Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Swansea Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The channel between Lake Macquarie and the sea: the bridge, the breakwalls, the flats and the ocean beaches, where the lake’s fish come and go.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Next tide
Low 2:43 pm model
Air / High
15 °C / 18 °C
Wind
SSW 9 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Swansea is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. Today brings clear skies, wind SSW around 10 km/h, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Tides: high 8:14 am and 8:35 pm, low 1:43 am and 2:43 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 11:51 PM-1:51 AM and 11:27 AM-1:27 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: 11:51 PM-1:51 AM, 11:27 AM-1:27 PM, 4:49 AM-5:49 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 Swansea today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:48), sunset (19:27), 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 11:51 PM-1:51 AM and 11:27 AM-1:27 PM; minor 4:49 AM-5:49 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
LOW1:43 am-0.34 m
HIGH8:14 am0.96 m
LOW2:43 pm-0.38 m
HIGH8:35 pm0.54 m
Tue
LOW2:16 am-0.32 m
HIGH8:46 am0.91 m
LOW3:22 pm-0.44 m
HIGH9:15 pm0.40 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp15 °C
High / Low18 °C / 13 °C
WindSSW 9 km/h, gusts 22 km/h
Pressure1019.3 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain6% cloud, 13%
Sunrise / Sunset05:48 / 19:27
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 Swansea
The best day on Swansea 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
- 11:51 PM-1:51 AM and 11:27 AM-1:27 PM
- Minor period
- 4:49 AM-5:49 AM
- Sun
- 05:48 to 19:27
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 26 km/h
- Rain chance
- 13%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Swansea: 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 Swansea 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 Swansea 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 34 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 26 °C, wind to 35 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 21 °C, wind to 23 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
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About this water
Swansea is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Swansea: the full guide
Swansea and the channel
Swansea is the town at the entrance of Lake Macquarie, south of Newcastle, and its fishing is the Swansea Channel: the tidal channel with its bridge, its breakwalls, its sand flats and its run into the lake, the one passage through which the lake’s fish reach the sea. Around it are Blacksmiths Beach on the northern side of the entrance, Caves Beach and its rock platforms to the south, and the lake shore at Marks Point and Pelican. The lake itself has its own page, and so does Belmont on its eastern shore.
Species by season
Mulloway are the channel’s prize, at night on the tide change around the bridge and the walls; bream fish the walls and the bridge pylons year round and gather toward the entrance in winter; flathead lie on the channel sand and the flats from spring to autumn; whiting fish the flats and the ocean beaches in summer; and luderick work the walls in the colder months. Tailor and salmon push through the channel and along the beaches in the cooler months, trevally visit the walls in summer, and squid work the lights of the bridge and the wharves.
Reading this report for the channel
The channel is a tide fishery: the tide panel, a modelled curve for these coordinates labelled as a model, shows the direction of the run, and the walls and the bridge tend to fish on the change while the flats fish on the run-in; the Bureau of Meteorology publishes the official times. The wind row decides between the channel and the beaches, since a southerly or a nor’-easter roughs up the coast while the channel usually stays fishable. The barometer and the cloud finish the score, and the planner answers which day to go.
Licence, safety and rules
One NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt, from A$7 for three days, covers the channel, the lake and the beaches; our New South Wales licence page explains the durations, the exemptions and where to buy. Lake Macquarie is one of the council areas declared under the Rock Fishing Safety Act 2016, so a lifejacket is compulsory on the ocean rock platforms that the Office of Local Government’s map marks as high-risk locations. The breakwalls, the channel foreshore and the beaches are public, and the DPIRD limits are on the page in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch in the Swansea Channel?
Bream and luderick on the walls, flathead and whiting on the flats, tailor in the cooler months and mulloway at night on the tide change.
Do I need a fishing licence in Swansea?
Yes. The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies in the channel and on the beaches, starting at A$7 for a three-day receipt.
Is fishing good at Swansea 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.