Rainbow trout
Excellent
Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Penstock Lagoon Fishing Report
Updated Tue, 10 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The 1916 Waddamana storage near Miena: fly only, a bag of two and a 400 mm minimum, a petrol-boat corridor and a Bureau gauge at the canal outlet.
4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Level
919.65 m470 ML
Air / High
5 °C / 15 °C
Wind
NNW 11 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 508.1, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Penstock Lagoon has cool water and fish holding a little deeper and slower. The gauge reads 919.65 m, holding steady. Today brings a mixed sky, wind NNW around 11 km/h, falling pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 15 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 12:08 AM-2:08 AM and 12:36 PM-2:36 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: 12:08 AM-2:08 AM, 12:36 PM-2:36 PM, 5:17 AM-6:17 AM. Similar 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 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 Penstock Lagoon today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:47), sunset (20:06), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 12:08 AM-2:08 AM and 12:36 PM-2:36 PM; minor 5:17 AM-6:17 AM. New Moon, 1% lit.
Water and weather
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 508.1 (PENSTOCK LAGOON - AT CANAL OUTLET).
Storage level, last 30 days
Bureau of Meteorology Water Data Online, station 508.1. Latest reading 2026-11-07 17:45.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp5 °C
High / Low15 °C / 4 °C
WindNNW 11 km/h, gusts 21 km/h
Pressure1019.3 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain55% cloud, 51%
Sunrise / Sunset05:47 / 20:06
MoonNew Moon, 1%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Penstock Lagoon
Today is the pick of the week on Penstock Lagoon, at 4 out of 5.
Best day this week: today, 10 Nov — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 10 Nov — Good
Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
- Solunar majors
- 12:08 AM-2:08 AM and 12:36 PM-2:36 PM
- Minor period
- 5:17 AM-6:17 AM
- Sun
- 05:47 to 20:06
- Moon
- New Moon, 1% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 14 km/h
- Rain chance
- 51%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Penstock Lagoon: 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 Penstock Lagoon 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 Penstock Lagoon 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. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 13 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Sun, 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 10 °C, wind to 18 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 6 °C, wind to 24 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
You need the Tasmanian inland angling licence from 14 years of age; see our Tasmania licence page for fees.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on Tasmania dam levels today.
About this water
Penstock Lagoon is a lake in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Penstock Lagoon: the full guide
The lake
Penstock Lagoon was built in 1916 as the storage and intake for the now decommissioned Waddamana power station, the Inland Fisheries Service records. It no longer generates electricity, but Hydro Tasmania and the service manage its water to protect the fishery. It is shallow, with a maximum depth of 1.7 metres and an average of about a metre, and levels peak in spring without varying much overall. Habitats run from weedy marshes to forested rocky shores. The Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the canal outlet supplies the level and 30-day chart.
Species and seasons
The service manages Penstock as a Premium Wild Trout Fishery, but there are no reliable spawning areas and natural recruitment is limited, so regular stocking of brown and rainbow trout maintains the population. The rules are strict: fly fishing only, a bag of two with only one over 500 mm, a 400 mm minimum and no trolling from a boat. The season runs from the first Saturday of August to the Sunday nearest 30 April, computed on the species card; canals 1 and 2 above the white posts are always closed.
Where to fish it
Early in the season, when the water is high, sight fishing to browns in the weedy western margins is good; in spring, blind casting around the rocky shores can find trout chasing galaxias that spawn on the rocks. From November mayfly and caddis hatches bring dry-fly fishing, and wet flies from a drifting boat work all season. Two designated camping areas and one boat ramp are on the western shore, with toilets at the ramp and at the Ladys Walk campground; stays are limited to 14 days.
Reading the report
The level chart moves little on this lagoon, so the wind row is the main variable: it sets the drift, the wind lanes and whether sight fishing is possible at all. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, is cold for much of the season, and a dull, still morning often brings the hatch. Barometric pressure and cloud complete the reading.
Licence, access and rules
You need the Tasmanian inland angling licence from 14 years of age; see our Tasmania licence page for fees. A 5-knot limit covers the whole lagoon; petrol-powered boats should cross within the buoyed 25-metre corridor from the ramp towards Crisps Point and down to the Lily Pond, and elsewhere use electric motors or oars, with Beginners Bay reserved for manual propulsion. A foot-only easement runs along the eastern shore, with private land above it. For the full rules, the sources link the Inland Fishing Code and the service’s Penstock page.
Common questions
What methods are allowed at Penstock Lagoon?
Fly fishing only, from the bank or from a boat that is not trolling; the bag is two fish, only one over 500 mm, with a 400 mm minimum, under the Inland Fishing Code.
When is Penstock Lagoon open?
Through the Tasmanian brown trout season, first Saturday of August to the Sunday nearest 30 April, computed on the species card.
Is fishing good at Penstock Lagoon right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Storage and river readings
- Bureau of Meteorology, Water Data Online, station 508.1 — PENSTOCK LAGOON - AT CANAL OUTLET
- 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.