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 Pedder Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The vast south-west lake behind Strathgordon: wild browns and rainbows in a wilderness water, with camps, ramps and a Bureau gauge at the Serpentine Dam.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
307.58 m147,578 ML
Air / High
8 °C / 15 °C
Wind
WNW 9 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 648.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Pedder has cold water and fish that move for very little; fish the sunniest hours. The gauge reads 307.58 m, up 0.09 over the week. Today brings cloud cover, wind WNW around 8 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 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 Pedder today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:01), sunset (18:15), 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 648.1 (PEDDER LAKE - AT SERPENTINE).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 648.1. Latest reading 2026-09-23 00:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp8 °C
High / Low15 °C / 8 °C
WindWNW 9 km/h, gusts 22 km/h
Pressure1024.8 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain100% cloud, 100%
Sunrise / Sunset06:01 / 18:15
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Pedder
The best day on Lake Pedder 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
- 06:01 to 18:15
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 19 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 Pedder: 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 Pedder 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 Pedder 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 Pedder 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 Pedder 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 20 °C, wind to 16 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 14 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 16 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 Pedder is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Pedder: the full guide
The lake
Lake Pedder is the Hydro Tasmania storage in the south-west wilderness, the flooded lake of the 1970s that spreads across the button-grass plains under the Frankland Range and the Sentinels, reached by the Gordon River Road through Maydena to Strathgordon, with camps and ramps at Edgar, Scotts Peak and Teds Beach and nothing else for a hundred kilometres. It is a trout water of legend from its early years and still a big-water fishery; the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the Serpentine Dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Brown trout are wild and fish the drowned scrub, the rocky shores and the creek mouths on lures and flies, artificial lure and fly only in this World Heritage water, with the fish leaner than in the early years but still numerous; rainbow trout are wild and stocked and fish the drop-offs; 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. The inflowing streams are the code’s to rule.
Where to fish it
Edgar and Scotts Peak at the southern end and Teds Beach near Strathgordon have the camps and the ramps, and the fishing is a boat fishery across a vast lake: the drowned scrub along the plains, the rocky shores under the ranges and the creek mouths. Bank fishing at the camps works at dawn and dusk, and the lake is big enough that the weather forecast is part of the tackle.
Reading the report
The south-west gets more rain than anywhere in the state and the rain row is the first thing to read, with the wind row next, because Pedder is open to the westerlies and dangerous in one; the water temperature estimate, labelled as one, is cold for most of the season, and the chart shows the hydro operation. 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 camps and ramps are inside the Southwest National Park under Parks’ and Hydro Tasmania’s rules, with the park pass required; the Inland Fishing Code is in the sources.
Common questions
When is Lake Pedder open?
All year: the Inland Fisheries Service lists Lake Pedder among the waters open all year, and the species card shows it with the rule linked.
Where do I launch at Lake Pedder?
At Edgar, Scotts Peak or Teds Beach, all with camps, inside the Southwest National Park with a park pass.
Is fishing good at Lake Pedder 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 648.1 — PEDDER LAKE - AT SERPENTINE
- 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.