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.
Wallaga Lake Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The big lake north of Bermagui: bream, flathead and whiting in a lake that opens to the sea, with the bridge, the Aboriginal lands of its shores and the Bermagui coast outside.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
High 6:38 pm model
Air / High
16 °C / 23 °C
Wind
WNW 10 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Wallaga Lake is in its cool-water rhythm: slower presentations and the warmest hours of the day. Today brings cloud cover, wind WNW around 10 km/h, rising pressure near 1023 hPa and a high of 23 °C. Tides: high 6:39 am and 6:38 pm, low 12:25 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. Cooler at 21 °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 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 Wallaga Lake today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:45), sunset (17:58), 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
HIGH6:39 am0.37 m
LOW12:25 pm-0.49 m
HIGH6:38 pm0.58 m
Sat
LOW12:58 am-0.65 m
HIGH7:12 am0.50 m
LOW1:09 pm-0.54 m
HIGH7:17 pm0.57 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp16 °C
High / Low23 °C / 13 °C
WindWNW 10 km/h, gusts 17 km/h
Pressure1023.1 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain72% cloud, 47%
Sunrise / Sunset05:45 / 17:58
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 Wallaga Lake
The best day on Wallaga Lake this week looks like Monday 28 Sept, at 4 out of 5, against 3 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: Monday, 28 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 25 Sept — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 05:45 to 17:58
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 18 km/h
- Rain chance
- 47%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Wallaga Lake: 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 Wallaga Lake 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 Wallaga Lake 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 21 °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 17 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Tailor led the card at excellent. High of 15 °C, wind to 19 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 at Wallaga Lake from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page has the fees.
About this water
Wallaga Lake is a coastal town in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Wallaga Lake: the full guide
The lake
Wallaga Lake is the large coastal lake north of Bermagui on the far south coast, with the highway bridge across its entrance channel, the villages of Wallaga Lake and Beauty Point on its shores, the Aboriginal lands of the Yuin people around it and Gulaga, Mount Dromedary, above; the entrance to the sea at the bridge opens and shoals with the weather. It is a bream and flathead lake of the classic kind, and the report on this page is scored for the lake’s coordinates. Bermagui has its own page.
Species and seasons
Bream fish the bridge, the snags and the edges all year with the winter run to the entrance; flathead lie on the flats and the drop-offs from spring to autumn and are the lake’s everyday fish; whiting work the flats and the entrance sand in summer; mulloway are taken at the entrance and in the deeper holes at night when the lake is open; tailor come in through the entrance in the cooler months; luderick fish the bridge and the walls in winter; and the prawns run on the dark nights of summer under the DPIRD rules.
Where to fish it
The highway bridge over the entrance channel is the bream and luderick mark, fished on the run when the lake is open, and the flats at Beauty Point and along the Regatta Point shore hold the flathead and whiting; the deeper water off Merriman Island is the winter bream ground for the boats. The ramps are at Beauty Point and the Wallaga Lake village, and the beach at the entrance takes the tailor.
Reading this report here
Whether the entrance is open decides the tide, and the modelled tide curve, labelled as a model, matters only when it is; the wind row decides which shore fishes on a lake this broad, with a westerly crossing it unhindered. Pressure and sky build the score at Wallaga Lake; the planner shows the day.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies at Wallaga Lake from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page has the fees. The bridge, the foreshores and the ramps at the villages are public, with parts of the shore Aboriginal land under its own rules; the Batemans Marine Park zoning, which covers the lake with sanctuary zones, and the DPIRD limits are in the sources.
Common questions
Is Wallaga Lake open to the sea?
The entrance at the bridge opens and shoals with the weather; this page cannot tell you its state, so check locally before planning around the tide.
What can I catch in Wallaga Lake?
Flathead on the flats, bream at the bridge and the snags, whiting in summer, luderick in winter, prawns on the dark summer nights and mulloway at the entrance when it is open.
Do I need a licence on Wallaga Lake?
Yes: the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days.
Is fishing good at Wallaga Lake right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
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.