧️

20°

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67°

17 km/h

6pm

🌧️

19°

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75°

18 km/h

7pm

🌧️

18°

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69°

16 km/h

8pm

🌧️

18°

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60°

20 km/h

9pm

🌧️

18°

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60°

19 km/h

10pm

☁️

18°

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64°

19 km/h

11pm

🌧️

18°

↗︎

66°

21 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 0.7 → 1.1 m E

12am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

4am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

5am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

6am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

7am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

8am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

9am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

10am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

12pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

1pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

2pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

3pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

4pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

5pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

6pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

7pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

8pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

9pm

0.8 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

10pm

1.0 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

11pm

1.1 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 21 km/h NE (66°).

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

5:30 pm → 9:30 pm

Good

8:00 am → 11:30 am

3h 30m

Good

3:00 am → 4:00 am

First light

5:39 am

Last light

7:33 pm

Sunrise

6:04 am

Sunset

7:08 pm

Moonrise

2:09 pm

Moonset

3:03 am

High tide

5:33 am

Low tide

11:00 am

High tide

5:15 pm

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