Below the Deloraine bridge the Meander lives up to its name. The quick shingle river of the stretch above slides under the Bass Highway, takes in Dungiven Rivulet, Quamby Brook and Black Sugarloaf Creek, and settles into forty-four kilometres of long runs and broadwaters between high banks, winding through pasture and poppy country to Strath Bridge, where Selbourne Road crosses and Inland Fisheries Service changes the season. IFS describes it as water that fishes well for every method, and it does; the fly angler's share of it is the mayfly on the slow water, the hoppers along the farmland in autumn, and a long leader from a high bank to a fish you have found by walking. The fall of the river on this page shows how gentle it is: ninety metres of drop in forty-four kilometres, most of it in the first few below the town. Both of the river's gauges sit at its ends, the Deloraine bridge at the top with its record since 1954 and Strathbridge at the bottom, and their latest readings are on this page. This is not wading water in the way the stretch above is. It is walking water: find the fish in the backwaters and along the banks, cover it from above, and mind the crops, because IFS means what it says about the poppies. The season closes here at the start of May; a hundred metres downstream of the bridge it runs for another month.
Deloraine to Strath Bridge
Imagery © Esri
Not published
River map
River map of Meander River
Conditions
Meander River(852) [meander River at Strathbridge]
8.787 m³/s
recorded 2026-09-05 08:00
About normal for early September. Typical is 12.697 m³/s, the middle half of years 8.012 to 25.718. The orange strip is the wadeable band.
Read this as a trend, not a verdict — rising and coloured matters more than the number on its own.
1.331 m
recorded 2026-09-05 08:00
Read this as a trend, not a verdict — rising and coloured matters more than the number on its own.
These are automatic readings that have not been quality-checked, so treat them as a guide to the trend rather than exact figures.
Readings from the Bureau of Meteorology's Water Data Online, © Commonwealth of Australia, licensed CC BY 4.0. Gauge data supplied by © State of Tasmania (Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania). Nothing here is a forecast. Check the gauge before you rely on it.
Weather
Live weather for Meander River(852) [meander River at Strathbridge] loads here. If it does not, check the Bureau of Meteorology forecast before you go.
When things happen
When things happen
The year on this water
A guide's calendar, not a rulebook
- Winter water · Jun to Sep Deloraine runs six times its summer flow in August and the broadwaters are brown and deep. Wets and lures until it settles.
- Duns and spinners on the broadwaters · Oct to Feb The slow water is where the mayfly show. Look for sippers along the high banks and in the backwaters on still days.
- Dry-fly from the bank · Nov to Mar A long leader from a high bank, a Klinkhammer or a parachute dry to a fish you have seen, and a slow retrieve of a wet when nothing shows.
- Hoppers on the farmland · Jan to Apr Pasture to the water's edge. A hopper dropped tight to the bank on a warm afternoon, and the last weeks before the upper-river close.
Water and habitat
Forty-four kilometres of mainstem from the Deloraine bridge at two hundred and thirty-two metres to Strath Bridge at a hundred and forty-two, and the fall of the river on this page is a long, easing slope with a step down below Deloraine and another around the sixty-nine kilometre mark. The Bass Highway crosses a kilometre and a half below the town; Dungiven Rivulet joins at forty-eight, Quamby Brook, the largest tributary on the stretch, at seventy, Brushy Rivulet just below it, and Black Sugarloaf Creek at seventy-six. The Deloraine bridge gauge sits at the top of the stretch and the Strathbridge gauge at the bottom.
Long runs, broadwaters, high banks, backwaters. IFS's words for the river below Deloraine, and the map of how to fish it. The bank survey on the whole-river page reads this corridor as two-fifths crop and a third open woodland: pasture and poppies to the edge, willows and native scrub along the banks, and deep slow water under them.
Fish and forage
Brown trout, wild, the fish of the whole river, and in the deeper broadwaters some of its bigger ones. IFS manages the Meander as a wild trout fishery. River blackfish and redfin perch appear in the lower sections of the river and this stretch is where they begin; tench and redfin are pests, and IFS asks that any caught be killed and disposed of.
The slow water is mayfly water: duns and spinners from October through summer, with sippers along the high banks and in the backwaters on still days. From January the grasshoppers come off the pasture and the bank fish learn to wait for them. Caddis in the runs in the evening.
When to fish it
Read the Conditions card on this page. Deloraine runs highest from June to September and the broadwaters are deep and coloured through those months, water for wets and lures rather than the fly. From October the river drops into its band, the duns start on the slow water and the bank fishing begins. Summer is steadier here than on any unregulated river in the north, thanks to the release from Huntsman Lake, though the broadwaters warm in a hot spell and the fish go deep by day. Autumn is the hopper season and the last of the upper river's year: this stretch closes at the start of May.
Still days for the mayfly. A breeze for the hoppers. Evenings for everything.
How to fish it
Bank fishing on slow water. A five weight, a floating line, and a leader long enough to keep the fly line off the fish from a high bank. Walk, look, and cast to what you have seen: a Klinkhammer or a parachute Adams for the sippers in the backwaters, a hopper dropped tight against the bank in summer and autumn, and a Woolly Bugger or a Pheasant Tail fished slow through the broadwaters when nothing shows. In the runs below the town, a dry-dropper still works.
Approach from downstream and below the bank line where you can. Fish on slow, clear water see a walking angler a long way off.
Access and safety
The bridges are the way in: Emu Bay Road and the riverside in Deloraine, the Bass Highway, the road bridges across the farmland, and Selbourne Road at Strath Bridge. Between them the river is on private ground. Foot access has been provided by the goodwill of landowners and is a privilege, not a right; where access is not signed you must ask, or you are trespassing.
Poppy crops along the river are licensed areas under strict enforcement: walk their perimeter, never through them. Do not stray into paddocks or trample crops, avoid disturbing stock, leave gates as you find them, stay off the fences. The river's own hazard is its depth: the broadwaters are deeper than they look and the high banks are soft. Fish from the bank unless you can see the bottom.
Regulations
This stretch lies above Strath Bridge, so it carries the rules Inland Fisheries Service states for the upper Meander: a minimum size, a small daily bag, all methods permitted, and a season from the first Saturday in August to the start of May. Below the bridge the season runs to the end of May and is the next page's. An inland angling licence is required.
Take the numbers and the dates from the current Tasmanian Inland Fishing Code and the IFS A to Z page for the river before you fish. They move, and this page does not carry them.
What the record shows
What the record shows
More river data The fall of the whole Meander River and its bank survey, with this stretch marked
The fall of the river
Elevation along the river, source to end
The banks, seen from space
Land cover in the 120 m beside the water, Landsat 2023 to 2024 to 2025
Questions anglers ask
Where does this stretch start and end?
From the Emu Bay Road bridge in Deloraine to Strath Bridge, where Selbourne Road crosses the river about forty-four kilometres downstream. Strath Bridge is the line IFS draws between the two Meander seasons, so the boundary of this page is also the boundary of the rules.
Which gauge should I read?
Both of the river's gauges sit at this stretch's ends: the Deloraine bridge at the top, whose record since 1954 is the river's year on the whole-river page, and Strathbridge at the bottom. Their latest readings are on this page under Conditions. If Deloraine is in the wadeable band the runs are fishable; the broadwaters are fished from the bank at any level.
What about the poppies?
IFS is blunt about it. Poppy crops along the river are licensed areas under strict enforcement. You may walk their perimeter; you may not enter them or interfere with them. Where a crop runs to the bank, find another way in.