Searchers are racing against time to find a fisherman who vanished in a lake near Tuncurry in the state's mid north coast.
Police believe the 32-year-old man was fishing near the Head Street Bridge, also known as the Forster Tuncurry bridge, when he went into Wallis Lake to pick something up and disappeared about 1.55pm on Wednesday.
The place where he was fishing is close to the mouth of the ocean and rescuers fear he may have been swept away by a strong current.
The lake is a popular site for water activities, and is usually packed with people fishing, kayaking and boating due holiday periods.
Police, Marine Rescue NSW and Forster Surf Life Savers were desperately trying to find traces of the missing man before the light disappeared.
Surf Life Saving NSW spokeswoman Donna Wishart said a rescue helicopter had already been pulled from the search due to bad weather conditions.
"When the rescue crews hit the water to start the search, they said the tide was moving very quickly," Ms Wishart said.
Marine Rescue Forster Tuncurry operations officer Tony Breen said rescuers were searching in the lake, rather than in the ocean.
"Realistically with the speed of the current and the time involved, we would probably only search two or three miles up the lake," Mr Breen said.
"With the state of the tide at the time, there would have been a fair bit of water movement in the area where he would have gone in and that would have taken anything up the lake."
Police said the man was last seen wearing a long-sleeve pale blue shirt, a black baseball cap, jeans and joggers.
