Tourism at Lake Keepit is affected "severely" by the low water levels, with visitor numbers reportedly down by half.

Lake Keepit Family Fishing Club life member Bert Steele and Lake Keepit Sailing Club commodore Ian Pine have both reported low numbers of tourists, with the fishing club even becoming "dormant" recently.

READ ALSO:

Mr Steele said tourists would still visit when the water well and graveyard were exposed, but these visitors had since passed on.

"They don't get repeat tourists, because you can only look at a well and a graveyard once," Mr Steele said.

He said if the dam was at even 5 per cent, as opposed to the current 1 per cent, "everyone would win [and] tourism would boom again" because visitors "could still ski, fish, swim, and boat".

Mr Pine said the lack of visitors was "very notable".

"It's having a really severe effect on the visitor numbers and the number of dollars being spent in this area," Mr Pine said.

"On the long weekend our club had to take the Keepit Kool Regatta to Copeton Dam, so all of those people that fill all the cabins at the park here and create a fair bit of cash flow went to Copeton instead."

Mr Pine said sailing club members had a number of ideas in mind to keep the club alive, though.

"Our plan is to resume our Discover Sailing training courses in the new season in September and run our holiday camps in the school holidays to get people back out on the water and learn to sail," he said.

"We'll also continue to travel away to bigger events such as on Clarence River and down to Lake Macquarie."

Subscribe to receive all your local news, for only $2 per week.