Rainbow trout
Slow
Winter lakes: bait on the bottom in the deeper bays through the middle of the day, or polaroiding the shallows on the bright days in Tasmania.
Buckland River Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
The Buckland above Porepunkah: a clear trout stream off Mount Buffalo with camps along the valley, and the Bureau’s gauge at Buckland.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~8 °C est.
Air / High
16 °C / 27 °C
Wind
WSW 2 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 403206, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Buckland River is in its winter rhythm: deep, slow and around the middle of the day. Today brings cloud cover, wind WSW around 2 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 27 °C. Water sits around 8 °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.
Brown trout
Slow
The lake fishery: bait or slow lures in the deeper bays; the rivers are closed in NSW and Victoria.
Tie on: Bait on the bottom, running sinker · Heavy blade, deep · Slow-rolled swimbait · Live bait, deepest hole. Prime windows: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Cooler at 22 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
Victoria requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$10.00. Victoria fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with VFA before you keep anything; the Rainbow trout page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Buckland River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:58), sunset (18:11), the moon and today's score. 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
Live readings from Bureau of Meteorology station 403206 (BUCKLAND @ BUCKLAND).
No live gauge on this water
Water readings appear when a Bureau of Meteorology station covers it. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp16 °C
High / Low27 °C / 14 °C
WindWSW 2 km/h, gusts 13 km/h
Pressure1025.1 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain90% cloud, 67%
Sunrise / Sunset05:58 / 18:11
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Buckland River
The best day on Buckland River 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
- 05:58 to 18:11
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Storms, 10 km/h
- Rain chance
- 67%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Buckland River: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Rainbow trout
Open season from October to June in NSW and Victoria; Tasmania from August
Open now Closes 15 June 2027. Rivers and streams close from the Tuesday after the King’s Birthday weekend to the Friday before the first Saturday in September. Lakes and reservoirs stay open all year. Rule as read from Victorian Fisheries Authority 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. Winter lakes: bait on the bottom in the deeper bays through the middle of the day, or polaroiding the shallows on the bright days in Tasmania.
Brown trout
Open season from October to June in NSW and Victoria; Tasmania from August
Open now Closes 15 June 2027. Rivers and streams close from the Tuesday after the King’s Birthday weekend to the Friday before the first Saturday in September. Lakes and reservoirs stay open all year. Rule as read from Victorian Fisheries Authority 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. The lake fishery: bait or slow lures in the deeper bays; the rivers are closed in NSW and Victoria.
When to come: the Buckland River 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 8 °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 Buckland River 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. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 24 °C, wind to 11 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at slow. High of 23 °C, wind to 6 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Rainbow trout led the card at fair. High of 18 °C, wind to 8 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence (RFL), from A$10.00, 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 VFA and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Victoria licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence applies unless exempt; our Victoria page has the fees.
About this water
Buckland River is a river in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Buckland River: the full guide
The reach
The Buckland runs off the Barry Mountains and Mount Buffalo through a forested valley to join the Ovens at Porepunkah, clear and rocky over gravel and boulders with the Buckland Valley road, the camps and the reserves along it and the old gold diggings of the valley. It is a trout stream of the alps, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at Buckland supplies the river level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Brown and rainbow trout are the fish, wild and stocked, in the pools and the runs on the fly, spinners and bait, under the Victorian stream closure from the Tuesday after the King’s Birthday weekend to the Friday before the first Saturday of September, computed on the species card; blackfish are in the deeper pools under their own rules. The Ovens at Bright, which it joins, has its own page.
Where to fish it
The camps and the reserves along the Buckland Valley road give access to the middle and lower river, the upper valley toward the Barry Mountains is a walk-in fishery of pools and rapids, and the river is a wader’s water in the runs and the pool heads; dawn and dusk are the trout hours. The valley road is gravel beyond the bitumen.
Reading the report
The chart shows a mountain river that rises with the snowmelt and after rain and falls to its rocky bed through summer; the snowmelt of September and October makes the river high at the opening. The water temperature estimate, labelled as one, is cold for most of the year; the valley shelters the water; pressure and sky fill the score.
Licence, access and rules
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence applies unless exempt; our Victoria page has the fees. The camps and the road are public under Parks’ rules; the VFA trout stream rules and the blackfish rules are in the sources.
The Buckland Valley
The valley road runs thirty kilometres from Porepunkah into the Barry Mountains past the old diggings, with the camps and reserves along the river, and the further in the smaller and clearer the water; the middle valley is the easy fishing and the head of the valley is a walk-in fishery for the fit.
Common questions
Is there camping on the Buckland?
Yes, at the camps and reserves along the Buckland Valley road, under Parks’ rules.
When is the Buckland open for trout?
From the first Saturday of September to the King’s Birthday weekend in June, under the Victorian stream rule computed on the species card.
Is fishing good at Buckland River 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
- 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.