Lake Cargelligo Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Lachlan River lake on the western plains: a shallow, warm town lake of golden perch, cod and catfish beside the town of the same name, with a Bureau gauge.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
157.10 m36,031 ML
Air / High
21 °C / 31 °C
Wind
ESE 5 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 412107, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Cargelligo rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. The gauge reads 157.10 m, holding steady. Today brings cloud cover, wind ESE around 5 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 31 °C. Water sits around 13 °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.
Murray cod
Slow
Slow it down: heavier spinnerbaits, slow-rolled swimbaits and bait on the bottom next to the deep snags.
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 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 (06:00), sunset (18:12), 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 412107 (CARGELLIGO STORAGE).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 412107. Latest reading 2026-09-24 21:45.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp21 °C
High / Low31 °C / 16 °C
WindESE 5 km/h, gusts 9 km/h
Pressure1024.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain90% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:00 / 18:12
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Cargelligo
The best day on Lake Cargelligo this week looks like Sunday 27 Sept, at 4 out of 5, against 3 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: Sunday, 27 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 25 Sept — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 06:00 to 18:12
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 16 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 Cargelligo: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Murray cod
December to August; closed September to November
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. Slow it down: heavier spinnerbaits, slow-rolled swimbaits and bait on the bottom next to the deep snags.
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 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 13 °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 dataThu, Sep 24
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at fair. High of 31 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at fair. High of 24 °C, wind to 14 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Golden perch led the card at good. High of 21 °C, wind to 16 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.
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 is a natural lake on the Lachlan River that Water NSW regulates as a storage, beside the town of Lake Cargelligo on the western plains of New South Wales between Condobolin and Hillston, a shallow, warm, wind-stirred lake with a foreshore, a caravan park, ramps and the river channel running through it. It is a town fishery of the inland kind, hot in summer and cold on a winter morning, and 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, along the drop-offs, the timber and the rock of the foreshore from spring to autumn, taken on shrimp, yabbies and slow-worked lures; Murray cod hold in the deeper channel 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; eel-tailed catfish feed in the summer shallows; and carp are abundant, with the DPIRD release rules. Redfin are fewer here than in the tableland lakes.
Where to fish it
The town foreshore, the caravan park and the ramps give bank and boat access to the main lake, and the river channel that enters and leaves the lake is the deeper water where the cod and the perch hold when the lake is warm and shallow; the timber along the western shore is a boat fishery. A rise in the Lachlan, which the water authority publishes, colours the lake and brings the perch on.
Reading the report
The lake is shallow and the 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 regulated level.
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 foreshore, the caravan park and the ramps are public; DPIRD’s limits and the cod closure are linked in the sources.
Common questions
What fish are in Lake Cargelligo?
Golden perch, Murray cod outside the September to November closure, catfish in summer and carp; the species card rates the month.
Is Lake Cargelligo fishable from the bank?
Yes, from the town foreshore, the caravan park and the channel edges; a boat opens the timber along the far shore.
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: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
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
- 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.