Welcome to the Lake Colac Fishing Guide. Lake Colac is the largest natural freshwater lake in Victoria, spreading across 2,778 hectares. It’s located around a 2-hour drive from Melbourne on the Princes Highway alongside the township of Colac, situated between Geelong and Camperdown. The lake is surrounded by local farmland and forms part of the Corangamite basin, originally formed from volcanic activity, and has a rich indigenous history. Lake Colac is a very shallow system with an average water depth of 2.5 meters in most areas, and water levels have declined in recent years.
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When it comes to fishing, redfin is the most targeted species in this lake. However, there have been significant attempts in recent years to stock trout and improve the fishery by Victorian Fisheries. As part of the target 1 million campaign, 5,000 trout were released in 2017, 2018 and 2019. A spot is very popular with camping, fishing, boating and skiing. The lake was opened to boating in the early 1900s, with its first jetties erected back then. But do take care when boating, as water levels have been an issue here in recent years.
Things to do at Lake Colac
Lake Colac is a nice family location. The lake has a playground, BBQs, picnic areas, public toilets, and offers good fishing, camping, and boating for the family. Scenic views and ample birdlife. Nearby attractions include the Colac Botanic Gardens, Colac golf course and natural bike tracks surrounding the lake. The drought back in 2009 caused the Lake to be completely dry. Although there have been improvements, water levels remain very low, making water activities like boating and swimming a rarity. Water levels are no longer suitable for boats, but kayaks and small tinnies will be fine.
Watch our detailed video guide on our top 10 redfin lures below
Fishing Lake Colac
Lake Colac is a very shallow system with a maximum depth of only 2.5 meters, and this requires some thought into the best ways to present lures and baits. There have been some noted issues of water quality, so do keep an eye on that if you plan to eat fish from here. Here you can catch redfin, trout, carp, eels and tench. Redfin and carp are present in large numbers when water conditions are right. 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. Powerbait trout nuggets suspended from a float area are a great option, with the powerbait positioned about 40cm underneath the float. Powerbait is similar to what stocked trout are used to eating in the farming hatcheries, so they will eagerly take powerbait. Use some trout pellets as berely to bring them into the area; many locals have noted this as key to catching more fish in this spot. Other bait options include scrub worms, maggots, corn, and mudeye, either from a float or with a light running sinker rig. We highly recommend reading our detailed guide on catching trout.
This is a great location to target redfin with lures and soft plastics. Have a look at our detailed guide on the best lures and plastics when targeting Redfin. Great options include spinners, shallow diving minnows, curl tails and paddle tails. Both redfin and trout will actively take these. lightly weighed are a great option here for trout. So are smaller-sized tassie devils. Smaller Shallow diving hard body lures such as bullet lures, Daiwa double-clutch, Rapala Countdown series and Savage gear minnows are also excellent choices.
When targeting Trout, use as light a line as possible, which will make the experience more fun and improve your chances. Redfin will actively take many baits or lures. We recommend using a 2-4 kilo fishing rod with a 2000 or 2500 size reel, spooled with 6-8 pound braid and finished with one rod length of fluorocarbon leader. Stocking of the lake happens just before each school holiday, so that’s the best time to go. But make sure you put all the small trout caught back into the system to grow. Most freshwater species tend to feed more aggressively at Dawn and Dusk. My personal favourite is fishing sundown, particularly in the warmer months.
Lake Colac Carp
There is a large volume of carp in Lake Colac, prompting locals to create initiatives to remove as many as possible. Carp are, however, fun to catch, and you can learn more about catching carp. When targeting carp, standard baits such as corn, bread, and maggots work great for carp here. Using a simple running sinker rig with a pea-size sinker works excellent in this area. So, do suspend baits using a float. We have also fished well using unweighted baits. You can also target carp with hard body lures and soft plastics. This is a difficult technique that generally requires sight casting. This means spotting a nearby carp, casting right in there, and slowly working the lure of plastic, hoping they will strike. It’s tough but very rewarding when you catch a carp using this method. Most however will stick to targeting them with bait.
For rod selection, a 3-5 kilo rod coupled with a 4000 size reel is very suitable. You could even fish a little heavier with rods designed for snapper that are generally 4-7 kilo 7 foot in length. For fun, I have caught some monster size carp using 2-4 kilo rod and 6-pound braid. 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. Always carry your Victorian fishing license.
A simple yet effective fishing rig here is to thread a small running sinker through the mainline shown in blue, which is usually around 8 pounds. 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 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank, 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’re using bread.
If you get snagged up then 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 breeze which will stop the float from coming back to you. If you’re not getting bites, then adjust the line depth, and if necessary, add a splint shot to add weight.
Recommended baits for Lake Colac
The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.
- Corn
- Scrub worms
- Mudeye
- Powerbait
- maggots
- Earthworms
- yabbies
- live minnows
Recommended lures for Lake Colac
Need some help choosing lures and soft plastics. The video below is a detailed guide to get you started.
- Daiwa Double Clutch
- Pontoon 21 paco spoon
- Tassie Devils 13.5 grams in pinks and whites
- Bluefox spinners
- Rapala countdown floating minnow
- EcoGear MX48
- YoZuri pins minnow
- Daiwa presso minnows
- Nories laydown minnow
- Bluefox spinners
- OSP bent minnow
- Daiwa DR joint minnows
- Strike tiger nymph
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Zman 2.5-inch grub
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
Watch this video of FishingMad fishing for huge trout.
Targeting Trout at Lake Colac
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 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 on the first and last light of the day. 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 Redfin at Lake Colac
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 equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin respond really well to lures and soft plastics, so be sure to 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 on a 1/8 through to 1/16 jighead. The most effective way to use these is to cast towards visible structure and slow roll the soft plastic with lifts and pauses for 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 pretty heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Targeting Carp at Lake Colac
There is a large volume of carp in local lakes however they are fun to catch and you can learn more about catching carp have a read our detailed guide to carp fishing around Victoria. When targeting carp standard baits such as corn, bread, and maggots work great for carp here. Using a simple running sinker rig with a pea-size sinker works great in this area. So, do suspend baits using a float. We have also fished well using unweighted baits. You can also target carp with hard body lures and soft plastics. This is a difficult technique that generally requires sight casting. This means spotting a nearby carp and casting right in there and working the lure of plastic slowly hoping they will strike. It’s tough but very rewarding when you catch a carp using this method. Most however will stick to targeting them with bait.
For rod selection, a 3-5 kilo rod coupled with a 4000 size reel is very suitable. You could even fish a little heavier with rods designed for snapper that are generally 4-7 kilo 7 foot in length. For fun, I have caught some monster size carp using 2-4 kilo rod and 6-pound braid. But I am prepared to lose some good fish in the process. We like to target carp on 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. Always carry your Victorian fishing license.
A simple yet effective fishing rig here is to thread a small running sinker through the mainline shown in blue, which is usually around 8 pounds. 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 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank 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.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Lake Colac Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals.
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