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 Echo Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The big, remote hydro lake on the Central Plateau: wild browns and rainbows along drowned forest shores, reached by gravel from the Lyell Highway, with a Bureau gauge.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
841.18 m302,328 ML
Air / High
5 °C / 15 °C
Wind
W 13 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 176.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Echo is a cold-water proposition today: bait on the bottom and a long soak. The gauge reads 841.18 m, up 0.07 over the week. Today brings cloud cover, wind W around 13 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 15 °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 6 °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 Echo today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:58), sunset (18:13), 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 176.1 (ECHO LAKE - AT DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 176.1. Latest reading 2026-09-24 00:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp5 °C
High / Low15 °C / 5 °C
WindW 13 km/h, gusts 28 km/h
Pressure1024.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain98% cloud, 100%
Sunrise / Sunset05:58 / 18:13
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Echo
The best day on Lake Echo 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 18:13
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 24 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 Echo: 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 now Closes 3 May 2027. Most waters open from the first Saturday of August to the Sunday nearest 30 April; designated rainbow trout waters run from the Saturday nearest 1 October to the Sunday nearest 31 May. 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 now Closes 3 May 2027. Most waters open from the first Saturday of August to the Sunday nearest 30 April; designated rainbow trout waters run from the Saturday nearest 1 October to the Sunday nearest 31 May. 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 Echo 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 Echo 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 18 °C, wind to 27 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 14 °C, wind to 13 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 10 °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, one rod or two; our Tasmania licence page has the 2026-27 fees.
About this water
Lake Echo is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Echo: the full guide
The lake
Lake Echo is a large Hydro Tasmania storage on the Central Plateau north of the Lyell Highway and east of Bronte, a lake of drowned forest, rocky shores and long arms that feeds Dee Lagoon by tunnel, reached by gravel road with a ramp and informal camping at the dam and no services. It is one of the less fished of the big highland lakes, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Brown trout are wild and fish the drowned timber, the rocky edges and the creek mouths on bait, lures and flies, with the fish in good condition when the lake is up over the scrub; rainbow trout are wild and stocked and fish the drop-offs; and the lake follows the brown trout season the Inland Fisheries Service publishes, first Saturday of August to the Sunday nearest 30 April, computed on the species card. The inflowing waters are closed, as the service lists.
Where to fish it
The ramp at the dam launches onto the southern end, and the fishing is a boat fishery along the timbered shores and up the arms, trolling the drop-offs and casting into the drowned forest; the shore near the dam fishes at dawn and dusk. The lake is big and exposed and the wind decides where a boat can go, so the sheltered arms are the fallback.
Reading the report
The plateau is cold and the water temperature estimate, labelled as one, sits in the cold band for most of the season; the chart shows the hydro operation that raises the lake over the scrub in a wet year and draws it down in a dry one, which changes the fishing more than any weather. The wind row is the number to respect on open water; 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 gravel road, the ramp and the camping are under Hydro Tasmania’s rules; the Inland Fishing Code, with the season and the closed inflows, is in the sources.
Common questions
When is Lake Echo open?
Through the Tasmanian brown trout season, first Saturday of August to the Sunday nearest 30 April, computed on the species card with the rule linked.
Are there services at Lake Echo?
No; a gravel road, a ramp and informal camping at the dam. Bronte Park is the nearest settlement.
Is fishing good at Lake Echo 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 176.1 — ECHO LAKE - AT 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.