Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Pindari Dam Fishing Report
Updated Tue, 10 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Severn River storage north of Inverell: a stocked cod and golden perch lake near the Queensland border, with a camping ground at the dam and a Bureau gauge.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
490.51 m112,410 ML
Air / High
14 °C / 26 °C
Wind
ESE 12 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 416030, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Pindari Dam has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. The gauge reads 490.51 m, up 0.42 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind ESE around 11 km/h, rising pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 27 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:50 PM-1:50 AM and 12:17 PM-2:17 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: 11:50 PM-1:50 AM, 12:17 PM-2:17 PM, 5:36 AM-6:36 AM. Warmer at 29 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. 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 Pindari Dam today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:55), sunset (19:23), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:50 PM-1:50 AM and 12:17 PM-2:17 PM; minor 5:36 AM-6:36 AM. New Moon, 1% lit.
Pindari Dam Level today, and the weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 416030 (PINDARI DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 416030. Latest reading 2026-11-07 23:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp14 °C
High / Low26 °C / 10 °C
WindESE 12 km/h, gusts 18 km/h
Pressure1017.6 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 4%
Sunrise / Sunset05:55 / 19:23
MoonNew Moon, 1%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Pindari Dam
The best day on Pindari Dam 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, 10 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:50 PM-1:50 AM and 12:17 PM-2:17 PM
- Minor period
- 5:36 AM-6:36 AM
- Sun
- 05:55 to 19:23
- Moon
- New Moon, 1% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 14 km/h
- Rain chance
- 4%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Pindari Dam: 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 Pindari 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
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 Pindari Dam today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataMon, Nov 9
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 23 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Sun, Nov 8
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 23 °C, wind to 21 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 27 °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
At Pindari the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days; see the New South Wales licence page.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Pindari Dam is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Pindari Dam: the full guide
The lake
Pindari Dam holds the Severn River north of Inverell, near Ashford and the Queensland border, downstream from the Severn River Nature Reserve. WaterNSW lists it at 312 gigalitres and 11 square kilometres, behind a wall 954 metres long and 85 metres high, and runs it together with Queensland’s Glenlyon Dam to meet irrigation, stock and household needs in the Border Rivers valley. The dam’s camping ground looks over the lake, the rocky bluffs and the wooded bush around it. The level falls through a dry summer and rises with rain, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam is the source of the reading and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Murray cod and golden perch are the fishery, and DPIRD names Pindari among the impoundments whose cod and golden perch fisheries its stocking supports; its plan shows cod released in 2025/26 and golden perch in 2024/25. The cod live in the timber and along the rock walls and are closed from 1 September to 30 November under the New South Wales rule the species card computes, and the perch hold on the points and the drop-offs from spring to autumn. Pindari is on DPIRD’s lists of dams where silver perch and freshwater catfish may be taken; catfish feed in summer, and redfin school in the bays in winter. Any carp caught at Pindari must be kept or destroyed, not released.
Reading the report
The chart is the number to read: Pindari draws down hard in a dry summer and the fish go to the old river channel and the deep timber, while a rise after rain brings the perch onto the new ground. The wind funnels along the arms, and the open water near the wall gets rough in a westerly. The water temperature estimate, marked as such, sets the band for cod and perch.
Licence, access and rules
At Pindari the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies, from A$7 for three days; see the New South Wales licence page. WaterNSW notes that the facilities are managed by WaterNSW and other agencies, and closes its recreation areas on total fire ban days. DPIRD publishes the limits, the cod closure and the lists of dams where silver perch and catfish may be kept, linked in the sources.
Where to fish it
The camping ground gives access near the wall, where the deep water holds the fish in a dry summer. The rock walls and the drowned timber in the arms upstream are the cod and perch structure, best reached by boat, and the points fish from spring when the water is up. A kayak reaches timber a boat cannot, and the rocky bluffs drop into deep water close to shore.
Common questions
When can I fish for cod at Pindari?
From 1 December to 31 August; the New South Wales closure runs 1 September to 30 November and the species card computes it for this year.
Is there camping at Pindari Dam?
Yes, at the camping ground by the dam, which looks over the lake and the rocky bluffs around it.
Is fishing good at Pindari 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 416030 — PINDARI 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.