Bream
Good
Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.
Tambo River Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
A Gippsland river of black bream and estuary perch: the Tambo fishes its tidal reach below Tambo Upper, down through farmland to Lake King.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~22 °C est.
Air / High
10 °C / 16 °C
Wind
E 9 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Tambo River sits in the warm band: moving baits, moving tides and fish on the edges. Today brings a mixed sky, wind E around 8 km/h, steady pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 16 °C. Water sits around 22 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:15 PM-1:15 AM and 11:44 AM-1:44 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: 11:15 PM-1:15 AM, 11:44 AM-1:44 PM, 4:54 AM-5:54 AM. Warmer at 22 °C with a rain chance. 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 Tambo River today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:54), sunset (19:51), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:15 PM-1:15 AM and 11:44 AM-1:44 PM; minor 4:54 AM-5:54 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 / Low16 °C / 6 °C
WindE 9 km/h, gusts 17 km/h
Pressure1020.0 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain37% cloud, 75%
Sunrise / Sunset05:54 / 19:51
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Tambo River
The best day on Tambo River this week looks like Thursday 12 Nov, at 5 out of 5, against 3 today.
Best day this week: Thursday, 12 Nov — excellent at 5/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 11:15 PM-1:15 AM and 11:44 AM-1:44 PM
- Minor period
- 4:54 AM-5:54 AM
- Sun
- 05:54 to 19:51
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 16 km/h
- Rain chance
- 75%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Tambo 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 Tambo 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 Tambo River today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, 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 14 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 12 °C, wind to 21 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 21 °C, wind to 14 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 Tambo unless you are exempt; our Victoria page carries the 2026/2027 prices.
About this water
Tambo River is a river in Victoria, Australia, covered from the Victoria reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Tambo River: the full guide
The river
The Tambo rises in the Victorian Alps and runs south through Swifts Creek, Ensay and Bruthen to enter Lake King at the eastern end of the Gippsland Lakes. The VFA’s angling guide describes where the fishing is: between Bruthen and Tambo Upper the river is wide, shallow and silted to sand, and fishes poorly; near Tambo Upper a sand bar marks the head of the estuary, and from there the river winds through open farmland over a mud bottom to the lake. That estuary is the water most people search for, reached from the bank along the Metung Road but best from a boat, and the guide notes it is heavily fished for black bream and at times fishes very well. The report on this page is scored for the lower river; the lakes it feeds have their own page.
Species and seasons
Black bream dominate the estuary, with yellow-eye mullet and estuary perch to about a kilogram, and luderick, sea mullet and carp also in the catch; any fish that swims in Lake King may turn up in the lower river at times, flathead and tailor included. Bream hold around the snags, the reed edges and the deeper bends all year, and estuary perch come out to feed at dusk. Upstream, the VFA records only occasional Australian bass between Tambo Crossing and Bruthen, after bass stocking in 2016, and trout have always been scarce in the middle and lower river, so the freshwater Tambo is not a productive angling water.
Reading this report for the Tambo
The estuary is sheltered and the wind matters less than on the open lakes. The tide panel, a modelled curve for these coordinates labelled as a model, is for the direction of the run in the tidal reach, which is slight and lags the coast. The river’s level after rain matters more than either, because a fresh colours the water and moves the bream down towards the lake. On the Tambo the barometer and the sky make up the rest of the score, with the planner ranking the week.
Licence and access
Victoria’s Recreational Fishing Licence applies on the Tambo unless you are exempt; our Victoria page carries the 2026/2027 prices. The VFA lists a boat ramp at Johnsonville and bank access along the Metung Road beside the estuary; the VFA limits for bream and estuary perch are on the pages in the sources.
Common questions
What is the Tambo River known for?
Black bream in the estuary below Tambo Upper, with estuary perch, mullet and luderick; the freshwater river above is not a productive angling water.
Do I need a licence on the Tambo?
Yes, unless you are exempt: a Victorian Recreational Fishing Licence is required on the estuary as on the rest of the river.
Is fishing good at Tambo 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.