Welcome to the Loddon River Fishing Guide. The Loddon River is the 2nd longest river in Victoria, behind the Goulburn. Stretching 392 km long, it offers a wide variety of fishing and camping opportunities. The river is impounded by the Cairn Curran (147,000 ML) and Laanecoorie (12,000 ML) reservoirs. The Loddon River, along its journey, is home to yellowbelly, cod, trout, redfin and carp.
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Things to do along the Loddon River
There are lots of families and fishing-friendly accommodations along the Loddon River, which passes through many popular townships, including Daylesford and Bendigo. There are spectacular scenic views, good camping, swimming and great fishing. There is nothing overly fancy along the river but an excellent opportunity to unplug. Launch your boat or kayak at Bridgewater, swim in the town’s waterhole and enjoy the scenery of Serpentine Creek. You can also explore Mount Kooyoora’s Indigenous rock wells or rock climbing. This area has a rich gold history in the box-ironbark forests where some of Australia’s biggest nuggets were found.
Fishing the Loddon River
At the Loddon River, you can catch ( see how to target each species below )
- Murray Cod
- Golden Perch
- Rainbow Trout
- Brown Trout
- Redfin
- Carp
- Roach
- Eels
There has been much native fish stocking of the Loddon River in recent years, with a conscious effort to boost yellowbelly and cod numbers. The system has clean water and is full of timber structure, so these fish will do well in this system for many years to come.
If you plan on fishing with bait then scrub worms, earthworms, power bait, yabbies, minnows and mudeye are a great choice. You can suspend baits from a float or use a basic running sinker or paternoster rigs to great effect when bait fishing. Here you can have great success fishing with a wide range of soft plastics & lures. Click here to read our guide on the best lures to catch redfin. If you targeting cod and yellow belly then some great lure choices would include lip-less crank-baits such as Jackall TN series, stump jumpers which can be cast or trolled, surface lures, vibes, spinnerbaits, bassman spinners, large grub style soft plastics in dark colours. The new range of Savage Gear swimbaits is also a great option for the larger species.
We would highly recommend that you read our detailed guide on how to catch trout. Concentrate some of your time on the structure. This is where many fish will reside. Tying your boat or kayak up against trees and dropping baits and lures hard up against the structure is a real key to success. Take advantage of down scan and side scan technologies on your sounder and spend some time moving between the structure to find the fish. When targeting freshwater species such as trout, redfin, 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. Trout and Redfin are notorious for feeding more heavily at Dawn and Dusk. With redfin more active in the warmer months and trout more active in the colder months.
If your site is set on catching a big cod then you’ll need to up your outfit. A 6 foot to 7-foot rod in a 4-8 kilo or 6-12 kilo class rod and a quality baitcaster reel spooled with 20 to 50-pound braid finished with a solid Fluro carbon leader of equal strength. There is a whole range of baitcaster options suiting different budgets. Spring is the best time of year for targeting golden perch ( yellow belly ) and cod. They can be caught at any time of the day but often the last 2 hours of daylight can be the best. Trout are more active in the colder months and redfin ( perch ) are more active in the warmer months. Again you can catch all these different species during any part of the day, though some fish will be more active at Dawn and Dusk.
Loddon River Fishing Gear Selection
Multiple target species are at this location, all requiring quite different setups. And even picking a setup for a specific species here can be tricky. When targeting yellowbelly, a light or medium baitcasting rod should be paired with a 150 baitcast reel, or, as we often prefer, targeting them with a 2-5kg spin rod paired with a 2500-size reel. When targeting redfin and trout, we recommend a 2-4 kg spin rod paired with a 2500 size reel. If bait fishing for multiple species such as carp, yellowbelly, and redfin, a 3-5kg spin rod paired with a 2500 reel would work great
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 huge fish with large lures or smaller if you’re casting smaller lures for smaller cod.
Recommended lures fishing the Loddon River
Need some help choosing lures & soft plastics. The video is a detailed guide to get you started.
- Spinnerbaits
- Stump jumpers
- Bassman spinnerbait Codman
- Megabass Vatalion 190mm jointed swimbait
- Codger 55mm cod hard body
- Jackall TN50 & TN60
- Rapala X-RAP PETO 14cm
- 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
- Daiwa bait junkie 2.5-inch grub
- Daiwa double clutch
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Tasmanian devil blade
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Tasmanian devil lure
- Zman 2.5-inch grub
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
Recommended baits fishing the Loddon River
The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.
- Mudeye
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- maggots
- Earthworms
- yabbies
- live minnows
Targeting Murray Cod at Loddon River
Murray Cod is Australia’s largest freshwater fish, which grows to impressive sizes. Cod are ambush predators that love the cover of structure, so make sure you concentrate your efforts on any visible structure, including logs and submerged trees. They will also seek shelter in deeper holes and rock ledges. Cod are most active in low-light conditions, such as sunrise and sundown. A medium to heavy bait caster rod is ideal when targeting cod. This might be a stiff 6-foot rods in 6-10 kilo class matched with a suitable size bait caster reel spooled with 20lb to 30lb braid and 30lb to 40lb leader. Good lure options for Murray Cod include hard body lures, surface lures, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, shads, lipless crankbaits, paddle tail and curtail soft plastics. These should be worked slowly or tolled from your boat or kayak if access is permitted. There are some amazing surface lures on the market these days including imitation mice, frogs, ducks, and snakes with realistic action that are fun to target cod with. Bait anglers can target Murray cod with live yabbies and worms.
Watch a detailed video of Al from FishingMad walking you through how to catch big Murray Cod.
Targeting Trout at Loddon River
We would highly recommend that you read our detailed guide on how to catch trout which details our favourite lures, baits and techniques. You can follow trout stocking timelines by reading the Victorian trout stocking guide as part of the target 1 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022 initiatives. When targeting trout with lures we recommend using shallow diving hard body minnows, metal spoons, spinners, Tassie devils and soft plastics which are also very effective on trout. If your bait fishing, then Mudeye, scrub worms, power bait, yabbies and minnows suspended from a float or a running sinker rig are great options when targeting trout at this location. Trout are more active in cold conditions with most catches on the first and last light of the day. We recommend targeting trout with a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 1000, 2000, or 2500 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. If there are larger trophy size trout around then you can 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 Yellowbelly at Loddon River
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.
Watch Al from FishingMad fish at Lake Eppalock, and walking you through gear and techniques.
Targeting Redfin at Loddon River
We recommend targeting redfin with a light spin outfit. This will make the experience more enjoyable and improve your catch rates. A 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin respond really well to lures and soft plastics so do 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 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 allowing you to cast great distances and targeting the bigger size reddies. Just remember they are quite heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Targeting Carp at Loddon River
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.
All rural areas are inhabited by wildlife such as Snakes and Lizards, so be wary of venomous snakes such as Brown, Tiger and Red-bellied Black. 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 supplied VFA and DEPI. All images and videos shown on the Loddon River Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Loddon River Fishing Guide. If you believe this location guide is missing any key information or requires corrections, please email our team at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details. Thank you
