Can you fish at Fairlight and North Harbour, or is it a no-take marine sanctuary?

You can fish — line fishing for finfish such as bream, flathead, trevally, luderick and kingfish is allowed right along this shoreline. The North Harbour (Sydney) Aquatic Reserve begins on a line joining Little Manly Point, Manly Point and the eastern end of Forty Baskets Beach, and Fairlight sits outside it. Inside the reserve the rule narrows to hand-held line for finfish only — no nets, no traps and nothing invertebrate taken at all. Spearfishing is the one rule that does not stop at the reserve line: a separate Port Jackson closure bans spearguns across the whole of North Harbour, Manly Cove, Little Manly Cove and Spring Cove, north of a line from Grotto Point to outer North Head. Either way you need a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee to fish here.

Can you get squid at North Harbour Manly?

At Fairlight, yes. Squid hold around the seagrass and kelp, and because Fairlight sits outside the North Harbour Aquatic Reserve you can jig and keep them, with no minimum size and a bag of 20 shared across all squid and cuttlefish. Walk south past Forty Baskets Beach and the answer flips — inside the reserve it is illegal to take any invertebrate, squid and cuttlefish expressly named. One harbour-wide rule applies on both sides of that line: no taking shellfish anywhere in Port Jackson.

What is the size limit for dusky flathead in NSW?

Dusky flathead have a slot limit of 36cm to 70cm in NSW — release any fish under 36cm and any fish over 70cm — with a daily bag of 5 and 10 in possession. The big breeding females over 70cm are what the slot protects, so handle and release them quickly. Yellowfin bream are 25cm and luderick 27cm, both with a bag of 10, though the bream bag is a combined 10 shared with tarwhine and black bream. Silver trevally are 30cm with a bag of 10 across all trevallies, and tarwhine themselves only need to be 20cm.

Do you need a fishing licence to fish at Manly North Harbour?

Yes — you need to pay the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee to fish anywhere in New South Wales waters, including this shoreline. It is $7 for three days, $14 for a month, $35 for a year or $85 for three years, and you must carry the receipt while fishing. People under 18, holders of a current Pensioner Concession Card and Aboriginal people are among those exempt. Carrying a rod beside the water without a paid fee is itself the offence, so buy it before you walk down.

Where can you fish from the shore for flathead around Fairlight?

The stretch of sand next to reef from Fairlight Point around to the old Manly aquarium site is a well-known land-based flathead drift. Walk light along the foreshore, hop small soft plastics or blades along the sand-to-reef margins on a rising tide, and cover ground rather than sitting in one spot. Remember the 36–70cm slot and release anything outside it.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Manly North Harbour (Fairlight)

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

📍 Manly North Harbour (Fairlight)

waxing gibbous · 73%

Weather: Sunny Wind: E 84° · 5 km/h Swell: 0.9 m @ 5 s E Water: 19.9 °C Pressure: 1024.3 hPa → steady Sheltered water: wind direction matters less here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 7:30 pm

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind NE 14 km/h

Moon waxing gibbous all day

Water temp 19.9 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:41 am Last light 7:38 pm

High 5:33 am Low 11:06 am High 5:16 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 pm → 10:30 pm

5h 30m

Good

8:30 am → 12:00 pm

3h 30m

Good

5:30 am → 7:00 am

1h 30m

First light

5:41 am

Last light

7:38 pm

Sunrise

6:06 am

Sunset

7:12 pm

Moonrise

2:11 pm

Moonset

3:08 am

High tide

5:33 am

Low tide

11:06 am

High tide

5:16 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

18°

↗︎

24°

12 km/h

1am

☁️

17°

↑︎

359°

8 km/h

2am

☁️

16°

↖︎

309°

5 km/h

3am

☁️

15°

←︎

286°

4 km/h

4am

☁️

14°

←︎

281°

3 km/h

5am

☁️

14°

←︎

264°

2 km/h

6am

☁️

14°

←︎

270°

2 km/h

7am

☁️

14°

←︎

253°

2 km/h

8am

☀️

17°

↘︎

128°

3 km/h

9am

☀️

19°

↗︎

66°

9 km/h

10am

☀️

20°

→︎

70°

13 km/h

11am

☀️

21°

→︎

79°

10 km/h

12pm

☀️

21°

→︎

70°

13 km/h

1pm

☀️

21°

→︎

68°

16 km/h

2pm

☀️

21°

↗︎

65°

18 km/h

3pm

☀️

21°

↗︎

60°

18 km/h

4pm

☁️

21°

↗︎

56°

17 km/h

5pm

☀️

20°

↗︎

58°

16 km/h

6pm

☀️

20°

↗︎

62°

15 km/h

7pm

☀️

19°

↗︎

53°

14 km/h

8pm

☀️

18°

↗︎

50°

15 km/h

9pm

🌧️

18°

↗︎

40°

12 km/h

10pm

🌧️

17°

↗︎

51°

11 km/h

11pm

🌧️

16°

→︎

84°

5 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.9 m E

12am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.7 m

@ 4 s

→︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.7 m

@ 4 s

→︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.7 m

@ 4 s

→︎

Slight

chop

4am

0.7 m

@ 4 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

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

10am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

11am

0.7 m

@ 5 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

0.7 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

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

8pm

0.7 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

9pm

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

10pm

0.8 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

11pm

0.9 m

@ 5 s

→︎

Slight

chop

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 5 km/h E (84°).

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 pm → 10:30 pm

5h 30m

Good

8:30 am → 12:00 pm

3h 30m

Good

5:30 am → 7:00 am

1h 30m

First light

5:41 am

Last light

7:38 pm

Sunrise

6:06 am

Sunset

7:12 pm

Moonrise

2:11 pm

Moonset

3:08 am

High tide

5:33 am

Low tide

11:06 am

High tide

5:16 pm

Nearby Spots

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