Australian bass
Fair
Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
Hawkesbury River at Windsor Fishing Report
Updated Sat, 26 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The upper Hawkesbury at Windsor: bass, bream and mullet in the tidal river on Sydney’s western edge, with the Bureau’s gauge at the town.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
0.53 m
Air / High
17 °C / 33 °C
Wind
NNE 9 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 212903, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Hawkesbury River at Windsor is in its cool-water rhythm: slower presentations and the warmest hours of the day. The gauge reads 0.53 m, up 0.32 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NNE around 8 km/h, rising pressure near 1026 hPa and a high of 33 °C. Water sits around 16 °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.
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 18 °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 australian bass here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Australian bass page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Hawkesbury River at Windsor today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:41), sunset (17:55), the moon and today's score. 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
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 212903 (HAWKESBURY R WINDSOR).
River level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 212903. Latest reading 2026-09-23 22:15.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp17 °C
High / Low33 °C / 13 °C
WindNNE 9 km/h, gusts 16 km/h
Pressure1025.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 16%
Sunrise / Sunset05:41 / 17:55
MoonFull Moon, 100%
Water temp (seasonal)~16 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Hawkesbury River at Windsor
The best day on Hawkesbury River at Windsor this week looks like Thursday 1 Oct, at 5 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 — excellent at 5/5, 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
- 05:41 to 17:55
- Moon
- Full Moon, 100% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 26 km/h
- Rain chance
- 16%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Hawkesbury River at Windsor: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Australian bass
September to April in the rivers; closed June to August in NSW rivers
Open now Closes 1 May 2027. Closed 1 May to 31 August in all rivers except rivers above impoundments; dams are not closed. Rule as read from DPIRD NSW on 2026-09-23.
The native sportfish of the east-coast rivers and the stocked dams. Surface lures in summer, deep in winter, and a river closed season for spawning. Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
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.
When to come: the Hawkesbury River at Windsor 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
Australian bass
Bream
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 16 °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 Hawkesbury River at Windsor 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. Australian bass led the card at good. High of 31 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Thu, Sep 24
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Australian bass led the card at good. High of 27 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Australian bass led the card at good. High of 22 °C, wind to 10 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, from A$7 for three days, applies; our New South Wales licence page has the fees.
About this water
Hawkesbury River at Windsor is a river in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Hawkesbury River at Windsor: the full guide
The reach
The Hawkesbury at Windsor is the river on the north-western edge of Sydney, tidal this far up but fresh enough for bass, running under the Windsor bridge past the historic town, the river parks and the flood plain of the Hawkesbury district toward Wisemans Ferry, with the Nepean and the Grose joining above. It is a bass and bream reach in the same water, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at Windsor supplies the river level and the 30-day chart on this page. The lower Hawkesbury has its own page.
Species and seasons
Australian bass fish the snags, the rock walls and the deep bends from spring to autumn on surface lures at dusk and plastics by day, closed in the river from 1 May to 31 August under the New South Wales rule computed on the species card; bream and mullet push up on the tide and fish the walls and the bends through the year; estuary perch hold in the deeper water; flathead reach this far in summer; and carp are numerous under the DPIRD rules.
Where to fish it
The river parks and the bridge give bank access at Windsor, the ramps put a boat onto the reaches upstream toward the Nepean junction and downstream toward Sackville, and the rock walls and the snags of the bends are the bass water; the tide reaches the town and the walls fish for bream on the run. Night fishing with surface lures along the snags is the summer bass method.
Reading the report
The chart shows the tide’s small swing at Windsor and the freshes that come down from the Blue Mountains after rain, which colour the river and move the fish; the tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model, far up an estuary. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, gives the bass band from October to April; pressure counts on the summer evenings.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days, applies; our New South Wales licence page has the fees. The parks, the bridge and the ramps are public; DPIRD’s limits and the bass river closure are in the sources.
Common questions
Can I catch bass at Windsor?
Yes, from spring to autumn in the snags and along the walls, closed in the river from 1 May to 31 August under the New South Wales rule computed on the species card.
Do I need a licence at Windsor?
Yes: the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days.
Is fishing good at Hawkesbury River at Windsor 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
- Storage and river readings
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online, station 212903 — HAWKESBURY R WINDSOR
- 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.