What fish can you catch land-based at Rose Bay?

From the Lyne Park foreshore and the public wharf you can land dusky flathead and sand whiting over the sand flats, yellowfin bream and silver trevally around the wharf pylons and rock walls, tailor on dusk, southern calamari over the seagrass, and leatherjacket, yellowtail and the odd salmon or small snapper. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required to fish anywhere in NSW, including here.

What's the best tide to fish Rose Bay?

The run-in tide is the standout. As the water rises it lifts flathead and whiting up onto the sand flat to feed, and a making tide combined with dawn, dusk or after dark is when the bay fishes best. The run-out pulls fish back toward the deeper gutter in the southeast corner.

What is the size and bag limit for dusky flathead in NSW?

Dusky flathead have a 36–70cm slot limit in NSW — you can only keep fish between those lengths, and anything over 70cm must be released to protect the big breeding females. The daily bag limit is 5, with 10 in possession. Sand whiting are 27cm minimum with a bag of 20 shared across all whiting, and bream are 25cm minimum with a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine. Check the current NSW DPIRD limits before you keep anything.

Is Rose Bay good for fishing with kids?

Yes. Lyne Park has flat grassed foreshore, a large shaded playground, clean toilets, cafes and easy parking, and the sand flats are calm and shallow with no swell. It's one of the more family-friendly harbour spots — just watch oyster growth on the rock walls and keep clear of the ferry wharf and seaplane area.

Can you catch squid at Rose Bay?

Yes — southern calamari hold over the seagrass beds in the bay year-round and are best targeted at night with size 2.0–3.0 jigs cast from the wharf and rock edges. Wade and fish carefully near the weed, as the seagrass is protected habitat for the endangered White's seahorse.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Rose Bay (wharf and flats)

Wed 16 Sep 2026 · Australia/Sydney

Save

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16 Sep

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Today Tomorrow Sat 19 Sep

📍 Rose Bay (wharf and flats)

waxing crescent · 19%

Weather: Sunny Wind: S 188° · 28 km/h Swell: 1.2 m @ 9 s S Water: 17.8 °C Pressure: 1027.5 hPa → steady

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 pm

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind S 28 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 6:11 pm

Low 4:17 am High 10:50 am Low 5:19 pm High 11:15 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 pm → 7:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

4:30 am → 6:30 am

First light

5:29 am

Last light

6:11 pm

Sunrise

5:53 am

Sunset

5:47 pm

Moonrise

8:18 am

Moonset

11:02 pm

Low tide

4:17 am

High tide

10:50 am

Low tide

5:19 pm

High tide

11:15 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

13°

↓︎

197°

21 km/h

1am

☁️

13°

↙︎

210°

17 km/h

2am

☁️

13°

↙︎

217°

14 km/h

3am

☁️

12°

↙︎

235°

12 km/h

4am

☀️

11°

↙︎

238°

14 km/h

5am

☀️

11°

↙︎

223°

17 km/h

6am

☀️

10°

↙︎

229°

18 km/h

7am

☀️

11°

↙︎

235°

17 km/h

8am

☀️

12°

↙︎

231°

16 km/h

9am

☀️

13°

↙︎

205°

23 km/h

10am

☀️

14°

↓︎

198°

25 km/h

11am

☀️

15°

↓︎

192°

26 km/h

12pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

188°

28 km/h

1pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

189°

28 km/h

2pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

190°

29 km/h

3pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

192°

30 km/h

4pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

189°

30 km/h

5pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

190°

29 km/h

6pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

192°

28 km/h

7pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

194°

26 km/h

8pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

194°

26 km/h

9pm

☀️

15°

↓︎

194°

25 km/h

10pm

☀️

14°

↓︎

194°

25 km/h

11pm

☀️

14°

↓︎

197°

24 km/h

Hourly Swell

Building 1.1 → 1.8 m S

12am

1.1 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

1am

1.5 m

@ 6 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

2am

1.4 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

3am

1.4 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

4am

1.3 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

5am

1.3 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

6am

1.3 m

@ 7 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

7am

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

8am

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

chop

9am

1.3 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Moderate

10am

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

11am

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

12pm

1.2 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

1pm

1.2 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

2pm

1.1 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

3pm

1.1 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

4pm

1.1 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

5pm

1.1 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

6pm

1.2 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

7pm

1.2 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

8pm

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

9pm

1.5 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

10pm

1.7 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

11pm

1.8 m

@ 9 s

↓︎

Moderate

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 17.8°

Sun

13 Sep

17.9°

Mon

14 Sep

18.0°

Tue

15 Sep

18.0°

Wed

16 Sep

17.8°

Thu

17 Sep

17.7°

Fri

18 Sep

17.8°

Sat

19 Sep

17.9°

Sun

20 Sep

18.0°

Mon

21 Sep

18.0°

Tue

22 Sep

18.1°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 28 km/h S (188°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 pm → 7:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

4:30 am → 6:30 am

First light

5:29 am

Last light

6:11 pm

Sunrise

5:53 am

Sunset

5:47 pm

Moonrise

8:18 am

Moonset

11:02 pm

Low tide

4:17 am

High tide

10:50 am

Low tide

5:19 pm

High tide

11:15 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Dusky Flathead
Sand Whiting
Yellowfin Bream
Tailor
Southern Calamari (Squid)
Silver Trevally
Australian Salmon
Leatherjacket