Kennington Reservoir

Kennington Reservoir Fishing Gear Selection

Multiple target species are at this location, all requiring quite different setups. For bread and butter species such as redfin, trout and carp, we would recommend a 7-foot 2-4 kilo spin rod coupled with a 2500 spin reel. When targeting yellowbelly, a light or medium baitcasting rod should be paired with a 150 baitcast reel, or, as we often prefer, a 2-5kg spin rod paired with a 2500-size reel. Murray Cod here can grow over a meter. Targeting those giant fish with big lures requires much heavier setups to ensure you can handle the fish’s raw size and power and not break your rod tip when casting heavy lures. Cod lures can weigh anything from 20 grams to 200 grams. Generally, when targeting cod, ideally, a heavy baitcast combo around 6″6 in length and 8-15kg in class paired with a 150/200 baitcast reel spooled with 50lb braid. You can go a bit heavier here if you’re targeting giant fish with large lures or smaller if you’re casting smaller lures for smaller cod.

Recommended baits at Kennington Reservoir

At this location, we highly recommend the baits suggested below. There are several ways to present baits, including a running sinker rig, a paternoster rig, or a dropper rig. The rig and sinker choice will depend on the species you are targeting and the conditions, such as wind and tidal strength.

Recommended fishing lures for Kennington Reservoir

• Gulp 3-inch minnow
• Small curtail and paddletail soft plastics
• Soft Vibes and Blades

Targeting Redfin at Kennington Reservoir

We recommend targeting Redfin with a light spin outfit. This will make the experience more enjoyable and improve your catch rates. A 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 2000 or 2500 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin responds well to lures and soft plastics, so 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 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 let you cast farther and target bigger reddies. Just remember, they are pretty heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.

Targeting Trout at Kennington Reservoir

We highly recommend you read our detailed guide on how to catch trout, which details our favourite lures, baits and techniques. You can follow when trout will be stocked using the Victorian trout stocking programs as part of the target 1 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022 initiatives. We recommend shallow-diving hard-body minnows, metal spoons, spinners, and Tassie devils when using lures. Soft plastics are also very effective on trout. If you’re bait fishing, then Mudeye, scrub worms, powerbait, yabbies, and minnows are suspended on a float or a running sinker rig. Fly fishing is a popular fishing method at this location. Trout are more active in cold conditions, with most catches occurring at first and last light. We recommend a 2-4 kilo fishing rod, coupled with a 2000 or 2500 reel, spooled with 4-8-pound braid and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader. If trophy-size trout are around, you could 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.

Targeting Silver Perch at Kennington Reservoir

Silver Perch have been heavily stocked in recent years and are a great species for bait anglers. They have a legal size limit of 30cm and a bag limit of 5 per person (0 limit for Rivers and streams north of the Great Dividing Range, excluding the Wimmera Basin). We recommend a 2-4 kilo fishing rod, coupled with a 2000 or 2500 reel, spooled with 4-8-pound braid and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader. Using a simple running sinker rig or float rig with a small size six baitkeeper hook with scrubworms, shrimp or yabbies as the best bait. They will also take small soft plastics, but most commonly are targeted with bait.

Targeting Yellowbelly at Kennington Reservoir

Yellow belly, AKA Golden Perch, is a beautiful freshwater fish in this system. With a rich food source, they can grow to be thick and plump. Good lure choices include curl-tail soft plastics; the Gulp 3-inch Grub Minnow in black is a standout. Soft vibes like the Zerek fish trap, and Samaki vibelicious are great options. Lip-less crank-baits, such as Jackall TN50 and TN60, remain very popular, as do blades like the eco gear ZX40 with stinger hooks. Other favourites are the reliable stump jumpers and spinnerbaits. Soft plastics work best on a 1/8 or 1/4 jig head vertically jigged along structure. This technique works particularly well when using a spotlock or tying your boat or kayak up against trees. Work the soft plastic slowly against the tree and add some noise to the action by tapping the butt of your rod or by hitting the jig head into the timber. This brings out the predatory nature of the yellowbelly. Take advantage of Livescope, down scan and side scan technologies on your sounder and spend some time moving between the structure to find the fish. Other lures will also work well in open water, being slow-rolled or trolled. Typically, we use a light to medium spin rod around 7 feet in length, 2-4 or 3-5 kilo class, paired with a 2000 or 2500 size reel and spooled with 8-12-pound braid and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader. Baitcaster rods and reels are a very popular choice when targeting yellowbelly. Good options include a 3-5 or 4-6 baitcaster with a 2000 baitcaster reel. When bait fishing, a 7-foot light rod paired with a 3000-size reel is used. Good bait rigs include a paternoster rig with a small sinker at the bottom or a running sinker rig with scrub worms or yabbies.

Lake Eppalock Kennington Reservoir

We highly recommend you read our detailed guide on how to catch carp fishing around Victoria. Carp will actively take simple baits like worms, corn, bread, and maggots on a running sinker rig with a small sinker. Suspending baits from a float also works well, as do unweighted baits. You can target carp with hard-body lures and soft plastics; however, this is a complex technique that generally requires sight casting a nearby carp, casting towards them and working the lure of plastic slowly, hoping they will strike. It’s challenging but rewarding when you catch a carp using this method. Most anglers, however, will stick to bait for targeting them.

A 2-5 kilo rod coupled with a 3000 size reel is very suitable. You could even fish a little heavier if the system is known to hold huge ones up to a meter. I have caught some monster-size carp using a 2-4 kilo rod and 6-pound braid for fun. But I am prepared to lose some good fish in the process. We like to target carp at sundown, particularly in the warmer months. This is often when you see carp swimming along the edges or jumping out of the water around September-November, which is their spawning season. European carp must not be returned to the water. A simple yet effective fishing rig involves threading a small running sinker, typically around 8 pounds, through the mainline, as shown in blue. Then, tie a medium swivel to the end, allowing the sinker to run up the mainline freely. Then, tie on the other end of the swivel 50cm of 8-pound fluorocarbon leader (the leader is shown in grey ). Finished with a hook. I generally use a size 6 baitkeeper hook or a size 10 long-shank hook, which is perfect for corn kernels or scrub worms; however, you can also use small treble-style hooks, which is a better setup if you use bread.

If you’re getting snagged, you can also use a float rig. Attach a quill or bubble float to your mainline. Thread the line through and adjust the length using a size 6 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank to keep your bait suspended at a good depth. Ideally, cast down the breeze, stopping the float from returning to you. If you’re not getting bites, adjust the line depth and, if necessary, add a splint shot to add weight.