Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Lake Cargelligo Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Lachlan lake beside the western plains town of the same name: stocked golden perch and Murray cod in shallow, warm water, with a Bureau gauge.
4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Level
157.01 m34,581 ML
Air / High
18 °C / 24 °C
Wind
ESE 7 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 412107, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Cargelligo has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. The gauge reads 157.01 m, holding steady. Today brings a mixed sky, wind ESE around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1016 hPa and a high of 24 °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, 5:10 AM-6:10 AM. Warmer at 32 °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 Lake Cargelligo today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:08), sunset (19:48), 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 5:10 AM-6:10 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 412107 (CARGELLIGO STORAGE).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 412107. Latest reading 2026-11-07 22:45.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp18 °C
High / Low24 °C / 10 °C
WindESE 7 km/h, gusts 15 km/h
Pressure1016.2 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain46% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:08 / 19:48
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Cargelligo
The best day on Lake Cargelligo this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 4 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Good
Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
- Solunar majors
- 11:22 PM-1:22 AM and 11:49 AM-1:49 PM
- Minor period
- 5:10 AM-6:10 AM
- Sun
- 06:08 to 19:48
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 14 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Cargelligo: 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 Cargelligo 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 Cargelligo 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 21 °C, wind to 19 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 22 °C, wind to 26 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 26 °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
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, A$7 for three days and up, applies; see 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 Cargelligo is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Cargelligo: the full guide
The lake
Lake Cargelligo lies beside the town of the same name on the western plains of New South Wales, between Condobolin and Hillston, in the Lachlan Valley; the Bureau of Meteorology gauges it as the Cargelligo storage. It is a shallow, warm, wind-stirred lake with a town foreshore, hot in summer and cold on a winter morning, and a town fishery of the inland kind. DPIRD includes it in its impoundment stocking plan. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge on the lake supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Golden perch are the fish, stocked by DPIRD, with the last release in 2024/25 and 10,000 more proposed, and found along the drop-offs, the timber and the rocky foreshore from spring to autumn on shrimp, yabbies and slow-worked lures. Murray cod are stocked on the same schedule, hold in the deeper water and the timber in the warm months, and are closed from 1 September to 30 November under the New South Wales rule the species card computes. Two natives must go back here: freshwater catfish are closed all year in waters west of the Great Dividing Range except a short list of named dams, and silver perch are closed everywhere but a similar list, and Lake Cargelligo is on neither. Carp are common and must not be returned alive.
Where to fish it
The town foreshore gives bank access to the main lake, and small boats cover the rest. In a shallow lake the fish seek out whatever depth and cover there is when the water is warm, so look for the deeper edges, any timber and the rock of the foreshore, and fish them early and late in summer. A rise in the Lachlan, which the water authorities publish, can colour the lake and bring the perch on.
Reading the report
The lake is shallow, and wind across the plains stirs it to mud on a blustery day, so the wind row decides whether the water is fishable. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, runs warm from October to April, which is the perch band, and the rain row hints at a river rise. The chart shows the level as the Bureau records it.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, A$7 for three days and up, applies; see the New South Wales licence page. The town foreshore is the usual access. DPIRD’s limits, the cod closure and the closures for catfish and silver perch are linked in the sources.
Common questions
What fish are in Lake Cargelligo?
Stocked golden perch and Murray cod, carp, and catfish and silver perch that must be released; the species card rates the month.
Is Lake Cargelligo fishable from the bank?
Yes, from the town foreshore; a small boat or kayak covers the rest of the lake.
Is fishing good at Lake Cargelligo right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Storage and river readings
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online, station 412107 — CARGELLIGO STORAGE
- 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.