Devilbend Reservoir

Welcome to the Devilbend Reservoir Fishing Guide. Devilbend Reservoir is a terrific fishing destination, 1 hour from Melbourne along the Mornington Peninsula. It was originally built in 1956 as a backup water supply for the Monrington region. The Reservoir offers a great variety of fishing with estuary perch, trout and redfin and fishing from the banks or non-powered vessels like kayaks. It’s a shallow and weedy system which has been heavily stocked over the years. The lake itself spans over 250 hectares. Recently, Parks Victoria funded $ 1.6 million in upgrades to the facility. The site now has renovated fishing pontoons with newly established state-of-the-art fishing platforms. The main floating pontoon is extended by an impressive 36 meters, providing land-based anglers with access to deeper waters and more space.

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Things to do at Devilbend Reservoir

It’s a lovely area, with walking trails, natural fauna, birdlife and picnic grounds. You can also enjoy the surrounding views. It’s an excellent place for non-powered vessels. There are also ample parking spaces available. Please note that vehicle access to the park is usually between sunrise and sundown. It’s also become a popular fishing destination for kayakers. Thirty‐three hectares of Devilbend Reservoir have been zoned for non‐powered watercraft. This includes canoes, kayaks, paddleboards and windsurfers. There are yellow markers and signs to help people identify those zones. There are also two launch areas. The main launch area is near the picnic ground and car park. Fishing by land is only permitted in certain zones, so do make sure to look out for signs that identify these fishing zones. As with all rural areas, always be mindful of snakes.

 

Fishing Devilbend Reservoir

Devilbend Reservoir has been stocked with over 500,00 fish since 2010, and here you can target

• Estuary perch
• Redfin ( English perch )
• Rainbow Trout
• Brown Trout

The estuary perch fishing is a real feature of Devilbend Reservoir. These fish were stocked here originally in 2014 by Victorian Fisheries, and they are thriving. It’s exciting to catch these fish with shallow diving and surface lures. Estuary perch love smashing lures, especially at sundown, and they can become active when stocking occurs regularly. These EPs reside along the edges and weedy banks. Tempting them out and holding on is a delightful way to fish, whether fishing from the banks or cruising around on a kayak. The extensive volume of weed can make fishing at Devilbend Reservoir really tricky. It can be super frustrating to have your lures and baits continually covered with weed. But understanding that this weed makes a great ecosystem, for both perch and trout, can also help you navigate your way around and catch them. Targeting the weed edges is an excellent method, especially from a kayak. I like to work surface and sub surface lures slowly along these weedlines. Land-based anglers’ access can be tricky here due to the shallow waters and thick volume of weeds, so fishing with waders can really help you get to better access spots for fishing, especially when water levels are low.

It’s also an amazing trout fishery with 250,000 trout stacked here since 2010. In 2012, they released 125 brown trout with an average size of 1.8 kilos. We have also caught some huge redfin in this system. The biggest I have caught here was 48cm on a 2.5″ paddletail; however, I have seen bigger ones caught here. Making this a great location to target a trophy-sized trout or perch. With picnic grounds, it’s an excellent spot for fishing with the family. When bait fishing at Devilbend reservoir a good option is to use live earthworms or scrub worms on a size 6 or 8 bait keeper hook with a running sinker rig. You can also have success using crickets, power bait, yabbies or mud eyes with a small hook suspended from a float. Devil Bend Reservoir is a great location for flicking lures. Surface lures such as small bent minnows and poppers are a great option when targeting estuary perch. We also enjoy using spinners and soft plastics in this area, which allows you to target all the species at once. This is a great way, whether by land or kayak, to catch a prized redfin or trout. Click here to see our guide on the best lures and soft plastics to use when targeting Redfin.

