Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Mitchell River Fishing Report
Updated Tue, 10 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The river of the silt jetties: black bream from the rock barrier at Bairnsdale to the end of the jetties in Lake King, and bass and trout upstream.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~22 °C est.
Air / High
9 °C / 19 °C
Wind
NE 9 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Mitchell River is fishing in its best temperature window, with the bite spread across the day. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 10 km/h, steady pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 19 °C. Water sits around 22 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 12:04 AM-2:04 AM and 12:32 PM-2:32 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Flathead
Good
The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.
Mulloway
Fair
Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.
Tailor
Fair
Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
Tie on: Soft plastic on a 1/4 oz jighead · Small hardbody, shallow diver · Squid jig, size 3.0 · Fresh pipi or worm on a small hook. Prime windows: 12:04 AM-2:04 AM, 12:32 PM-2:32 PM, 5:27 AM-6:27 AM. Similar at 22 °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 bream here? Check the size and bag limits with VFA before you keep anything; the Bream page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Mitchell River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:53), sunset (19:53), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 12:04 AM-2:04 AM and 12:32 PM-2:32 PM; minor 5:27 AM-6:27 AM. New Moon, 1% 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 temp9 °C
High / Low19 °C / 6 °C
WindNE 9 km/h, gusts 15 km/h
Pressure1019.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 29%
Sunrise / Sunset05:53 / 19:53
MoonNew Moon, 1%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Mitchell River
The best day on Mitchell River this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 3 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 10 Nov — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 12:04 AM-2:04 AM and 12:32 PM-2:32 PM
- Minor period
- 5:27 AM-6:27 AM
- Sun
- 05:53 to 19:53
- Moon
- New Moon, 1% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 29%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Mitchell River: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Bream
Year-round; summer and autumn in the estuaries, winter at the mouths
Yellowfin bream on the east coast, black bream in the southern estuaries. Structure fish: rock walls, jetty piles, oyster racks, snags and pontoons. Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
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. The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.
Mulloway
Best: summer and autumn, especially after rain
Jewfish. The big silver prize of the estuaries, breakwalls and surf beaches: nocturnal, tide-driven and unforgiving of noise. Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.
Tailor
Autumn and winter on the east coast; the run reaches K'gari (Fraser Island) in late winter, where the east beach from Waddy Point to Indian Head is closed to all fin fish from 1 August to 29 September
The surf and rock fish of the east coast, running north in autumn and winter. Fast, toothy and best at dawn, dusk and into the dark. Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.
When to come: the Mitchell 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
Bream
Flathead
Mulloway
Tailor
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 22 °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 Mitchell River today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataMon, Nov 9
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 16 °C, wind to 19 km/h.
Sun, Nov 8
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 15 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Bream led the card at good. High of 14 °C, wind to 26 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 on the Mitchell unless you are exempt; the fees are on our Victoria page.
About this water
Mitchell River is a river in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Mitchell River: the full guide
The river
The Mitchell River is formed where the Wonnangatta and the Wongungarra meet near Talbotville, runs through the Mitchell River Gorge and the floodplain below Lindenow, and passes Bairnsdale on its way to Lake King, where it runs out between the Mitchell River silt jetties, long banks of river sediment protected in a Parks Victoria reserve. The VFA angling guide notes that estuarine water begins below the rock barrier at Bairnsdale, which has a rock-ramp fishway, and that from there the river is very accessible along its entire length, to the end of the silt jetties. Below Lindenow the river crosses 25 kilometres of grazing and cropping floodplain, and above the gorge it is a mountain river. The lakes it feeds have their own page.
Species and seasons
Black bream of about 26 to 30 centimetres are present in good numbers all year below the Bairnsdale barrier, the VFA says, with yellow-eye mullet, luderick and estuary perch, flathead particularly in autumn around The Cut, and garfish upstream at the Butter Factory Wharf. Carp are abundant, and in a dry summer with rising salinity large numbers gather below the barrier. Upstream, the fresh river holds Australian bass, stocked in recent years, and a self-sustaining trout population that is not stocked; the VFA guide notes that the largest brown trout come from the reach below Lindenow, where the Victorian closure for trout in rivers runs from June to early September.
Reading this report for the Mitchell
The lower river is sheltered and the wind matters mainly at the silt jetties, which stand open to the lake. The tide panel, a modelled curve for these coordinates labelled as a model, is for the direction of the slight, delayed run in the estuary, and the river’s level after rain matters more than either: a fresh colours the water and moves the bream. The barometer and the cloud cover fill in the score, and the planner picks the day.
Licence and access
Victoria’s Recreational Fishing Licence applies on the Mitchell unless you are exempt; the fees are on our Victoria page. The banks below Bairnsdale are open and easy to reach, the road along the silt jetties gives bank access into Lake King, and several fishing platforms were built under the river health program. The VFA limits and the trout stream season are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What are the silt jetties?
Long banks of river sediment that carry the Mitchell out into Lake King, protected as a Parks Victoria reserve; a road runs along them and they are the river’s best-known bream bank.
Where does the Mitchell estuary start?
Below the rock barrier at Bairnsdale, according to the VFA; above it the river is fresh, with bass and self-sustaining trout further upstream.
Is fishing good at Mitchell 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
- 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.