Rainbow trout
Slow
Winter lakes: bait on the bottom in the deeper bays through the middle of the day, or polaroiding the shallows on the bright days in Tasmania.
Harvey Dam Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The south-west’s stocked trout dam above Harvey: rainbow trout, redfin and marron in season, a freshwater licence, and a Bureau gauge on the level.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~8 °C est.
Air / High
12 °C / 18 °C
Wind
ESE 27 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge PI_342988.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Harvey Dam has cold water and fish that move for very little; fish the sunniest hours. Today brings clear skies, wind ESE around 27 km/h, steady pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Water sits around 8 °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.
Brown trout
Slow
The lake fishery: bait or slow lures in the deeper bays; the rivers are closed in NSW and Victoria.
Tie on: Bait on the bottom, running sinker · Heavy blade, deep · Slow-rolled swimbait · Live bait, deepest hole. Prime windows: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Cooler at 16 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Western Australia requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$40.00. Western Australia fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD WA before you keep anything; the Rainbow trout page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Harvey Dam today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:02), sunset (18:14), 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 PI_342988.1 (Harvey Dam Daily Dam Water Level, Bunbury, South W).
No live gauge on this water
Water readings appear when a Bureau of Meteorology station covers it. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp12 °C
High / Low18 °C / 11 °C
WindESE 27 km/h, gusts 58 km/h
Pressure1027.2 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain5% cloud, 24%
Sunrise / Sunset06:02 / 18:14
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Harvey Dam
The best day on Harvey Dam this week looks like Thursday 1 Oct, at 4 out of 5, against 3 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: Thursday, 1 Oct — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 25 Sept — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 06:02 to 18:14
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 31 km/h
- Rain chance
- 24%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Harvey Dam: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Rainbow trout
Open season from October to June in NSW and Victoria; Tasmania from August
The stocked lakes of the Snowy Mountains, the Victorian highlands and the Tasmanian central plateau. Closed seasons apply on the rivers: check the state rules. Winter lakes: bait on the bottom in the deeper bays through the middle of the day, or polaroiding the shallows on the bright days in Tasmania.
Brown trout
Open season from October to June in NSW and Victoria; Tasmania from August
The wild trout of the highland rivers and Tasmania's lakes. Spawns in autumn, hence the closed rivers through winter in NSW and Victoria. The lake fishery: bait or slow lures in the deeper bays; the rivers are closed in NSW and Victoria.
When to come: the Harvey 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
Rainbow trout
Brown trout
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 8 °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 Harvey Dam 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. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 19 °C, wind to 14 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 19 °C, wind to 14 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Rainbow trout led the card at fair. High of 19 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Western Australian recreational fishing licences, from A$40.00, 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 DPIRD WA and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Western Australia licence page before you keep anything.
Access
Western Australia licenses the activity: a Recreational Freshwater Angling Licence, A$50, is required to fish in the south-west’s fresh waters, and a separate marron licence for the marron season; our Western Australia licence page has the fees read from DPIRD.
About this water
Harvey Dam is a lake in Western Australia, Australia, covered from the Western Australia reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Harvey Dam: the full guide
The lake
Harvey Dam holds the Harvey River in the Darling Scarp above the town of Harvey, south of Perth, a Water Corporation storage rebuilt in 2002 with a picnic area, a ramp and shore access at the wall and a lake of steep, forested arms that the irrigators draw down through summer. It is the south-west’s best-known stocked trout dam, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Rainbow trout are stocked by DPIRD each year and fish the edges and the drop-offs from autumn to spring on bait, lures and flies, with the summer fish deep; redfin are abundant and take small lures and worms through the year; marron are a licensed pot and snare fishery in the short season DPIRD sets each summer, with its own licence and rules; and cobbler and the odd brown trout are present. The Harvey River below the dam is trout stream water.
Where to fish it
The picnic area and the ramp at the wall give bank and boat access, and the drop-off along the wall and the forested arms upstream are the trout water, trolled and cast from a small boat or fished from the bank at dawn; the marron season brings crowds to the shores for a few weeks in summer. Powered boats are allowed under the water authority’s speed rules.
Reading the report
The south-west is Mediterranean, hot and dry in summer and cool and wet in winter, and the water temperature estimate, labelled as one, gives the trout their band from May to October; the chart shows the irrigation draw-down. The scarp shelters the water from the sea breeze; pressure and sky fill the score.
Licences, access and rules
Western Australia licenses the activity: a Recreational Freshwater Angling Licence, A$50, is required to fish in the south-west’s fresh waters, and a separate marron licence for the marron season; our Western Australia licence page has the fees read from DPIRD. The picnic area and the ramp are open under the water authority’s rules; DPIRD’s freshwater rules and the marron season are in the sources.
Common questions
Do I need a licence to fish Harvey Dam?
Yes: the Western Australian Recreational Freshwater Angling Licence, A$50, for the fresh waters of the south-west, and a marron licence for the marron season. See our Western Australia licence page.
When is marron season at Harvey Dam?
A short season each summer that DPIRD sets and publishes, with a marron licence and gear rules; the DPIRD page is linked in the sources.
Is fishing good at Harvey Dam right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- 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.