Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Lake Illawarra Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The big coastal lake south of Wollongong: flathead flats, bream on the entrance walls, prawns on the dark summer nights and an entrance held open since 2007.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Next tide
Low 2:47 pm model
Air / High
13 °C / 18 °C
Wind
W 9 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Illawarra is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. Today brings a mixed sky, wind W around 10 km/h, rising pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Tides: high 8:11 am and 8:40 pm, low 1:47 am and 2:47 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 11:55 PM-1:55 AM and 11:31 AM-1:31 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: 11:55 PM-1:55 AM, 11:31 AM-1:31 PM, 4:50 AM-5:50 AM. Warmer at 21 °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 Lake Illawarra today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:48), sunset (19:33), 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 11:55 PM-1:55 AM and 11:31 AM-1:31 PM; minor 4:50 AM-5:50 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
LOW1:47 am-0.34 m
HIGH8:11 am0.89 m
LOW2:47 pm-0.43 m
HIGH8:40 pm0.46 m
Tue
LOW2:20 am-0.34 m
HIGH8:51 am0.83 m
LOW3:30 pm-0.46 m
HIGH9:25 pm0.36 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp13 °C
High / Low18 °C / 11 °C
WindW 9 km/h, gusts 20 km/h
Pressure1019.9 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain28% cloud, 44%
Sunrise / Sunset05:48 / 19:33
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 Lake Illawarra
The best day on Lake Illawarra 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
- 11:55 PM-1:55 AM and 11:31 AM-1:31 PM
- Minor period
- 4:50 AM-5:50 AM
- Sun
- 05:48 to 19:33
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 24 km/h
- Rain chance
- 44%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Illawarra: 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 Lake Illawarra 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 Lake Illawarra 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 17 °C, wind to 31 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 29 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 22 °C, wind to 21 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 applies on the lake, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page lists the other durations.
About this water
Lake Illawarra 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 Lake Illawarra: the full guide
The lake
Lake Illawarra is a large, shallow coastal lake between Wollongong and Shellharbour, opening to the sea through a channel at Windang with rock walls and a bridge, and surrounded by suburbs, foreshore reserves and the islands and flats of its western shore. It is a flats fishery: sand and weed in shallow water over most of its area, deeper channels near the entrance, and the entrance itself where the sea fish come and go. The former Lake Illawarra Authority built training walls at the entrance in 2007 to keep it permanently open; Wollongong City Council now describes tides inside the lake that follow the ocean, a larger tidal range and erosion along the Windang foreshore and around the bridge.
Species by season
Flathead are the lake’s main fish, on the flats and the weed edges from spring to autumn; bream fish the entrance walls, the bridge and the rock edges all year with the winter run to the sea; whiting work the flats and the entrance sand in summer; and mulloway are the night fish of the entrance channel and the bridge. Tailor push into the lake through the entrance in the cooler months, luderick fish the walls in winter, squid work the weed near the entrance, and the prawn run on the dark nights of summer is a fishery of its own, under the DPIRD rules on nets.
Reading this report for Lake Illawarra
The lake is open and shallow, so the wind row decides which shore fishes: a nor’-easter roughs up the western flats in the afternoon and a southerly the eastern shore. Pressure and cloud cover add up to the score, and the planner picks out the day; the tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model, and the entrance runs hard while the water further in responds later, so read the curve for direction and take the times from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies on the lake, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page lists the other durations. The foreshore reserves, the entrance walls, the bridge approaches and the Windang beaches are public, and council notices about erosion works near the bridge are worth checking before you walk the channel edge. The DPIRD limits and the prawning rules are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
Is Lake Illawarra open to the sea?
Yes. Training walls built at Windang in 2007 keep the entrance permanently open, so the lake is tidal and sea fish move in and out through the channel.
Do I need a fishing licence on Lake Illawarra?
Yes. The lake is New South Wales water, and a three-day Recreational Fishing Fee receipt costs A$7.
Is fishing good at Lake Illawarra 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.