Welcome to the Wimmera River Fishing Guide. The Wimmera River flows through the Grampians on the northern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, passing through major towns such as Horsham and Dimboola. It’s a long river stretching over 270 kilometres. It offers excellent camping and fishing grounds. The main catches are catfish and yellowbelly, and increasing numbers of large Murray cod.
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Things to do at Wimmera River
The River itself is a highlight of the area. It’s a scenic area with tall red gums and native birds surrounding parts of the river. There are multiple boat ramps to help people enjoy all sorts of water-based recreational activities, including kayaking, canoeing, swimming, boating and fishing. There are reasonable family camping grounds at the Horseshoe Bend Campground, which has all the basic amenities needed for a great time outdoors. Here you will also find good walking trails along the river. Furthermore, there are nice areas to visit within a short driving distance, including Sawyer Park and Weir Park. There is also a nice playground for the kids at Adventure Island and the Anzac Bridge.
Fishing Wimmera River
At the Wimmera River, you can target
- Estuary Perch
- Golden perch ( yellowbelly )
- Murray cod
- Silver Perch
- English Perch ( redfin )
- carp
There is good fishing access along the Wimmera River near Horsham and Jeparit. Here you can catch catfish, estuary perch, redfin, golden perch, carp & Murray cod when bait fishing, yabbies, scrub worms, and peeled prawns work well. For golden perch, the old stump jumper and spinnerbaits have been a popular and reliable choice. Soft plastics are a great choice, as are spinners, tassie devils, and mid-diving hard body lures. Flick towards structure, then slow-roll with occasional hops and pauses on the retrieve. If you are targeting yellowbelly, vibes, blades, spinnerbaits, and lipless cranks are also great options.
This is an excellent location for lures and soft plastics. Check out our guide on the best lures to catch Redfin. Long casting metal lures and spoons are great for land-based anglers and will allow you to target both trout and redfin at the same time. Shallow diving hard body and minnow imitation lures are also excellent choices. You will also certainly catch your fair share of redfin and trout with soft plastics and spinners. You often see trout surfacing to take flies off the surface, such as flies and crickets, so imitations like the Savage Gear Mayfly are great options. When targeting freshwater species such as trout, redfin, and estuary perch, we recommend using a light spinning rod. This will make the experience more enjoyable and improve your catch rates. We suggest a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod. Coupled with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 size reel that’s been spooled with a decent quality braid between 4-8 pounds. Then, I finish with roughly a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader. Late evenings and throughout the night have fished really well on the Wimmera. Of course, you can fish any time of day, though some fish will be more active at Dawn and Dusk.
Wimmera 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 fishing lures for the Wimmera River.
- Gulp 3-inch minnow
- Small curtail and paddletail soft plastics
- stump jumpers
- Jackall TN50
- Soft Vibes and Blades
- Storm Gomoku 40mm surface popper
- Zerek fish trap
- Jackall transams
- Samaki vibelicious
- eco gear ZX40
Recommended baits at Wimmera River
At this location, we highly recommend the baits suggested below. There are several ways to present baits, including a running sinker rig, a paternoster rig, or a dropper rig. The rig and sinker choice will depend on the species you are targeting and the conditions, such as wind and tidal strength.
- Scrub worms
- Powerbait
- Yabbies
- Mudeye
- Live minnow
- Maggots
- Cheese cubes
Targeting Estuary Perch at Wimmera River
Another highlight of fishing in this area is targeting Estuary perch with surface and shallow diving lures. The action can be frantic on warm, balmy evenings with low wind. Listen for the sound of breaking water, which indicates EPs are feeding. The excitement an angler gets from an EP smashing a surface lure on light gear is something that genuinely needs to be experienced. It almost catches you by surprise when that aggressive strike comes. Small surface poppers, cicadas, blades, surface minnows and pencil lures work well here. So do shallow diving hardbody lures. Noteworthy options include bent minnows, Rapala Countdown Series, Nories Laydown Minnows, and shallow-diving cranks. Basically, anything that doesn’t dive too deep and makes a good vibrating action will work well. You can use any colour choice. We often start with silvers that mimic small baitfish or mullet.
EPs also respond incredibly well to a wide range of soft plastics, even when lightly weighted. Including curl tails, paddle tails and minnow imitations. The trusty 2.5-inch grubs and minnows are an excellent choice. These imitate small baitfish that the EPs are actively feeding on. We would recommend mixing up the retrieval speeds and pauses and playing around with different colours. Where possible, fish along with the structure and stay alert for signs such as breaking water. Fishing for Estuary Perch requires finesse. We recommend an ultralight fishing combo consisting of a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo spin rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 1000 or 2000 size reel spooled with 2-8 pound line and equivalent fluorocarbon leader, when bait fishing, use a 2-4 kilo rod around 7 feet in length. Coupled with a 2500 size reel, either a float or a small running sinker to a swivel and a fine leader.
Targeting Yellowbelly at Wimmera River
Yellow belly, AKA Golden Perch, is a beautiful freshwater fish in this system. With a rich food source, the yellowbelly grows to thick and plump sizes. Good lure choices include curl tail soft plastics with the zman 2.5-inch grubz and Gulp 3-inch grub minnow, both in black, are standout choices. Soft vibes like the Zerek fish trap, Jackall transams 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, spinnerbaits, bassman spinners, and large grub-style soft plastics in dark colours. Soft plastics work best on a 1/8 or 1/4 jig head, slow-rolled with any structure. This technique works particularly well when tying your boat or kayak up against trees. To use it, slowly work the soft plastic up 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 down scan and side scan technologies on your sounder and spend some time moving between the structure to find the fish. Other lures can be worked amongst the timber but generally work well in open water, being slow-rolled or trolled. When it comes to rod selection, we typically use a light spin rod around 7 feet in length in 1-4, 2-4 or 3-5 kilo class paired with a 1000, 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. Good bait rigs include a paternoster rig with a small sinker at the bottom or a running sinker rig with scrub worms or yabbies.
Targeting Murray Cod at Wimmera River
Murray Cod is Australia’s largest freshwater fish, which grows to impressive sizes. Murray 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. Murray 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. At this system, which has giant cod, we recommend 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 also fish lighter, which might be a stiff 6-foot rod in the 6-10 kilo class matched with a suitable size bait-caster reel spooled with a 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. If access is permitted, these should be worked slowly or trolled from your boat or kayak. Some terrific surface lures are 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 Redfin at Wimmera 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 an equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin responds well to lures and soft plastics, so 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 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 in allowing you to cast great distances and target the bigger reddies. Just remember, they are quite heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Targeting Silver Perch at Wimmera River
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 Wimmera River
There is a large volume of carp in local lakes; however, they are fun to catch, and you can learn more about catching carp by reading our detailed guide to carp fishing around Victoria. Standard baits such as corn, bread, and maggots work great when targeting carp. Using a simple running sinker rig with a pea-sized sinker works excellent in this area. So, do suspend 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, casting right in there, and working the plastic lure slowly, hoping they will strike. It’s challenging but rewarding when you catch a carp using this method. Most, however, will stick to targeting them with bait.
A 3-5 kilo rod coupled with a 4000 size reel is very suitable for rod selection. You could even fish a little heavier with rods designed for snapper that are generally 4-7 kilos, 7 feet in length. 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. Always carry your Victorian fishing license. 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 scrubs; 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.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Wimmera River Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Wimmera River 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
