Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Lake Burley Griffin Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Canberra’s central lake, formed in 1964 and restocked with Murray cod and golden perch on alternate releases, fished without a licence under the Fisheries Act and the NCA’s lake rules.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~19 °C est.
Air / High
11 °C / 18 °C
Wind
E 11 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Burley Griffin sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. Today brings clear skies, wind E around 11 km/h, rising pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:10 PM-1:10 AM and 11:37 AM-1:37 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Murray cod
Closed today
Reopens 1 Dec 2026. Murray cod may not be targeted from September to November; the ACT open season runs 1 December to 31 August, 55 to 75 cm, two a day outside the Murrumbidgee.
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: 11:10 PM-1:10 AM, 11:37 AM-1:37 PM, 4:54 AM-5:54 AM. Warmer at 23 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Australian Capital Territory has no general fishing licence, but rules and permits apply. Australian Capital Territory fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing murray cod here? Check the size and bag limits with ACT Government before you keep anything; the Murray cod page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Lake Burley Griffin today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:53), sunset (19:41), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:10 PM-1:10 AM and 11:37 AM-1:37 PM; minor 4:54 AM-5:54 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Bureau of Meteorology station 570016A (Scrivener Dam) has sent no reading in the last 30 days, so conditions here are modelled from weather, season and the nearest stations.
No recent gauge reading
Readings come back here when station 570016A reports again. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp11 °C
High / Low18 °C / 5 °C
WindE 11 km/h, gusts 28 km/h
Pressure1019.6 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain17% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:53 / 19:41
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Burley Griffin
The best day on Lake Burley Griffin this week looks like Thursday 12 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Thursday, 12 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:10 PM-1:10 AM and 11:37 AM-1:37 PM
- Minor period
- 4:54 AM-5:54 AM
- Sun
- 05:53 to 19:41
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Burley Griffin: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Murray cod
Closed 1 September to 30 November in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, and 1 August to 31 October in Queensland; check the exempt lakes
Closed now Reopens 1 Dec 2026. Murray cod may not be targeted from September to November; the ACT open season runs 1 December to 31 August, 55 to 75 cm, two a day outside the Murrumbidgee. Rule as read from ACT Government on 2026-09-27.
The giant of the inland rivers and the big lakes (Hume, Mulwala, Eildon). A snag fish that eats big lures, and a species with a closed season across the Murray-Darling.
Golden perch
Best: November to April
Yellowbelly. The bread-and-butter native of the Murray-Darling lakes and rivers; loves warm water, structure and a lure worked slowly past its nose. Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
When to come: the Lake Burley Griffin 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
Murray cod
Golden perch
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 19 °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 Lake Burley Griffin 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. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 14 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 26 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 21 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Australian Capital Territory has no general recreational fishing licence; the limits and closures do. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by ACT Government and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Australian Capital Territory licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The ACT Government says no licence is needed for recreational fishing in the territory’s public waters, but the Fisheries Act applies: no live finfish, fish eggs or frogs as bait, no filleting beside the water, and penalties up to A$5,000.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on Australian Capital Territory dam levels today.
About this water
Lake Burley Griffin is a lake in Australian Capital Territory, Australia, covered from the Australian Capital Territory reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Burley Griffin: the full guide
The lake
Lake Burley Griffin was formed on the Molonglo River when Scrivener Dam closed in 1964, and the ACT’s fish stocking plan explains why it needed stocking: mine pollution from Captains Flat had already wiped out the Murray cod of the Molonglo. The National Capital Authority administers the lake, including its boats, and is formally responsible for its fish population. One limitation of this page matters: the Bureau of Meteorology’s Scrivener Dam station, 570016A, has published no storage level since December 2020, so no current level or chart can be shown here.
Species and seasons
The NCA says the native fishery is maintained by regular releases of fingerlings, Murray cod and golden perch on an alternate basis, and the territory’s stocking tables record releases into the lake through the 2010s and 2020s. The ACT Government sets Murray cod at 55 to 75 centimetres and two a day in waters other than the Murrumbidgee, open from 1 December to 31 August; golden perch have a 30 centimetre minimum and a bag of five, all year. Carp and redfin are not stocked and carry no bag limit or closure. Seven species, including Macquarie perch, silver perch and trout cod, are totally protected.
Where to fish it
The public foreshores, rock walls and jetties around the basins give plenty of bank access. Stocked cod and golden perch relate to structure, so work lures and baits along walls, drop-offs, bridge pylons and any snag where the bottom changes depth, especially at dusk in the warm months. Carp are abundant and make good practice for beginners. The NCA monitors water quality weekly from mid-October to mid-April and publishes results through the Swim Guide.
Reading the report
The water temperature row, an estimate, is a fair guide to when cod and golden perch become active in spring and slow down in autumn. With no live level, the weather rows carry the day: wind across the open basins raises a chop that matters to kayakers, and a falling barometer on a warm evening is traditionally a good time to cast for cod. Check the NCA’s water quality updates in summer before planning a session.
Licence, access and rules
The ACT Government says no licence is needed for recreational fishing in the territory’s public waters, but the Fisheries Act applies: no live finfish, fish eggs or frogs as bait, no filleting beside the water, and penalties up to A$5,000. Powered boats need an NCA permit and must run on electric motors on the lake; paddle craft need no permit. Our ACT licence page summarises the rules.
Common questions
Do I need a licence to fish Lake Burley Griffin?
No. The ACT Government says no licence is needed in the territory’s public waters; the Fisheries Act rules on bait, gear, sizes and bags still apply.
Why is there no level reading for Lake Burley Griffin?
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Scrivener Dam station, 570016A, has not published a storage level since December 2020, so this page has no current reading or chart to show.
When can I keep a Murray cod in Lake Burley Griffin?
From 1 December to 31 August, between 55 and 75 cm, two a day, under the ACT Government’s rules; cod are closed from September to November.
Is fishing good at Lake Burley Griffin right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- 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.