When targeting freshwater species such as trout, redfin and estuary perch, we recommend fishing with a light rod. This will make the experience more enjoyable whilst improving your catch rates. We suggest a 1-3, 2-4 or 2-5 kilo capacity fishing rod. Coupled with a 2000 or 2500 size reel. Spooled with braid between 4-8 pounds, finished with a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader. You can fish a tad heavier here if you’re targeting big EPs and Trout. This is also a terrific spot for the fly fishermen who can drift nymph flies with great success for trout. Any time of day, though some fish will be more active at Dawn and Dusk

Recommended baits for Devilbend Reservoir

• bent minnows
• Bluefox spinners
• Daiwa DR joint minnows
• 2.5 inch grub & 2.5″ paddletails
• Berkley powerbait grub
• Daiwa Presso minnows
• Tasmanian Devil Blade
• Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
• Bullet lures 3cm lure
• strike tiger nymph
• Rapala countdown floating minnow
• Daiwa Double Clutch
• Zman 2.5 inch grub
• Squidges biotough grub

Targeting Estuary Perch at Devilbend Reservoir

Another highlight of fishing in this area is targeting Estuary perch with surface and shallow diving lures. The action can be frantic on warm, balmy evenings with low wind. Listen for the sound of breaking water, which indicates EPs are feeding. The excitement an angler gets from an EP smashing a surface lure on light gear is something that truly needs to be experienced. It almost catches you by surprise when that aggressive strike comes. Small surface poppers, cicadas, blades, surface minnows and pencil lures work well here. So do shallow diving hardbody lures. Noteworthy options include bent minnows, Rapala Countdown series, Nories Laydown Minnows, and shallow-diving cranks. Essentially, anything that doesn’t delve too deeply and produces a good vibrating action will work well. You can use any colour choice, we often start with silvers that mimic small baitfish or mullet. EPs also respond incredibly well to a whole range of soft plastics that are lightly weighted. Including curl tails, paddle tails and minnow imitations. The trusty 2.5-inch grubs and minnows are an excellent choice. These imitate small baitfish that the EPs are actively feeding on. We recommend mixing up the retrieval speeds and pauses, and experimenting with different colours. Where possible, fish along the structure and stay alert for signs such as breaking water. Fishing for Estuary Perch requires finesse. We recommend an ultralight fishing combo consisting of a 1-3 or 2-4 kilogram spin rod, approximately 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 1000- or 2000-size reel spooled with 2-8 pound line and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader, when bait fishing, a 2-4 kilo rod around 7 feet in length is used. Coupled with a 2500 size reel, either a float or small running sinker to a swivel, and a very fine leader.

 

Targeting Redfin at Devilbend Reservoir

We recommend targeting redfin with a light spin outfit. This will enhance the experience and improve your catch rates. A 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin respond well to lures and soft plastics so do check our guide on the best lures for catching Redfin When using soft plastics, we highly recommend curl tails, minnow imitations, and paddle tails in both natural and bright colours. Rigged with a jig head that’s 1/8 through to 1/20 in weight. The most effective way to use these is to cast towards visible structure and slow-roll the soft plastic with lifts and pauses during the retrieve. Shallow-diving hard-body lures, blades, and vibes are also very effective in this system. So are traditional spinners and Tassie devils in bright colours. Metal spoons also play a role, allowing you to cast great distances and target the bigger size reddies. Just remember, they are quite heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.

Targeting Trout at Devilbend Reservoir

We would highly recommend that you read our detailed guide on how to catch trout which details our favourite lures, baits and techniques. You can follow trout stocking timelines by reading the Victorian trout stocking guide as part of the target 1 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022 initiatives. When targeting trout with lures, we recommend using shallow diving hard body minnows, metal spoons, spinners, Tassie devils and soft plastics, which are also very effective on trout. If you’re bait fishing, then Mudeye, scrub worms, power bait, yabbies, and minnows suspended from a float or a running sinker rig are great options when targeting trout at this location. Trout are more active in cold conditions, with most catches on the first and last light of the day. We recommend targeting trout with a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 1000, 2000, or 2500 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. If there are larger trophy-size trout around, then you can go heavier, moving up the scale to a 3-5 kilo class spin rod spooled with fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader.

We conducted a test to see which would perform better for stocked trout powerbait or lures. Watch the video below to find out the results, which were interesting.

Map provided by Parks Victoria. Header image supplied by Allhiking.com. All other images and videos shown on the Devilbend Reservoir Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Devilbend Reservoir Fishing Guide. If you feel this location guide is missing any key information or needs any corrections made, then please let us know by emailing our team at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details in the email. Thank you