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.
Kawana Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
Kawana Waters and the Mooloolah River: the canals, the river mouth and the Point Cartwright rocks, with bream, whiting, flathead and mulloway a walk from the beach.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~18 °C est.
Air / High
18 °C / 26 °C
Wind
SE 14 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Kawana rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. Today brings clear skies, wind SE around 14 km/h, steady pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 26 °C. 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. Similar at 25 °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 Kawana today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:45), sunset (17:54), the moon and today's score. 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
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 temp18 °C
High / Low26 °C / 17 °C
WindSE 14 km/h, gusts 29 km/h
Pressure1027.0 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain5% cloud, 69%
Sunrise / Sunset05:45 / 17:54
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~18 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Kawana
The best day on Kawana this week looks like Thursday 1 Oct, 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: Thursday, 1 Oct — good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.
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 17:54
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 24 km/h
- Rain chance
- 69%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Kawana: 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 Kawana 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 Kawana 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 27 °C, wind to 23 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 26 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Tailor led the card at excellent. High of 27 °C, wind to 14 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 Kawana or anywhere; the size and bag limits apply, on the pages linked below.
About this water
Kawana is a coastal town in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Kawana: the full guide
Kawana and the Mooloolah
Kawana is the canal suburb of the Sunshine Coast on the Mooloolah River south of Mooloolaba, with the canals and their walls, the river running to a mouth at the Mooloolaba harbour, Point Cartwright and its rocks at the northern end, Kawana beach running south toward Caloundra and the Kawana Waters lake behind. It is a canal-and-river suburb with a surf beach, and the report on this page is scored for the suburb’s coordinates. The Sunshine Coast and Caloundra have their own pages.
Species and seasons
Bream fish the canal walls, the pontoons and the river all year and are the suburb’s fish; whiting fish the river sand and the beach in summer; flathead lie on the river flats and the canal drop-offs from spring to autumn; mulloway are the night fish of the river mouth and the canals; tailor run the beach and Point Cartwright in winter; mangrove jack fish the canal walls in summer; trevally work the mouth on the run-out; and the point gives the odd mackerel in summer. The canals are lit at night and the pontoons fish then.
Where to fish it
The canal walls and pontoons are fished from the public parks and the bridges along the Kawana Waters canals for bream at night, and the Mooloolah River from the harbour up to the Nicklin Way bridge is the flathead, whiting and jew water on the run-in; Point Cartwright’s rocks and Kawana beach are the tailor and whiting spots. The ramps are on the river at the harbour and Parrearra.
Reading this report here
The canals are sheltered from everything and the beach faces east, so the wind row decides the side: a south-easterly closes the beach and the point while the canals fish. The tide panel is a modelled curve for the coordinates of Kawana, labelled as a model, and the river runs on it. Pressure and sky build the score at Kawana; the planner shows the day.
Licence, access and rules
Queensland has no general fishing licence, at Kawana or anywhere; the size and bag limits apply, on the pages linked below. The river foreshore, the beach and the point are public and the canal walls are fished from the public parks and bridges; the ramps are on the river; the DAF rules are in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch at Kawana?
Bream on the canal walls, whiting in the river in summer, flathead on the drop-offs, mulloway at the river mouth at night, tailor on the beach in winter.
Do I need a licence at Kawana?
No. Queensland has no general recreational fishing licence; the limits still apply.
Is fishing good at Kawana 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
- 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.