Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Lake Keepit Fishing Report
Updated Tue, 10 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Namoi River storage near Gunnedah: golden perch water first, cod in the timber, silver perch and catfish you may keep, and a level that swings with the north-west seasons.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
324.16 m229,618 ML
Air / High
14 °C / 27 °C
Wind
ENE 7 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 419041, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Keepit sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. The gauge reads 324.16 m, holding steady. Today brings clear skies, wind ENE around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 27 °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 12:20 PM-2:20 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, 12:20 PM-2:20 PM, 5:35 AM-6:35 AM. Warmer at 31 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. 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 Lake Keepit today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:55), sunset (19:28), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 12:20 PM-2:20 PM; minor 5:35 AM-6:35 AM. New Moon, 1% lit.
Keepit Dam Level today, and the weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 419041 (KEEPIT DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 419041. Latest reading 2026-11-07 23:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp14 °C
High / Low27 °C / 10 °C
WindENE 7 km/h, gusts 10 km/h
Pressure1016.9 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:55 / 19:28
MoonNew Moon, 1%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Keepit
The best day on Lake Keepit 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, 10 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 12:20 PM-2:20 PM
- Minor period
- 5:35 AM-6:35 AM
- Sun
- 05:55 to 19:28
- Moon
- New Moon, 1% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 13 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Keepit: 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 Lake Keepit 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 Lake Keepit today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataMon, Nov 9
2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 23 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Sun, 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 21 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 29 °C, wind to 24 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
Fishing Keepit needs the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days, listed 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 Keepit is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Keepit: the full guide
The lake
Lake Keepit is the Namoi River storage about 40 kilometres north-east of Gunnedah and 55 kilometres north-west of Tamworth. WaterNSW lists it at 419 gigalitres and 44 square kilometres when full, supplying irrigation, stock and household water in the Namoi Valley, and a dry year can shrink it to a fraction of that. Lake Keepit State Park runs the foreshore at the dam end, with a holiday park, camping, cabins, several ramps and boats for hire, alongside a NSW Sport and Recreation Centre and a sailing club; the park charges entry. There is no access to the dam wall, but the Tolcumbah lookout just south of it gives the view. The level and 30-day chart for Keepit come from the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam, with the time of each reading.
Species and seasons
Golden perch are the fish, stocked in numbers, 35,000 proposed in DPIRD’s 2026/27 plan, and found on the points, the timber and the rock walls from spring to autumn; Murray cod are there for the warm months and closed 1 September to 30 November under the New South Wales rule computed on the species card. Keepit is on DPIRD’s lists of dams where silver perch and freshwater catfish may be taken, catfish feed in summer, and the bays hold redfin in winter. Carp are common and must not go back alive.
Reading the report
Level is everything at Keepit: the chart tells you whether the lake is a broad shallow basin with the perch on the flooded grass or a narrow channel with the fish on the old river bed. A westerly across the open basin is rough, so the wind row decides the launch. The water temperature estimate places the day in the warm band the perch feed in, and pressure matters for the summer cod.
Licence, access and rules
Fishing Keepit needs the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7 for three days, listed on the New South Wales licence page. Lake Keepit State Park has the ramps and the camping, and WaterNSW closes its 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 in the sources.
Where to fish it
The state park end has the ramps and the deeper water near the wall, which is where the fish concentrate in a low summer. When the lake is up, the timbered arms and the rocky points around the shoreline are the spring and autumn perch water. Bank fishing is easiest from the park foreshore, and a kayak opens up timber that a bigger boat cannot reach.
Common questions
What fish are in Lake Keepit?
Golden perch first, Murray cod outside the September to November closure, silver perch and catfish under the impoundment rules, and redfin.
Do I need a licence at Lake Keepit?
Yes: every angler at Keepit needs a NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt, the shortest of which covers three days for A$7.
Is fishing good at Lake Keepit 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 419041 — KEEPIT 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.