Tailor
Excellent
The main run. Fish the gutters and headlands into the evening; ganged pilchards, metals, and a wire-free trace only if you accept the bite-offs.
Botany Bay Fishing Report
Updated Sat, 26 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
Sydney’s southern bay: the Georges and Cooks rivers, Kurnell and La Perouse, the flats and the heads, a fishery inside the airport’s flight path.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Next tide
Low 12:58 am model
Air / High
15 °C / 28 °C
Wind
NW 10 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Botany Bay has cool water and fish holding a little deeper and slower. Today brings clear skies, wind NW around 10 km/h, rising pressure near 1026 hPa and a high of 28 °C. Tides: high 7:08 am and 7:12 pm, low 12:58 am and 1:02 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 18 °C for the season (estimated). With the full moon, the solunar majors run 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Bream
Fair
Slow the retrieve right down: blades and lightly weighted plastics along the deeper rock walls and drop-offs, or unweighted bait drifted into the snags.
Flathead
Fair
Fish the deeper channels and the last of the run-out; slower hops with a heavier jighead, and a bait on the bottom as back-up.
Mulloway
Fair
The estuary fish move to the deeper reaches. Long, quiet sessions on the bottom with fresh bait across the top of the tide.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 11:16 PM-1:16 AM, 11:16 AM-1:16 PM, 5:46 AM-6:46 AM. Cooler at 17 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
New South Wales requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$7.00. New South Wales fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing bream here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Bream page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Botany Bay today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:40), sunset (17:54), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM; minor 5:46 AM-6:46 AM. Full Moon, 100% lit.
Water and weather
A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.
Tides (modelled)
Modelled sea level curve from Open-Meteo Marine for these coordinates, datum mean sea level. Fish the moving water either side of each change.
A model, not the official prediction: times can drift by tens of minutes inside bays and estuaries. Check the Bureau of Meteorology tide predictions for the exact times before you rely on them.
Sat
LOW12:58 am-0.66 m
HIGH7:08 am0.58 m
LOW1:02 pm-0.52 m
HIGH7:12 pm0.71 m
Sun
LOW1:27 am-0.63 m
HIGH7:44 am0.69 m
LOW1:48 pm-0.60 m
HIGH7:57 pm0.66 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp15 °C
High / Low28 °C / 14 °C
WindNW 10 km/h, gusts 18 km/h
Pressure1025.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain1% cloud, 25%
Sunrise / Sunset05:40 / 17:54
MoonFull Moon, 100%
Water temp (seasonal)~18 °C est.
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Botany Bay
The best day on Botany Bay this week looks like Monday 28 Sept, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today. Every day is scored by the same engine as the report above: pressure trend first, then wind, sky and season. Pick a species and the plan for that day changes with it.
Best day this week: Monday, 28 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 26 Sept — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM
- Minor period
- 5:46 AM-6:46 AM
- Sun
- 05:40 to 17:54
- Moon
- Full Moon, 100% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 34 km/h
- Rain chance
- 25%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Botany Bay: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Bream
Year-round; summer and autumn in the estuaries, winter at the mouths
Yellowfin bream on the east coast, black bream in the southern estuaries. Structure fish: rock walls, jetty piles, oyster racks, snags and pontoons. Slow the retrieve right down: blades and lightly weighted plastics along the deeper rock walls and drop-offs, or unweighted bait drifted into the snags.
Flathead
Best: November to April
Dusky flathead in the eastern estuaries, sand flathead in the southern bays. An ambush predator lying on sand and mud edges waiting for whatever the tide brings. Fish the deeper channels and the last of the run-out; slower hops with a heavier jighead, and a bait on the bottom as back-up.
Mulloway
Best: summer and autumn, especially after rain
Jewfish. The big silver prize of the estuaries, breakwalls and surf beaches: nocturnal, tide-driven and unforgiving of noise. The estuary fish move to the deeper reaches. Long, quiet sessions on the bottom with fresh bait across the top of the tide.
Tailor
Autumn and winter on the east coast; August to September on Fraser Island
The surf and rock fish of the east coast, running north in autumn and winter. Fast, toothy and best at dawn, dusk and into the dark. The main run. Fish the gutters and headlands into the evening; ganged pilchards, metals, and a wire-free trace only if you accept the bite-offs.
When to come: the Botany Bay calendar
Activity by species and month for the southern year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Bream
Flathead
Mulloway
Tailor
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 18 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Botany Bay today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataFri, Sep 25
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Tailor led the card at excellent. High of 24 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Thu, Sep 24
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Tailor led the card at excellent. High of 22 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Tailor led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7.00, the same for residents and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by DPIRD NSW and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the New South Wales licence page before you keep anything.
Access
This is New South Wales water, so the Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days to A$85 for three years, with the details on our New South Wales licence page.
About this water
Botany Bay is a bay or coastal water in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Botany Bay: the full guide
The bay
Botany Bay is the wide, shallow bay south of Sydney’s city, with Kurnell and Cronulla on its southern shore, La Perouse and the airport runways on its northern, the Georges and Cooks rivers feeding it from the west, and the heads opening to the Tasman. It is a working bay with a port and a refinery, and it is also one of Sydney’s best fisheries: the flats and the weed beds of the southern shore, the rock walls of the port and the river mouths, the drop-offs off Kurnell and Bare Island, and the Georges River running tidal for tens of kilometres into the suburbs.
Species by season
Flathead fish the sand and the drop-offs from spring to autumn, whiting the flats in summer, and bream the walls, the leases and the river snags all year with a winter run to the mouths; kingfish hold at the heads, the markers and the Kurnell drop-off in summer, squid work the weed off the southern shore and the jetty lights, and mulloway are the night fish of the Georges and the port walls. Tailor and salmon push into the bay in the cooler months, luderick fish the walls in winter, and the reefs outside the heads give snapper in winter for the boats.
Reading this report for the bay
The bay is open to a southerly and a nor’-easter, so the wind row decides whether the boat fishing is comfortable and which shore is in the lee; the rivers fish in almost any weather. Pressure and sky build the score and the planner shows the day; the tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model, and the bay and the rivers run on the tide, so use the curve for the direction and the Bureau of Meteorology prediction for the minute.
Licence, access and rules
This is New South Wales water, so the Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days to A$85 for three years, with the details on our New South Wales licence page. The foreshore parks, the jetties at Kurnell, Silver Beach and La Perouse, the river walls and the beaches are public, with ramps at Kurnell, Dolls Point, Sans Souci and the Georges; the DPIRD limits and the port’s restricted areas, which include exclusion zones around the runways and the terminals, are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
Can you fish everywhere in Botany Bay?
No. The port and the airport have exclusion zones, and DPIRD publishes the closed and restricted waters; the rules page is linked in the sources.
Do I need a fishing licence in Botany Bay?
Yes. The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days.
Is fishing good at Botany Bay right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Tide curve (modelled)
- Open-Meteo Marine, sea level height including tides
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.