Lake Ginninderra Fishing Report
Updated Sat, 26 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
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.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
576.73 m
Air / High
12 °C / 25 °C
Wind
NNW 3 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 410765, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Ginninderra rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. The gauge reads 576.73 m, easing 0.18 over the week. Today brings cloud cover, wind NNW around 3 km/h, rising pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 26 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the full moon, the solunar majors run 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM: 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: 11:16 PM-1:16 AM, 11:16 AM-1:16 PM, 5:46 AM-6:46 AM. Cooler at 13 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. 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 Ginninderra today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:48), sunset (18:02), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM; minor 5:46 AM-6:46 AM. Full Moon, 100% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 410765 (L Ginninderra at Dam).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 410765. Latest reading 2026-09-24 18:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp12 °C
High / Low25 °C / 10 °C
WindNNW 3 km/h, gusts 8 km/h
Pressure1026.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain67% cloud, 28%
Sunrise / Sunset05:48 / 18:02
MoonFull Moon, 100%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Ginninderra
The best day on Lake Ginninderra this week looks like Monday 28 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: Monday, 28 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 26 Sept — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM
- Minor period
- 5:46 AM-6:46 AM
- Sun
- 05:48 to 18:02
- Moon
- Full Moon, 100% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 28%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Ginninderra: 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 Ginninderra 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 Ginninderra today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataFri, Sep 25
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 13 km/h.
Thu, 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
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Golden perch led the card at good. High of 19 °C, wind to 11 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 in the ACT, as read on the ACT Government page on 23 September 2026; the Fisheries Act rules apply and our ACT licence page lists them.
About this water
Lake Ginninderra is a lake in Australian Capital Territory, Australia, covered from the Australian Capital Territory reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Ginninderra: the full guide
The lake
Lake Ginninderra is the urban lake of Belconnen in Canberra’s north, formed on Ginninderra Creek in the 1970s and ringed by parkland, the Belconnen town centre, a peninsula and cycle paths, and stocked by the territory with golden perch and Murray cod for a fishery within walking distance of tens of thousands of people. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page, with the time of the reading.
Species and seasons
Golden perch are the fish most anglers catch, from the rock walls, the peninsula and the drop-offs from spring to autumn on lures and bait; Murray cod are stocked and grow to good sizes along the walls and the structure, fished in the warm months on lures and at night on surface lures; redfin are abundant, and carp fill the shallows under the territory’s pest rules. The ACT’s Fisheries declarations set the closed seasons and the limits, linked from this page and not yet transcribed here as computed rules.
Where to fish it
The peninsula and the foreshore of John Knight Memorial Park give the longest stretch of bank, and the rock walls around the town centre and Diddams Close hold the perch and the cod at dusk; the western basin toward the dam is deeper and fishes from the paths along it. Unpowered craft are allowed and a kayak covers the lake in an evening.
Reading the report
A shallow urban lake warms and cools quickly, and the water temperature estimate on this page, labelled as one, sets the perch season from October to April; the chart shows a level that barely moves. The wind matters for comfort on the exposed foreshores more than for safety. Algal closures in summer are published by the territory and this page cannot see them.
Licence, access and rules
No licence in the ACT, as read on the ACT Government page on 23 September 2026; the Fisheries Act rules apply and our ACT licence page lists them. The foreshores, the peninsula and the paths are public parkland.
Common questions
Do I need a licence at Lake Ginninderra?
No. Recreational fishing in the ACT’s public waters needs no licence; the Fisheries Act rules apply, summarised on our ACT licence page.
What can I catch at Lake Ginninderra?
Golden perch and stocked Murray cod in the warm months, redfin through the year and carp; the territory’s declarations set the limits.
Is fishing good at Lake Ginninderra 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
- Storage and river readings
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online, station 410765 — L Ginninderra at Dam
- 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.