Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Forster Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Wallis Lake and the breakwalls: flathead flats, bream on the leases and the Forster-Tuncurry bar where the lake meets the sea.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Next tide
Low 2:39 pm model
Air / High
14 °C / 20 °C
Wind
WSW 11 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Forster has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. Today brings clear skies, wind WSW around 11 km/h, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 20 °C. Tides: high 8:14 am and 8:30 pm, low 1:39 am and 2:39 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 22 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:48 PM-1:48 AM and 11:24 AM-1:24 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Flathead
Good
The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.
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.
Tailor
Fair
Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
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: 11:48 PM-1:48 AM, 11:24 AM-1:24 PM, 4:48 AM-5:48 AM. Similar at 22 °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 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 Forster today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:46), sunset (19:22), 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 11:48 PM-1:48 AM and 11:24 AM-1:24 PM; minor 4:48 AM-5:48 AM. New Moon, 0% 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.
Mon
LOW1:39 am-0.35 m
HIGH8:14 am1.02 m
LOW2:39 pm-0.34 m
HIGH8:30 pm0.59 m
Tue
LOW2:13 am-0.31 m
HIGH8:48 am1.01 m
LOW3:22 pm-0.40 m
HIGH9:10 pm0.44 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp14 °C
High / Low20 °C / 12 °C
WindWSW 11 km/h, gusts 21 km/h
Pressure1019.1 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 75%
Sunrise / Sunset05:46 / 19:22
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Forster
The best day on Forster this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 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
- 11:48 PM-1:48 AM and 11:24 AM-1:24 PM
- Minor period
- 4:48 AM-5:48 AM
- Sun
- 05:46 to 19:22
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 21 km/h
- Rain chance
- 75%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Forster: 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. Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
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. The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.
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.
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.
When to come: the Forster 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 22 °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 Forster today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Bream led the card at good. High of 19 °C, wind to 29 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Bream led the card at good. High of 28 °C, wind to 27 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 23 °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
Forster anglers pay the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee like everyone else in the state, from A$7 for three days; durations, exemptions and where to buy are on our New South Wales licence page.
About this water
Forster is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Forster: the full guide
Forster and Wallis Lake
Forster and Tuncurry face each other across the entrance of Wallis Lake on the New South Wales coast, and the lake is the fishery: a broad, shallow, weedy estuary of flats, channels, islands and oyster leases, the largest of the five fishable lakes of the Great Lakes region in DPIRD’s guide. The entrance has breakwalls on both sides, a bridge between the towns and a bar to the sea; outside are the beaches, the headlands at Cape Hawke and Bennetts Head and the reefs off Forster where the boats go for snapper and kingfish. Cape Hawke is also the northern end of the Port Stephens–Great Lakes Marine Park, so the ocean coast south of it is marine park water.
Species by season
Flathead are the lake’s fish from spring through autumn on the flats, the drop-offs and the channel edges, and the reason many people search for Forster; bream fish the leases, the walls and the bridge all year with a winter run to the entrance; whiting work the flats in summer and luderick the breakwalls in winter. Tailor and salmon run the beaches and the walls in the cooler months, mulloway are the night fish of the walls and the bar, and the offshore reefs give snapper in winter and kingfish in summer, with teraglin, pearl perch and summer mackerel further out in DPIRD’s account of the region. Squid fish the weed of the lake and the wall lights.
Reading this report for Forster
The lake fishes on the tide more than on the weather, so the tide panel, a modelled curve for these coordinates labelled as a model, is the thing to read for the run-in over the flats and the run-out at the bar; the Bureau of Meteorology has the official times. The wind row decides between the lake and the beaches, a nor’-easter stirring the afternoon and a westerly giving the calm mornings, and pressure and sky build the score. The planner picks the day.
Licence, access and rules
Forster anglers pay the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee like everyone else in the state, from A$7 for three days; durations, exemptions and where to buy are on our New South Wales licence page. The breakwalls, the bridge, the lake foreshores and the beaches are public, and the Transport for NSW list has ramps on both sides of the entrance, including the Forster boat harbour and Point Road at Tuncurry, and around the lake at Pacific Palms and Coomba Park. In the entrance area, from the breakwalls in to Godwin Island, DPIRD bans hoop and lift nets, hand-hauled and push prawn nets and crab and lobster traps all year.
Common questions
What is Wallis Lake known for?
Flathead on the flats from spring to autumn, and bream on the leases and walls all year, with whiting in summer.
Do I need a fishing licence in Forster?
Yes. Wallis Lake and the coast are covered by the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, A$7 for three days or A$14 for a month.
Is fishing good at Forster 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
- 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.