Rainbow trout
Excellent
Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Lake Pedder Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The south-west’s great hydro lake in the national park: wild brown trout, lure and fly only, open all year, with Parks campgrounds and a Bureau gauge at Serpentine Dam.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
307.16 m2,621,713 ML
Air / High
8 °C / 20 °C
Wind
SSW 2 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 648.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Pedder rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. The gauge reads 307.16 m, easing 0.06 over the week. Today brings cloud cover, wind SSW around 3 km/h, steady pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 19 °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. Cooler 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 Pedder 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 648.1 (PEDDER LAKE - AT SERPENTINE).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 648.1. Latest reading 2026-11-07 00:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp8 °C
High / Low20 °C / 5 °C
WindSSW 2 km/h, gusts 15 km/h
Pressure1019.1 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain99% 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 Pedder
The best day on Lake Pedder 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, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
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
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 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. 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 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. Prime. Nymphs and streamers on the rivers, and the lake edges on the overcast days.
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 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 Pedder 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 13 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 10 °C, wind to 21 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
From age 14, anglers need the Inland Fisheries Service’s inland angling licence; our Tasmania licence page gives the 2026-27 fees.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on Tasmania dam levels today.
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 was created in 1971 by flooding the original Lake Pedder for hydro development, and its water passes through McPartlan Canal to Lake Gordon and the Gordon Power Station, the Inland Fisheries Service records. The service gives a surface area of 242 square kilometres and a volume of 3.3 cubic kilometres, and describes the Pedder–Gordon scheme as the largest water storage in Australia. It sits inside the Southwest National Park, about two hours from Hobart via New Norfolk, Westerway and the B61 to Strathgordon. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the Serpentine Dam supplies the level and 30-day chart.
Species and seasons
The trout of the newly flooded lake were legendary, averaging close to 5 kg; since the early 1980s the average has settled at around 1 kg, and the service still reports large bags of good-sized brown trout. Natural recruitment sustains the fishery. Pedder is open all year and reserved for artificial lures and flies, as national park waters are, with a 220 mm minimum and a bag of 20; the species card reads open all year with the rule linked. Redfin are not present, and the service stresses they must not be introduced from Lake Gordon.
Where to fish it
Thick vegetation and steep banks limit shore access, so a boat widens the options, but the service points out that the shore at every launching site can be productive. Cobra-style lures and spoons are the popular choice, and fly anglers use mudeye patterns and fur flies at first and last light. Boats launch at Serpentine Dam, Strathgordon, Teds Beach, McPartlan Pass, Edgar Dam and Scotts Peak Dam; navigation is prohibited near the Serpentine, Scotts Peak and Edgar dams and in McPartlan Canal.
Reading the report
Pedder and Gordon are both exposed to extreme changes in weather and can become very rough, so the service asks anglers to check the forecast before boating: the wind and rain rows on this page are the place to start. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, is cold for much of the year, and the level chart shows the hydro operation.
Licence, access and rules
From age 14, anglers need the Inland Fisheries Service’s inland angling licence; our Tasmania licence page gives the 2026-27 fees. Park fees apply and a National Park Pass must be displayed on vehicles and boats. The Parks and Wildlife Service runs campgrounds at Teds Beach, Edgar Dam and Huon Inlet, with no camping fee beyond the pass, and the rest of the park is fuel-stove only. McPartlans Canal is closed to fishing. The service’s Pedder page and the Inland Fishing Code are linked below.
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 camp and launch at Lake Pedder?
The Parks and Wildlife Service campgrounds are at Teds Beach, Edgar Dam and Huon Inlet; boats launch at Serpentine Dam, Strathgordon, Teds Beach, McPartlan Pass, Edgar Dam and Scotts Peak Dam. A National Park Pass is required.
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
- 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.