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.
Lake Dartmouth Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
Victoria’s deepest lake in the Mitta Mitta valley: wild trout, a Macquarie perch fishery under its own rules, and a level the Bureau reads at the dam.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~8 °C est.
Air / High
14 °C / 26 °C
Wind
E 3 km/h
Sources: Bureau of Meteorology gauge 401224A, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Dartmouth has cold water and fish that move for very little; fish the sunniest hours. Today brings cloud cover, wind E around 3 km/h, rising pressure near 1025 hPa and a high of 26 °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 23 °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 Lake Dartmouth today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:55), sunset (18:08), 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 401224A (DARTMOUTH DAM).
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 temp14 °C
High / Low26 °C / 12 °C
WindE 3 km/h, gusts 17 km/h
Pressure1025.1 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain92% cloud, 45%
Sunrise / Sunset05:55 / 18:08
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~8 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Dartmouth
The best day on Lake Dartmouth 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
- 05:55 to 18:08
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 13 km/h
- Rain chance
- 45%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Dartmouth: 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 all year No closed season in lakes and reservoirs; the winter closure applies to rivers and streams. 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 all year No closed season in lakes and reservoirs; the winter closure applies to rivers and streams. 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 Lake Dartmouth 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 Lake Dartmouth 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 22 °C, wind to 8 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 17 °C, wind to 18 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
Victoria’s Recreational Fishing Licence applies unless you are exempt; our Victoria page has the 2026/27 fees.
About this water
Lake Dartmouth is a lake in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Dartmouth: the full guide
The lake
Lake Dartmouth is the largest-capacity storage in Victoria, held by the highest dam in the state on the Mitta Mitta River above Lake Hume, a deep, cold, steep-sided lake in the north-east that fills over years and empties over years, with a ramp and a caravan park at the dam, a few boat-access camps and no development on its long arms. It is trout water of the wild kind, and the Bureau of Meteorology’s gauge at the dam supplies the level and the 30-day chart on this page.
Species and seasons
Brown and rainbow trout are the fishery, trolled along the steep banks and the drop-offs from autumn to spring and deep through summer, cast from the shore near the dam and taken on the fly at the creek mouths; Macquarie perch, protected elsewhere, have a regulated fishery in Dartmouth under VFA rules with their own size, bag and season, which the VFA page linked here sets out; and redfin are present. Murray cod are stocked in the Mitta Mitta below the dam rather than in the lake. The lake has no trout closure; the rivers above follow the stream rule computed on the species card.
Where to fish it
The ramp at the dam launches onto the lower lake, and the fishing is a boat fishery up the Mitta Mitta and the Dart arms, trolling the steep banks and casting to the creek mouths; the pondage below the dam is a separate trout fishery with its own bank access. Shore fishing near the dam works at dawn and dusk, and the boat camps up the arms are reached only by water.
Reading the report
The chart is a long, slow curve at Dartmouth, years to fill and years to empty, and a rising lake floods scrub the browns feed in; the water temperature estimate, labelled as one, stays cold and suits the trout most of the year. The valley funnels wind and the open lower lake gets rough in a northerly; the wind row decides the launch. Pressure and sky fill the score.
Licence, access and rules
Victoria’s Recreational Fishing Licence applies unless you are exempt; our Victoria page has the 2026/27 fees. The ramp, the caravan park and the boat camps are managed by the water authority and Parks; the VFA trout rules and the Dartmouth Macquarie perch rules are in the sources.
Common questions
Can I keep Macquarie perch at Dartmouth?
Only under the VFA’s specific Dartmouth rules, which set a size, a bag and a season for the lake; elsewhere in Victoria the species is protected. The VFA page is linked in the sources.
Do I need a licence at Dartmouth?
Yes, unless exempt: the Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence covers the lake and the pondage.
Is fishing good at Lake Dartmouth 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.