Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Coolmunda Dam Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Macintyre Brook’s 1968 storage near Inglewood: stocked Murray cod, golden perch and silver perch, a Stocked Impoundment Permit and a lake exempt from the basin cod closure.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
314.08 m68,298 ML
Air / High
18 °C / 26 °C
Wind
SSE 6 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 416409A, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Coolmunda Dam sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. The gauge reads 314.08 m, easing 0.17 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind SSE around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1016 hPa and a high of 26 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 10:29 AM-12:29 PM and 10:50 PM-12:50 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: 10:29 AM-12:29 PM, 10:50 PM-12:50 AM, 4:01 AM-5:01 AM. Similar at 28 °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 Coolmunda Dam today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (04:57), sunset (18:20), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:29 AM-12:29 PM and 10:50 PM-12:50 AM; minor 4:01 AM-5:01 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 416409A (Coolmunda Dam).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 416409A. Latest reading 2026-11-08 11:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp18 °C
High / Low26 °C / 11 °C
WindSSE 6 km/h, gusts 13 km/h
Pressure1016.3 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain2% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset04:57 / 18:20
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Coolmunda Dam
The best day on Coolmunda Dam 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
- 10:29 AM-12:29 PM and 10:50 PM-12:50 AM
- Minor period
- 4:01 AM-5:01 AM
- Sun
- 04:57 to 18:20
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 19 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Coolmunda 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
Open all year Coolmunda Dam is exempt from the closed season 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 Coolmunda 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 Coolmunda Dam today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 27 °C, wind to 18 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 29 °C, wind to 14 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 28 °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
Coolmunda is a Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme water and Sunwater says a permit is required.
Permit
Coolmunda Dam is in Queensland’s Stocked Impoundment Permit scheme: anyone 18 or over fishing it with a line needs the permit, and one permit covers every scheme water. What the permit costs and where to buy it. Compare it with every other storage in the state on Queensland dam levels today.
About this water
Coolmunda Dam is a lake in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Coolmunda Dam: the full guide
The lake
Coolmunda Dam holds Macintyre Brook east of Inglewood. It was built in 1968 to give the district’s farmers reliable irrigation and, in Sunwater’s words, helped rejuvenate the local tobacco industry. Sunwater gives the capacity as 69,000 ML and lists a boat ramp, car parking, a lookout, picnic areas, toilets, barbecues, treated water and a designated camping zone, with privately owned camping and accommodation beside the lake. The storage level and 30-day chart on this page come from the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam.
Species and seasons
Sunwater calls the lake a stocked fishery for Murray cod, yellowbelly and silver perch, and the Queensland Government’s impoundment list names the same three, with golden perch as the official name for yellowbelly. Coolmunda is on the state’s list of dams exempt from the Murray-Darling cod closure of 1 August to 31 October, so the cod card shows the lake open through the year. Golden perch take lures and baits around the standing timber from spring to autumn, and the cod sit deeper in that same timber, feeding most in warm water.
Where to fish it
Sunwater warns of submerged trees and standing timber, which is both the fish habitat and the boating hazard: go slowly, learn the lake at a good level and keep a sounder running. Fishing is prohibited near the dam wall and boats must stay at least 200 metres from it behind the buoy line, so the wall end is out. The timbered arms and flats are where to look, from a boat or kayak, or from the shore near the camping zone. Swimming, kayaking and sailing are allowed in the designated areas.
Reading the report
A shallow inland lake heats quickly, and the water temperature estimate, marked as one, puts the cod and perch band from about October to April. Irrigation releases lower the storage through the warm months, which the level chart shows; as the water falls the edge moves away from the timber and the fish gather in what is left. The open country around the lake gives the wind a clear run, so check the wind row before launching, and watch the pressure ahead of summer storms.
Permits, access and rules
Coolmunda is a Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme water and Sunwater says a permit is required. From age 18 it costs A$13.60 for a week or A$64.58 for a year, as read from the Queensland Government, with the concession rate on our Queensland licence page. Queensland’s size and possession limits for cod, golden perch and silver perch still apply. The permit list, the cod exemption and Sunwater’s page for the dam are linked in the sources.
Common questions
Is cod open all year at Coolmunda?
Yes: the Queensland Government lists Coolmunda among the dams exempt from the 1 August to 31 October Murray-Darling cod closure; its page is linked in the sources.
Do I need a permit at Coolmunda Dam?
Yes, from age 18: the Stocked Impoundment Permit, A$13.60 a week or A$64.58 a year. Fishing near the dam wall is prohibited.
Is fishing good at Coolmunda 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 416409A — Coolmunda 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.