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.
Forster Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 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
High 6:33 pm model
Air / High
17 °C / 25 °C
Wind
NNE 16 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Forster rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. Today brings clear skies, wind NNE around 16 km/h, rising pressure near 1028 hPa and a high of 26 °C. Tides: high 6:30 am and 6:33 pm, low 12:21 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 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM: 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: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Similar 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 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 (05:36), sunset (17:48), 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 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM; minor 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Full Moon, 99% 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.
Fri
HIGH6:30 am0.47 m
LOW12:21 pm-0.52 m
HIGH6:33 pm0.73 m
Sat
LOW12:55 am-0.70 m
HIGH7:05 am0.62 m
LOW12:58 pm-0.57 m
HIGH7:12 pm0.79 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp17 °C
High / Low25 °C / 16 °C
WindNNE 16 km/h, gusts 34 km/h
Pressure1028.2 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:36 / 17:48
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~18 °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 Thursday 1 Oct, 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: Thursday, 1 Oct — good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.
Today, 25 Sept — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 05:36 to 17:48
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 23 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
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. 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 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 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 Forster today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataThu, Sep 24
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Tailor led the card at excellent. High of 23 °C, wind to 24 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 23 °C, wind to 29 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Tailor led the card at excellent. High of 21 °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
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee covers this water, fresh and salt, from A$7 for three days; the durations, the 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 mid-north coast, and the lake is the fishery: a broad, shallow, weedy estuary of flats, channels, islands and oyster leases that is one of the best flathead and bream waters in the state. 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.
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 most 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. 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
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee covers this water, fresh and salt, from A$7 for three days; the durations, the 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, with ramps on both sides of the entrance and around the lake. The DPIRD limits and the Wallis Lake closures are on the page in the sources, and the lake has areas closed to fishing that the department publishes.
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. The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days.
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
- 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.