Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Lake Alexandrina Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Murray’s terminal lake behind the five barrages: callop, protected Murray cod and a level managed around 0.75 m above sea level, with a Bureau gauge.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
0.78 m1,630,143 ML
Air / High
19 °C / 23 °C
Wind
NE 22 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge LKALEX, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Alexandrina has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. The gauge reads 0.78 m, holding steady. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 23 km/h, rising pressure near 1011 hPa and a high of 23 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:21 PM-1:21 AM and 11:49 AM-1:49 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Murray cod
Closed today
Murray cod may not be taken at any time from lakes Alexandrina and Albert, and PIRSA lists the two lakes among the waters left out of the January to July catch-and-release window, so they may not be targeted here.
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: 11:21 PM-1:21 AM, 11:49 AM-1:49 PM, 5:05 AM-6:05 AM. Similar at 23 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
South Australia has no general fishing licence, but rules and permits apply. South Australia fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing murray cod here? Check the size and bag limits with PIRSA before you keep anything; the Murray cod page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Lake Alexandrina today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:03), sunset (19:51), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:21 PM-1:21 AM and 11:49 AM-1:49 PM; minor 5:05 AM-6:05 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station LKALEX (Lake Alexandrina).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station LKALEX. Latest reading 2026-11-08 09:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp19 °C
High / Low23 °C / 13 °C
WindNE 22 km/h, gusts 30 km/h
Pressure1011.0 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain16% cloud, 73%
Sunrise / Sunset06:03 / 19:51
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Alexandrina
The best day on Lake Alexandrina this week looks like Thursday 12 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Thursday, 12 Nov — good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:21 PM-1:21 AM and 11:49 AM-1:49 PM
- Minor period
- 5:05 AM-6:05 AM
- Sun
- 06:03 to 19:51
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 24 km/h
- Rain chance
- 73%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Alexandrina: 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 Murray cod may not be taken at any time from lakes Alexandrina and Albert, and PIRSA lists the two lakes among the waters left out of the January to July catch-and-release window, so they may not be targeted here. Rule as read from PIRSA on 2026-09-27.
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 Lake Alexandrina 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 Lake Alexandrina 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 21 °C, wind to 26 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 15 °C, wind to 31 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 21 °C, wind to 32 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
South Australia has no general recreational fishing licence; the limits and closures do. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by PIRSA and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the South Australia licence page before you keep anything.
Access
South Australia has no recreational fishing licence; PIRSA sets the size, bag and boat limits and the Murray cod rules for the lake, and the Coorong below the barrages has rules of its own.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on South Australia dam levels today.
About this water
Lake Alexandrina is a lake in South Australia, Australia, covered from the South Australia reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Alexandrina: the full guide
The lake
Lake Alexandrina is the large, shallow freshwater lake where the River Murray ends, held back from the Coorong by five barrages completed in 1940 at Goolwa, Mundoo, Boundary Creek, Ewe Island and Tauwitchere, the Murray–Darling Basin Authority records. With only 8 km of river below the Goolwa Barrage, almost the whole Murray-Darling Basin drains to it, and water from the upper catchments takes weeks or months to arrive. Lake Albert adjoins it and has its own page. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge on the lake supplies the level and 30-day chart.
Species and seasons
Golden perch, called callop in South Australia, are the everyday native fish, along the reed edges, jetties and channels from spring to autumn. Murray cod live in the lake but may not be taken at any time from lakes Alexandrina and Albert or the River Murray, PIRSA rules, and from 1 August to 31 December they may not be targeted at all, trolling included; PIRSA’s page sets out where catch and release is allowed in the rest of the year. The species card computes those dates.
Where to fish it
The shoreline is long and much of it shallow, so reed edges, channels and the jetties of the lakeside towns such as Milang and Clayton Bay are where most shore fishing happens, and a small boat only makes sense on a calm day. For callop, work lures slowly along reed lines and drop-offs or fish baits near structure. The barrages are operational structures with their own restrictions on vessels and entering the water, so follow the posted signs around them.
Reading the report
The MDBA gives the lake a nominal full supply level of 0.75 m above sea level; it usually rises from late winter into early summer and falls through summer and autumn, and operations aim to keep it above 0.35 m, though in the Millennium drought it fell below sea level. The level chart shows where the lake sits in that cycle. A lake this broad and shallow turns rough fast in wind, so the wind row matters more than the score, and the water temperature estimate, labelled as one, gives callop their warm-water band.
Rules and access
South Australia has no recreational fishing licence; PIRSA sets the size, bag and boat limits and the Murray cod rules for the lake, and the Coorong below the barrages has rules of its own. If a cod is hooked by accident, PIRSA asks for barbless hooks, a knotless landing net to support the fish in the water, and careful handling before release. PIRSA’s Murray cod page and the MDBA’s page on the barrages are in the sources.
Common questions
Do I need a fishing licence on Lake Alexandrina?
No. South Australia has no recreational fishing licence; PIRSA’s limits and the Murray cod rules apply.
What can I catch in Lake Alexandrina?
Callop (golden perch) are the everyday fish. Murray cod may not be kept at any time, and from 1 August to 31 December they may not be targeted; PIRSA’s page, linked in the sources, sets out the rest.
Is fishing good at Lake Alexandrina 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 LKALEX — Lake Alexandrina
- 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.