Australian bass
Excellent
Prime. Cast spinnerbaits, small hardbodies and surface lures tight to structure in the rivers; sound up the schools in the dams.
Lake Glenbawn Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Hunter Valley’s bass lake near 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
274.43 m703,609 ML
Air / High
13 °C / 21 °C
Wind
SE 16 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 210097, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Glenbawn has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. The gauge reads 274.43 m, easing 0.05 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind SE around 16 km/h, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 22 °C. Water sits around 21 °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.
Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
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, 4:54 AM-5:54 AM. Warmer 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 (05:52), sunset (19:28), 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 4:54 AM-5:54 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Glenbawn Dam Level today, and the 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 2026-11-08 09:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp13 °C
High / Low21 °C / 8 °C
WindSE 16 km/h, gusts 35 km/h
Pressure1018.6 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:52 / 19:28
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~21 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Glenbawn
The best day on Lake Glenbawn 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
- 11:54 PM-1:54 AM and 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
- Minor period
- 4:54 AM-5:54 AM
- Sun
- 05:52 to 19:28
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 18 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
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 1 May to 31 August in NSW rivers, and dams stay open
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. Prime. Cast spinnerbaits, small hardbodies and surface lures tight to structure in the rivers; sound up the schools in the dams.
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 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 21 °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 dataSun, Nov 8
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Australian bass led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Australian bass led the card at excellent. High of 28 °C, wind to 29 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Australian bass led the card at excellent. High of 26 °C, wind to 8 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.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
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 14 kilometres east of Scone. WaterNSW lists it at 749 gigalitres and 26 square kilometres, behind one of the largest rock-fill embankment walls in Australia, 100 metres high and more than a kilometre long, and it supplies irrigation, power generation, industry and household water in the Hunter Valley. Lake Glenbawn State Park surrounds the lake, with several ramps, powered and unpowered camping, and cabins run by a holiday park, and entry to the dam is bought through the park. DPIRD names the Glenbawn bass fishery among the most important fisheries its stocking supports. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam records the level, and that reading, with its time, and a 30-day chart are on this page.
Species and seasons
Australian bass are the fishery, with 40,000 more proposed in DPIRD’s 2026/27 plan: 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, and WaterNSW also lists Murray cod, catfish, eels and carp; silver perch, stocked in 2023/24, may be kept because Glenbawn is on the DPIRD list of dams where they may be taken.
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 away from 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 often 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, and WaterNSW closes its recreation areas on total fire ban days. 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 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. In winter the schools sit off the points in deep water and a sounder is the way to find them; in summer the 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
- 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.