Australian bass
Fair
Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
Lake St Clair Fishing Report, New South Wales
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
Glennies Creek Dam in the Hunter Valley: bass, golden perch and catfish in a stocked 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
184.42 m259,567 ML
Air / High
18 °C / 27 °C
Wind
N 5 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 210117, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake St Clair rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. The gauge reads 184.42 m, easing 0.13 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind N around 5 km/h, rising pressure near 1026 hPa and a high of 27 °C. Water sits around 16 °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.
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 29 °C with a rain chance. 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 (05:41), sunset (17:52), 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 210117 (GLENNIES CREEK DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 210117. Latest reading 2026-09-24 20:46.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp18 °C
High / Low27 °C / 14 °C
WindN 5 km/h, gusts 22 km/h
Pressure1026.4 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain2% cloud, 8%
Sunrise / Sunset05:41 / 17:52
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~16 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake St Clair
The best day on Lake St Clair this week looks like Thursday 1 Oct, at 4 out of 5, against 2 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: Thursday, 1 Oct — good at 4/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.
Today, 25 Sept — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 05:41 to 17:52
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 13 km/h
- Rain chance
- 8%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
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 June to August in NSW rivers
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. Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
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 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 16 °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 dataThu, Sep 24
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Australian bass led the card at fair. High of 24 °C, wind to 10 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Australian bass led the card at fair. High of 23 °C, wind to 11 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Australian bass led the card at fair. High of 17 °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 has the fees.
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 in the foothills of the Barrington Tops with a recreation area, ramps and camping at the dam end and arms that run up into the timber. It is a stocked native fish lake, Australian bass first, with golden perch, silver perch and the Hunter’s native catfish, and it holds carp; it is not to be confused with the Tasmanian lake of the same name, which is 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 and seasons
Australian bass are the lake’s fish, schooling deep in the warmer months and taken on surface lures at dawn and dusk and on plastics and blades over the schools by day; golden perch fish the timber and the points from spring to autumn; eel-tailed catfish feed on the bottom through the warm months; and silver perch, stocked here, may be kept under the DPIRD rules for stocked impoundments but are protected in the rivers. Carp are present and DPIRD has rules on their release. The lake has no closed season for bass, unlike the Hunter’s rivers.
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 has the fees. The recreation area at the dam, with its ramps and camping, and the reserves on the arms are public; the DPIRD limits, including the rules for silver perch in stocked impoundments, are on the page in the sources.
Common questions
What fish are in Lake St Clair (Glennies Creek Dam)?
Australian bass, golden perch, silver perch and eel-tailed catfish, stocked, plus carp; the species cards rate them by month and today’s conditions.
Do I need a fishing licence at Lake St Clair?
Yes. The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from 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
- 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.