Can you fish from the Karuah River Bridge?

Treat the bridge deck as off limits — it is a working road crossing carrying Tarean Road, managed by Transport for NSW, whose policy treats fishing from its bridges as prohibited, and the fishing here is done from Longworth Park wharf, its rock wall and the riverbank path that runs under the bridge to Memorial Park. Those spots put a bait into the same eddies behind the pylons that hold the mulloway. The Pacific Highway bridge further upstream is a motorway span with no fishing access at all.

What fish can you catch at Karuah?

Mulloway around the bridge pylons, especially after dark on a tide change, plus yellowfin bream year-round, luderick through the cooler months, and sand whiting and dusky flathead in the warmer months. Mulloway are 70 cm minimum with a bag of one per person, and bream are 25 cm with a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine. You need a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee to fish here.

Is Karuah in the Port Stephens marine park?

Yes. The Karuah River is inside the Port Stephens–Great Lakes Marine Park, and the water at Longworth Park and the bridge is a general use zone where ordinary recreational fishing is allowed. Two sanctuary zones, Little Swan Bay and Number One Cove, are about 1.3 km away and closed to all fishing, so check the zoning map or the FishSmart NSW app before heading downstream by boat or kayak.

Can you use a scoop net or crab trap at Karuah?

Not a prawn scoop net — the Karuah River is west of the Soldiers Point–Fame Point line, where dip and scoop nets, hand-hauled prawn nets and push or scissor nets are closed all year. Hoop and lift nets are allowed only between sunrise and sunset, with nothing suspended above the hoop once set, and crab traps are allowed with every entrance no wider than 320 mm, up to two traps per person.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Karuah River Bridge & Longworth Park Wharf

Tue 20 Oct 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated Sun 25 Oct, 10:58pm AEDT

Bite Alert

←

20 Oct

tap to pick date

→

Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Karuah River Bridge & Longworth Park Wharf

first quarter · 63%

Weather: Rainy Wind: NE 49° · 12 km/h Swell: 0.7 m @ 6 s E Water: 19.7 °C Pressure: 1025.8 hPa → steady Sheltered water: wind direction matters less here

★★★★☆

High 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 11 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 19.7 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:41 am Last light 7:33 pm

High 4:38 am Low 9:45 am High 4:27 pm Low 11:20 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:30 pm → 9:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

5:00 am → 10:00 am

Good

11:00 pm → 12:00 am

Good

2:30 am → 3:00 am

30m

First light

5:41 am

Last light

7:33 pm

Sunrise

6:06 am

Sunset

7:08 pm

Moonrise

1:10 pm

Moonset

2:32 am

High tide

4:38 am

Low tide

9:45 am

High tide

4:27 pm

Low tide

11:20 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

15°

↗︎

48°

13 km/h

1am

☀️

15°

↗︎

45°

13 km/h

2am

☀️

14°

↗︎

48°

11 km/h

3am

☀️

14°

↗︎

50°

11 km/h

4am

☀️

13°

↗︎

51°

12 km/h

5am

☀️

13°

↗︎

55°

11 km/h

6am

☀️

13°

↗︎

44°

10 km/h

7am

☀️

15°

↗︎

42°

11 km/h

8am

☀️

18°

↗︎

37°

10 km/h

9am

☀️

20°

↗︎

38°

12 km/h

10am

☀️

22°

↗︎

38°

12 km/h

11am

🌧️

23°

↗︎

46°

10 km/h

12pm

🌧️

21°

↗︎

49°

12 km/h

1pm

🌧️

22°

→︎

69°

13 km/h

2pm

🌧️

23°

↗︎

56°

16 km/h

3pm

🌧️

21°

→︎

69°

16 km/h

4pm

🌧️

21°

↗︎

63°

17 km/h

5pm

🌧️

22°

↗︎

64°

16 km/h

6pm

🌧️

21°

↗︎

59°

14 km/h

7pm

☀️

19°

↗︎

60°

11 km/h

8pm

☀️

17°

↗︎

60°

11 km/h

9pm

☁️

17°

↗︎

48°

11 km/h

10pm

☀️

16°

↗︎

51°

11 km/h

11pm

☀️

16°

↗︎

57°

13 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.7 m E

12am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.6 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.6 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

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

8am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

9am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

10am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

12pm

0.7 m

@ 6 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

0.6 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

5pm

0.6 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

6pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

7pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

8pm

0.7 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Slight

chop

9pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

10pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

11pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 12 km/h NE (49°).

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 → 9:00 pm

2h 30m

Good

5:00 am → 10:00 am

Good

11:00 pm → 12:00 am

Good

2:30 am → 3:00 am

30m

First light

5:41 am

Last light

7:33 pm

Sunrise

6:06 am

Sunset

7:08 pm

Moonrise

1:10 pm

Moonset

2:32 am

High tide

4:38 am

Low tide

9:45 am

High tide

4:27 pm

Low tide

11:20 pm

Nearby Spots

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