Yellowtail kingfish
Excellent
Prime. Cast stickbaits and poppers at surface activity, jig the deeper reefs, and keep a live bait out under a balloon.
St Helens Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Georges Bay and the Bay of Fires: the east coast town where the sheltered bay fishes for flathead, bream and squid and the ocean beaches for salmon.
5/5
Excellent. Go now.Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.
Next tide
Low 3:03 pm model
Air / High
11 °C / 15 °C
Wind
SE 4 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
St Helens sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. Today brings cloud cover, wind SE around 3 km/h, falling pressure near 1021 hPa and a high of 15 °C. Tides: high 8:12 am and 9:18 pm, low 1:50 am and 3:03 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 20 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:13 PM-1:13 AM and 11:42 AM-1:42 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Tailor
Good
Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
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.
Australian salmon
Fair
Look for birds and surface splashes along the beaches and in the bays; cast metals, plastics or ganged pilchards into the school.
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: 11:13 PM-1:13 AM, 11:42 AM-1:42 PM, 4:43 AM-5:43 AM. Warmer at 21 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Tasmania requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$29.00. Tasmania fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing tailor here? Check the size and bag limits with IFS Tasmania before you keep anything; the Tailor page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for St Helens today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:44), sunset (19:57), 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 11:13 PM-1:13 AM and 11:42 AM-1:42 PM; minor 4:43 AM-5:43 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
LOW1:50 am-0.39 m
HIGH8:12 am0.42 m
LOW3:03 pm-0.65 m
HIGH9:18 pm0.12 m
Tue
LOW2:15 am-0.28 m
HIGH8:48 am0.50 m
LOW3:43 pm-0.54 m
HIGH10:04 pm0.18 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp11 °C
High / Low15 °C / 10 °C
WindSE 4 km/h, gusts 8 km/h
Pressure1021.2 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain87% cloud, 41%
Sunrise / Sunset05:44 / 19:57
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~20 °C est.
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish St Helens
Today is the pick of the week on St Helens, at 5 out of 5.
Best day this week: today, 9 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Excellent
Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.
- Solunar majors
- 11:13 PM-1:13 AM and 11:42 AM-1:42 PM
- Minor period
- 4:43 AM-5:43 AM
- Sun
- 05:44 to 19:57
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 41%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on St Helens: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
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.
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.
Yellowtail kingfish
Best: December to April
The hardest-pulling fish within reach of the shore. Headlands, harbour markers, offshore reefs and the warm current in summer. Prime. Cast stickbaits and poppers at surface activity, jig the deeper reefs, and keep a live bait out under a balloon.
Australian salmon
Winter and spring on the southern beaches
Not a salmon at all: a hard-fighting schooling fish of the surf and the bays, from WA around to NSW. Great on light gear, poor on the plate. Look for birds and surface splashes along the beaches and in the bays; cast metals, plastics or ganged pilchards into the school.
When to come: the St Helens 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
Tailor
Mulloway
Yellowtail kingfish
Australian salmon
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 20 °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 St Helens 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. Yellowtail kingfish led the card at excellent. High of 14 °C, wind to 21 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Yellowtail kingfish led the card at excellent. High of 15 °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. Yellowtail kingfish led the card at excellent. High of 20 °C, wind to 26 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Tasmanian Inland Angling Licence, from A$29.00, the same for residents and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by IFS Tasmania and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Tasmania licence page before you keep anything.
Access
Rod and line fishing in the bay and the sea needs no licence in Tasmania; NRE Tasmania licenses only gear such as pots, nets, set lines, abalone and scallops.
About this water
St Helens is a coastal town in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing St Helens: the full guide
St Helens and Georges Bay
St Helens is the fishing town of Tasmania’s north-east coast, on Georges Bay, a large, shallow, sheltered inlet that opens to the sea through the barway, with the white beaches and orange-lichened granite of the Bay of Fires running north from Binalong Bay and the surf beaches south towards Scamander. The bay is the fishery for most people: flats, channels, oyster leases and the town wharves; the barway and the beaches outside give the ocean species; and the offshore grounds give the reef and game fish to the boats in the warmer months. The report here is scored for St Helens on the shore of Georges Bay.
Species and seasons
Flathead are the bay’s fish, on the sand of the channels and the flats from spring through autumn. St Helens lies outside the south-eastern zone where sand flathead are now closed, but the rules have tightened here too: from 1 March 2026 a sand flathead must measure between 35 and 40 centimetres to be kept, the daily bag is set by zone, and every flathead must be landed whole or as a fillet with the frame intact. Bream work the leases, the rock walls and the upper bay all year; squid hunt the weed and the wharf lights in spring and autumn; and Australian salmon, which NRE Tasmania suggests as a sustainable alternative to flathead, run the barway and the beaches in the cooler months. Silver trevally, garfish and whiting feed in the bay, and tailor come through the barway in summer.
Reading this report here
Georges Bay fishes in most weather, and the wind row decides between the bay and the beaches: an easterly or a big swell closes the barway and the ocean side, and a westerly flattens them. At St Helens the score adds pressure and sky to the wind, and the planner shows the days to choose between bay and beach. The tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model, and the barway and the channels run on the tide, so use the curve for the direction and the Bureau of Meteorology for the times.
Licences, access and rules
Rod and line fishing in the bay and the sea needs no licence in Tasmania; NRE Tasmania licenses only gear such as pots, nets, set lines, abalone and scallops. The Inland Fisheries Service licence covers the rivers and lakes; our Tasmania licence page has the fees and the split. The wharves, the foreshore and the beaches are public, with boat ramps in the town; the sea fishing rules, including the flathead limits for the east coast, are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What size flathead can I keep at St Helens?
Sand flathead between 35 and 40 centimetres, within the bag limit NRE Tasmania sets for the zone, landed whole or with the frame intact.
What can I catch in Georges Bay?
Flathead on the sand, bream on the leases and walls, squid under the lights, silver trevally, garfish and whiting, with salmon at the barway.
Is fishing good at St Helens right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor.
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.