Welcome to the Lake Nhill Fishing Guide. This man-made lake was made in the 1960s, not far from the surrounding towns of Dimboola and Kaniva, within the Hindmarsh Shire. It’s an excellent spot for fishing with trout and redfin, the targeted species. There are BBQ facilities, bird watching, and it is popular for skiing and swimming. A popular spot with power skis so make sure you keep your distance from powered boats and vehicles. In 2020, the lake was temporarily closed due to an outbreak of sick and dying birds around the lake. It is suspected this was caused by poisoning, which was investigated by local authorities. The lake was also temporarily closed due to an outbreak of blue-green algae. The lake has since reopened. In October 2018, a floating fishing pontoon was installed by the VFA, providing an excellent location for some land-based fishing.
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Recommended baits for Lake Nhill
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 Nhill
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 Nhill
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 Nhill
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.
Trout and Redfin are notorious for feeding more heavily at Dawn and Dusk. My personal favourite is fishing at sundown. Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All photos and videos shown on the Lake Nhill Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Lake Nhill 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
