Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Chaffey Dam Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Peel River storage south-east of Tamworth: golden perch, cod and rainbow trout, a jasper wall and a morning glory spillway, with the level read at the dam by the Bureau.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
524.47 m98,412 ML
Air / High
11 °C / 21 °C
Wind
ESE 8 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 419069, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Chaffey Dam sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. The gauge reads 524.47 m, holding steady. Today brings clear skies, wind ESE around 8 km/h, rising pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 21 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 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: 11:53 PM-1:53 AM, 11:29 AM-1:29 PM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Warmer at 25 °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 Chaffey Dam today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:52), sunset (19:26), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 PM; minor 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Chaffey Dam Level today, and the weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 419069 (CHAFFEY DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 419069. Latest reading 2026-11-07 23:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp11 °C
High / Low21 °C / 5 °C
WindESE 8 km/h, gusts 15 km/h
Pressure1017.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:52 / 19:26
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Chaffey Dam
The best day on Chaffey Dam 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
- 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 PM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 05:52 to 19:26
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Clear, 13 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Chaffey Dam: 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 Chaffey Dam 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 Chaffey Dam 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 19 °C, wind to 19 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
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 27 °C, wind to 19 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 11 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
Chaffey anglers need the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days; the New South Wales licence page here explains it.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Chaffey Dam is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Chaffey Dam: the full guide
The lake
Chaffey Dam lies on the Peel River 43 kilometres south-east of Tamworth and 14 kilometres north of Nundle, supplying the city of Tamworth and the Peel Valley’s irrigation and stock needs. WaterNSW lists it at 101 gigalitres and 7.2 square kilometres, and points to its brick-red rock wall of jasper and its morning glory spillway, a giant concrete funnel that takes the overflow and which WaterNSW calls the larger of only two in Australia. The foreshore reserve at Bowling Alley Point is run by a local trust, with camp sites, boat ramps and a small parking charge. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam is the level source on this page, shown with the time of the reading and a 30-day chart.
Species and seasons
WaterNSW names rainbow trout and golden perch as the top catches, with the Nundle Fishing Club overlooking the lake, and DPIRD’s stocking plan shows golden perch released in 2024/25 and Murray cod in 2025/26. Golden perch and cod fish the points, the timber and the wall from spring to autumn, the cod closed from 1 September to 30 November under the DPIRD rule the species card computes. Chaffey is on DPIRD’s lists of dams where silver perch and freshwater catfish may be taken; catfish feed on the bottom in summer, and redfin school in the bays through the cooler months. Carp must not be returned alive.
Reading the report
A full lake floods its margins, and the 30-day chart shows whether they are under water, which is where the perch feed in spring; a summer draw-down pulls them back to the drop-offs. Wind across the open basin builds a chop quickly, so the wind row decides the launch. The water temperature is an estimate for a north-west tableland storage, marked as one, and the warm band is the perch band while the cool months suit the trout.
Licence, access and rules
Chaffey anglers need the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days; the New South Wales licence page here explains it. Bowling Alley Point has the ramps and the camping, managed by the Bowling Alley Point Recreational Reserve Trust, and WaterNSW closes the recreation areas on total fire ban days. DPIRD’s limits, the cod closure and the lists of dams where silver perch and catfish may be kept are linked in the sources.
Where to fish it
Bowling Alley Point puts a boat onto the main basin, and the rock walls and the drowned timber in the arms upstream are the perch and cod structure. In spring, when the lake is full and the perch move onto the flooded margins, a bank angler with a lipless crankbait can cover a lot of water. The deeper water near the wall holds fish through a summer draw-down, and the cool months are the time to try for the trout along the edges.
Common questions
What can I catch in Chaffey Dam?
Golden perch and rainbow trout, the top catches according to WaterNSW, Murray cod outside the September to November closure, silver perch and catfish under the impoundment rules, and redfin in the cooler months.
Is there camping at Chaffey Dam?
Yes, at the Bowling Alley Point recreation reserve on the foreshore, which also has the boat ramps; enquiries go to the reserve trust.
Is fishing good at Chaffey Dam 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 419069 — CHAFFEY 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.