Lake Tuggeranong Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
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.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
567.87 m
Air / High
14 °C / 23 °C
Wind
SSE 0 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 410784, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Tuggeranong is in its cool-water rhythm: slower presentations and the warmest hours of the day. The gauge reads 567.87 m, holding steady. Today brings cloud cover, wind SSE around 0 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. Warmer at 26 °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 Tuggeranong 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 410784 (Lake Tuggeranong Dam).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 410784. Latest reading 2026-09-24 18:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp14 °C
High / Low23 °C / 11 °C
WindSSE 0 km/h, gusts 4 km/h
Pressure1026.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain87% 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 Tuggeranong
The best day on Lake Tuggeranong 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, 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, 14 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 Tuggeranong: 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 Tuggeranong 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 Tuggeranong 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 22 °C, wind to 13 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 16 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 12 °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, as the ACT Government page read on 23 September 2026 says; the Fisheries Act rules, listed on our ACT licence page, apply.
About this water
Lake Tuggeranong is a lake in Australian Capital Territory, Australia, covered from the Australian Capital Territory reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Tuggeranong: the full guide
The lake
Lake Tuggeranong is the urban lake of Canberra’s south, formed on Tuggeranong Creek in the 1980s beside the Tuggeranong town centre, shallow, warm and ringed by parkland, paths and the sailing club, and stocked by the territory with golden perch and Murray cod like the capital’s other lakes. It is the smallest and shallowest of the three and the first to warm in spring; the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Golden perch are the main catch, along the walls, the drop-offs and the inflow from spring to autumn, and Murray cod are stocked and hold on the structure in the warm months; redfin and carp are the numbers fish, the carp under the territory’s pest rules. The ACT’s Fisheries declarations carry the closed seasons and the limits, linked from this page; this site has not transcribed them as computed rules, so the species card shows no season chip here.
Where to fish it
The town centre foreshore and the walls near the sailing club, the inflow at the southern end and the dam end are the bank spots, all on public paths; the lake is small enough that a kayak covers it in an hour, and unpowered craft are allowed. Dusk in the warm months is the cod hour along the walls.
Reading the report
Shallow and warm, the lake sits in the warm band from early October and the water temperature estimate, labelled as an estimate, is the perch switch; the chart barely moves. Algal blooms close the lake to contact some summers and the territory publishes them. The wind row is a comfort matter on the exposed foreshores.
Licence, access and rules
No licence is needed in the ACT, as the ACT Government page read on 23 September 2026 says; the Fisheries Act rules, listed on our ACT licence page, apply. The foreshores and paths are public parkland.
The Canberra lakes as a set
Tuggeranong, Ginninderra and Burley Griffin are stocked from the same territory programme and fish the same way, with the smaller southern lake warming first in spring and shutting down first in autumn; an angler who works the walls at dusk in October will find the perch here a fortnight before the big lake, and the cod along the same walls once the water is warm. The Murrumbidgee reaches inside the territory are the other option, wilder and with their own page.
Common questions
Do I need a fishing licence at Lake Tuggeranong?
No. The ACT needs no licence for recreational fishing in its public waters; the Fisheries Act rules apply.
Is Lake Tuggeranong safe to fish in summer?
Fishing is fine; blue-green algae blooms close the lake to water contact some summers and the territory publishes the closures, which this page cannot see.
Is fishing good at Lake Tuggeranong 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 410784 — Lake Tuggeranong 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.