Welcome to the Sumsion Gardens Lake Fishing Guide. Sumsion Gardens Lake is a small lake within Belvoir Park. Located in Wodonga, less than 5 minutes from the Hume Highway. This is a managed family fishing lake as part of local initiatives to grow fishing ( Target 1 million by 2020 ) and has a yearly stocking of rainbow trout yearlings. It’s a lovely location scattered with lush gardens, uncovered picnic areas, local birdlife, and fishing platforms, which makes it an ideal location to take the family for a fun-filled day of fishing and fun at the park.
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Check out this video with some helpful tips on catching stocked trout.
Things to do at Sumsion gardens, lake Belvoir Park
This is a lovely location for the family to visit, with well-maintained parklands and lush gardens. It’s an excellent place for a picnic with shelter, undercover BBQs, gazebos, toilets, a nearby dog park, and a children’s playground. There is also a walking or cycling track that goes around the lake with scattered fitness equipment stations. It’s a picturesque, scenic location, great for photos at sunrise and sundown, and a good variety of bird habitats.
Fishing at Sumsion Gardens Lake
There are numerous fishing platforms a short walk from the car park. The vast majority of the shoreline is accessible to land-based anglers, with the deeper sections of water to be found along the northern side. At Sumsion Gardens Lake, you can target several freshwater fish species, including
- Rainbow trout
- European carp
This lake is regularly stocked with rainbow trout during school holiday breaks. In 2020, the lake received 980 rainbow trout yearlings. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. If you’re bait fishing here, we recommend using power bait in bright colours, live minnows, scrub worms, maggots, corn, and mudeye. Either suspended from a float, a paternoster rig, or a small running sinker rig (using a very small sinker when using a paternoster rig or running sinker rig). This location also fishes well 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 around 5cm in size. For more suggestions, read our guide on the Best lures and soft plastics to catch redfin
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 pound finished with a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader. Redfin is more active in the warmer months, whilst trout are more active during the cooler months. Most freshwater species tend to feed more aggressively at Dawn and Dusk. My personal favourite is fishing the sundown, particularly in the warmer months.
Recommended baits for Sumsion Gardens Lake
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- Mudeye
- maggots
- corn
Recommended lures for Sumsion Gardens Lake
- Bluefox spinners
- Daiwa DR joint minnows
- Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
- Savage Gear minnow blade
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Daiwa Presso minnows
- Tasmanian Devil Blade
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
- strike tiger nymph
- Rapala countdown floating minnow
- Daiwa Double Clutch
- Tasmanian Devil lure
- Gulp 3-inch minnow
- Zman 2.5 inch grub
- Daiwa Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Savage Gear Fathead crank shallow diving
- Squidges biotough grub
Targeting Trout at Sumsion gardens lake
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 Carp at Sumsion Gardens Lake
There is a large volume of carp in local lakes however they are fun to catch and you can learn more about catching carp have a read our detailed guide to carp fishing around Victoria. When targeting carp, standard baits such as corn, bread, and maggots work great for carp here. Using a simple running sinker rig with a pea-size sinker works great in this area. So, does suspending baits using a float. We have also fished well using unweighted baits. You can also target carp with hard body lures and soft plastics. This is a complex technique that generally requires sight casting. This means spotting a nearby carp and casting right in there and working the lure of plastic slowly, hoping they will strike. It’s tough, but very rewarding when you catch a carp using this method. Most, however, will stick to targeting them with bait.
For rod selection, a 3-5 kilo rod coupled with a 4000 size reel is very suitable. You could even fish a little heavier with rods designed for snapper that are generally 4-7 kilo 7 foot in length. For fun, I have caught some monster size carp using a 2-4 kilo rod and 6-pound braid. 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. Always carry your Victorian fishing license. 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 6 bait keeper hook or 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 up, then 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 breeze which will stop the float from coming back to you. If you’re not getting bites, adjust the line depth and, if necessary, add a splint shot to increase weight.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other photos and videos shown on the Sumsion Gardens Lake Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Sumsion Gardens Lake 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
