Welcome to the Lake Hamilton Fishing Guide. Lake Hamilton is a great fishing location near the Grampians. This manmade lake was built in 1977 and is found on the eastern side of the suburb of Hamilton, surrounded by an emerging housing estate. This lake is popular for a range of water sports and is excellent for fishing and kayak fishing. There has been significant stocking here in recent years of estuary perch and rainbow trout by Victorian fisheries.
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Watch a detailed video of us freshwater fishing and walking through trolling techniques.
Things to do at Lake Hamilton
Lake Hamilton is a scenic lake not too far from the Grampians. It’s a popular spot for the family for a whole range of activities, including walking or cycling around the track that goes around the lake, as well as water activities like fishing, sailing and rowing. There is a boat ramp on Mills Road, great for motorised sports, including speed boats and jet skis. The Lake itself has a car park, picnic grounds, BBQ facilities and Lakes Edge Adventure Playground for the kids. Nearby, you can also enjoy the Hamilton Skate Park and the Dog Park. There is also a weekly 5km run around the lake.
Please note there are schedules of when powered and non-powered vessels. This is done for safety reasons.
Fishing at Lake Hamilton
Lake Hamilton is a diverse fishing location with multiple freshwater species to target. You can catch rainbow trout, brown trout, redfin, estuary perch, golden perch, tench and eels. The lake is mainly shallow and weedy in some areas. This is an excellent location for kayak fishing and fishing with lures and soft plastics. However, the most effective method may be trolling Tassie devils and shallow diving hard body lures. When fishing from the banks, long casting metal lures, vibes and spoons are a must-have option. They will allow you to cover great distances and target both trout and redfin at the same time. We cover how to target each species at this location further down.
Here you can see recent fish stocking in Lake Hamilton, which has received almost 150,000 stocked trout over the past 10 years. A combination of trout and estuary perch.
Shallow diving hard body lures and heavily weighted soft plastic minnow imitations are also excellent choices. Traditional lures such as spinners and Tassie devils will also work really well, especially in bright colours. You won’t need to get too fancy here a simple cast and slow roll will be effective. You may also consider trolling these slowly from your boat or kayak. In the early mornings, you may spot trout breaking the surface to take flies and crickets. Therefore, bug imitations, lures, and soft plastics are also options worth trying. When targeting freshwater species such as trout, redfin and estuary perch, we recommend fishing with a light spinning rod. This will make the experience more enjoyable and improve your catch rates. 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.
Bait fishing here can be pretty productive from the banks. Some excellent bait options include mudeye on a float or scrub worms, powerbait & yabbies on a light running sinker rig. This is an excellent choice for trout and redfin. Trout and redfin are notorious for feeding more aggressively at dawn and dusk. We highly recommend fishing during the first and last hours of sunlight. Redfin is more active in the warmer months, and trout are more active in the colder months. In recent years, the reservoir has been heavily stocked with trout fingerlings.
Recommended baits for Lake Hamilton
- Scrub worms
- Powerbait
- Yabbies
- Mudeye
- maggots
Recommended lures for Lake Hamilton
- Daiwa Double Clutch
- Rapala countdown floating minnow
- Tassie Devils 13.5 grams in pinks and whites
- Bluefox spinners
- Daiwa DR joint minnows
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Daiwa Presso minnows
- Tasmanian Devil Blade
- Bassman spinnerbait
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
- strike tiger nymph
- Nories Wasabi spoon
- Pontoon 21 paco spoon
- Tasmanian Devil lure
- Gulp 3-inch minnow
- Zman 2.5 inch grub
- eco gear ZX40
Targeting Estuary Perch at Lake Hamilton
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. Basically, anything that doesn’t dive too deep and makes 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 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 would recommend mixing up the retrieval speeds and pauses and playing around 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 kilo spin rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 1000 or 2000 size reel spooled with 2-8 pound line and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. When bait fishing use a 2-4 kilo rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 2500 size reel either a float or small running sinker to a swivel and very fine leader.
Targeting Trout at Lake Hamilton
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 Hamilton
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 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 in allowing you to cast great distances and target the bigger reddies. Just remember, they are pretty heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Watch our detailed video guide on our top 10 redfin lures below
Targeting Yellowbelly at Lake Hamilton
Yellow belly, AKA Golden Perch, is a beautiful freshwater fish in this system. With a rich food source, they can grow to thick and plump sizes. Good lure choices include curl tail soft plastics; the Gulp 3-inch grub minnow in black is a standout choice. 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 spotlock or tying your boat or kayak up against trees. Slowly work the soft plastic 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.
Camping and open fires are prohibited. Always carry your Victorian fishing license. FishingMad encourages ‘catch & release of all native species to help maintain the water quality within the lake; however, European Carp must not be returned. Images of fish and stocking information were supplied by VFA and DEPI. A header from homely.com.au. All other photos and videos shown on the Pykes Creek Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Lake Hamilton Fishing Guide. If you believe this location guide is missing key information or requires corrections, please email our team at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures you have from this location with us. Thank you
