Snapper
Excellent
Fish are thinner inshore. Work the deeper structure and the channel edges with baits on the bottom, and pick the tide change.
Queenscliff Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
At the heads of Port Phillip: the harbour, the pier, the Rip and the Bellarine whiting grounds, beside a marine national park.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
High 11:37 am model
Air / High
15 °C / 18 °C
Wind
E 22 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Queenscliff rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. Today brings clear skies, wind E around 23 km/h, steady pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Tides: high 11:37 am, low 5:42 am and 5:27 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 11:28 PM-1:28 AM and 11:57 AM-1:57 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: 11:28 PM-1:28 AM, 11:57 AM-1:57 PM, 5:06 AM-6:06 AM. Warmer at 23 °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 Queenscliff today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:05), sunset (20:05), 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 11:28 PM-1:28 AM and 11:57 AM-1:57 PM; minor 5:06 AM-6:06 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
LOW5:42 am-0.50 m
HIGH11:37 am0.35 m
LOW5:27 pm-0.97 m
Tue
HIGH12:41 am0.84 m
LOW6:38 am-0.42 m
HIGH12:20 pm0.50 m
LOW6:19 pm-1.00 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp15 °C
High / Low18 °C / 11 °C
WindE 22 km/h, gusts 37 km/h
Pressure1017.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain19% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:05 / 20:05
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 Queenscliff
The best day on Queenscliff 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
- 11:28 PM-1:28 AM and 11:57 AM-1:57 PM
- Minor period
- 5:06 AM-6:06 AM
- Sun
- 06:05 to 20:05
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 29 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Queenscliff: 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 Queenscliff 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 Queenscliff 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 15 °C, wind to 26 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 34 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 20 °C, wind to 32 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
A Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence is needed here unless you are exempt; our Victoria page lists the 2026/2027 fees.
About this water
Queenscliff is a coastal town in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Queenscliff: the full guide
Queenscliff and the heads
Queenscliff sits on the Bellarine Peninsula at the western side of the Port Phillip Heads, facing Point Nepean across the Rip, the narrow entrance through which the whole bay drains and fills with every tide. It has a harbour with a marina and a breakwater, the old pier, Swan Bay behind the town, the back beach on the ocean side and the whiting grounds of the Bellarine a short run north. The Rip is serious water and the harbour fishes on its tide. Several parts of the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park are close by: Swan Bay, the reefs at Point Lonsdale, Mud Islands, Popes Eye and the entrance itself. This page’s report is calculated for Queenscliff itself.
Species and seasons
King George whiting fish the sand-and-weed grounds off Queenscliff and St Leonards from spring to autumn; snapper come through the heads in spring and hold off the Bellarine through summer; squid hunt the weed and the pier lights in spring and autumn; and garfish and silver trevally are pier fish for much of the year. Australian salmon run the back beach and the heads in winter, gummy shark and flathead feed on the sand of the channels, and the reefs outside the heads give the boats kingfish in summer, for skippers who know the water.
Reading this report here
Tides in the Rip run far harder than inside the bay, and the tide panel, a modelled curve for these coordinates labelled as a model, is for the direction of the run; the Bureau of Meteorology publishes the Port Phillip Heads times, and slack water is when the entrance can be fished. The wind row decides between the bay side and the back beach, a south-westerly roughing up the ocean side while the harbour stays calm. For Queenscliff the pressure trend and the sky complete the score, and the planner flags the best tide-and-wind days.
Licence and access
A Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence is needed here unless you are exempt; our Victoria page lists the 2026/2027 fees. The pier, the harbour breakwater, the back beach and the Swan Bay foreshore are public, with a ramp in the harbour. The boundaries of the marine national park, where Parks Victoria’s rules apply, and the VFA limits are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch from Queenscliff pier?
Squid under the lights, garfish, silver trevally and flathead, whiting in season and salmon in winter.
Is there a marine park near Queenscliff?
Yes. Swan Bay, the Point Lonsdale reefs, Mud Islands, Popes Eye and the Rip belong to the Port Phillip Heads Marine National Park; check its boundaries before you fish.
Is fishing good at Queenscliff 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.