A storage on Glennies Creek, a tributary of the Hunter, built in the 1980s to supplement the supply from Glenbawn Dam further up the valley. At full capacity the lake runs around fifteen kilometres long and up to three kilometres wide, and it sits at the foothills of the Barrington Tops. The fishing guide’s target species list has no trout on it.

Think of it as three kinds of water, and in our read the fish are in two of them. The main basin is open and unobstructed. The northern and southern ends carry submerged trees close to the shore and at the ends of the bays, and the fishing guide says that timber is the shelter the golden and silver perch sit in. Around the whole lake the fringes hold thick weed beds, which the fishing guide singles out as the bass habitat. A bass lake generally fishes on its edges, and here the edges are weed with timber at the corners.

As on any water-supply storage, the level can move, and a falling lake can pull the weed line and the standing trees you fish by out of reach or up into the shallows. Check the current storage level before a long drive.

The authority names Australian bass, golden perch, silver perch, catfish and eels as the targets. The bass are the drawcard and the reason to drive here: the fishing guide says they grow to trophy size and always put up a fight. Golden perch shelter in the drowned timber. Silver perch have been put in as well, but the same guide notes that anglers do not encounter many of them these days, so treat one as a bonus rather than a plan.

The stocking chart shows what has gone in over recent seasons. Read it as a sign that the bass and golden perch fisheries are being maintained, not as a count of what you will catch.

What the fish eat is what the lake’s bait anglers use: locally sourced shrimp, yabbies and worms, which suggests the food is in the weed and along the bottom near the edges. For the fly box that means a drab, weighted shrimp-sized pattern for the weed beds, a dark streamer in the size of a small baitfish for the timber, and something that pushes water on the surface for the summer nights.

Little has been written about timing here, and most of it is what the lure anglers do, so take this as a guide’s read. The warm months are the season: the fishing guide points at still, warm summer nights for surface fishing and at bass and golden perch falling for a well-worked lure depending on the time of year, which in a Hunter Valley bass lake means spring through autumn, with the heat of summer the peak for the after-dark surface fishing.

Our guess for the cooler months is that the fish sit deeper and slower and the lake is quieter; a streamer counted down along the timber is the method we would try. Summer weekends and holiday periods bring the water skiers and a full campground, so fish the edges of the day and the quieter corners, or come midweek.

You are fishing a stocked bass impoundment, and in our read the whole method is to put a fly tight to structure and work it slowly. The lure anglers’ spinnerbaits, small hard-body minnows, lipless crankbaits and soft plastics all go to the same three things: the drowned trees, the weed beds and the shoreline points. Your fly goes to the same three.

A six or seven weight with an intermediate line covers most of it. Along the timber at the ends of the bays, cast a black or olive Woolly Bugger or a similar streamer as close to the trunks as you dare, count it down, and bring it back in short pulls with long pauses; in our experience bass often hit on the pause, and slower and deeper again is a good bet for golden perch. Along the weed beds a weedless streamer or a weighted shrimp pattern crawled over the tops and dropped into the gaps is the retrieve. On the points, fan casts across the drop and change depth before you change fly.

On a still, warm night in summer, swap to a floating line and a popper or a gurgler and work the weed edge in the dark. Pop it, leave it, pop it. Expect the takes to be loud.

From a kayak you can fish every tree in a bay from the open side, which is the side the bank angler cannot reach. From the bank, choose the harder shoreline stretches, fish the weed edge in front of you, and walk to the nearest point.

The lake sits about twenty-five kilometres from Singleton and roughly two and a half hours north of Sydney. The campground on the shore has sites around the water’s edge, well-kept amenities, a boat ramp, electric barbecues and fish-cleaning facilities; bookings are essential and Singleton Council’s website has the details. The access card names the ramp and the access site.

The fishing guide describes the lake as suited to modest-sized fishing boats and kayaks, launched at the concrete ramp or from the harder sections of shoreline, and qualifies that with the weather. As on any long, open storage, wind can build a chop that a kayak in the timber does not want. Fish the bays, keep the crossing short, and go back in when the wind gets up.

Two boating rules the authority names: a boating exclusion zone near the dam wall, and an eight-knot speed limit at the northern end of the lake marked with buoys. Being close to Newcastle, the lake is popular with water skiers in the warm months and the campground is busy at peak holiday times.

The NSW fishing guide for this lake states that a NSW Recreational Fishing Licence is required to fish it, and that size, possession and bag limits apply year-round. No water-specific closed season or gear rule for the lake was found beyond the boating zones above. Take the current bag and size limits for Australian bass, golden perch and silver perch from the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recreational fishing guide before you fish.