Rainbow trout
Excellent
Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Lake Rowallan Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The upper Mersey storage that IFS runs as a Premium Trout Fishery: browns and stocked rainbows, open October to May, with a Bureau gauge.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
487.86 m132,081 ML
Air / High
7 °C / 16 °C
Wind
NNE 6 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 562.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Rowallan has cool water and fish holding a little deeper and slower. The gauge reads 487.86 m, easing 0.06 over the week. Today brings cloud cover, wind NNE around 6 km/h, steady pressure near 1021 hPa and a high of 16 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:22 PM-1:22 AM and 11:50 AM-1:50 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: 11:22 PM-1:22 AM, 11:50 AM-1:50 PM, 4:51 AM-5:51 AM. Warmer at 19 °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 Rowallan today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:52), sunset (20:06), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:22 PM-1:22 AM and 11:50 AM-1:50 PM; minor 4:51 AM-5:51 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 562.1 (ROWALLAN LAKE - AT DAM).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 562.1. Latest reading 2026-11-07 00:00.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp7 °C
High / Low16 °C / 3 °C
WindNNE 6 km/h, gusts 20 km/h
Pressure1021.2 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain90% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:52 / 20:06
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Rowallan
The best day on Lake Rowallan 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
- 11:22 PM-1:22 AM and 11:50 AM-1:50 PM
- Minor period
- 4:51 AM-5:51 AM
- Sun
- 05:52 to 20:06
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 13 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Rowallan: 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 31 May 2027. Designated rainbow trout waters open on the Saturday nearest 1 October and close on the Sunday nearest 31 May. Rule as read from Inland Fisheries Service Tasmania on 2026-09-24.
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 31 May 2027. Designated rainbow trout waters open on the Saturday nearest 1 October and close on the Sunday nearest 31 May. Rule as read from Inland Fisheries Service Tasmania on 2026-09-24.
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 Rowallan 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 Rowallan 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 18 °C, wind to 14 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 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 14 °C, wind to 18 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
Anglers on Lake Rowallan need the Tasmanian inland angling licence 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 Rowallan is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Rowallan: the full guide
Lake Rowallan
Lake Rowallan sits in the upper reaches of the Mersey River valley and is the first of two hydro impoundments on the Mersey, the Inland Fisheries Service says, with Lake Parangana below it; Hydro Tasmania calls it the major storage of the Mersey-Forth catchment. IFS describes it as a very popular family fishing and camping destination, reached from Deloraine along the B12 past Mole Creek, then the C138 and the C171 past Lake Parangana. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the Lake Rowallan dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page. Lake Parangana downstream and Lake Mackenzie on the Tiers have their own pages.
Species and seasons
IFS manages Rowallan as a Premium Trout Fishery, with natural recruitment of brown trout and regular stocking of rainbows. The lake does not open with most waters in August: the Inland Fishing Code lists it from 3 October 2026 to 30 May 2027, the Saturday nearest 1 October to the Sunday nearest 31 May, the season of the designated rainbow trout waters; the species card computes it. The bag is 12 fish over 300 mm, and the Mersey upstream of the lake is lure and fly only on the same dates.
Where to fish it
IFS names set-rod bait fishing with worms, mudeyes or wood grubs as the most popular method, with trolling and shore spinning strongest early and late in the season when the water is cold. Gum beetle falls often come in November and December, midge hatches on summer mornings and mudeye migrations in the evenings, and at low summer levels walking the steeper rocky banks with polaroids pays on sunny days.
Planning a visit
Lake Rowallan is at the end of the C171 beyond Mole Creek, with Mole Creek and Deloraine the nearest supplies. Remember the later opening, on the Saturday nearest 1 October; until then the lake is closed even though most Tasmanian waters opened in August. The level fluctuates regularly, so check the chart before you plan where to launch.
Reading this report here
Rowallan sits high and exposed, and the wind row and the rain row both matter; snow can fall in any month. The chart shows the hydro level, which decides how much bank is exposed; the water temperature estimate, labelled as one, is cold for much of the season. Pressure and sky build the score at Lake Rowallan.
Licence, access and rules
Anglers on Lake Rowallan need the Tasmanian inland angling licence from age 14; our Tasmania licence page has the fees. The Inland Fishing Code, with the October opening and the bag, and the IFS page for the lake are in the sources, and the road and the shore are under Hydro Tasmania’s rules.
Common questions
When does Lake Rowallan open?
On the Saturday nearest 1 October, 3 October 2026 this season, and it closes on the Sunday nearest 31 May.
Why does Lake Rowallan open later than other lakes?
The Inland Fishing Code lists Rowallan with the season of the designated rainbow trout waters, not the August general season.
Do I need a licence at Lake Rowallan?
Yes: anyone 14 or older needs the Tasmanian inland angling licence to fish Lake Rowallan.
Is fishing good at Lake Rowallan 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 562.1 — ROWALLAN LAKE - AT DAM
- 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.