Bream
Excellent
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Mary River Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
From Gympie to the Great Sandy Strait: the tidal Mary below Maryborough, a river of barramundi, bass, threadfin and mud crabs.
4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Water temp
~22 °C est.
Air / High
21 °C / 25 °C
Wind
NE 12 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Mary River is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. Today brings a mixed sky, wind NE around 11 km/h, rising pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 26 °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 10:43 PM-12:43 AM: the windows to build the day around.
Flathead
Excellent
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
Good
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
Good
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, 10:43 PM-12:43 AM, 3:59 AM-4:59 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 Mary River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (04:55), sunset (18:09), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:43 PM-12:43 AM; minor 3:59 AM-4:59 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 / Low25 °C / 20 °C
WindNE 12 km/h, gusts 22 km/h
Pressure1017.8 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain42% cloud, 32%
Sunrise / Sunset04:55 / 18:09
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Mary River
The best day on Mary River this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 4 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Good
Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
- Solunar majors
- 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:43 PM-12:43 AM
- Minor period
- 3:59 AM-4:59 AM
- Sun
- 04:55 to 18:09
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 24 km/h
- Rain chance
- 32%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Mary 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 Mary 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 Mary River 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 33 °C, wind to 24 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 28 °C, wind to 19 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 27 °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; the barramundi closed season, the tidal bass closure, the size and bag limits, the no-take rules for Mary River cod and lungfish, and the zoning of the Great Sandy Marine Park, which covers the strait, apply, on the Queensland Government pages linked below.
About this water
Mary River is a river in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Mary River: the full guide
The river
The Mary River rises in the Conondale Range and runs north through Gympie and Maryborough to enter the Great Sandy Strait at River Heads, south of Hervey Bay, tidal up to the barrage above Maryborough and fresh above it through Gympie’s reaches. It is a river of two fisheries: the tidal reaches and the mouth, with their barramundi, threadfin, jack and mud crabs, and the fresh reaches, where Australian bass live and the endangered Mary River cod and the Australian lungfish are protected. Not to be confused with the Mary River of the Northern Territory. The report on this page is scored for the lower river near River Heads.
Species and seasons
Barramundi fish the tidal river and the mouth on the run-off and the build-up, closed from 1 November to 31 January; threadfin salmon fish the tidal reaches on the tide changes at night; mangrove jack and grunter fish the snags and the rocks; and mud crabs are a pot fishery in the mangroves toward the mouth. Australian bass are the fish of the upper tidal reaches and the fresh water from spring to autumn, and Queensland closes bass in tidal waters from 1 June to 31 August. Mary River cod and Australian lungfish are both no-take species in Queensland fresh waters and must go back if caught.
Reading this report for the Mary
This is a river page, so there is no tide panel; the tide reaches the barrage, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s official predictions for the nearest port give the times, with the change running later up the river. Rain matters, because a fresh colours the river for days and a flood changes it for weeks. Barramundi and threadfin both respond to a falling barometer, and the sky fills in the score. The planner shows the night to take.
Rules and access
Queensland has no general fishing licence; the barramundi closed season, the tidal bass closure, the size and bag limits, the no-take rules for Mary River cod and lungfish, and the zoning of the Great Sandy Marine Park, which covers the strait, apply, on the Queensland Government pages linked below. The river parks at Maryborough and the reserves along the river are public, and River Heads gives access to the mouth and the strait.
Common questions
What can I catch in the Mary River?
Barramundi and threadfin in the tidal reaches, mangrove jack and grunter, mud crabs toward the mouth, and Australian bass higher up; Mary River cod and lungfish are no-take.
Do I need a licence to fish the Mary River?
No. Queensland has no recreational fishing licence; closed seasons, limits and the protected species rules apply.
Is fishing good at Mary River right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
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.