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

Thu 29 Oct 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated 7:02pm AEDT

Bite Alert

←

29 Oct

tap to pick date

→

Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Karuah River Bridge & Longworth Park Wharf

waning gibbous · 91%

Weather: Sunny Wind: S 181° · 10 km/h Swell: 1.1 m @ 7 s S Water: 19.0 °C Pressure: 1021.6 hPa → steady Sheltered water: wind direction matters less here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

Email me when a High bite day is coming Free

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind NW 9 km/h

Moon waning gibbous all day

Water temp 19.0 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:31 am Last light 7:40 pm

Low 4:20 am High 10:53 am Low 5:44 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

2:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

6:30 pm → 8:30 pm

Good

10:30 pm → 12:00 am

1h 30m

Good

2:30 pm → 4:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:31 am

Last light

7:40 pm

Sunrise

5:56 am

Sunset

7:15 pm

Moonrise

11:03 pm

Moonset

7:43 am

Low tide

4:20 am

High tide

10:53 am

Low tide

5:44 pm

High tide

11:39 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

13°

↖︎

328°

9 km/h

1am

☀️

12°

↖︎

328°

8 km/h

2am

☀️

11°

↖︎

325°

8 km/h

3am

☀️

10°

↖︎

319°

8 km/h

4am

☀️

10°

↖︎

310°

9 km/h

5am

☀️

10°

↖︎

302°

9 km/h

6am

☀️

12°

↖︎

293°

8 km/h

7am

☀️

14°

←︎

279°

7 km/h

8am

☀️

17°

←︎

259°

6 km/h

9am

☀️

19°

↙︎

232°

5 km/h

10am

☀️

21°

↙︎

204°

6 km/h

11am

☀️

23°

↓︎

188°

8 km/h

12pm

☀️

24°

↓︎

181°

10 km/h

1pm

☀️

24°

↓︎

176°

11 km/h

2pm

☀️

24°

↓︎

172°

13 km/h

3pm

☀️

23°

↓︎

164°

13 km/h

4pm

☀️

22°

↘︎

155°

14 km/h

5pm

☀️

21°

↘︎

146°

13 km/h

6pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

136°

11 km/h

7pm

☀️

17°

↘︎

118°

9 km/h

8pm

☀️

16°

→︎

97°

7 km/h

9pm

☀️

15°

↗︎

49°

4 km/h

10pm

☀️

14°

↖︎

337°

6 km/h

11pm

☀️

13°

↖︎

321°

9 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 0.8 → 1.2 m S

12am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.8 m

@ 5 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.8 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.8 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

4am

0.8 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

5am

0.9 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

6am

0.9 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

7am

0.9 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

8am

0.9 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

9am

1.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

10am

1.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

11am

1.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

12pm

1.1 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

1pm

1.1 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

2pm

1.1 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

3pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

4pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

5pm

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

6pm

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↓︎

Moderate

7pm

1.1 m

@ 11 s

↓︎

Moderate

ground

8pm

1.1 m

@ 11 s

↓︎

Moderate

ground

9pm

1.1 m

@ 11 s

↓︎

Moderate

ground

10pm

1.2 m

@ 11 s

↓︎

Moderate

ground

11pm

1.2 m

@ 11 s

↓︎

Moderate

ground

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.5° over the last 3 days

Mon

26 Oct

18.5°

Tue

27 Oct

18.6°

Wed

28 Oct

18.8°

Thu

29 Oct

19.0°

Fri

30 Oct

19.2°

Sat

31 Oct

19.3°

Sun

1 Nov

19.6°

Mon

2 Nov

19.6°

Tue

3 Nov

—

Wed

4 Nov

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 10 km/h S (181°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

2:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

6:30 pm → 8:30 pm

Good

10:30 pm → 12:00 am

1h 30m

Good

2:30 pm → 4:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:31 am

Last light

7:40 pm

Sunrise

5:56 am

Sunset

7:15 pm

Moonrise

11:03 pm

Moonset

7:43 am

Low tide

4:20 am

High tide

10:53 am

Low tide

5:44 pm

High tide

11:39 pm

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

Keep Tabs on Karuah River Bridge & Longworth Park Wharf

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