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.
Lake Burbury Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The west coast’s big hydro lake under Frenchmans Cap: browns and rainbows in the rain country near Queenstown, with a camp and a Bureau gauge.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
233.32 m409,177 ML
Air / High
8 °C / 14 °C
Wind
WNW 6 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 298.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Burbury is a cold-water proposition today: bait on the bottom and a long soak. The gauge reads 233.32 m, up 0.44 over the week. Today brings cloud cover, wind WNW around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 14 °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 9 °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 Lake Burbury today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:02), sunset (18:17), 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 298.1 (BURBURY LAKE - AT CROTTY DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 298.1. Latest reading 2026-09-24 00:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp8 °C
High / Low14 °C / 8 °C
WindWNW 6 km/h, gusts 17 km/h
Pressure1025.4 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain100% cloud, 100%
Sunrise / Sunset06:02 / 18:17
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Burbury
The best day on Lake Burbury 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
- 06:02 to 18:17
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 100%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Burbury: 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 Lake Burbury is open all year 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 Lake Burbury is open all year 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 Lake Burbury 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 Lake Burbury 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 21 °C, wind to 19 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 13 °C, wind to 10 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 12 °C, wind to 11 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, one rod or two; our Tasmania licence page has the 2026-27 fees.
About this water
Lake Burbury is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Burbury: the full guide
The lake
Lake Burbury is the Hydro Tasmania storage on the King River east of Queenstown on the west coast, a large lake of drowned button-grass plains and forest under Frenchmans Cap and the West Coast Range, crossed by the Lyell Highway with camping, a ramp and picnic areas at the highway bridge. It is one of the state’s most productive trout lakes and one of its wettest places, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the Crotty Dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Brown trout are wild and numerous and fish the edges, the drowned scrub and the creek mouths on bait, lures and flies, with the fish in good condition from the rich, drowned plains; rainbow trout are wild and stocked and fish the drop-offs and the river inflows; and the lake is on the Inland Fisheries Service’s list of waters open all year, so the chip on the species card reads open all year with the rule linked, which makes Burbury a winter fishery when the plateau lakes are closed.
Where to fish it
The highway bridge has the camping, the ramp and the bank access, and the fishing is a boat fishery across a big lake: the drowned scrub along the eastern shore, the creek mouths and the King River inflow at the northern end. Bank fishing near the bridge works at dawn and dusk, and the lake is big enough that the wind decides where a boat can go.
Reading the report
The west coast gets metres of rain and the rain row is the first thing to read, with the level chart showing the rise after it; the wind row is next, because Burbury is open to the westerlies that cross the range. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, is cold for most of the season; pressure and sky fill the score.
Licence, access and rules
The Tasmanian inland angling licence from the Inland Fisheries Service applies from age 14, one rod or two; our Tasmania licence page has the 2026-27 fees. The camping, ramp and picnic areas at the bridge are open under Hydro Tasmania’s and Parks’ rules; the Inland Fishing Code is in the sources.
Common questions
When is Lake Burbury open?
All year: the Inland Fisheries Service lists Lake Burbury among the waters open all year, and the species card shows it with the rule linked.
Is Lake Burbury good fishing?
Among the most productive trout lakes in the state, with wild browns in good condition from the drowned plains; the weather is the challenge.
Is fishing good at Lake Burbury 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 298.1 — BURBURY LAKE - AT CROTTY DAM
- 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.