Welcome to the Lake Hyland Fishing Guide. Lake Hyland is a small suburban lake in the suburb of Churchill and forms part of Mathieson Park (not far from Hazelwood pondage). The lake is accessible from Mackeys Road, and ample parking is available at the entrance. This is a managed family fishing lake as part of local initiatives to grow fishing (Target 1 million by 2020) and has a yearly stocking of rainbow trout yearlings. It’s a lovely location with scattered fishing platforms, making it an ideal spot for the family to enjoy fishing and fun at the park.
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Things to do at Lake Hyland Churchill
This is a lovely location for the family to visit with well-maintained parklands. It’s a great place for a picnic with a large picnic shelter with electric BBQs, picnic tables, and toilets. There is a large children’s playground, a walking or cycling track that goes around the lake and scattered fitness equipment. It’s a picturesque, scenic location, great for photos at sunrise and sundown. The east side of the lake is home to a good variety of bird habitats, with plans in progress for bird-watching stations.
Fishing at Lake Hyland Churchill
There are numerous fishing platforms a short walk from the car park. The vast majority of the shoreline is accessible to land-based anglers with the deeper sections of water to be found along the northern side. At Lake Hyland, you can target several freshwater fish species, including
- rainbow trout
- redfin
- European carp
- short-finned and long-finned eels
This lake is regularly stocked with rainbow trout during school holiday breaks. In 2020, the lake received 800 rainbow trout yearlings. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. If you’re bait fishing here, we recommend using power bait in bright colours, live minnows, scrub worms, maggots, corn, and mudeye. Either suspended from a float, a paternoster rig, or a small running sinker rig (using a very small sinker when using a paternoster rig or running sinker rig). This location also fishes well with lures and soft plastics. We would strongly suggest starting with small soft plastics, including curl tails and paddle tails, spinners, and shallow diving hard body lures around 5cm in size. For more suggestions, read our guide on the Best lures and soft plastics to catch redfin
When targeting freshwater species such as trout and redfin we recommend fishing with a spinning light rod. This will make the experience more enjoyable whilst improving 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. Redfin is more active in the warmer months, whilst trout are more active during the cooler months. Most freshwater species tend to feed more aggressively at Dawn and Dusk. My personal favourite is fishing sundown, particularly in the warmer months.
Recommended baits for Lake Hyland
The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.
- Scrub worms
- Mudeye
- Powerbait
- maggots
- Earthworms
- yabbies
- live minnows
Recommended lures for Lake Hyland
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 Hyland
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 Hyland
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 Hyland
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 targeting them with bait.
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 through the mainline, typically around 8 pounds, 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 six bait keeper hook or a 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.
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.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other photos and videos shown on the Lake Hyland Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Lake Hyland 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
