Southern calamari
Excellent
Spring and autumn are the seasons: the weed beds on the rising tide, slow sinking jigs.
Strahan Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
Macquarie Harbour from the west coast port: the harbour’s trout and salmon, the Gordon and King rivers, Hells Gates and the Ocean Beach surf.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
Low 6:45 pm model
Air / High
10 °C / 14 °C
Wind
W 9 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Strahan rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. Today brings cloud cover, wind W around 8 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 14 °C. Tides: high 11:50 am and 11:30 pm, low 5:15 am and 6:45 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 13 °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.
Australian salmon
Good
The main season. Beach gutters, rock platforms and bay edges on the rising tide; metals, surf poppers and bait all work.
Snapper
Fair
Fish are thinner inshore. Work the deeper structure and the channel edges with baits on the bottom, and pick the tide change.
Flathead
Fair
Fish the deeper channels and the last of the run-out; slower hops with a heavier jighead, and a bait on the bottom as back-up.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Cooler at 11 °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 snapper here? Check the size and bag limits with IFS Tasmania before you keep anything; the Snapper page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Strahan today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:03), sunset (18:17), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. 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
A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.
Tides (modelled)
Modelled sea level curve from Open-Meteo Marine for these coordinates, datum mean sea level. Fish the moving water either side of each change.
A model, not the official prediction: times can drift by tens of minutes inside bays and estuaries. Check the Bureau of Meteorology tide predictions for the exact times before you rely on them.
Fri
LOW5:15 am-0.19 m
HIGH11:50 am0.17 m
LOW6:45 pm-0.22 m
HIGH11:30 pm-0.05 m
Sat
LOW6:10 am-0.34 m
HIGH12:06 pm0.00 m
LOW6:30 pm-0.41 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp10 °C
High / Low14 °C / 10 °C
WindW 9 km/h, gusts 17 km/h
Pressure1025.2 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain100% cloud, 100%
Sunrise / Sunset06:03 / 18:17
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Strahan
The best day on Strahan 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
- 06:03 to 18:17
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 24 km/h
- Rain chance
- 100%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Strahan: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Snapper
Best: October to January in the southern bays
The southern headline fish. Runs into Port Phillip, Western Port, the gulfs and the WA sounds in spring to spawn; holds on reef and rubble the rest of the year. Fish are thinner inshore. Work the deeper structure and the channel edges with baits on the bottom, and pick the tide change.
King George whiting
Best: December to May in SA; spring and summer in Port Phillip
The table fish of the south. Feeds over sand patches between weed and reef in 2 to 10 metres, mostly by day, mostly on the moving tide. Deeper sand patches and the middle of the day; slower bites, bigger fish.
Southern calamari
Spring and autumn peaks in the southern bays
Southern calamari over weed and sand in 2 to 10 metres of the bays and gulfs; a jig fishery at dawn, dusk and under the jetty lights. Spring and autumn are the seasons: the weed beds on the rising tide, slow sinking jigs.
Australian salmon
Winter and spring on the southern beaches
Not a salmon at all: a hard-fighting schooling fish of the surf and the bays, from WA around to NSW. Great on light gear, poor on the plate. The main season. Beach gutters, rock platforms and bay edges on the rising tide; metals, surf poppers and bait all work.
Flathead
Best: November to April
Dusky flathead in the eastern estuaries, sand flathead in the southern bays. An ambush predator lying on sand and mud edges waiting for whatever the tide brings. Fish the deeper channels and the last of the run-out; slower hops with a heavier jighead, and a bait on the bottom as back-up.
When to come: the Strahan 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
Snapper
King George whiting
Southern calamari
Australian salmon
Flathead
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 Strahan 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. Southern calamari led the card at excellent. High of 22 °C, wind to 26 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Southern calamari led the card at excellent. High of 13 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Southern calamari led the card at excellent. High of 12 °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
Macquarie Harbour is inland water for the trout and the Atlantic salmon and needs the Tasmanian inland angling licence, with the brown trout season; line fishing for the sea species needs no general licence; our Tasmania licence page has the fees and the split.
About this water
Strahan is a coastal town in Tasmania, Australia, covered from the Tasmania reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Strahan: the full guide
Strahan and Macquarie Harbour
Strahan is the port on Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s west coast, with the harbour’s tannin water six times the size of Sydney Harbour, the Gordon River flowing into its southern end, the King River at the town, the entrance at Hells Gates to the Southern Ocean, the Ocean Beach surf outside and the salmon farms in the harbour. It is a harbour port on a wild coast, and the report on this page is scored for the port’s coordinates. Lake Burbury above the King has its own page.
Species and seasons
Brown trout and sea-run trout fish the harbour edges and the river mouths, and are the harbour’s fish, under the inland licence and the brown trout season; escaped Atlantic salmon from the farms are caught around the pens and the harbour, with their own rules; flathead fish the harbour sand; Australian salmon run Hells Gates and Ocean Beach in the cooler months; the Ocean Beach surf gives salmon and the odd shark; and the Gordon’s lower reaches are fished from the cruise boats’ landings. The harbour’s water is tannin and the fishing is on the edges.
Where to fish it
The Strahan wharf and the foreshore of Risby Cove are the walk-on marks for flathead, trout and the escaped Atlantic salmon, fished at dawn and on the calm evenings, and the harbour’s edges from the town down to the King River mouth and around to the Gordon are the sea-run trout water for small boats in the early season; Ocean Beach west of the town is the salmon sand, and Hells Gates is the entrance mark for the boats. The ramp is at the town.
Reading this report here
The harbour is sheltered inside the hills and the coast outside is the roughest in the state, so the wind row decides which: a westerly closes Ocean Beach and Hells Gates and the harbour fishes. The tide at the entrance runs hard and the modelled tide curve, labelled as a model, is for the direction; the rain row matters because the west coast rains most days. Pressure and sky build the score at Strahan; the planner shows the day.
Licence, access and rules
Macquarie Harbour is inland water for the trout and the Atlantic salmon and needs the Tasmanian inland angling licence, with the brown trout season; line fishing for the sea species needs no general licence; our Tasmania licence page has the fees and the split. The foreshore, the wharf and Ocean Beach are public, with a ramp at the town; the IFS rules for the harbour, including the Atlantic salmon rules, and the sea fishing rules are in the sources.
Common questions
Can I catch Atlantic salmon in Macquarie Harbour?
Yes; escapees from the farms are caught around the pens and the harbour under the IFS rules for the harbour, which treat it as inland water with the inland licence.
Do I need a licence at Strahan?
Yes for the trout and the Atlantic salmon in the harbour, the inland angling licence; not for line fishing for the sea species.
Is fishing good at Strahan 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
- Tide curve (modelled)
- Open-Meteo Marine, sea level height including tides
- 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.