Lake Glenbawn

Lake Glenbawn is about 15 kilometres east of Scone in the upper Hunter region of New South Wales, nestles in the shadows of the Barrington Tops National Park. The lake was named after a riverside property that was resumed for part of the storage area, and now lies submerged.

The original Glenbawn Dam was constructed between 1954 and 1957, primarily to regulate the flow of the Hunter River to meet stock, domestic & irrigation needs. The dam wall also received a major enlargement in 1987 to treble its holding capacity. When at 100% of capacity the wall holds back a massive 750,000-mega litres of water or around twice the size of Sydney Harbour.

The wall is 100 metres high, 1,125 metres long, and is of rock and earth fill construction. The submerged area is 2614 hectares with a maximum depth of 85 metres at its deepest point; the dam also has additional reserve capacity to hold back another 120,000 mega litres of water to reduce the incident of flooding further downstream during periods of high rainfall. The lake offers all visitors the opportunity to conduct a multitude of recreational activities, but lets not loose sight of the fact that this is a fishing site.

Lake Glenbawn has been stocked with a variety of fish species over the years; these include Australian bass (Macquaria novemaculeata) 327,063, golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) 848,510, silver perch (Bidyanus bidyanus) 404,500, Murray cod (Maccullochella peelii peelii), eel tailed catfish (Tandanus tandanus) along with both rainbow and brown trout. 

New South Wales Fisheries, as well as other interest groups, under the watchful eye of Fisheries, carry out these stockings on a reasonably regular basis. There has also been some illegal fish stocking conducted over the years, by person or persons unknown. This saw the introduction of murray cod, golden perch, silver perch and catfish into the waters of Glenbawn.Lake Glenbawn is just like any other major water storage impoundment, in that huge waves can be whipped up in fairly short time in adverse weather conditions. So never loose sights of what the weather is up too while you are out and about.

A barometer reading of 1010 hectopascols and rising is a great thing to see if you intend to do well at Glenbawn. However even if the barometer is considerably lower then this reading, good fishing can still be had. Just as long as the lower pressure reading has been around for a few days, and is stable or rising. Comfortable water temperature for each species various, but to simplify it a little, golden perch, silver perch, murray cod & catfish are quit happy with temperatures between 18 degrees & 23 degrees. It however seems to be a little different for the bass in this dam. The bass like a water temp of between 17 degrees up to around 21 degrees before they really come on the bite. However this would only appear to be a true report for the spring, summer and autumn period at Glenbawn. But then again I have heard that some truly big bass can be taken out of Glenbawn in the middle of winter and given that the water temp would be well below what the bass should find it appears to me to be an all round fishing spot.

I personally use 15 to 20lb braid with 8 to 10 kilo fluocarbon leaders, with the drags screwed up tight. Because of the structure (snags if you like) that abound in this dam it necessitates the tighter drags settings, and strong line classes. Sure you could fish some of the cleaner areas, but under most circumstances, that isn’t where the fish are.

Steve Starling was busted up in short order during a visit to the dam at the end of 1998. He was using 30lb Spiderwire Spectra 2000, fishing a full moon period. The golden perch certainly had plenty of sting in them as well while I was fishing there, I’m sure these fish are on steroid

Lures are a personal thing for most anglers; they all have their own personal favourite colours, size and style. I personally do like the spinnerbait range. They have proved very successful for me. Other lures that have a proven track record are the Deception range of lures, which include the Cherax and the Shrimp the Nipper. Another lure worth a swim is the Tilsan Bass or the Tilsan Barra, either one would see you into the action. The Knol’s Native range also has accounted for more then its fair share of fish in this location.

The large Knol’s Native also has the advantage of being able to get down to a greater depth then most other lures in its class. This has particular advantages when trolling sunken weed beds or treetops where the bass in Glenbawn sometimes hold up if conditions are not quite right. Personally I think that most lures that have the capability to get down to the three-metre mark would serve you well.

There is nothing out of the ordinary about fishing techniques when it comes to fishing Glenbawn, all the methods used in other locations work just as well. Casting lures from a boat into standing timber or the shoreline will produce fish, as will casting lures from the bank itself. However it would appear that most of the bigger bass are taken while trolling lures over drowned treetops, and over sunken weed beds. Downrigging is another method that is gaining in popularity at Glenbawn Dam, this form of fishing for our native species is filtering through to NSW, and other states from Queensland. The Queenslanders have been downrigging silver perch and Australian bass in their southern impoundment’s for a couple of years now, and results have been exciting to say the very least.

If your looking for a place to go for a few days for a fish or you want to find a location that has something to offer the whole family, then Glenbawn Dam is for you. It is only a few hours from Sydney, and just up the road from Newcastle.

It does snow on the Barrington Top a few times during most winters, so it can get very cold around that time of the year so be prepared for any weather; no matter what time of the year you plan to make your visit. There is plenty of accommodation available, from camping through to 3 bedroom houses at the dam itself. During the warmer months it may pay to book before turning up. The Lake Glenbawn State Park can be contacted during office hours on 02 65437193 or you can contact the Lake Glenbawn Holiday Village during office hours on 02 65437752. If calling from NSW you can drop the 02 at the start of the number, other states will need to use the 02. So go see what all the fuss is about at Glenbawn Dam. I'm confident you will not be disappointed.