Rubicon River

Welcome to the Rubicon River Fishing Guide. Rubicon River is located 2 hours’ drive northeast of Melbourne, along the Maroondah Highway, south of the township of Thornton. It is highly regarded as one of the best trout fishing destinations that Victoria can offer. A shallow river system over 26 kilometres in length flows into the Goulburn River. With beautiful, picturesque scenery, crystal-clear flowing water, and trout that grow to amazing sizes. It’s a must-visit spot, especially if you are a keen fly fisherman. With shallow running water and odd deep pools, a keen eye will be able to sight cast for big trout in clear waters.

Things to do at Rubicon Reservoir

The Rubicon is a magnificent location to target trout. Rainbow trout, brown trout and brook trout. In recent years, brook trout have been caught in good numbers, which is very pleasing. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. In May 2020, a $22,000 Rubicon River Fish Habitat Enhancement project was undertaken, installing over 100 boulders into four areas along the river. The boulders increase the aquatic habitat for trout in fast-flowing waters. The project was supported by the ATF, VRFish, NFA and local councils. Please remember that there is an open and closed season for fishing along the Rubicon River. The 2020 trout and salmon closed season on rivers and streams is from 12:01 am on Tuesday, 9 June until 11:59 pm on Friday, 4 September. Limits apply, including 3 salmonids per day, of which no more than 2 fish can exceed 35cm.

The Rubicon River is a great place to walk along the banks with waders in search of clear and free-flowing water to target. This spot is notorious for fly fishing. Speak to your local tackle store about getting rigged up with a fly fishing kit. 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 1-3 or 2-4 kilo capacity. Coupled with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 size reel. Spooled with a decent quality braid between 4-8 pounds, finished with a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader. Due to shallow running water and small pockets and pools with trout that can be sight cast to. If lure fishing, then sticks to shallow diving hard body lures, lightly weighted soft plastics, and bug imitations such as mayfly and crickets. Small spinners that don’t sink too quickly will work as well.

If you are fishing with bait, then we would recommend using power bait in bright colours, live minnows, scrub worms, maggots and mudeye under a float, paternoster rig or a small running sinker rig. When fishing 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. For more suggestions read our guide on the Best lures and soft plastics to catch redfin Trout will bite all day long in this area but are notorious for feeding more heavily at Dawn and Dusk. My personal favourite is fishing at sundown.