Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Darling River Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The outback river near Bourke: golden perch and cod in a river that runs, or stops, with rain far to the north, and a catfish and silver perch you must put back.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~19 °C est.
Air / High
23 °C / 29 °C
Wind
E 7 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Darling River sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. Today brings clear skies, wind E around 8 km/h, rising pressure near 1016 hPa and a high of 29 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:22 PM-1:22 AM and 11:49 AM-1:49 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: 11:22 PM-1:22 AM, 11:49 AM-1:49 PM, 5:18 AM-6:18 AM. Warmer at 33 °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 Darling River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:14), sunset (19:43), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:22 PM-1:22 AM and 11:49 AM-1:49 PM; minor 5:18 AM-6:18 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Conditions here are modelled from weather, season and the nearest stations.
No live gauge on this water
Water readings appear when a Bureau of Meteorology station covers it. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp23 °C
High / Low29 °C / 13 °C
WindE 7 km/h, gusts 13 km/h
Pressure1015.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:14 / 19:43
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Darling River
The best day on Darling River 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
- 11:22 PM-1:22 AM and 11:49 AM-1:49 PM
- Minor period
- 5:18 AM-6:18 AM
- Sun
- 06:14 to 19:43
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Darling River: 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 Darling River 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 Darling River 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 26 °C, wind to 23 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 34 °C, wind to 29 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 31 °C, wind to 13 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
A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt is needed on the Darling, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page covers the durations.
About this water
Darling River is a river in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Darling River: the full guide
The river
The Darling River gathers the rivers of north-western New South Wales and southern Queensland above Bourke and runs south-west past Louth, Tilpa, Wilcannia and the Menindee Lakes to join the Murray at Wentworth. It is a slow, muddy, tree-lined river across the outback whose flow depends on rain that falls far upstream, much of it in Queensland, and whose reaches can stop running altogether in a dry. The reach this page scores is near Bourke, where the river is a chain of long, deep pools between the weirs; the Menindee Lakes, when they hold water, are their own fishery and enter in a later phase.
Species and seasons
Golden perch are the Darling’s fish, in the snags, the weir pools and the deep bends from spring to autumn, and they move when the river rises; Murray cod fish the same water in the warmer months and are closed from 1 September to 30 November under the DPIRD rule. Two natives that anglers meet here must go back: freshwater catfish are closed all year in the rivers west of the Great Dividing Range, and silver perch are closed in every river in the state. Carp are the most numerous fish and must not be returned alive, bony bream fill the pools, and yabbies are taken with the permitted gear in the backwaters.
Reading this report for the Darling
The river’s flow decides everything and it comes from the north: a rise after rain upstream brings the fish on weeks later, a dry stops the river and the fishing with it, and the flow gauges are published by the water authorities rather than on this page. The wind matters little in the river channel; the water temperature decides whether the cod and the perch feed, and the seasonal curve on this page is an estimate for an outback river and says so; pressure and sky build the score. Blue-green algae can make reaches unsafe in hot, still summers, and the regional algal committees issue the alerts that WaterNSW publishes.
Licence, access and rules
A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt is needed on the Darling, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page covers the durations. The river reserves around Bourke and the other river towns, the weirs and the camping spots along the river roads are the usual access. The DPIRD limits, the cod closure and the closures for catfish and silver perch are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch in the Darling River?
Golden perch in the snags and the weir pools from spring to autumn, Murray cod outside the September to November closure, and yabbies; catfish and silver perch are closed here and must be released.
Do I need a fishing licence on the Darling River?
Yes. The NSW fee applies on every reach of the river, with the shortest receipt, three days, costing A$7.
Is fishing good at Darling River 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
- 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.