Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Lake Mulwala Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Murray’s drowned forest at Yarrawonga: Murray cod among the dead red gums, golden perch on the edges, and one set of New South Wales rules for the whole lake.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
124.82 m113,991 ML
Air / High
16 °C / 21 °C
Wind
ESE 4 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge sp-o10814, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Mulwala has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. The gauge reads 124.82 m, holding steady. Today brings clear skies, wind ESE around 3 km/h, rising pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 22 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:23 PM-1:23 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 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: 11:23 PM-1:23 AM, 11:51 AM-1:51 PM, 5:06 AM-6:06 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 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 Mulwala today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:04), sunset (19:55), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:23 PM-1:23 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 PM; minor 5:06 AM-6:06 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station sp-o10814 (Yarrawonga Weir).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station sp-o10814. Latest reading 2026-11-08 14:30.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp16 °C
High / Low21 °C / 9 °C
WindESE 4 km/h, gusts 5 km/h
Pressure1017.1 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain19% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:04 / 19:55
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Mulwala
The best day on Lake Mulwala 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
- 11:23 PM-1:23 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 PM
- Minor period
- 5:06 AM-6:06 AM
- Sun
- 06:04 to 19:55
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Mulwala: 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 Mulwala 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 Mulwala 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 19 °C, wind to 16 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 17 °C, wind to 31 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 24 °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
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Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Lake Mulwala is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Mulwala: the full guide
The lake
Lake Mulwala is the weir pool of the Yarrawonga Weir on the Murray River, between Mulwala in New South Wales and Yarrawonga in Victoria: a shallow lake of drowned river red gums standing dead in the water, channels between them, weed beds and the old river course winding through. DPIRD describes it as one of the premier Murray cod fisheries in Australia; it is fished from boats through the timber and from the banks and foreshores of the two towns, with the weir wall at the downstream end and the Ovens River joining at Bundalong at the top. The level on this page is read from the Bureau of Meteorology’s Yarrawonga Weir station, with the time of the reading.
Species by season
Murray cod are the lake’s fish, among the timber and along the old river course in the warmer months on big lures, surface lures at night and bait, closed from 1 September to 30 November under the New South Wales rules that apply to the whole lake; golden perch fish the timber edges and the weed from spring to autumn; redfin school in the channels and are the winter fish; and carp are widespread. Silver perch are protected here, since the NSW closure covers all rivers and dams except a listed set of impoundments that does not include Mulwala, and trout cod must always go back.
Reading this report for Mulwala
The lake is shallow and open in places, and the wind row decides whether boat fishing through the timber is comfortable, because a strong wind and dead trees are a poor combination; the water temperature decides whether the cod are feeding, and the seasonal curve on this page is an estimate for a lowland lake and says so. Goulburn-Murray Water and the Murray–Darling Basin Authority lower the lake every three to five years, in winter, to expose and dry out the invasive waterweed Egeria; a drawdown changes access and the fishing, so check their notices before a winter trip.
Rules and licence on Mulwala
Under the cross-border agreement in force since 1 September 2004, New South Wales manages recreational fishing on all of Lake Mulwala, from the Yarrawonga Weir wall upstream to where the Ovens River enters the Murray at the Bundalong boat ramp. NSW rules apply on both shores and only the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee is required, unless you are exempt; a Victorian licence does not cover the lake. The foreshores of Mulwala and Yarrawonga and the weir approaches are public. Our New South Wales licence page has the fees, and the DPIRD limits are in the sources.
Common questions
Which licence do I need on Lake Mulwala?
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee. New South Wales manages the whole lake, so NSW rules apply on both shores and a Victorian licence alone is not enough.
When is cod season on Lake Mulwala?
Murray cod are closed from 1 September to 30 November under the NSW rules; from December to August they are open within the DPIRD limits.
Is fishing good at Lake Mulwala 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 sp-o10814 — Yarrawonga Weir
- 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.