Brook trout
Excellent
Prime. The fish move to the shallows and the inflows; small lures and flies close to the rocks.
Lake Plimsoll Fishing Report
Updated Tue, 10 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
A West Coast storage of the Anthony scheme that IFS stocks for brook trout: a two-fish bag, the general season, and a Bureau gauge at the intake.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~13 °C est.
Air / High
4 °C / 17 °C
Wind
ENE 7 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Plimsoll is in its cool-water rhythm: slower presentations and the warmest hours of the day. Today brings a mixed sky, wind ENE around 6 km/h, steady pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 17 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 12:12 AM-2:12 AM and 12:41 PM-2:41 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 12:12 AM-2:12 AM, 12:41 PM-2:41 PM, 5:23 AM-6:23 AM. Cooler at 14 °C. 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 brook trout here? Check the size and bag limits with IFS Tasmania before you keep anything; the Brook trout page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Lake Plimsoll today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:52), sunset (20:10), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 12:12 AM-2:12 AM and 12:41 PM-2:41 PM; minor 5:23 AM-6:23 AM. New Moon, 1% lit.
Water and weather
Bureau of Meteorology station 294.1 (PLIMSOLL LAKE - AT INTAKE) has sent no reading in the last 30 days, so conditions here are modelled from weather, season and the nearest stations.
No recent gauge reading
Readings come back here when station 294.1 reports again. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp4 °C
High / Low17 °C / 4 °C
WindENE 7 km/h, gusts 20 km/h
Pressure1019.5 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain29% cloud, 69%
Sunrise / Sunset05:52 / 20:10
MoonNew Moon, 1%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Plimsoll
The best day on Lake Plimsoll 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, 10 Nov — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 12:12 AM-2:12 AM and 12:41 PM-2:41 PM
- Minor period
- 5:23 AM-6:23 AM
- Sun
- 05:52 to 20:10
- Moon
- New Moon, 1% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 14 km/h
- Rain chance
- 69%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Plimsoll: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Brook trout
Tasmania: the general season, from the first Saturday of August; a bag of two wherever it lives
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.
A char, not a true trout, stocked by the Inland Fisheries Service in a few cold Tasmanian waters, Lake Plimsoll above all. The state allows no more than two a day. Prime. The fish move to the shallows and the inflows; small lures and flies close to the rocks.
When to come: the Lake Plimsoll 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
Brook 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 Plimsoll today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataMon, Nov 9
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brook trout led the card at excellent. High of 17 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Sun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brook trout led the card at excellent. High of 14 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Brook trout led the card at excellent. High of 7 °C, wind to 21 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
A Tasmanian inland angling licence is needed at Lake Plimsoll from age 14; our Tasmania licence page has the fees.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on Tasmania dam levels today.
About this water
Lake Plimsoll is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Plimsoll: the full guide
Lake Plimsoll
Lake Plimsoll is a storage of Hydro Tasmania’s Henty-Anthony scheme on the Anthony Road (B28) in the mountains of the West Coast Range between Tullah and Queenstown. Hydro Tasmania routes the diverted Anthony water through Plimsoll to the underground Tribute Power Station and on into Lake Murchison. The level and the 30-day chart on this page come from the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the Lake Plimsoll intake. Lake Mackintosh to the north has its own page; Lake Murchison is a Hydro Tasmania exclusion zone, closed to the public.
Species and seasons
The Inland Fisheries Service describes Plimsoll as a fishery known for brook trout only, and one of the best places to go for that species; its latest listed stocking was 4,185 adult brook trout in August 2025. The species card on this page is for brook trout, with the general season dates and the lake’s cold-water months. The Code lists Plimsoll with the general season, 1 August 2026 to 2 May 2027, all methods, and a bag of two fish over 300 mm.
Where to fish it
IFS notes that the lake lends itself to boating because it is a large body of water, and the intake and the road access points are the shore spots, fished with lures, flies and bait. Brook trout often hold near inflows and rocky drop-offs, and a slow-worked small lure or a wet fly suits them. It is exposed mountain country with no facilities, and a visit needs a good forecast.
Planning a visit
Lake Plimsoll is on the Anthony Road (B28) off the Murchison Highway between Tullah and Queenstown, both of which have supplies. Check the forecast, carry warm and waterproof gear, and remember the two-fish bag.
Reading this report here
Plimsoll sits high in the West Coast Range, where the rain row and the wind row decide whether a visit is possible at all; snow can fall in any month. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, is cold for most of the season; the chart shows the storage level. Pressure and sky build the score at Lake Plimsoll.
Licence, access and rules
A Tasmanian inland angling licence is needed at Lake Plimsoll from age 14; our Tasmania licence page has the fees. IFS applies a two-fish bag to every water with brook trout, and statewide no more than two brook trout may be kept in a day; the Code and the IFS page for the lake are in the sources, and the roads are under Hydro Tasmania’s rules.
Common questions
What is the bag limit at Lake Plimsoll?
Two fish over 300 mm, as the Inland Fishing Code lists it; IFS applies a two-fish bag to all brook trout waters.
What fish are in Lake Plimsoll?
Brook trout: the Inland Fisheries Service describes it as a brook trout fishery and stocks it with them.
Do I need a licence at Lake Plimsoll?
Yes: anyone 14 or older needs the Tasmanian inland angling licence to fish Lake Plimsoll.
Is fishing good at Lake Plimsoll 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
- 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.