Can you fish Marks Point from the shore or do you need a boat?

You can fish it from the shore. The Marks Point foreshore and Naru Beach reserve give land-based access to the sand flats and the inside of the drop-off, which produce flathead, bream and whiting. The true deep lip of The Drop Over — the channel edge proper — is best reached by boat or kayak, but plenty of fish are caught wading and casting from the bank, especially on a run-out tide around dawn. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish anywhere in NSW, shore or boat.

What is the dusky flathead size limit at Marks Point?

NSW runs a slot limit for dusky flathead of 36cm minimum to 70cm maximum, with a daily bag limit of 5. Any fish under 36cm or over 70cm must be released, so the big breeding females go back. The slot and bag limits apply right across Lake Macquarie and the rest of the state. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish in NSW.

When is the best time to fish The Drop Over at Marks Point?

The run-out tide around dawn or dusk is the standout, when water draining off the flats pulls bait toward the deeper edge and the flathead and whiting feed hard, while bream are best around the top of the tide. The warmer months from spring into autumn are best for flathead and whiting, while winter nights are the time for jewfish in the deeper channel holes. Get there early to beat the boat and jet-ski traffic, which builds through the day in summer.

Are there toilets and parking at Naru Beach, Marks Point?

There is a small car park at the Naru Beach reserve, reached by about a kilometre of bumpy dirt road, and council lists parking as the facility there. There are no toilets or water on site — the nearest public toilets are back in Marks Point. The car park fills quickly on warm days, so you may need to park a few hundred metres back along the road, and council has flagged extra truck movements on the access streets for a dune management project.

What can you catch at Marks Point in Lake Macquarie?

Dusky flathead, yellowfin bream and sand whiting are the bread and butter, with mulloway (jewfish) in the deeper channel holes through the cooler months, mostly at night — 70cm minimum, bag of 1 per person. Tailor and yellowtail kingfish push through with bait, tailor often in autumn and kingfish in summer, and luderick come onto the weed and moorings from autumn into spring. Bait-collection restrictions apply lake-wide — a nipper pump is fine, a spade or fork is not, so read the DPIRD Lake Macquarie closure before you collect your own. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish in NSW.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Marks Point (The Drop Over)

Thu 29 Oct 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Forecast updated 1:06pm AEDT

Bite Alert

←

29 Oct

Today

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Today Tomorrow Sat 31 Oct

📍 Marks Point (The Drop Over)

waning gibbous · 91%

Weather: Sunny Wind: SE 126° · 14 km/h Swell: 1.2 m @ 8 s S Water: 18.6 °C Pressure: 1022.1 hPa → steady Sheltered water: wind direction matters less here

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

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▸ 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 18.6 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Now

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:31 am Last light 7:42 pm

Low 4:20 am High 10:56 am Low 5:41 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

2:30 am → 7:00 am

4h 30m

Good

6:30 pm → 8:30 pm

Good

11:00 pm → 12:00 am

Good

2:30 pm → 4:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:31 am

Last light

7:42 pm

Sunrise

5:57 am

Sunset

7:17 pm

Moonrise

11:06 pm

Moonset

7:43 am

Low tide

4:20 am

High tide

10:56 am

Low tide

5:41 pm

High tide

11:39 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

15°

↖︎

319°

4 km/h

1am

☀️

15°

↖︎

323°

5 km/h

2am

☀️

15°

↖︎

311°

6 km/h

3am

☀️

15°

↖︎

307°

6 km/h

4am

☀️

15°

↖︎

309°

7 km/h

5am

☀️

15°

↖︎

317°

9 km/h

6am

☀️

14°

↖︎

316°

8 km/h

7am

☀️

15°

↖︎

320°

10 km/h

8am

☀️

18°

↖︎

315°

6 km/h

9am

☀️

20°

←︎

273°

4 km/h

10am

☀️

21°

↓︎

184°

6 km/h

11am

☀️

21°

↘︎

139°

9 km/h

12pm

☀️

21°

↘︎

124°

13 km/h

1pm

☀️

21°

↘︎

126°

14 km/h

Now

☀️

20°

↘︎

138°

16 km/h

3pm

☀️

20°

↘︎

140°

18 km/h

4pm

☀️

20°

↘︎

134°

19 km/h

5pm

☀️

20°

↘︎

132°

16 km/h

6pm

☀️

20°

↘︎

115°

16 km/h

7pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

123°

13 km/h

8pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

115°

12 km/h

9pm

☀️

19°

→︎

108°

8 km/h

10pm

☀️

18°

→︎

94°

5 km/h

11pm

☀️

18°

→︎

101°

5 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 0.7 → 1.4 m S

12am

0.7 m

@ 5 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

1am

0.8 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

2am

0.8 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

3am

0.8 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

4am

0.8 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

5am

0.9 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

6am

0.9 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

7am

0.9 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

8am

1.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

9am

1.0 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

10am

1.1 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

11am

1.1 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

12pm

1.1 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

1pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

Now

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

3pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

4pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

5pm

1.2 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

6pm

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

7pm

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

8pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

9pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

10pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

11pm

1.4 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 1.3° over the last 3 days

Mon

26 Oct

17.3°

Tue

27 Oct

17.7°

Wed

28 Oct

17.9°

Thu

29 Oct

18.6°

Fri

30 Oct

19.0°

Sat

31 Oct

18.9°

Sun

1 Nov

18.8°

Mon

2 Nov

19.2°

Tue

3 Nov

19.1°

Wed

4 Nov

19.3°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 14 km/h SE (126°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

2:30 am → 7:00 am

4h 30m

Good

6:30 pm → 8:30 pm

Good

11:00 pm → 12:00 am

Good

2:30 pm → 4:00 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:31 am

Last light

7:42 pm

Sunrise

5:57 am

Sunset

7:17 pm

Moonrise

11:06 pm

Moonset

7:43 am

Low tide

4:20 am

High tide

10:56 am

Low tide

5:41 pm

High tide

11:39 pm

Nearby Spots

Species at This Spot

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