Welcome to the Acheron River Fishing Guide. The Acheron River is an inland system off the Goulburn within the Yarra Ranges. With slow and fast-flowing waters through lush farmlands such as Buxton and Taggerty. The river spans 84 kilometres with clear and shallow waters it’s a fly fishing delight for trout. Most areas are very shallow and deeper pools up to waist-deep. It can also fish well during certain times of the year with lightly weighted soft plastics and shallow diving lures.
Things to do at Acheron River
The Archeron River is within beautiful country Victoria on the doorstep of the Yarra Valley and Goulburn. Here you can get fly fishing lessons, go on scenic walks, and horseback riding tours. Good accommodation is available at the Big 4 Taggerty holiday park along the river. The High Country offers adventures such as four-wheel driving, mountain bike riding and walks within the Cathedral Ranges
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Fishing Acheron River
At Acheron River, you can target several freshwater fish species ( see how to target each species below )
- brown trout
- rainbow trout
- redfin
- blackfish
The Acheron has natural flowing water and active insects, therefore, fly fishing with wet flies and nymphs that imitate local insects is a sure way to catch trout. So is using unweighted baits such as worms flowing with the current and floating or shallow diving hard body lures. Please ensure you follow opening seasons when fishing in these areas which generally open around September. This is a great location for shallow diving lures and lightly weighted soft plastics. Check out our guide on the best lures to catch Redfin. There are 2 effective retrieval methods the slow roll and the hopping/twitching techniques. The slow roll requires you to cast your lure or plastic and do a slow continuous roll of the reel. The natural built-in action of the lure or soft plastic will create the necessary swimming action. Alternatively, you can use the hopping/twitching technique which requires you to add subtle lifts, twitches and pauses to imitate a wounded bait fish. Both techniques work well here across a variety of soft plastics and lures.
If you plan to fish with bait from the bank good options include scrub worms, maggots or yabbies on a light running sinker rig or paternoster rig. You can adjust the sinker size to get the desired casting distance. Other good options include power bait in bright colours, minnows and mudeye suspended from a float. Ideally fishing with the wind at your back to prevent the float from coming back to you. We have seen many trout and perch caught using these bait and methods.
When targeting freshwater species such as trout and redfin we recommend fishing with a light spinning outfit. 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. Spooled with a decent quality braid between 4-8 pounds and finished with one rod length of a fluorocarbon leader. If you plan on targeting carp from the banks then we would recommend using corn kernels, worms or bread as good bait options. Either on a basic running sinker rig or suspended from a float. It would also be wise to upgrade your fishing outfit to something a little heavier. Perhaps a 2-5 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 3000 size reel spooled with 8-pound line. Redfin is more active in the warmer months whilst trout are more active during the cooler months. Most freshwater species have a tendency to feed more aggressively at Dawn and Dusk. My personal favourite is fishing the sundown, particularly in the warmer months.
Places to fish near Acheron River
Archeon River Fish Stocking
Between 1990 and 1997 2,000 trout were stocked in the Arhcin River, however, no further trout have been stocked here since.
Recommended lures Acheron River
Need some help choosing lures and soft plastics to catch trout. The video below is a detailed guide to get you started.
- 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
- Daiwa bait junkie 2.5-inch grub
- Daiwa double clutch
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Tasmanian devil blade
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Tasmanian devil lure
- Zman 2.5-inch grub
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
Recommended baits Acheron River
The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.
- Mudeye
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- maggots
- Earthworms
- yabbies
- live minnows
- caterpillar/crickets/grasshoppers/beetles
Targeting Trout at Acheron River
We recommend you read our 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 a 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 a fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. We conducted a test to see which would perform better for stocked trout power bait or lures. Watch the video below to find out the results which were interesting.
Targeting Redfin at Acheron 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 equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin respond 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 targeting the bigger size reddies. Just remember they are quite heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Targeting Carp at Acheron River
There is a large volume of carp however they are fun to catch. You can learn more about catching carp by reading our guide to carp fishing around Victoria. When targeting carp baits such as corn, bread, and maggots work great with a running sinker rig with a pea-size sinker. So, does suspend baits using a float and even unweighted baits. You can also target carp with hard body lures, soft plastics and fly but this is a difficult technique that generally requires sight casting in shallow clear waters. Most however will stick to targeting them with bait. For rod selection, a 3-5 kilo rod coupled with a 2500, or 3000 size reel is suitable. You can also fish heavier or lighter if you like. We like to target carp on sundown, in the warmer months when you see carp swimming along the edges or jumping out of the water around September-November during their spawning season. European carp must not be returned to the water.
A simple effective rig is to thread a small running sinker through the mainline (shown in blue) around 8 pounds. 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 (shown in grey ). I generally use a size 6 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank which is perfect for corn kernels or scrub worms, or treble style hooks for baits like bread.
If you are 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 then 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 Acheron River Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Acheron River Fishing Guide. If you feel this location guide is missing key information or needs any corrections made, then please let us know by emailing our team at enquiries@fishingmad.com.au with specific details in the email. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures you have from this location with us. Thank you
