Yellowtail kingfish
Good
Prime. Cast stickbaits and poppers at surface activity, jig the deeper reefs, and keep a live bait out under a balloon.
Central Coast Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Brisbane Water, the Tuggerah Lakes, The Entrance and a coast of beaches and headlands: the Central Coast fishes its estuaries, its lakes and the sea between Sydney and Newcastle.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~20 °C est.
Air / High
12 °C / 20 °C
Wind
NNW 1 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Central Coast sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. Today brings clear skies, wind NNW around 2 km/h, rising pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 20 °C. Water sits around 20 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Tailor
Fair
Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
Mulloway
Fair
Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.
Australian salmon
Slow
Look for birds and surface splashes along the beaches and in the bays; cast metals, plastics or ganged pilchards into the school.
Tie on: Soft plastic on a 1/4 oz jighead · Small hardbody, shallow diver · Squid jig, size 3.0 · Fresh pipi or worm on a small hook. Prime windows: 11:53 PM-1:53 AM, 11:29 AM-1:29 PM, 4:51 AM-5:51 AM. Warmer at 27 °C. 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 tailor here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Tailor page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Central Coast today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:49), sunset (19:29), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 PM; minor 4:51 AM-5:51 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Conditions here are modelled from weather, season and the nearest stations.
No live gauge on this water
Water readings appear when a Bureau of Meteorology station covers it. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp12 °C
High / Low20 °C / 9 °C
WindNNW 1 km/h, gusts 4 km/h
Pressure1020.2 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain16% cloud, 8%
Sunrise / Sunset05:49 / 19:29
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~20 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Central Coast
The best day on Central Coast this week looks like Thursday 12 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Thursday, 12 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 PM
- Minor period
- 4:51 AM-5:51 AM
- Sun
- 05:49 to 19:29
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 18 km/h
- Rain chance
- 8%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Central Coast: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Tailor
Autumn and winter on the east coast; the run reaches K'gari (Fraser Island) in late winter, where the east beach from Waddy Point to Indian Head is closed to all fin fish from 1 August to 29 September
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. Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
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. Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.
Yellowtail kingfish
Best: December to April
The hardest-pulling fish within reach of the shore. Headlands, harbour markers, offshore reefs and the warm current in summer. Prime. Cast stickbaits and poppers at surface activity, jig the deeper reefs, and keep a live bait out under a balloon.
Australian salmon
Winter and spring on the southern beaches
Not a salmon at all: a hard-fighting schooling fish of the surf and the bays, from WA around to NSW. Great on light gear, poor on the plate. Look for birds and surface splashes along the beaches and in the bays; cast metals, plastics or ganged pilchards into the school.
When to come: the Central Coast 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
Tailor
Mulloway
Yellowtail kingfish
Australian salmon
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 20 °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 Central Coast today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Yellowtail kingfish led the card at excellent. High of 17 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Yellowtail kingfish led the card at excellent. High of 29 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Yellowtail kingfish led the card at excellent. High of 27 °C, wind to 18 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
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About this water
Central Coast is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Central Coast: the full guide
The coast and its waters
The Central Coast of New South Wales is the stretch between the Hawkesbury and Lake Macquarie, and its water comes in several kinds: Brisbane Water, the drowned valley behind Gosford and Woy Woy that opens to Broken Bay; the Tuggerah Lakes, three shallow coastal lakes joined to the sea at The Entrance; the beaches and headlands from Umina to Norah Head; and the reefs and the shelf outside. Terrigal, Avoca, The Entrance and Norah Head are the names anglers use for the coast, and the lakes and Brisbane Water for the calm water. The report on this page is scored for the region’s coordinates near Gosford.
Species by season
Flathead fish the sand of Brisbane Water, the lakes and the channel at The Entrance from spring to autumn; bream work the rock walls, the wharves and the oyster leases through the year and run to the entrances in winter; whiting take the flats and the beaches in summer; and mulloway are the night fish of The Entrance channel and the deeper holes of Brisbane Water. Tailor and salmon run the beaches and the rocks in the cooler months, kingfish come to the headlands in summer, luderick fish the walls in winter, and the reefs outside hold snapper for the boats.
Reading this report here
The wind row decides between the estuaries and the open coast: a southerly or a big swell closes the rocks and the beaches and sends the fishing into Brisbane Water and the lakes, while a westerly lays the sea down. Barometer and cloud build the score, the planner shows the week, and the tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model, useful for the run in Brisbane Water and at The Entrance channel; beyond the channel the Tuggerah Lakes move little with the tide. Official times are on the Bureau of Meteorology’s tide page.
Licence, safety and local 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. The Central Coast is a declared area under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, which makes a lifejacket compulsory on the high-risk rock platforms the Office of Local Government maps. At Terrigal Haven a Section 8 closure notified by DPIRD on 26 August 2026, in force for five years, bans lines fitted with wire or chain traces to protect critically endangered grey nurse sharks; other lawful methods may continue there. The DPIRD limits are in the sources.
Common questions
Can I fish at Terrigal Haven?
Yes, with ordinary lawful methods, but since 26 August 2026 a five-year DPIRD closure bans wire or chain traces inside the haven to protect grey nurse sharks.
Do I need a fishing licence on the Central Coast?
Yes. The Central Coast is New South Wales water, and the Recreational Fishing Fee starts at A$7 for three days.
Is fishing good at Central Coast 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
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- 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.