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 St Clair Fishing Report, New South Wales
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Glennies Creek Dam in the Hunter Valley: Australian bass and golden perch in a storage near Singleton, with a level read from the Bureau every day.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
183.74 m249,775 ML
Air / High
13 °C / 21 °C
Wind
E 11 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 210117, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake St Clair has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. The gauge reads 183.74 m, easing 0.09 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind E around 11 km/h, rising pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 21 °C. Water sits around 21 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 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: 11:53 PM-1:53 AM, 11:29 AM-1:29 PM, 4:53 AM-5:53 AM. Warmer at 27 °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 St Clair today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:50), sunset (19:27), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 PM; minor 4:53 AM-5:53 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 210117 (GLENNIES CREEK DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 210117. Latest reading 2026-11-08 21:46.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp13 °C
High / Low21 °C / 9 °C
WindE 11 km/h, gusts 26 km/h
Pressure1019.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:50 / 19:27
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~21 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake St Clair
The best day on Lake St Clair 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
- 11:53 PM-1:53 AM and 11:29 AM-1:29 PM
- Minor period
- 4:53 AM-5:53 AM
- Sun
- 05:50 to 19:27
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 19 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake St Clair: 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 St Clair 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 St Clair 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 18 °C, wind to 19 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 24 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
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 25 °C, wind to 18 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 applies, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page covers the durations and exemptions.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Lake St Clair is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake St Clair: the full guide
The lake
Lake St Clair is the storage of Glennies Creek Dam, north-east of Singleton in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, a long, narrow lake with a recreation area and camping near the dam and arms that run up into the timber. It is fished for Australian bass and golden perch, and DPIRD lists Glennies Creek Dam among the impoundments where silver perch may be kept; carp are also present. It is not to be confused with the Tasmanian lake of the same name, a trout water on the Central Plateau. The level in the report is read from the Bureau of Meteorology’s Glennies Creek Dam gauge, and the time of the reading is shown.
Species by season
Australian bass are the lake’s fish, schooling in deeper water for much of the year and taken on surface lures at dawn and dusk and on plastics and blades worked over the schools by day; golden perch fish the timber and the points from spring to autumn; and silver perch, protected in rivers, may be kept here within the DPIRD limits. The 1 May to 31 August closure on bass and estuary perch applies only in rivers, not in dams, so the lake can be fished for bass all year, unlike the Hunter’s rivers below it. In the cooler months the bass hold deep and slow down, and small blades and plastics fished slowly through the schools are the usual answer.
Reading this report for St Clair
The level is in the report and the 30-day chart, and it matters because a rising lake floods the grass edges where the bass and the perch feed and a falling one pulls the fish to the points and the deep timber; the wind row decides which arm is fishable, because the lake is narrow but funnels a westerly. Pressure and sky build the score, the water temperature is an estimate for a valley storage and the page says so, and the planner shows which day to take.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page covers the durations and exemptions. The recreation area at the dam, with its camping, is the main public access; the DPIRD limits and the list of impoundments where silver perch may be kept are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
Is there a closed season for bass at Lake St Clair?
No. The NSW closure for bass and estuary perch runs from 1 May to 31 August in rivers only; dams such as Glennies Creek are not closed.
Do I need a fishing licence at Lake St Clair?
Yes. A NSW Recreational Fishing Fee receipt is needed on the dam, the cheapest being A$7 for three days.
Is fishing good at Lake St Clair 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 210117 — GLENNIES CREEK 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.