Welcome to the Stony Creek Reservoir Fishing Guide. Stony Creek Reservoir is located not too far from the township of Anakie, towards the end of Geelong-Ballan Road. It’s a scenic freshwater fishing location that provides domestic drinking water supply for the township of Geelong and surrounding areas. This lake is popular and has been heavily fished in recent years. However, for anglers, it still provides an exciting opportunity to catch a large redfin, rainbow trout or brown trout. I have seen and caught some large fish from this lake, mainly near the slight rock wall. The reservoir has been stocked heavily with both rainbow and brown trout in recent years, and this pattern will continue as part of the state government’s target 10 million by 2020 initiative. Please note that there are three lakes in the immediate area, separated by roads, but only one is permitted for fishing.
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Check out a video we recorded recently at Stony Creek, targeting large rainbow trout using long casting metal spoons.
Things to do at Stoney Creek Reservoir
Upper Stony Creek reservoir is located roughly 40 kilometres from Geelong. It’s a 1-hour drive from Melbourne, nestled within the Brisbane ranges. At the location, there are basic facilities available, such as picnic tables. This is a very scenic location, and if you enjoy bush walks, there are numerous walking trails. There is also bird watching and fishing, which present good options too. It can be tricky keeping your footing with all the rocks, especially along the rock walls. When fishing, take care as you walk. Also, as with all countries, rural areas, always be mindful of snakes, particularly in the warmer months when snakes are more active. Please note that boats are not permitted, Fish from the shore only (no wading), and no cleaning of fish on site. No berleying, ground baiting, or digging for bait. And of course, a Victorian fishing licence is required. Dogs are not permitted within the area.
Fishing at Stoney Creek Reservoir
Upper Stoney Creek contains a healthy population of Redfin. You often get smaller ones following your soft plastics, but there are some large ones in there too. This system has also been stocked heavily in recent years with brown and rainbow trout. Last year, 20,000 rainbow trout and 5,000 brown trout were stocked. Both species can grow to great sizes here. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. This is a great location for lures and soft plastics. Click here to see our guide on the best lures and soft plastics to catch redfin. Long casting lures are great for land-based anglers. Top options include the ever-reliable Tassie Devil, Nories Wasaby, and Pontoon 21 Paco spoons—these present great options for targeting both trout and Redfin. Shallow diving hard body lures such as bullet lures, Daiwa double-clutch, Rapala Countdown series and Savage gear minnows are also excellent choices. Soft plastics and spinners are also fantastic options. I have had the most success here walking the banks near the rock wall and slow rolling long casting spoons and hoping soft plastics.
If you plan on fishing with bait from the banks, then live minnows, scrub worms, yabbies, and power bait are great options. There are some good-sized redfin and trout at Upper Stony Creek Reservoir, so you may choose to fish a little heavier than usual. This can also work well when casting heavy lures and spoons, generally when targeting Trout and Redfin fish, as light as possible, which will make the experience more fun and improve your chances. Redfin will actively take many baits or lures. To maximise your chances, fish with a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo rod. The main line spooled with 4-pound braid finished with a good-quality leader. Again, here it’s ok to step that up to 3-5 kilos and an 8-pound line and leader. The majority of trout taken here are generally caught during the first and last 2 hours of the day. Redfin can be caught at any time of day. Trout are more active in the colder months, and redfin are more active in the warmer months. Have a look at this video, which highlights how to target stocked rainbow trout.
Recommended baits for Stony Creek Reservoir
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 Stony Creek Reservoir
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
Targeting Trout at Stony Creek Reservoir
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 you’re 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.
We conducted a test to see which would perform better for stocked trout powerbait or lures.
Targeting Redfin at Stony Creek Reservoir
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 an 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 target the bigger size reddies. Just remember, they are quite heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Stony Creek Reservoir Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Stony Creek Reservoir 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
