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, bream and mulloway stack up to meet them. 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)

Thu 17 Sep 2026 · Australia/Sydney

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17 Sep

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Today Tomorrow Sat 19 Sep

📍 Lake Illawarra Entrance (Windang)

waxing crescent · 28%

Weather: Sunny Wind: S 165° · 10 km/h Swell: 1.7 m @ 7 s SE Water: 17.8 °C Pressure: 1031.1 hPa ↓ falling

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 5:30 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind SW 19 km/h

Moon waxing crescent all day

Water temp 17.8 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:29 am Last light 6:13 pm

Low 4:53 am High 11:37 am Low 6:30 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 6:30 am

1h 30m

Good

4:00 pm → 7:00 pm

First light

5:29 am

Last light

6:13 pm

Sunrise

5:53 am

Sunset

5:49 pm

Moonrise

8:56 am

Moonset

12:04 am

Low tide

4:53 am

High tide

11:37 am

Low tide

6:30 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

9°

↙︎

239°

17 km/h

1am

☀️

9°

↙︎

232°

19 km/h

2am

☁️

9°

↙︎

235°

18 km/h

3am

☁️

10°

↙︎

232°

18 km/h

4am

☁️

10°

↙︎

228°

17 km/h

5am

☁️

10°

↙︎

226°

19 km/h

6am

☀️

10°

↙︎

230°

19 km/h

7am

☀️

11°

↙︎

229°

18 km/h

8am

☁️

12°

↙︎

221°

16 km/h

9am

☀️

14°

↙︎

214°

15 km/h

10am

☀️

15°

↙︎

206°

14 km/h

11am

☀️

16°

↓︎

192°

11 km/h

12pm

☀️

17°

↓︎

165°

10 km/h

1pm

☀️

17°

↘︎

150°

13 km/h

2pm

☀️

16°

↘︎

145°

15 km/h

3pm

☀️

16°

↘︎

143°

14 km/h

4pm

☀️

15°

↘︎

145°

10 km/h

5pm

☀️

14°

↘︎

141°

6 km/h

6pm

☀️

13°

↙︎

243°

0 km/h

7pm

☀️

11°

←︎

274°

3 km/h

8pm

☀️

10°

←︎

275°

6 km/h

9pm

☀️

8°

←︎

276°

7 km/h

10pm

☀️

8°

←︎

277°

6 km/h

11pm

☀️

7°

←︎

276°

5 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 2.1 → 1.2 m S

12am

2.1 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Solid

chop

1am

2.2 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Solid

chop

2am

2.2 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Solid

chop

3am

2.1 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Solid

chop

4am

2.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Solid

chop

5am

2.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

6am

1.9 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

7am

1.9 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

8am

1.8 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

9am

1.8 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

10am

1.8 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

11am

1.7 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

12pm

1.7 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

1pm

1.7 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

2pm

1.6 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

3pm

1.6 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

4pm

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

5pm

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

6pm

1.5 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

7pm

1.4 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

8pm

1.4 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

9pm

1.3 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

10pm

1.2 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

11pm

1.2 m

@ 7 s

↘︎

Moderate

chop

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 17.8°

Mon

14 Sep

18.0°

Tue

15 Sep

18.1°

Wed

16 Sep

17.9°

Thu

17 Sep

17.8°

Fri

18 Sep

17.9°

Sat

19 Sep

18.0°

Sun

20 Sep

18.1°

Mon

21 Sep

18.0°

Tue

22 Sep

18.0°

Wed

23 Sep

18.1°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 10 km/h S (165°).

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 → 6:30 am

1h 30m

Good

4:00 pm → 7:00 pm

First light

5:29 am

Last light

6:13 pm

Sunrise

5:53 am

Sunset

5:49 pm

Moonrise

8:56 am

Moonset

12:04 am

Low tide

4:53 am

High tide

11:37 am

Low tide

6:30 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Dusky Flathead
Yellowfin Bream
Sand Whiting
Luderick
Mulloway (Jewfish)
Tailor
Australian Salmon