Victorian School Holiday Trout Stocking

Thanks to Victorian Fisheries, the school holiday trout stocking program provides a great family activity to get the kids involved and catching a few ready-to-catch Rainbow Trout! These fish are relatively easy to catch (as far as catching fish goes) on a good variety of both bait and lures. You can even take this one step further and take a couple of trout home for the pan or smoker, just keep in mind that your daily bag limit (5) applies here, where only two can exceed 35cm.

Some of the best fishing memories are always those involved with the family, so if you’re keen to make a few yourself, grab yourself your beverage of choice, kickback and have a read of where to catch them, what gear you’ll need and what bait/lures to throw at em.

Where to go?

You can find all Victorian Trout Stockings at this link right here https://vfa.vic.gov.au/recreational-fishing/featured/old/school-holiday-trout-stocking. However, to save you some scrolling we’ve written all the ones that are local to us…

500 Rainbow Trout will be stocked into Kennington Reservoir, 450 into Crusoe Reservoir, 300 into Neangar Lake, 200 into Tom Thumb Lake and 200 into Forest Lake. All these local waterways provide great fishing locations in Bendigo, with the majority harbouring other fish species such as Redfin as a fun by-catch.

What gear?

The gear needed to go out and catch these fish can be incredibly simple and affordable. Which is great! There is definitely no need to go breaking the bank here… you can buy yourself or the little tackers a rod, reel and line combo for as little as $30. We just recommend starting the young ones off with a fibreglass rod.

Fiberglass rods tend to be super sturdy and are much more difficult to break then the likes of your graphite rods. AND, they also tend to be just a fraction of the price! Matched with a 2500 sized spin reel with some 10-15lb line (either mono or braid) will be plenty to get the job done on these fish.

Baits and Rigs?

You can use a huge variety of bait on these fish, however worms and Berkley Power Bait trout nuggets are always the stand out options on these stocked fish… It’s probably more important here to consider what bait rig and hook size you’re going to be running.

Rainbow Trout only have small mouths so it’s important to use a smaller sized bait hook… Try running a size 8 or 10 Baitholder hook on a paternoster or running sinker rig. Or, you can even try running them under a float if you find the trout are sitting up a bit higher.

Lures

Lure fishing in these local reservoirs is incredibly simple and it’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg to get started. Majority of the lures you will use here are going to be around the $10 mark…

We suggest using small, bright coloured soft plastic lures such as a 2.5inch paddle tail in a bright pink or yellow. Just run them on a semi light jig head in the 1/12oz – 1/8oz range… A flashy inline spinner such as a Blue Fox, Celta or Mepps Spinner would also be a great option!

Try fishing your lures close to the bottom… You can try hoping your plastics off the bottom with small twitched and retrieves, or just give them a nice slow roll! Sometimes, it really is that simple…

This is a great family activity to get the kids out of the house, is something you can do locally and isn’t going to break the bank. If you need any assistance/guidance, make sure to give us a call or pop in and say G’day, we’ll always be happy to send you in the right direction.