Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Brisbane River Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
A tidal river through a capital: bream on the pontoons, threadfin and jew in the deep reaches, jack in the snags, and the port at the mouth.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~22 °C est.
Air / High
21 °C / 23 °C
Wind
NNE 12 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Brisbane River is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. Today brings a mixed sky, wind NNE around 13 km/h, rising pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 23 °C. Water sits around 22 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:42 PM-12:42 AM: 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: 10:21 AM-12:21 PM, 10:42 PM-12:42 AM, 3:55 AM-4:55 AM. Similar at 24 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Queensland has no general fishing licence, but rules and permits apply. Queensland fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing bream here? Check the size and bag limits with Queensland DPI before you keep anything; the Bream page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Brisbane River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (04:51), sunset (18:11), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:42 PM-12:42 AM; minor 3:55 AM-4:55 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 temp21 °C
High / Low23 °C / 16 °C
WindNNE 12 km/h, gusts 25 km/h
Pressure1018.2 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain28% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset04:51 / 18:11
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Brisbane River
The best day on Brisbane River this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 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
- 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:42 PM-12:42 AM
- Minor period
- 3:55 AM-4:55 AM
- Sun
- 04:51 to 18:11
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 18 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Brisbane 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 Brisbane 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 Brisbane 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 26 °C, wind to 29 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 26 °C, wind to 21 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 24 °C, wind to 19 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Queensland has no general recreational fishing licence; permits apply on some waters and the limits and closures do. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by Queensland DPI and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Queensland licence page before you keep anything.
Access
Queensland has no general fishing licence; the size and bag limits and the closed seasons apply, on the Queensland Government pages linked below.
About this water
Brisbane River is a river in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Brisbane River: the full guide
The river
The Brisbane River runs tidal through the western suburbs, past the University of Queensland and the CBD, under the Story Bridge and out through the port to Moreton Bay, and it fishes along that length: the pontoons and the rock walls of the inner city, the deep reaches around the port and the Gateway bridges, the sand flats and the creek mouths of the lower river, and the snags and the bends further up. Brisbane the city has its own page, and so does Moreton Bay; this one is scored for a point in the lower river near the port and reads its reaches first.
Species and seasons
Bream are the river’s year-round fish along the walls, the pontoons and the pylons; threadfin salmon and mulloway are its prize, in the deep holes and along the drop-offs of the middle and lower river at night on the tide changes; flathead lie on the sand of the lower river and the creek mouths in the warmer months; and mangrove jack push into the snags of the upper river through summer. Tailor and trevally come up the river on the tide, mud crabs are a pot fishery in the creeks and the mangroves, and snapper turn up in the port reaches, closed in east coast tidal waters from 15 July to 15 August.
Reading this report for the Brisbane
This river page has no tide panel of its own, yet the Brisbane runs hard on the tide: the bream feed on the run and the mulloway and threadfin on the change, so plan with the Bureau of Meteorology’s official predictions for the port and allow for later changes upstream. Rain matters, because a fresh from the catchment colours the river for days and moves the fish downstream. The barometer and the cloud set the score, and the planner shows the night to take.
Rules and access
Queensland has no general fishing licence; the size and bag limits and the closed seasons apply, on the Queensland Government pages linked below. The river parks, the pontoons and the rock walls give public access along much of the river, and in the port reaches it pays to keep well clear of shipping, berths and the channel itself.
Common questions
What can I catch in the Brisbane River?
Bream on the walls and pontoons, threadfin salmon and mulloway in the deep reaches at night, flathead on the sand, mangrove jack in the snags in summer and mud crabs in the creeks.
Do I need a licence to fish the Brisbane River?
No. The Brisbane River, like all Queensland water, needs no fishing licence; the limits and closed seasons apply.
Is fishing good at Brisbane 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.