Rainbow trout
Excellent
Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Lake Wendouree Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
Ballarat’s lake in the middle of town: a stocked trout fishery for fly, lure and bait, fished from the footpath and small boats.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~13 °C est.
Air / High
10 °C / 18 °C
Wind
NE 9 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Lake Wendouree rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 10 km/h, steady pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 18 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:32 PM-1:32 AM and 11:60 AM-1:60 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: 11:32 PM-1:32 AM, 11:60 AM-1:60 PM, 5:11 AM-6:11 AM. Warmer at 23 °C. 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 Wendouree today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:10), sunset (20:06), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:32 PM-1:32 AM and 11:60 AM-1:60 PM; minor 5:11 AM-6:11 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Conditions here are modelled from weather, season and the nearest stations.
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 temp10 °C
High / Low18 °C / 5 °C
WindNE 9 km/h, gusts 16 km/h
Pressure1016.6 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain1% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset06:10 / 20:06
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Lake Wendouree
Today is the pick of the week on Lake Wendouree, at 3 out of 5.
Best day this week: today, 9 Nov — fair at 3/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.
Today, 9 Nov — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 11:32 PM-1:32 AM and 11:60 AM-1:60 PM
- Minor period
- 5:11 AM-6:11 AM
- Sun
- 06:10 to 20:06
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 18 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Lake Wendouree: 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 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. 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 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. Prime. Nymphs and streamers on the rivers, and the lake edges on the overcast days.
When to come: the Lake Wendouree 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 Wendouree 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 14 °C, wind to 19 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 11 °C, wind to 24 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 18 °C, wind to 23 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 is required at Wendouree unless you are exempt; the fees are on our Victoria page.
About this water
Lake Wendouree is a lake in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Lake Wendouree: the full guide
The lake
Lake Wendouree is the shallow, weedy lake in the middle of Ballarat, ringed by a footpath, gardens and boat sheds, and it is one of the most accessible trout waters in Victoria. The VFA names it, with Hepburn Lagoon and Tullaroop Reservoir, as one of the three stocked trout fisheries of the Central Highlands, suited to fly fishing, bait fishing and spinning, and notes that brown and rainbow trout dominate catches there because they are the two most stocked species in the region. It is fished from the banks, the jetties and small boats and kayaks between the weed beds. The lake has no Bureau of Meteorology gauge in this site’s data, so this page shows no level.
Species and seasons
Brown and rainbow trout are the lake’s fish, taken along the weed edges and the open lanes on bait, lures and flies, and the VFA says trout fishing across the region is best in the cooler months, when the water suits them; anglers there can expect browns to about two kilograms and the occasional bigger fish. In summer a lake this shallow warms quickly and the trout slow down, so early mornings and cool changes are the times to try. Redfin, which the VFA calls a key species of the Central Highlands, are the other common catch, taking small lures and baits around the weed.
Reading this report for Wendouree
The lake is small and sheltered in the town, so the wind matters less than on the big storages, although a breeze across the open water often puts the trout on the feed along the downwind shore. Water temperature matters more, because a shallow lake warms fast, and the seasonal curve on this page is an estimate for a highland lake and says so. Pressure and sky build the score and the planner shows the day; there is no tide and no gauge, and the page does not pretend otherwise.
Licence and access
The Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence is required at Wendouree unless you are exempt; the fees are on our Victoria page. The footpath and the jetties give easy bank access all the way round. Victorian lakes carry no closed season for trout, so the lake can be fished all year under the VFA limits on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What fish are in Lake Wendouree?
Stocked brown and rainbow trout, and redfin; the species cards rate the trout by month.
Can I fish Lake Wendouree all year?
Yes. Victoria’s trout closure applies to rivers and streams, not lakes, so the lake stays open all year under the VFA limits.
Is fishing good at Lake Wendouree 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
- 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.