Rainbow trout
Excellent
Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Lake Gordon Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Gordon Dam storage at Strathgordon: wild browns and rainbows among drowned forest, lure and fly only, a closed canal to Pedder and a Bureau gauge at the intake.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
292.67 m7,247,463 ML
Air / High
8 °C / 19 °C
Wind
SW 1 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 646.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Gordon rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. The gauge reads 292.67 m, easing 0.16 over the week. Today brings cloud cover, wind SW around 2 km/h, steady pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:23 PM-1:23 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Brown trout
Excellent
Prime. Nymphs and streamers on the rivers, and the lake edges on the overcast days.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 11:23 PM-1:23 AM, 11:51 AM-1:51 PM, 4:49 AM-5:49 AM. Similar at 16 °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 Gordon today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:50), sunset (20:10), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:23 PM-1:23 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 PM; minor 4:49 AM-5:49 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 646.1 (GORDON LAKE - AT INTAKE).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 646.1. Latest reading 2026-11-07 00:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp8 °C
High / Low19 °C / 5 °C
WindSW 1 km/h, gusts 18 km/h
Pressure1019.2 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain95% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:50 / 20:10
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Gordon
The best day on Lake Gordon this week looks like Thursday 12 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.
Best day this week: Thursday, 12 Nov — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 11:23 PM-1:23 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 PM
- Minor period
- 4:49 AM-5:49 AM
- Sun
- 05:50 to 20:10
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 14 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Gordon: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Rainbow trout
Streams from October to June in NSW and from September to June in Victoria; lakes open all year; Tasmania from the first Saturday of 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. Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Brown trout
Streams from October to June in NSW and from September to June in Victoria; lakes open all year; Tasmania from the first Saturday of 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. Prime. Nymphs and streamers on the rivers, and the lake edges on the overcast days.
When to come: the Lake Gordon 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 13 °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 Gordon today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 14 °C, wind to 10 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 9 °C, wind to 19 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 11 °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 inland angling licence is required from age 14 in Tasmania, with the fees on our Tasmania licence page.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on Tasmania dam levels today.
About this water
Lake Gordon is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Gordon: the full guide
The lake
Lake Gordon was created in 1971 for hydro development and has a surface area of 272 square kilometres and a volume of 11.9 cubic kilometres, the Inland Fisheries Service records; together with Pedder the scheme holds 35 percent of Tasmania’s total energy storage capacity. It is about two hours from Hobart via New Norfolk, Westerway and the B61 to Strathgordon through the national park. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the intake supplies the level and 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
The service manages Gordon, like Pedder, as a wild trout fishery sustained by natural recruitment, with brown and rainbow trout both present and browns dominating. Unlike Pedder, Gordon is not open all year: it follows the season from the first Saturday of August to the Sunday nearest 30 April, computed on the species card, with artificial lures and flies only, a 220 mm minimum and a bag of 20. Redfin are present; kill any you catch, and never carry them to Lake Pedder.
Where to fish it
Gordon offers excellent fishing for anglers with a boat, the service says, and shore anglers are better served at nearby Pedder. Drift spinning and trolling cobra-style lures is the most reliable method; large wet flies also work, wind lanes can hold rainbows, and wet-fly fishing around the flooded timber is rewarding from spring to autumn. Boats launch near the Gordon Dam and at Boat Ramp Road in Ragged Basin.
Reading the report
Both lakes are exposed to extreme changes in weather and can become very rough with little warning, and submerged timber is a significant navigation hazard on Gordon, so read the wind row before heading out and travel slowly. The level chart shows the hydro draw-down, which on Gordon can run to many metres. Most of the season, the water temperature estimate (labelled as an estimate) reads cold.
Licence, access and rules
The inland angling licence is required from age 14 in Tasmania, with the fees on our Tasmania licence page. Navigation is prohibited within 100 metres of the intake, between the signs and the Gordon Dam, and in McPartlan Canal, which is also closed to fishing. The Parks and Wildlife Service campgrounds at Teds Beach, Edgar Dam and Huon Inlet serve both lakes and require a National Park Pass. The service’s page for Lake Gordon and the Inland Fishing Code are in the sources below.
Common questions
When is Lake Gordon 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; unlike Pedder, it is not open all year.
Can I fish McPartlans Canal?
No. The canal between Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder is closed to fishing under the Inland Fishing Code, and navigation in it is prohibited.
Is fishing good at Lake Gordon 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 646.1 — GORDON LAKE - AT INTAKE
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- 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.