Welcome to the Rowville Lakes Fishing Guide. Rowville Lakes is a lovely urban fishing destination in the southeast suburbs of Melbourne. The surrounding area is made up of 3 separate lakes, including Sutton Lake, Hill Lake & Cogley Lake. They are frequently stocked with rainbow trout during school holidays and are an excellent spot for fishing with the kids. The lake has hosted several recent trout fishing events and competitions, which have been a great way to encourage families to the area.
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Things to do at Rowville Lakes
Rowville Lakes is a scenic location with nice walking trails. These walking trails are flat and pleasant for most. In the area is the Rowville Lakes playground, a basic playground with slides and swings for toddlers. This is a quiet location ideal for duck feeding and bird watching, with its own bird sanctuary on the island of Sutton Lake. It’s also a good spot for picnics and, of course, fishing. Bring the kids along for a fish during the school holiday trout stocking. Nearby are the golf course, local shopping centre, and Caribbean Gardens Market. Local attractions within 15 15-minute drive include Tirhatuan Park, Kokoda Trail Memorial Walk, Lysterfield Park and Jells Park.
Watch our detailed video guide on our top 10 redfin lures below.
Fishing at Rowville Lakes
At Rowville Lakes, you can target several freshwater fish species, including
- Trout
- Redfin
- Silver Perch
- Carp
Here you can fish either from the banks or by kayak and non-powered vessels. Small redfin and stocked trout will be your main catches, but we have also seen redfin up to 1 kilo and carp up to a meter in length caught. This lake is regularly stocked with rainbow trout just before school holidays. Over the last couple of years, 400 rainbow trout yearlings have been added in each school holiday term. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. 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 a fishing rod with a 2-4 kilo capacity. Coupled with a 2000 or 2500 reel spooled with 6-8 pounds of finished line, and a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader.
If you plan to fish from the banks with bait, Power Bait in bright colours, worms, and maggots are great options. You can also try using live minnows and mudeye, either on a light running sinker rig, a paternoster rig, or suspended from a float. We have seen plenty of trout and redfin caught using these baits and methods. Rowville Lakes is an excellent location for lures and soft plastics. There are lots of stocked trout and small redfin, so small minnow imitations and paddle tails, as well as soft plastics, are excellent choices. Tassie devils and spinners in smaller sizes and bright colours should be some of your first choices. Check out our guide on the Best lures for catching Redfin
You can also try your luck with long casting metal lures, which are an excellent option for land-based anglers. These are great for bigger fish and allow you to cast long distances. Top choices include the Nories wasabi and pontoon 21 paco spoon, which are great for targeting both trout and redfin. Shallow-diving hard-body lures such as bullet lures, Daiwa Double Clutch, and Rapala Countdown series are also excellent choices. If you plan to target carp from the banks, we recommend using corn kernels, worms, and bread. Again, either on a basic running sinker rig or suspended from a float. If you are actively targeting carp, then it would be wise to upgrade your fishing outfit to something a little heavier. Perhaps a 3-5 kilo fishing rod, coupled with a 3000-size reel spooled with 10-pound line, is a good starting point. 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 Rowville Lakes
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 Rowville Lakes
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 at Yarrambat Lake for huge trout.
Targeting Trout at Rowville Lakes
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 Rowville Lakes
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 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 during 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 farther and target larger-sized reddies. Just remember, they are pretty heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Targeting Silver Perch at Rowville Lakes
Silver Perch have been heavily stocked in recent years and are a great species for bait anglers. They have a legal size limit of 30cm and a bag limit of 5 per person (0 limit for Rivers and streams north of the Great Dividing Range, excluding the Wimmera Basin). 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. Using a simple running sinker rig or float rig with a small size six baitkeeper hook with scrubworms, shrimp or yabbies as the best bait. They will also take small soft plastics, but most commonly are targeted with bait.
Targeting Carp at Roville Lakes
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 to a nearby carp, casting towards them, and working the lure or 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, typically around 8 pounds, through the mainline, as shown in blue. Then tie a medium swivel to the end, allowing the sinker to run freely up the mainline. Then, tie on 50cm of 8-pound fluorocarbon leader at the other end of the swivel (the leader is shown in grey). Finished with a hook. I generally use a size 6 baitkeeper hook or a size 10 long-shank hook, 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.
Free parking is available just off Stud Road. The walking trails start from the entrance near the community centre. As with all areas with water and high grass, always be cautious of snakes. Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. Header O’Brien real estate. All other photos and videos shown on the Rowville Lakes Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Rowville Lakes 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
