Golden perch
Excellent
Prime. Hop soft plastics and vibes around the timber, or fish shrimp and worms on the bottom.
Waranga Basin Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
A vast off-river irrigation storage 8 km north-east of Rushworth, filled from the Goulburn Weir: golden perch, redfin and cod on the VFA’s two-cod lake list, with a caravan park and ramps.
4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Level
120.98 m410,523 ML
Air / High
15 °C / 21 °C
Wind
ESE 5 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge sp-o11534, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Waranga Basin has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. The gauge reads 120.98 m, holding steady. Today brings a mixed sky, wind ESE around 5 km/h, rising pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 21 °C. Water sits around 19 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:27 PM-1:27 AM and 11:55 AM-1:55 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Murray cod
Closed today
Reopens 1 Dec 2026. Closed 1 September to 30 November inclusive, except in Lake Eildon, Eildon Pondage, Lake Eppalock, Cairn Curran, Lake Nillahcootie and the other waters the VFA lists.
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: 11:27 PM-1:27 AM, 11:55 AM-1:55 PM, 5:08 AM-6:08 AM. Warmer at 27 °C. 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 murray cod here? Check the size and bag limits with VFA before you keep anything; the Murray cod page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Waranga Basin today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:07), sunset (19:59), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:27 PM-1:27 AM and 11:55 AM-1:55 PM; minor 5:08 AM-6:08 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Waranga Basin Water Level today, and the weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station sp-o11534 (Waranga Basin).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station sp-o11534. Latest reading 2026-11-08 14:30.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp15 °C
High / Low21 °C / 7 °C
WindESE 5 km/h, gusts 7 km/h
Pressure1016.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain41% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:07 / 19:59
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~19 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Waranga Basin
Today is the pick of the week on Waranga Basin, at 4 out of 5.
Best day this week: today, 9 Nov — good at 4/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.
Today, 9 Nov — Good
Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
- Solunar majors
- 11:27 PM-1:27 AM and 11:55 AM-1:55 PM
- Minor period
- 5:08 AM-6:08 AM
- Sun
- 06:07 to 19:59
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 10 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Waranga Basin: 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 now Reopens 1 Dec 2026. Closed 1 September to 30 November inclusive, except in Lake Eildon, Eildon Pondage, Lake Eppalock, Cairn Curran, Lake Nillahcootie and the other waters the VFA lists. Rule as read from Victorian Fisheries Authority 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.
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 Waranga Basin 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 Waranga Basin today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Golden perch led the card at excellent. High of 19 °C, wind to 18 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 16 °C, wind to 29 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
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 22 °C, wind to 14 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 has fees.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on Victoria dam levels today.
About this water
Waranga Basin is a lake in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Waranga Basin: the full guide
The lake
Waranga Basin was formed on a natural wetland known as Gunn’s Swamp from 1905 and raised to its present height by 1921, with a 7 kilometre embankment. Goulburn-Murray Water describes it as the fourth largest inland waterway in Victoria: 432,360 megalitres over some 5,848 hectares, 8 kilometres north-east of Rushworth and 12 kilometres south-west of Tatura. Water reaches it from the Goulburn Weir at Nagambie through the Stuart Murray and Cattanach canals and is supplied on to the Central Goulburn, Rochester-Campaspe and Loddon Valley irrigation areas. The Bureau of Meteorology’s station on the basin, sp-o11534, supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
The VFA’s database shows golden perch stocked sixteen times since 2010, most recently in February 2026. Redfin are the other staple, averaging around a kilogram according to the angling guide. Waranga is on the VFA’s list of specified lakes where two Murray cod between 55 and 75 cm may be kept, and cod are closed from 1 September to 30 November; there have been no cod releases in the database since 2010, so treat them as a bonus. Carp are numerous.
Where to fish it
The VFA angling guide notes that bank fishing is usually slow except near the inlet channels, where incoming water draws bait and fish, so start there when the channels are running. From a boat, troll or cast along the embankment edges and any drop-off for golden perch and redfin; soft plastics hopped on the bottom and lipless crankbaits are reliable. GMW asks boaters to keep to five knots within 50 metres of the shore.
Reading the report
The wind row comes first on a flat, shallow basin this size: a fresh wind turns it rough quickly and can make a small boat unsafe. The chart shows the irrigation draw-down and refill from the Goulburn; GMW notes that only about three-quarters of the stored water can be released by gravity, so levels can fall a long way in dry years. The estimated water temperature row tracks the warm-season bite for golden perch.
Licence, access and rules
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence applies unless exempt; our Victoria page has fees. GMW lists the Lake Waranga Caravan Park and Holiday Camp, picnic areas and public ramps, but no camping or fires on its own foreshore land. The VFA cod slot, lake bag and closure are in the sources.
Common questions
Where is the best bank fishing at Waranga Basin?
The VFA angling guide says bank fishing is usually unproductive except near the inlet channels, so start there when water is flowing in.
When is cod season at Waranga?
Open from 1 December to 31 August; closed 1 September to 30 November. As a VFA specified lake the bag is two cod between 55 and 75 cm.
Is fishing good at Waranga Basin right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Storage and river readings
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online, station sp-o11534 — Waranga Basin
- 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.