Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Tin Can Bay Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The calm side of the Cooloola coast: mangrove flats, channels and seagrass on the Great Sandy Strait, with the surf a short drive away.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Next tide
Low 1:34 pm model
Air / High
21 °C / 24 °C
Wind
NE 13 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Tin Can Bay sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 13 km/h, rising pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 24 °C. Tides: high 7:11 am and 7:13 pm, low 12:37 am and 1:34 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 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:43 PM-12:43 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, 10:43 PM-12:43 AM, 3:58 AM-4:58 AM. Similar at 26 °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 Tin Can Bay today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (04:54), sunset (18:09), 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 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:43 PM-12:43 AM; minor 3:58 AM-4:58 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
LOW12:37 am-0.39 m
HIGH7:11 am1.22 m
LOW1:34 pm-0.20 m
HIGH7:13 pm0.74 m
Tue
LOW1:06 am-0.39 m
HIGH7:51 am1.22 m
LOW2:14 pm-0.17 m
HIGH7:44 pm0.64 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp21 °C
High / Low24 °C / 20 °C
WindNE 13 km/h, gusts 26 km/h
Pressure1017.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain7% cloud, 27%
Sunrise / Sunset04:54 / 18:09
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 Tin Can Bay
The best day on Tin Can Bay 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
- 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:43 PM-12:43 AM
- Minor period
- 3:58 AM-4:58 AM
- Sun
- 04:54 to 18:09
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 18 km/h
- Rain chance
- 27%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Tin Can Bay: 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 Tin Can Bay 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 Tin Can Bay 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 19 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 14 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 18 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, the closed seasons and the Great Sandy Marine Park zoning apply; the park takes in the Great Sandy Strait and Tin Can Inlet, and its new zoning plan commenced on 21 May 2024.
About this water
Tin Can Bay is a bay or coastal water in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Tin Can Bay: the full guide
The bay and the strait
Tin Can Bay is a small town on the western, sheltered side of the Cooloola coast, on an inlet of the Great Sandy Strait, the long tidal waterway between the mainland and K’gari. It is the calm-water counterpart of Rainbow Beach: mangroves, sand flats, channels and seagrass instead of surf, with Carlo Point and the town foreshore as the launching points for the strait. Most of the fishing is by boat or kayak in the strait, but the town’s jetties and foreshore fish on the tide, and a small boat opens up creeks and channels that the shore cannot reach.
Species and seasons
Whiting fish the sand flats and the channel edges in summer, flathead lie on the drop-offs and the mouths of the creeks through the warmer months, and bream work the mangroves, the jetties and the rock walls all year. Mud crabs are a pot fishery in the creeks and the mangroves, sand crabs on the open flats. The strait gives grunter and trevally, the deeper water toward the island holds the odd snapper, which are closed in east coast tidal waters from 15 July to 15 August, and the mouth of the inlet turns up tailor and school mackerel on the run. Mangrove jack turn up in the creeks in the warm months.
Reading this report for the strait
The strait is tide-driven and sheltered: the wind row matters less than on the surf side, and a fresh south-easterly that closes the ocean beaches often leaves the strait fishable. The tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model, and the flats fish on the run-in while the channels fish on the change; the Bureau of Meteorology has the exact times. The barometer and the cloud cover complete the score, and the planner shows which of the seven days to take.
Rules and access
Queensland has no general fishing licence; the size and bag limits, the closed seasons and the Great Sandy Marine Park zoning apply; the park takes in the Great Sandy Strait and Tin Can Inlet, and its new zoning plan commenced on 21 May 2024. The foreshore, the jetties and the launching areas at the town and Carlo Point are public. Driving on the beaches of the Cooloola and K’gari recreation areas needs a vehicle access permit from the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, bought before you arrive.
Common questions
What can I catch at Tin Can Bay?
Whiting and flathead on the flats, bream on the mangroves and jetties, mud crabs in the creeks, and grunter, trevally and tailor in the strait and at the inlet mouth.
Do I need a licence to fish Tin Can Bay?
No. There is no recreational fishing licence in Queensland; the marine park zones, the limits and the closed seasons are what you need to know.
Is fishing good at Tin Can Bay 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.