What's the best tide to fish Windang Bridge and the Lake Illawarra entrance?

The run-out tide is the standout — the draining lake pulls prawns and baitfish through the channel and the flathead and mulloway stack up to meet them, while bream are best around the top of the tide. Aim to arrive around the top of the tide and fish it down, with dawn, dusk and the change of light the best windows. Note that most adult anglers need a paid NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt to fish anywhere in NSW, including from the rock walls and the flats here — limited exemptions apply, including under-18s and Pensioner Concession Card holders. Fishing from the Windang Bridge deck itself is signposted as prohibited, so it is not part of the plan.

Can you catch mulloway at the Lake Illawarra entrance?

Yes — the deeper holes in the channel near Windang Bridge turn up mulloway after dark, most reliably on the bigger run-out tides. Live prawn, squid or a large soft plastic fished across the top of the tide is the standard approach. Mulloway in NSW have a 70cm minimum length and a bag limit of 1 per person, with a boat limit of 2 per boat per day when two or more people are aboard, so it is one fish and one fish only from the wall.

When is the prawn run at Lake Illawarra and how do you catch them?

The lake prawn run fires through summer, with the dark of the moon the prime time. Scoopers wade the shallows with a hand dip or scoop net, a bright light or headtorch and a bucket, and the main channel near the entrance is a classic spot. A dip or scoop net is not named in the entrance closure, so it is still allowed there, but hand-hauled, push and scissors prawn nets, hoop and lift nets, crab traps and lobster traps are all banned there all year, and so is spearfishing. Prawning counts as fishing in NSW, so the Recreational Fishing Fee applies.

Is the Windang entrance safe for fishing with kids?

The reserve side is fine for kids — Reddall Reserve just west of the bridge has flat grass, shallow edges, sealed parking and picnic facilities. The water directly under and beside Windang Bridge is not safe for kids in or near the water: the tidal current through the entrance is strong and fast, especially on the run-out, so keep children well back from the channel and the rock walls.

What size and bag limits apply to flathead and bream here?

Dusky flathead in NSW have a 36–70cm slot — keep fish from 36cm up to 70cm and release anything over 70cm — with a daily bag limit of five. Yellowfin bream have a 25cm minimum and a daily bag of ten, shared across bream and tarwhine rather than ten of each. These are NSW-wide rules; confirm the current numbers with NSW DPIRD, and remember the Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish in NSW.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Lake Illawarra Entrance (Windang)

Sat 31 Oct 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated 11:06am AEDT

Bite Alert

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31 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Lake Illawarra Entrance (Windang)

waning gibbous · 75%

Weather: Sunny Wind: N 14° · 17 km/h Swell: 0.9 m @ 7 s E Water: 18.5 °C Pressure: 1013.4 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 6 km/h

Moon waning gibbous all day

Water temp 18.5 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:30 am Last light 7:50 pm

High 12:49 am Low 6:12 am High 12:52 pm Low 8:05 pm

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Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

4:30 am → 7:30 am

Good

7:00 pm → 9:00 pm

Good

4:30 pm → 6:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:30 am

Last light

7:50 pm

Sunrise

5:56 am

Sunset

7:24 pm

Moonrise

12:16 am

Moonset

9:53 am

High tide

12:49 am

Low tide

6:12 am

High tide

12:52 pm

Low tide

8:05 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

17°

↑︎

345°

9 km/h

1am

☁️

17°

↑︎

345°

10 km/h

2am

☁️

16°

↑︎

344°

8 km/h

3am

☁️

16°

↑︎

345°

6 km/h

4am

☁️

15°

↑︎

338°

6 km/h

5am

☁️

14°

↖︎

326°

6 km/h

6am

☁️

14°

↖︎

328°

7 km/h

7am

☁️

15°

↑︎

339°

6 km/h

8am

☀️

18°

↑︎

2°

5 km/h

9am

☀️

21°

↗︎

26°

7 km/h

10am

☀️

24°

↗︎

27°

10 km/h

11am

☀️

26°

↑︎

20°

14 km/h

12pm

☀️

28°

↑︎

14°

17 km/h

1pm

☀️

27°

↗︎

40°

18 km/h

2pm

☁️

27°

↗︎

47°

18 km/h

3pm

☀️

27°

↗︎

44°

22 km/h

4pm

☁️

27°

↗︎

36°

24 km/h

5pm

☁️

27°

↗︎

35°

23 km/h

6pm

☁️

25°

↗︎

31°

24 km/h

7pm

🌧️

21°

↖︎

330°

15 km/h

8pm

🌧️

20°

↖︎

336°

6 km/h

9pm

☀️

19°

↑︎

3°

7 km/h

10pm

☁️

19°

↖︎

324°

7 km/h

11pm

☀️

19°

↖︎

320°

11 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~1.3 m NE

12am

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

ground

1am

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

ground

2am

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

ground

3am

1.1 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

4am

1.1 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

5am

1.1 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

6am

1.0 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

7am

1.0 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Moderate

8am

1.0 m

@ 10 s

↘︎

Slight

9am

0.9 m

@ 9 s

↘︎

Slight

10am

0.9 m

@ 8 s

↘︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.9 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Slight

chop

12pm

0.9 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Slight

chop

1pm

0.9 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Slight

chop

2pm

0.9 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Slight

chop

3pm

0.9 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Slight

chop

4pm

0.9 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Slight

chop

5pm

0.9 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Slight

chop

6pm

1.0 m

@ 7 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

7pm

1.2 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

8pm

1.3 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

9pm

1.3 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

10pm

1.3 m

@ 5 s

↗︎

Moderate

chop

11pm

1.3 m

@ 6 s

→︎

Moderate

chop

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 18.5°

Wed

28 Oct

18.2°

Thu

29 Oct

18.6°

Fri

30 Oct

19.0°

Sat

31 Oct

18.5°

Sun

1 Nov

18.7°

Mon

2 Nov

19.0°

Tue

3 Nov

18.9°

Wed

4 Nov

19.2°

Thu

5 Nov

18.9°

Fri

6 Nov

19.0°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 17 km/h N (14°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

4:30 am → 7:30 am

Good

7:00 pm → 9:00 pm

Good

4:30 pm → 6:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

12:00 am → 1:30 am

1h 30m

First light

5:30 am

Last light

7:50 pm

Sunrise

5:56 am

Sunset

7:24 pm

Moonrise

12:16 am

Moonset

9:53 am

High tide

12:49 am

Low tide

6:12 am

High tide

12:52 pm

Low tide

8:05 pm

Nearby Spots

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