Australian bass in Australia

Identification and biology

The Australian bass, Percalates novemaculeata, is the native sportfish of the east coast rivers from southern Queensland to eastern Victoria: a compact, deep, olive-bronze fish with a forked tail, a large mouth and an explosive take on a surface lure that has made it the summer obsession of the coastal river anglers. It is catadromous: it lives in the fresh reaches of the rivers and migrates downstream in winter to spawn in the brackish estuaries, which is why New South Wales closes the rivers to bass from May to August and Queensland closes its tidal waters from June to August; dams are stocked with hatchery fish that cannot complete the cycle and are open all year. Bass are slow-growing and long-lived, and the big river fish are old.

Where they live through the year

From spring to autumn the bass are in the fresh reaches of every coastal river, from the tidal limit up into the gorges: the snags, the overhanging banks, the rock bars and the deep pools, feeding at dawn, dusk and at night on cicadas, beetles, prawns and small fish. Summer is the surface season, when a cicada imitation or a small popper cast under the trees at dusk draws the strike the species is known for. In autumn they move downstream, and through winter they are in the estuaries spawning and closed to fishing in the rivers. In the stocked dams, Somerset, Wivenhoe, Glennies Creek, St Clair, Glenbawn, the schools hold deep off the points in the cool months and spread along the edges in the warm ones, and the dams are open all year.

The mistakes that cost fish

Fishing the rivers in the closed season, which is 1 May to 31 August in New South Wales and 1 June to 31 August in Queensland’s tidal waters; the state hubs compute it and each bass river page shows its status today. Fishing the middle of the day in summer, when the bass are under the banks and the bite is at dusk and after dark. Casting to the open water instead of tight to the snag or the overhang, where the fish sit. And treating the dam fish like river fish: the schooled bass of Somerset are found with a sounder and caught on plastics, blades and ice jigs worked through the school, not on a surface lure under a tree.

Reading the report for bass

The water temperature estimate and the calendar show the warm surface season and the cold schooling season; the rain row matters in the rivers, where a fresh moves the fish and colours the water; the moon module matters on the summer nights. On the gauged dams the level chart shows the water the schools relate to. The species card rates the month, the season line says whether the river is open today, and the dams say they are open all year.

Tackle setups

Playbook by water temperature

The plan the daily report picks for australian bass in each band; the water temperature on each page is a seasonal estimate for its type of water and says so.

The legal season is a separate question

Activity says when the fish bite; the agency says when you may keep one. These are the closures that name australian bass, computed for 2026 from each rule as written and read on the date shown. A state with no row publishes no closure for this species, which is not the same as open all year.

Month by month

Activity for the southern year, 1 slow to 5 peak; January is midsummer. Current month highlighted.

Waters we cover for australian bass

74 Australia waters carry australian bass on their species card, each with a daily report.

Common questions