The Australian Capital Territory has a small but distinct set of waters, the urban lakes of Canberra, the Cotter and Murrumbidgee reaches inside the territory and the trout streams of Namadgi, and a licence rule that we have not yet been able to read on the territory government’s own pages. This hub exists so the territory is not missing; it will fill in when that page has been read and dated.
Reports current for Friday 25 September
Every one of the 3 Australian Capital Territory waters we cover has a live read this morning. None reaches 4 out of 5 and 2 are slow. Water is around 13 °C. Pressure is rising on most of them, which costs a point in our model when the sky is clear.
Best right now: Lake Tuggeranong 3/5, Lake Burley Griffin 2/5, Lake Ginninderra 2/5
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Canberra’s lake: Murray cod and golden perch stocked in the water the capital was built around, fished from the foreshores and the bridges with no licence.
Belconnen’s lake in northern Canberra: golden perch and stocked cod off the foreshores and the peninsula, with no licence and a Bureau gauge at the dam.
The southern Canberra lake: perch and cod stocked in a shallow town lake that warms early, fished from the foreshores with no licence and read by the Bureau at the dam.
Species activity across the covered waters, written for the southern year. Peak of the year: December.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for the dominant water type here, in degrees Celsius (estimated, not a reading).
| Water | Type | Live data | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Burley Griffin | Lake | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Lake Ginninderra | Lake | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Lake Tuggeranong | Lake | BoM gauge | Mar |
Every licence figure on this site is read from the agency that sets it, on its own page, on a recorded date. For the ACT that was not possible on 23 September 2026: the territory’s pages answered with a security check our reader could not pass. Third-party guides describe the waters as divided into open, trout and prohibited waters and state a licence rule, but that description waits for the directorate’s own page on this site. Our ACT licence page says exactly that, and lists the three addresses we tried.
Lake Burley Griffin, Lake Ginninderra and Lake Tuggeranong are the urban lakes, stocked with native fish and trout by the territory; the Murrumbidgee runs through the territory’s western side and the Cotter joins it from Namadgi, where the mountain streams hold trout; and Googong Reservoir, the big water to the south-east, is managed by the ACT but sits inside New South Wales, so the New South Wales rules and fee apply on its banks.
The territory’s waters enter this site in the next phase from the official gazetteer, starting with the lakes and the Murrumbidgee, once the licence rule and the water rules have been read from the directorate’s pages in a browser and dated. Until then, the honest state of this hub is a licence page that publishes a gap and a promise. The territory’s own Recreational Fishing in the ACT brochure, published by the directorate, is the document we will read first, because it is the one the rangers enforce.
We have not been able to read the ACT Government’s page to answer that from the source that counts, so this site does not state a rule yet; the ACT licence page explains why and links the government pages.
Googong is in New South Wales even though the ACT manages it, so the NSW rules and the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee apply there; see our New South Wales licence page.
None yet; the lakes and the Murrumbidgee follow in the next phase once the territory’s rules have been read.