Australian bass
Fair
Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
Lake Glenbawn Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Hunter Valley’s big bass lake at Scone: Australian bass in the schools and the timber, golden perch and catfish, and a level read by the Bureau at the dam.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
274.82 m713,223 ML
Air / High
17 °C / 27 °C
Wind
NE 11 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 210097, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Glenbawn rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. The gauge reads 274.82 m, easing 0.05 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 11 km/h, rising pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 27 °C. Water sits around 16 °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.
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. Similar at 28 °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 australian bass here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Australian bass page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Lake Glenbawn today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:42), sunset (17:54), 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 210097 (GLENBAWN DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 210097. Latest reading 2026-09-24 09:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp17 °C
High / Low27 °C / 13 °C
WindNE 11 km/h, gusts 21 km/h
Pressure1027.0 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain9% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:42 / 17:54
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~16 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Glenbawn
The best day on Lake Glenbawn this week looks like Saturday 26 Sept, at 4 out of 5, against 2 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: Saturday, 26 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 25 Sept — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 05:42 to 17:54
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 11 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Glenbawn: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Australian bass
September to April in the rivers; closed June to August in NSW rivers
The native sportfish of the east-coast rivers and the stocked dams. Surface lures in summer, deep in winter, and a river closed season for spawning. Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
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 Glenbawn 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
Australian bass
Golden perch
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 16 °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 Glenbawn 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. Australian bass led the card at fair. High of 25 °C, wind to 10 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Australian bass led the card at fair. High of 24 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Australian bass led the card at good. High of 19 °C, wind to 23 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, A$7 for three days at the least, applies; fees are on the New South Wales licence page.
About this water
Lake Glenbawn is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Glenbawn: the full guide
The lake
Lake Glenbawn is the Hunter River storage east of Scone, the largest lake in the Hunter Valley and the state’s best-known Australian bass impoundment, stocked with bass and golden perch for decades and ringed by a state park with camping, cabins and several ramps. It supplies the Hunter’s towns and irrigators and its level moves with the dry and the wet, which the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam records; that reading, with its time, and a 30-day chart are on this page.
Species and seasons
Australian bass are the fishery: schooled in the deep water off the points in the cool months, found on a sounder and worked with blades, ice jigs and plastics, and spread along the edges, the weed and the timber in the warm months, when surface lures at dawn and dusk take them; there is no closed season for bass in dams, unlike the rivers. Golden perch fish the timber and the points from spring to autumn, eel-tailed catfish the bottom in summer, and silver perch may be kept because Glenbawn is on the DPIRD exempt list. Carp are present.
Reading the report
The water temperature estimate, marked as an estimate, is the switch between the deep-schooled bass of winter and the edge bass of summer; the chart shows whether the lake is rising onto the weed or falling off it. Wind decides which arm to fish, and the main basin can be rough in a westerly. Pressure counts in summer, when a falling barometer before a storm brings the bass up.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, A$7 for three days at the least, applies; fees are on the New South Wales licence page. Lake Glenbawn State Park has the ramps, the camping and the cabins; the DPIRD limits and the bass rules are on the pages in the sources.
Where to fish it
The state park ramps launch onto the main basin, and the points either side of the dam wall, the timbered arms up the Hunter and the weed edges of the shallow bays are the three kinds of bass water the lake offers; the schools of winter sit off the points in fifteen to thirty metres and the sounder finds them, while the summer fish are along the edges within a cast of the bank. Bank anglers do best from the park foreshore at dusk in the warm months.
Common questions
Is there a closed season for bass at Lake Glenbawn?
No. The New South Wales bass closure applies to rivers, not dams; the species card here shows the dam as open all year for bass, with the DPIRD rule linked.
How do I find the bass in winter at Glenbawn?
They school in the deep water off the points; a sounder finds the school and a blade, an ice jig or a plastic worked through it gets the bite.
Is fishing good at Lake Glenbawn 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 210097 — GLENBAWN 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.