Rainbow trout
Slow
Winter lakes: bait on the bottom in the deeper bays through the middle of the day, or polaroiding the shallows on the bright days in Tasmania.
Oberon Dam Fishing Report
Updated Sat, 26 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Fish River storage on the Central Tablelands: a cold trout lake above the Blue Mountains with a Bureau gauge and a short drive from Sydney.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
1067.58 m42,675 ML
Air / High
22 °C / 22 °C
Wind
W 21 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 421189, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Oberon Dam is in its winter rhythm: deep, slow and around the middle of the day. The gauge reads 1067.58 m. Today brings clear skies, wind W around 21 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 22 °C. Water sits around 8 °C for the season (estimated). With the full moon, the solunar majors run 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Brown trout
Slow
The lake fishery: bait or slow lures in the deeper bays; the rivers are closed in NSW and Victoria.
Tie on: Bait on the bottom, running sinker · Heavy blade, deep · Slow-rolled swimbait · Live bait, deepest hole. Prime windows: 11:16 PM-1:16 AM, 11:16 AM-1:16 PM, 5:46 AM-6:46 AM. Cooler at 12 °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 rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Rainbow trout page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Oberon Dam today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:45), sunset (17:59), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM; minor 5:46 AM-6:46 AM. Full Moon, 100% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 421189 (OBERON DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 421189. Latest reading 2026-09-24 09:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp22 °C
High / Low22 °C / 11 °C
WindW 21 km/h, gusts 43 km/h
Pressure1024.8 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain11% cloud, 4%
Sunrise / Sunset05:45 / 17:59
MoonFull Moon, 100%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Oberon Dam
The best day on Oberon Dam this week looks like Sunday 27 Sept, at 3 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: Sunday, 27 Sept — fair at 3/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.
Today, 26 Sept — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:16 PM-1:16 AM and 11:16 AM-1:16 PM
- Minor period
- 5:46 AM-6:46 AM
- Sun
- 05:45 to 17:59
- Moon
- Full Moon, 100% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 21 km/h
- Rain chance
- 4%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Oberon Dam: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Rainbow trout
Open season from October to June in NSW and Victoria; Tasmania from August
Open all year No closed season in lakes and dams; the winter closure applies to streams only. Rule as read from DPIRD NSW on 2026-09-23.
The stocked lakes of the Snowy Mountains, the Victorian highlands and the Tasmanian central plateau. Closed seasons apply on the rivers: check the state rules. Winter lakes: bait on the bottom in the deeper bays through the middle of the day, or polaroiding the shallows on the bright days in Tasmania.
Brown trout
Open season from October to June in NSW and Victoria; Tasmania from August
Open all year No closed season in lakes and dams; the winter closure applies to streams only. Rule as read from DPIRD NSW on 2026-09-23.
The wild trout of the highland rivers and Tasmania's lakes. Spawns in autumn, hence the closed rivers through winter in NSW and Victoria. The lake fishery: bait or slow lures in the deeper bays; the rivers are closed in NSW and Victoria.
When to come: the Oberon Dam 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
Rainbow trout
Brown trout
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 8 °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 Oberon Dam today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataFri, Sep 25
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 22 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Thu, Sep 24
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 20 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 18 °C, wind to 19 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, per the New South Wales licence page.
About this water
Oberon Dam is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Oberon Dam: the full guide
The lake
Oberon Dam sits on the Fish River just outside Oberon on the Central Tablelands, a cold, high lake in pine and grazing country that Water NSW runs for the Oberon and Lithgow supply, with a picnic area and shore access near the wall and a level that the drought years can pull down a long way. It is one of the closest trout waters to Sydney, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Rainbow and brown trout are stocked and fish from the bank along the edges and the drop-offs from autumn through spring on bait, lures and flies, and deeper through summer; the lake has no closed season, being a dam, though the Fish River and the tablelands streams around it follow the stream closure; redfin are the numbers fish and take small lures and worms through the year; and carp are present with the release rules. Golden perch have been stocked in some years.
Reading the report
The tablelands are cold: frost and fog on a winter morning, snow some years, and the water temperature estimate on this page, labelled as one, sits in the cold and cool bands for much of the year, which is trout weather. The chart shows the draw-down that exposes the flats; the wind crosses the open lake and a westerly is raw. Pressure and sky fill the score and the planner picks the day.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days, per the New South Wales licence page. Shore access is at the dam end and no powered boats are allowed under the water authority’s rules; the DPIRD trout rules are in the sources.
Where to fish it
Bank access is at the dam end and along the picnic-area shore, and the trout patrol the edges there at first light and in the last hour, so a walk along the shore casting a small minnow or a wet fly covers it; the flats upstream fish when the lake is full and the water is over the grass, and the drop-off near the wall is the summer water. Redfin are everywhere and a small blade or a worm finds them.
Common questions
Is Oberon Dam open for trout all year?
Yes: the New South Wales trout closure applies to streams, and a dam has no closed season. The species card shows open all year with the DPIRD rule.
Can I use a boat on Oberon Dam?
Not a powered one, under the water authority’s rules; shore fishing and unpowered craft are the norm. Check the authority’s page linked in the sources.
Is fishing good at Oberon Dam 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 421189 — OBERON 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.