Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Condamine River at Chinchilla Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Condamine at Chinchilla: Murray cod and golden perch in a stocked weir pool of the western Downs, under the cod closure and the permit scheme.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
1.81 m
Air / High
22 °C / 28 °C
Wind
SE 1 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 422308C, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Condamine River at Chinchilla is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. The gauge reads 1.81 m, easing 6.66 over the week. Today brings a mixed sky, wind SE around 0 km/h, rising pressure near 1016 hPa and a high of 28 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 10:31 AM-12:31 PM and 10:53 PM-12:53 AM: the windows to build the day around.
Murray cod
Slow
Prime. Cast big spinnerbaits, hardbodies and swimbaits tight to timber and rock, and work the same snag several times.
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: 10:31 AM-12:31 PM, 10:53 PM-12:53 AM, 4:06 AM-5:06 AM. Similar at 31 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Queensland has no general fishing licence, but rules and permits apply. Queensland fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing murray cod here? Check the size and bag limits with Queensland DPI before you keep anything; the Murray cod page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Condamine River at Chinchilla today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:02), sunset (18:20), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:31 AM-12:31 PM and 10:53 PM-12:53 AM; minor 4:06 AM-5:06 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 422308C (Condamine_Chinchilla).
River level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 422308C. Latest reading 2026-11-08 18:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp22 °C
High / Low28 °C / 14 °C
WindSE 1 km/h, gusts 1 km/h
Pressure1015.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain28% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:02 / 18:20
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Condamine River at Chinchilla
The best day on Condamine River at Chinchilla this week looks like Tuesday 10 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Tuesday, 10 Nov — good at 4/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 10:31 AM-12:31 PM and 10:53 PM-12:53 AM
- Minor period
- 4:06 AM-5:06 AM
- Sun
- 05:02 to 18:20
- 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 Condamine River at Chinchilla: 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
Open now Closes 1 Aug 2027. Closed 1 August to 31 October in Queensland’s Murray-Darling fresh waters, except Connolly, Cooby, Coolmunda, Glenlyon, Leslie and Storm King dams. Rule as read from Queensland Department of Primary Industries 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. Prime. Cast big spinnerbaits, hardbodies and swimbaits tight to timber and rock, and work the same snag several times.
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 Condamine River at Chinchilla 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 Condamine River at Chinchilla 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. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 29 °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. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 31 °C, wind to 21 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 29 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Queensland has no general recreational fishing licence; permits apply on some waters and the limits and closures do. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by Queensland DPI and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Queensland licence page before you keep anything.
Access
There is no general fishing licence in Queensland, but Chinchilla Weir is part of the Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme, so anyone 18 or older needs a permit to line fish it; a week costs A$13.60 and a year A$64.58 on the Queensland Government’s permit page.
About this water
Condamine River at Chinchilla is a river in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Condamine River at Chinchilla: the full guide
The reach
At Chinchilla the Condamine is held back by Chinchilla Weir into a long pool through brigalow and river-gum country south of the town, before it continues west toward Condamine township and the Balonne. It is cod and golden perch water, and the weir pool is one of Queensland’s stocked impoundments. Bureau of Meteorology station 422308C, Condamine_Chinchilla, provides the level and the 30-day chart shown here.
Species and seasons
Chinchilla Weir is stocked with golden perch, Murray cod and silver perch under the state’s permit scheme. Cod, 60 cm minimum and two per person, hold on the drowned timber and feed best in the warm months; golden perch, 30 cm and ten per person, are the fish of most trips from spring to autumn. The Murray cod closure from 1 August to 31 October applies here, since the weir is not one of the exempt dams.
Where to fish it
Much of the pool is best covered by boat, working along the timbered edges with lures for cod or with baits for golden perch; bank anglers do best where deep water meets standing timber near public access points. Stay out of the weir’s closed zone: fishing is banned from 100 metres upstream to 200 metres downstream of the wall. Summer nights around the snags are traditional cod time on western Downs weir pools.
Reading the report
A weir pool moves slowly, so the chart is usually flat, and a clear rise marks inflow from upstream rain; that fresh water is often when golden perch bite hardest. The water temperature is an estimate, labelled as one, and it climbs high in a western Downs summer, when the first and last hours of daylight are the comfortable ones to fish.
Rules and access
There is no general fishing licence in Queensland, but Chinchilla Weir is part of the Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme, so anyone 18 or older needs a permit to line fish it; a week costs A$13.60 and a year A$64.58 on the Queensland Government’s permit page. The cod closure, the size and possession limits and the closed zone around the weir are on the pages linked below.
The western Downs
Chinchilla sits where the Condamine leaves the Darling Downs for flatter brigalow country, and downstream the river runs on through long reaches toward Surat and St George. Surat Weir, on the way, is also stocked under the permit scheme and has its own closed zone of 100 metres above and 200 metres below the wall, so check the rules for the next pool before you move.
Common questions
Do I need a permit to fish Chinchilla Weir?
Yes, if you are 18 or older: the weir is a stocked impoundment and line fishing it requires a Queensland stocked impoundment permit.
When is Murray cod closed at Chinchilla?
From 1 August to 31 October; the weir is not among the dams exempt from the Queensland Murray-Darling cod closure.
Is fishing good at Condamine River at Chinchilla 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 422308C — Condamine_Chinchilla
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/dams/stoc
- qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/dams/stoc
- dpi.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/closures/fresh/waters
- dpi.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/closures/fresh/seasons
- qld.gov.au/recreation/activities/boating-fishing/rec-fishing/rules/lim
- bom.gov.au/waterdata
- 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.