Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Elliott Heads Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Elliott River mouth south of Bundaberg: whiting and bream in the river, tailor on the beach and the rocks, with the flats that dry at low water.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Next tide
Low 1:53 pm model
Air / High
22 °C / 25 °C
Wind
ENE 15 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Elliott Heads sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. Today brings clear skies, wind ENE around 14 km/h, rising pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 26 °C. Tides: high 7:30 am and 7:30 pm, low 1:07 am and 1:53 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 10:23 AM-12:23 PM and 10:45 PM-12:45 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: 10:23 AM-12:23 PM, 10:45 PM-12:45 AM, 4:02 AM-5:02 AM. Similar at 27 °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 Elliott Heads today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (04:58), sunset (18:10), 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 10:23 AM-12:23 PM and 10:45 PM-12:45 AM; minor 4:02 AM-5:02 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
LOW1:07 am-0.76 m
HIGH7:30 am1.78 m
LOW1:53 pm-0.46 m
HIGH7:30 pm1.23 m
Tue
LOW1:42 am-0.68 m
HIGH8:03 am1.75 m
LOW2:33 pm-0.40 m
HIGH8:01 pm1.13 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp22 °C
High / Low25 °C / 21 °C
WindENE 15 km/h, gusts 27 km/h
Pressure1017.9 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain2% cloud, 55%
Sunrise / Sunset04:58 / 18:10
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 Elliott Heads
The best day on Elliott Heads this week looks like Tuesday 10 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Tuesday, 10 Nov — good at 4/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 10:23 AM-12:23 PM and 10:45 PM-12:45 AM
- Minor period
- 4:02 AM-5:02 AM
- Sun
- 04:58 to 18:10
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 23 km/h
- Rain chance
- 55%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Elliott Heads: 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 Elliott Heads 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 Elliott Heads today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 32 °C, wind to 23 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 29 °C, wind to 16 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 28 °C, wind to 21 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, at Elliott Heads or anywhere; the size and bag limits, the crab rules and the Spanish mackerel closures from 1 to 21 February and 1 to 21 March apply, on the pages linked below.
About this water
Elliott Heads is a coastal town in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Elliott Heads: the full guide
Elliott Heads and the river
Elliott Heads is the village at the mouth of the Elliott River south of Bargara, with the river’s sand flats and channel running to a mouth between the beach and the rocks, the beach running south toward Woodgate, the rock platforms at the heads and the flats behind the village that dry at low water. It is a river-mouth village of sand and rock, and the report on this page is scored for the village’s coordinates. Bargara and Bundaberg have their own pages.
Species and seasons
Whiting fish the river flats and the mouth sand all year and are the village’s fish; bream fish the rocks and the river’s snags; flathead lie on the flats and the channel from spring to autumn; tailor run the beach and the heads in the cooler months; dart fish the beach; mangrove jack fish the river’s upper snags in summer; and the rocks give the odd Spanish mackerel in the cooler months. Wade the flats on the rising tide and leave before the channel fills behind you.
Where to fish it
The rock platforms at the heads are the bream and tailor marks, fished on the rising tide, and the river flats upstream of the village are the whiting and flathead water for wading and kayaks on the last of the rise; the beach south of the mouth is the dart and whiting sand. The ramp is on the river at the village, and the mouth’s channel is the boat route to the bay.
Reading this report here
The mouth faces east and a south-easterly builds the surf and closes the beach and the rocks, while the river stays fishable; the wind row tells you which. The tide panel is a modelled curve for the coordinates of Elliott Heads, labelled as a model, and the flats depend on it entirely, filling on the rise and draining to sand at low water. Pressure and sky build the score at Elliott Heads; the planner shows the day.
Licence, access and rules
Queensland has no general fishing licence, at Elliott Heads or anywhere; the size and bag limits, the crab rules and the Spanish mackerel closures from 1 to 21 February and 1 to 21 March apply, on the pages linked below. The river, the beach and the rocks are public, with a ramp on the river; the DAF rules are in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch at Elliott Heads?
Whiting on the river flats, bream on the rocks, flathead on the channel in the warm months, tailor on the beach in the cooler months.
Do I need a licence at Elliott Heads?
No. You can fish the Elliott River without a licence; the state’s size and bag limits still count.
Is fishing good at Elliott Heads 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.