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.
Great Lake Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The biggest of the Central Plateau lakes: wild brown trout and stocked rainbows in cold, windy water, with a level read from the Bureau every day.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
1026.80 m1,117,272 ML
Air / High
4 °C / 13 °C
Wind
NW 8 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 139.2, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Great Lake is a cold-water proposition today: bait on the bottom and a long soak. The gauge reads 1026.80 m, holding steady. Today brings cloud cover, wind NW around 8 km/h, rising pressure near 1024 hPa and a high of 13 °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 4 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Tasmania requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$29.00. Tasmania fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with IFS Tasmania before you keep anything; the Rainbow trout page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Great Lake today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:58), sunset (18:12), 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 139.2 (GREAT LAKE - AT POATINA INLET).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 139.2. Latest reading 2026-09-24 00:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp4 °C
High / Low13 °C / 4 °C
WindNW 8 km/h, gusts 16 km/h
Pressure1024.0 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain95% cloud, 100%
Sunrise / Sunset05:58 / 18:12
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Great Lake
The best day on Great Lake this week looks like Sunday 27 Sept, 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: Sunday, 27 Sept — 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
- 05:58 to 18:12
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Rain, 27 km/h
- Rain chance
- 100%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Great Lake: 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
Open all year Yingina / Great Lake is open all year other than Canal Bay Rule as read from Inland Fisheries Service Tasmania on 2026-09-23.
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
Open all year Yingina / Great Lake is open all year other than Canal Bay Rule as read from Inland Fisheries Service Tasmania on 2026-09-23.
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 Great Lake 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 Great Lake 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 13 °C, wind to 31 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
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 12 °C, wind to 16 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 9 °C, wind to 19 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Tasmanian Inland Angling Licence, from A$29.00, 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 IFS Tasmania and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Tasmania licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The Tasmanian inland angling licence from the Inland Fisheries Service applies, from age 14, sold for one rod or two; our Tasmania licence page has the 2025-26 fees.
About this water
Great Lake is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Great Lake: the full guide
The lake
Great Lake is the largest of Tasmania’s Central Plateau lakes, a high, cold, windswept storage of Hydro Tasmania on the plateau above Poatina and Miena, and the trout water the island is known for beyond its shores: wild brown trout that have been there since the nineteenth century and rainbow trout stocked to add to them, in a lake whose level rises and falls by metres with the hydro year and whose shoreline of rock, sand and drowned scrub moves with it. It is fished from the shore at Miena, Swan Bay, Brandum, Tods Corner and the western shores, and from boats along the drop-offs. This page reads the storage level from the Bureau of Meteorology’s Water Data Online, at the Poatina inlet, with the date and time of the reading.
Species and seasons
Brown trout are the lake’s wild fish, biggest in the cooler months and at night along the edges on bait and slow lures, running the inflowing creeks to spawn in autumn; rainbow trout are the stocked fish, most active from spring through autumn and taken trolling, spinning and on the fly along the drop-offs and the wind lanes. The lake is open through the inland season the Inland Fisheries Service publishes, from August into the following autumn, and closed between; the service’s Inland Fishing Code has the dates, the limits and the bait rules for the plateau, which differ from the lowland waters.
Reading this report for Great Lake
The level is in the report and the 30-day chart, and it matters because a rising lake floods new ground where the browns feed and a low lake exposes the flats and pushes the fish to the drop-offs; the wind row is the number to respect, because the plateau makes weather of its own and a big lake in a westerly is dangerous for small boats, while the lee shores fish. Pressure and sky build the score, the water temperature is an estimate for an alpine lake and the page says so, and the planner shows which day to take. Snow falls on the plateau in any month.
Licence, access and rules
The Tasmanian inland angling licence from the Inland Fisheries Service applies, from age 14, sold for one rod or two; our Tasmania licence page has the 2025-26 fees. The shore at Miena, Swan Bay, Brandum and Tods Corner is public, with ramps at Swan Bay, Cramps Bay and Tods Corner; the Inland Fishing Code, with the season, the limits and the plateau’s bait rules, is on the page in the sources.
Common questions
When is Great Lake open for fishing?
Through the Tasmanian inland season the Inland Fisheries Service publishes, from August into the following autumn; the Inland Fishing Code has the dates and the plateau’s rules.
Do I need a licence to fish Great Lake?
Yes, from age 14: the Tasmanian inland angling licence, sold for one rod or two. See our Tasmania licence page.
Is fishing good at Great Lake 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
- Storage and river readings
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online, station 139.2 — GREAT LAKE - AT POATINA INLET
- 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.