Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Lake Burrendong Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The big Macquarie River storage near Wellington: golden perch on the points, cod in the timber, silver perch and catfish you may keep, and a level that swings with the irrigation year.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
330.11 m407,108 ML
Air / High
15 °C / 21 °C
Wind
SE 2 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 421078, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Burrendong is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. The gauge reads 330.11 m, holding steady. Today brings clear skies, wind SE around 2 km/h, rising pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 21 °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 11:38 AM-1:38 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Murray cod
Closed today
Reopens 1 Dec 2026. Closed 1 September to 30 November in all waters except Blowering and Copeton dams.
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, 11:38 AM-1:38 PM, 5:01 AM-6:01 AM. Warmer at 26 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
New South Wales requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$7.00. New South Wales fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing murray cod here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Murray cod page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Lake Burrendong today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:58), sunset (19:36), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:10 PM-1:10 AM and 11:38 AM-1:38 PM; minor 5:01 AM-6:01 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Burrendong Dam Level today, and the weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 421078 (BURRENDONG DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 421078. Latest reading 2026-11-07 22:46.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp15 °C
High / Low21 °C / 7 °C
WindSE 2 km/h, gusts 4 km/h
Pressure1017.3 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain13% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:58 / 19:36
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Burrendong
The best day on Lake Burrendong this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 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 11:38 AM-1:38 PM
- Minor period
- 5:01 AM-6:01 AM
- Sun
- 05:58 to 19:36
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 13 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Burrendong: 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. Closed 1 September to 30 November in all waters except Blowering and Copeton dams. Rule as read from DPIRD NSW on 2026-09-23.
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 Burrendong 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 Burrendong today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 20 °C, wind to 18 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 27 °C, wind to 27 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 24 °C, wind to 10 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7.00, the same for residents and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by DPIRD NSW and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the New South Wales licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days, is required; see the New South Wales licence page here.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Lake Burrendong is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Burrendong: the full guide
The lake
Lake Burrendong sits on the Macquarie River just below its junction with the Cudgegong, about 30 kilometres south-east of Wellington and midway between Orange and Dubbo. WaterNSW lists it at 1,154 gigalitres and 72 square kilometres of lake, supplying irrigation, stock and household water in the Macquarie Valley and environmental flows to the Macquarie Marshes. The foreshores hold holiday parks, an arboretum and a NSW Sport and Recreation Centre. It fills in wet years and draws down through summer to reveal a ring of bare bank and dead timber, and the fishing follows that cycle. Burrendong’s level and 30-day chart on this page come from the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam.
Species and seasons
Golden perch are the everyday fish, on the points, the timber and the rock walls from spring through autumn, trolled and cast with lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits and fished with shrimp and yabbies; Murray cod hold in the timber and along the walls and are closed from 1 September to 30 November, which the chip on the species card computes each day. DPIRD’s stocking plan shows golden perch released in 2024/25 and cod in 2025/26. Burrendong is one of the impoundments where DPIRD allows both silver perch and freshwater catfish to be taken, although both are closed in the surrounding rivers. Redfin fill the bays in winter, and carp, which WaterNSW lists among the catch, must not be returned alive.
Reading the report
The chart is the first thing to read at Burrendong: a rising lake in winter and spring floods new ground and the perch move onto it, while a falling lake in summer stacks them on the drop-offs. The wind row decides which arm is fishable, because the main basin is open water. Pressure matters for the cod in summer, when a falling barometer before a storm often brings on the bite, and the planner picks the day from the week ahead.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days, is required; see the New South Wales licence page here. WaterNSW notes that the public boat ramps are at the Reflections holiday parks, Lake Burrendong, Mookerawa Waters and Cudgegong River, and cater for day visitors at a charge, that there is no lake access from its own ramp, and that its recreation areas close on total fire ban days. DPIRD publishes the limits, the cod closure and the list of dams where silver perch and catfish may be kept, linked in the sources.
Common questions
Can I keep silver perch at Burrendong?
Yes. Burrendong is on the DPIRD list of impoundments where silver perch, and freshwater catfish, may be taken, within the limits the agency publishes.
When is cod season at Burrendong?
Open from 1 December to 31 August; closed 1 September to 30 November under the New South Wales rule, computed for this year on the species card.
Is fishing good at Lake Burrendong 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
- Storage and river readings
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online, station 421078 — BURRENDONG DAM
- 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.