Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Manning River Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The river of Taree: an estuary with a trained entrance at Harrington and a second, mostly closed one at Old Bar, oyster leases, sand flats, bream, flathead, jew and bass.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~22 °C est.
Air / High
13 °C / 21 °C
Wind
WNW 5 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Manning River has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. Today brings clear skies, wind WNW around 5 km/h, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 21 °C. 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, 4:49 AM-5:49 AM. Similar at 23 °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 Manning River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:46), sunset (19:21), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:48 PM-1:48 AM and 11:24 AM-1:24 PM; minor 4:49 AM-5:49 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 temp13 °C
High / Low21 °C / 11 °C
WindWNW 5 km/h, gusts 22 km/h
Pressure1019.3 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 10%
Sunrise / Sunset05:46 / 19:21
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Manning River
The best day on Manning River 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
- 11:48 PM-1:48 AM and 11:24 AM-1:24 PM
- Minor period
- 4:49 AM-5:49 AM
- Sun
- 05:46 to 19:21
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 18 km/h
- Rain chance
- 10%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Manning River: 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 Manning River 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 Manning River 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 20 °C, wind to 26 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 30 °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 24 °C, wind to 16 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 river, three days for A$7 or a year for A$35; our New South Wales licence page has the details.
About this water
Manning River is a river in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Manning River: the full guide
The river
The Manning River drains the Barrington Tops and runs through Wingham and Taree to the sea on the New South Wales mid north coast. The state’s environment department describes a large barrier river with a permanently open, trained entrance at Harrington and a second, predominantly closed entrance where the south arm reaches the sea near Old Bar; its catchment is the fifth biggest on the NSW coast, and it is one of Australia’s few large river systems not dammed for water supply. Near the coast it is a river of breakwalls and sand flats at Harrington, oyster leases and deep bends through the delta, and rock walls and bridges at Taree, fished from the walls, the reserves and the bridges and from boats. The report on this page is scored for the river near Taree.
Species and seasons
Bream work the walls, the leases and the snags all year, with a winter run down to the entrances; flathead lie on the flats and the drop-offs of the lower river from spring to autumn; whiting feed across the Harrington flats in summer; and mulloway are the night fish of the breakwall, the bridges and the deep bends, often best after rain. Luderick graze the walls in winter, tailor push in through the entrance in the cooler months, mangrove jack reach the snags of the middle river in the warm months, and bass hold in the fresh reaches above the tide, where the NSW river closure for bass and estuary perch runs from 1 May to 31 August. Prawns may be taken in the estuary only with the gear and limits DPIRD allows.
Reading this report for the river
The tide reaches well up the Manning, and the tide panel, a modelled curve for these coordinates labelled as a model, is for the direction of the run: strongest at the Harrington breakwall and slight further upstream, with the Bureau of Meteorology for the coastal times. The department’s 1998 measurements put the local tidal range at around a metre. Rain matters, because the Manning floods, and a fresh colours the river for days and pushes the fish towards the sea. The wind counts on the delta and at the walls, and the planner weighs pressure and sky across the week.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies on the river, three days for A$7 or a year for A$35; our New South Wales licence page has the details. The river parks at Taree and Wingham, the reserves, the Harrington breakwall and the Old Bar foreshore are public, and boat ramps are spread along the lower river. The estuary does not flow into a marine park; the DPIRD limits, the bass closure and the prawning rules are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch in the Manning River?
Bream and flathead, whiting on the Harrington flats in summer, luderick on the walls in winter, mulloway at night, jack in the warm months and bass in the fresh reaches outside the river closure.
Does the Manning have two entrances?
Yes. The main, permanently open and trained entrance is at Harrington; a second entrance near Old Bar, where the south arm meets the sea, is closed most of the time.
Is fishing good at Manning River 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.