Lake Burley Griffin Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
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.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~13 °C est.
Air / High
15 °C / 23 °C
Wind
NE 3 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 570016A, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Burley Griffin has cool water and fish holding a little deeper and slower. Today brings cloud cover, wind NE around 3 km/h, rising pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 23 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the full moon, the solunar majors run 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM: the windows to build the day around.
Murray cod
Slow
Slow it down: heavier spinnerbaits, slow-rolled swimbaits and bait on the bottom next to the deep snags.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Similar at 25 °C with a rain chance. 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 (05:49), sunset (18:01), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM; minor 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Full Moon, 99% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 570016A (Scrivener Dam).
No live gauge on this water
Water readings appear when a Bureau of Meteorology station covers it. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp15 °C
High / Low23 °C / 11 °C
WindNE 3 km/h, gusts 8 km/h
Pressure1026.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain78% cloud, 2%
Sunrise / Sunset05:49 / 18:01
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Burley Griffin
The best day on Lake Burley Griffin this week looks like Saturday 26 Sept, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today. Every day is scored by the same engine as the report above: pressure trend first, then wind, sky and season. Pick a species and the plan for that day changes with it.
Best day this week: Saturday, 26 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 25 Sept — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 05:49 to 18:01
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 13 km/h
- Rain chance
- 2%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
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
December to August; closed September to November
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. Slow it down: heavier spinnerbaits, slow-rolled swimbaits and bait on the bottom next to the deep snags.
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. Slower. Work the deeper timber and the drop-offs with vibes and bait.
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 13 °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 dataThu, Sep 24
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at fair. High of 23 °C, wind to 11 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at fair. High of 19 °C, wind to 14 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at fair. High of 13 °C, wind to 13 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
No licence is needed in the ACT’s public waters, as the ACT Government’s recreational fishing page states, read on 23 September 2026; the Fisheries Act rules apply, with seven protected species, bait and gear bans and penalties to A$5,000, all on the ACT licence page of this site.
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 is the artificial lake at the centre of Canberra, formed on the Molonglo River by Scrivener Dam in 1964 and lined by the national institutions, the parliamentary triangle, parks and cycle paths; it is also the Australian Capital Territory’s main fishery, stocked every year with Murray cod and golden perch under the territory’s stocking plan and fished from the foreshores, the jetties and the bridge approaches by anyone who wants to. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at Scrivener Dam records the level, and the reading with its time and a 30-day chart are on this page.
Species and seasons
Murray cod are the prize, grown from stocked fingerlings to metre fish over the years, along the rock walls, the jetties and the drowned structure in the warm months, on big lures, surface lures at night and bait; golden perch are the everyday fish from spring to autumn on the same structure; redfin are everywhere and carp are the most numerous fish in the lake, with the territory’s rules on pest fish. The ACT publishes its closed seasons, bag limits and sizes in its Fisheries declarations, which this site links but has not yet transcribed as computed rules; check the directorate’s page before keeping a cod.
Where to fish it
The foreshores of the central basin, the walls under the Commonwealth Avenue and Kings Avenue bridges, the jetties at Yarralumla and the east basin around Kingston are the classic land-based cod and perch spots; the west basin toward Scrivener Dam is deeper and a kayak opens it, though powered craft are restricted on much of the lake. The Molonglo reach above the lake and the Jerrabomberra wetlands are quieter perch water.
Reading the report
The lake is shallow and warms fast, and the water temperature estimate, labelled as one, puts the cod and perch season from October to April; the chart shows the small level movements the dam operator makes. Wind across the open basins builds a chop that closes the lake to small craft, so the wind row matters. Pressure counts on the summer evenings for the cod, and the planner picks the night. Blue-green algae closures happen in hot summers and the territory publishes them.
Licence, access and rules
No licence is needed in the ACT’s public waters, as the ACT Government’s recreational fishing page states, read on 23 September 2026; the Fisheries Act rules apply, with seven protected species, bait and gear bans and penalties to A$5,000, all on the ACT licence page of this site. The foreshores and jetties are public; the National Capital Authority sets the boating rules on the lake.
Common questions
Do I need a licence to fish Lake Burley Griffin?
No. The ACT Government page says no licence is needed for recreational fishing in the territory’s public waters; the Fisheries Act rules apply and are summarised on our ACT licence page.
Are there Murray cod in Lake Burley Griffin?
Yes, stocked for years and grown to large sizes; the territory’s declarations set the closed season and the limits, linked in the sources, and this site has not yet transcribed them as computed rules.
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: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
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
- 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.