Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Copeton Dam Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The big storage on the Gwydir near Inverell: stocked Murray cod and golden perch, a cod fishery open all year, and a level that swings with the irrigation year.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
557.16 m746,952 ML
Air / High
16 °C / 22 °C
Wind
E 4 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 418035, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Copeton Dam is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. The gauge reads 557.16 m, holding steady. Today brings clear skies, wind E around 3 km/h, rising pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 22 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:54 PM-1:54 AM and 11:30 AM-1:30 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Murray cod
Slow
Prime. Cast big spinnerbaits, hardbodies and swimbaits tight to timber and rock, and work the same snag several times.
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: 11:54 PM-1:54 AM, 11:30 AM-1:30 PM, 4:59 AM-5:59 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 Copeton Dam today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:55), sunset (19:24), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:54 PM-1:54 AM and 11:30 AM-1:30 PM; minor 4:59 AM-5:59 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Copeton Dam Level today, and the weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 418035 (COPETON DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 418035. Latest reading 2026-11-07 23:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp16 °C
High / Low22 °C / 8 °C
WindE 4 km/h, gusts 9 km/h
Pressure1017.3 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:55 / 19:24
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Copeton Dam
The best day on Copeton Dam this week looks like Tuesday 10 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Tuesday, 10 Nov — good at 4/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:54 PM-1:54 AM and 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
- Minor period
- 4:59 AM-5:59 AM
- Sun
- 05:55 to 19:24
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Clear, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Copeton 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
Open all year Copeton Dam is open all year 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. Prime. Cast big spinnerbaits, hardbodies and swimbaits tight to timber and rock, and work the same snag several times.
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 Copeton 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 Copeton Dam today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 21 °C, wind to 21 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 26 °C, wind to 18 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 25 °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
Copeton is a New South Wales water and the state’s Recreational Fishing Fee applies, at A$7 for three days and upward; the fees are on our New South Wales licence page.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Copeton Dam is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Copeton Dam: the full guide
The lake
Copeton Dam is the storage on the Gwydir River south-west of Inverell in the New England region of New South Wales, a broad lake of rocky points, timbered arms and granite country, with recreation areas, ramps and camping on its shores. DPIRD names it among the impoundments whose Murray cod and golden perch fisheries are supported by stocking, and the lake also holds silver perch, freshwater catfish and redfin, with a level that tends to rise through winter and spring and fall through summer as irrigation water is released. The level in the report is read from the Bureau of Meteorology’s Copeton Dam gauge, and the page shows the time of that reading.
Species by season
Murray cod are the lake’s fish, among the timber, the rocky shores and the points in the warmer months on big lures, surface lures at night and bait, and Copeton is one of only two NSW waters, with Blowering Dam, where the 1 September to 30 November cod closure does not apply, so cod may be fished all year within the DPIRD size and bag limits. Golden perch fish the points and the timber from spring to autumn; silver perch may be kept because Copeton is on DPIRD’s list of impoundments exempt from the silver perch closure; freshwater catfish, protected in most waters west of the Divide, may also be taken in Copeton’s backed-up waters; and redfin school in the bays in the cooler months.
Reading this report for Copeton
The level is in the report and the 30-day chart, and it matters because a rising lake floods new ground where the perch and the cod feed and a fast summer draw-down pulls the fish to the points and the deep timber; the wind row decides which arm is fishable, because the lake is big and open enough to chop up in a westerly. Barometer and cloud cover fill in the score, the water temperature is an editorial estimate for a New England storage and is labelled as one, and the planner picks the day.
Licence, access and rules
Copeton is a New South Wales water and the state’s Recreational Fishing Fee applies, at A$7 for three days and upward; the fees are on our New South Wales licence page. The foreshore recreation areas, with their ramps and camping, are open to the public; the DPIRD bag and size limits and the list of waters exempt from the cod, silver perch and catfish closures are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
Is there a closed season for Murray cod at Copeton?
No. Copeton and Blowering are the two NSW dams exempt from the 1 September to 30 November cod closure, so cod may be fished at Copeton all year within the size and bag limits.
Do I need a fishing licence at Copeton?
Yes. The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies on the dam as on every NSW water, from A$7 for three days.
Is fishing good at Copeton 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 418035 — COPETON 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.