Snapper
Excellent
Fish are thinner inshore. Work the deeper structure and the channel edges with baits on the bottom, and pick the tide change.
Hastings Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Western Port’s working port: the jetty and the marina, the channels off French Island and the mangrove shore of the north-west, with a marine national park next door.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
High 1:12 pm model
Air / High
11 °C / 20 °C
Wind
ENE 15 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Hastings is in its cool-water rhythm: slower presentations and the warmest hours of the day. Today brings clear skies, wind ENE around 14 km/h, steady pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 21 °C. Tides: high 2:00 am and 1:12 pm, low 9:52 am and 7:10 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 17 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:26 PM-1:26 AM and 11:54 AM-1:54 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Southern calamari
Excellent
Spring and autumn are the seasons: the weed beds on the rising tide, slow sinking jigs.
Flathead
Good
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.
Australian salmon
Slow
The main season. Beach gutters, rock platforms and bay edges on the rising tide; metals, surf poppers and bait all work.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 11:26 PM-1:26 AM, 11:54 AM-1:54 PM, 5:04 AM-6:04 AM. Warmer at 26 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Victoria requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$10.00. Victoria fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing snapper here? Check the size and bag limits with VFA before you keep anything; the Snapper page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Hastings today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:03), sunset (20:03), 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 11:26 PM-1:26 AM and 11:54 AM-1:54 PM; minor 5:04 AM-6:04 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
HIGH2:00 am0.20 m
LOW9:52 am-0.32 m
HIGH1:12 pm-0.05 m
LOW7:10 pm-0.51 m
Tue
HIGH2:23 am0.39 m
LOW10:17 am-0.18 m
HIGH1:35 pm0.13 m
LOW8:00 pm-0.48 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp11 °C
High / Low20 °C / 9 °C
WindENE 15 km/h, gusts 29 km/h
Pressure1017.2 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain2% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:03 / 20:03
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~17 °C est.
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Hastings
The best day on Hastings this week looks like Thursday 12 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.
Best day this week: Thursday, 12 Nov — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 11:26 PM-1:26 AM and 11:54 AM-1:54 PM
- Minor period
- 5:04 AM-6:04 AM
- Sun
- 06:03 to 20:03
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 19 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Hastings: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Snapper
Best: October to January in the southern bays
The southern headline fish. Runs into Port Phillip, Western Port, the gulfs and the WA sounds in spring to spawn; holds on reef and rubble the rest of the year. Fish are thinner inshore. Work the deeper structure and the channel edges with baits on the bottom, and pick the tide change.
King George whiting
Best: December to May in SA; spring and summer in Port Phillip
The table fish of the south. Feeds over sand patches between weed and reef in 2 to 10 metres, mostly by day, mostly on the moving tide. Deeper sand patches and the middle of the day; slower bites, bigger fish.
Southern calamari
Spring and autumn peaks in the southern bays
Southern calamari over weed and sand in 2 to 10 metres of the bays and gulfs; a jig fishery at dawn, dusk and under the jetty lights. Spring and autumn are the seasons: the weed beds on the rising tide, slow sinking jigs.
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. The main season. Beach gutters, rock platforms and bay edges on the rising tide; metals, surf poppers and bait all work.
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.
When to come: the Hastings 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
Snapper
King George whiting
Southern calamari
Australian salmon
Flathead
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 17 °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 Hastings today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Snapper led the card at excellent. High of 16 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Snapper led the card at excellent. High of 13 °C, wind to 26 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Snapper led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 24 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence (RFL), from A$10.00, 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 VFA and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Victoria licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence applies at Hastings unless you are exempt; the fees for 2026/2027 are on our Victoria page.
About this water
Hastings is a coastal town in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Hastings: the full guide
Hastings and its channels
Hastings is the port town on the north-western shore of Western Port, south-east of Melbourne, with its long jetty and marina, the deep channels between the mainland and French Island, and the mudflats and mangroves that line this side of the bay. Just to the north, Yaringa Marine National Park protects 776 hectares of mangrove, saltmarsh, mudflat and seagrass in Watsons Inlet, reached only by boat; Parks Victoria calls it the smallest of the state’s marine national parks. It is a Western Port fishery with the bay’s character: deep channels, wide flats, a strong tide and a mangrove shore. The bay as a whole has its own page; this one is scored for the town and reads the jetty and the channels first.
Species and seasons
King George whiting feed along the seagrass and the channel edges off Hastings from spring to autumn; snapper come into the channels in spring and summer, and the jetty turns up the smaller ones; gummy shark and elephant fish work the channel edges, the gummies through the warmer months and the elephants usually in autumn; and squid hunt the seagrass and the jetty lights in spring and autumn. Flathead, garfish and silver trevally are jetty fish through the year, bream hold around the mangroves and the creek mouths of the northern shore, and Australian salmon push up the channels in winter.
Reading this report here
Western Port is a tide fishery before it is a weather one: the tide panel, a modelled curve for these coordinates labelled as a model, shows the direction of the run, and the channels tend to fish on the change while the flats fish on the flood; the Bureau of Meteorology has the official times. The wind row matters on the open channels, which a south-westerly makes rough. Hastings’ score adds the pressure trend and the cloud to the tide, and the planner lays out the week.
Licence and access
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence applies at Hastings unless you are exempt; the fees for 2026/2027 are on our Victoria page. The jetty, the marina walls and the foreshore are public, with public ramps around the bay’s northern shore. Western Port’s marine national parks, Yaringa among them, have their own rules from Parks Victoria, and the VFA limits are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch from the Hastings jetty?
Squid under the lights, garfish, silver trevally and flathead, King George whiting in season and the smaller snapper in spring and summer.
What is Yaringa Marine National Park?
A 776-hectare marine national park of mangroves, saltmarsh and seagrass in Watsons Inlet, just north of Hastings, reached only by boat and managed by Parks Victoria.
Is fishing good at Hastings 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
- 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.