Australian bass
Fair
Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
Lake Glenmaggie Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Macalister River storage above Maffra in Gippsland: bass, golden perch, trout and redfin in a lake that fills fast and empties for the irrigators, with a Bureau gauge.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Level
76.78 m172,058 ML
Air / High
14 °C / 22 °C
Wind
WSW 7 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 225225A, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Glenmaggie has cool water and fish holding a little deeper and slower. The gauge reads 76.78 m, easing 0.08 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind WSW around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 22 °C. Water sits around 16 °C for the season (estimated). With the full moon, the solunar majors run 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM: the windows to build the day around.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Cooler at 15 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Victoria requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$10.00. Victoria fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing australian bass here? Check the size and bag limits with VFA before you keep anything; the Australian bass page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Lake Glenmaggie today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:58), sunset (18:11), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM; minor 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Full Moon, 99% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 225225A (MACALISTER @ GLENMAG).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 225225A. Latest reading 2026-09-23 13:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp14 °C
High / Low22 °C / 14 °C
WindWSW 7 km/h, gusts 14 km/h
Pressure1024.6 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain22% cloud, 78%
Sunrise / Sunset05:58 / 18:11
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~16 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Glenmaggie
The best day on Lake Glenmaggie this week looks like Sunday 27 Sept, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today. Every day is scored by the same engine as the report above: pressure trend first, then wind, sky and season. Pick a species and the plan for that day changes with it.
Best day this week: Sunday, 27 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 25 Sept — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 05:58 to 18:11
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Storms, 10 km/h
- Rain chance
- 78%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Glenmaggie: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Australian bass
September to April in the rivers; closed June to August in NSW rivers
The native sportfish of the east-coast rivers and the stocked dams. Surface lures in summer, deep in winter, and a river closed season for spawning. Dam fish school deep; vertical jig plastics and blades over them. Rivers slow, and closed in NSW from June.
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. Slower. Work the deeper timber and the drop-offs with vibes and bait.
When to come: the Lake Glenmaggie 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
Australian bass
Golden perch
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 16 °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 Glenmaggie today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataThu, Sep 24
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Australian bass led the card at fair. High of 21 °C, wind to 8 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Australian bass led the card at good. High of 19 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Australian bass led the card at good. High of 15 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence (RFL), from A$10.00, 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 VFA and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Victoria licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence applies unless exempt; our Victoria page lists the fees.
About this water
Lake Glenmaggie is a lake in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Glenmaggie: the full guide
The lake
Lake Glenmaggie is the Southern Rural Water storage on the Macalister River north of Heyfield and Maffra in Gippsland, a lake in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range with a caravan park, camping, ramps and a level that the Macalister Irrigation District draws down hard every summer and the mountain rain refills every winter. It is south of the Divide, so the Victorian cod closure does not apply here, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Australian bass are stocked and fish the timber, the rock walls and the creek mouths in the warm months and school deeper in winter; golden perch are stocked and fish the same structure from spring to autumn; brown and rainbow trout are stocked and fish the cool months along the edges and the Macalister inflow; redfin are abundant; and carp are present under the VFA rules. Murray cod have been stocked in some years and, being south of the Divide, are open all year under the VFA rule computed on the species card.
Where to fish it
The caravan park and the camps on the western shore and the ramps near the wall are the access, and the timbered arms up the Macalister and the Glenmaggie Creek are the bass and perch water in summer, a boat or kayak fishery; the deep water near the wall holds the fish through the draw-down. Bank fishing from the park foreshore works at dusk, and the inflow fishes for trout after rain.
Reading the report
The chart swings more than most: Glenmaggie can fall to a small pool by autumn and fill in a week of mountain rain, and a rising lake floods scrub the bass and perch move into. The foothills funnel the wind down the lake and a westerly is rough on the main basin. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, gives the bass band from November and the trout band in winter.
Licence, access and rules
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence applies unless exempt; our Victoria page lists the fees. The caravan park, camps and ramps are managed by the water authority and the park operator; the VFA limits, the trout rules and the cod exemption for waters south of the Divide are in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch at Lake Glenmaggie?
Australian bass and golden perch in the warm months, trout in the cool ones, redfin through the year, and cod where stocked, open all year south of the Divide.
Why does Glenmaggie empty every summer?
It supplies the Macalister Irrigation District and the draw-down is the irrigation season; the mountain rain refills it in winter, and the chart on this page shows both.
Is fishing good at Lake Glenmaggie 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 225225A — MACALISTER @ GLENMAG
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- 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.