Welcome to the Bostock Reservoir Fishing Guide. Bostock Reservoir is located off Shaw’s Road exit towards Ballan on your way to Daylesford. It’s a challenging fishing destination but those who persist can be rewarded with trophy-size trout and redfin. After some years of low water levels, Bostock is once again near capacity and fishing well. It’s stocked regularly with rainbow trout and has stunning views, plus a picnic and BBQ area making this a good family fishing destination.
Check out the vid below fishing for trout and redfin at Bostock Reservoir
Things to do at Bostock Reservoir
Bostock Reservoir is a nice location with open picnic grounds, gas BBQ facilities, and toilets. I take the family there to explore the area and then settle down for some fishing and kite flying with a BBQ. The location offers great views overlooking the pine trees opposite the lake. On calm days the lake represents a mirror image of this which is great for photo opportunities. Walking amongst the pine trees is also a nice thing to do but do be wary of snakes which are quite common around here. A short drive from Bostock includes vibrant townships Bacchus Marsh, Daylesford and Ballan. Bostock Reservoir Fishing Guide.
BECOME A FISHINGMAD MEMBER & UNLOCK ACCESS TO
Workshops | Giveaways | Podcasts | Competitions | Reports | Maps | GPS Marks | Rigging Tutorials | Sounder School | Exclusive Footage | Tackle Talks | Gear Guides | Kayak Club | Much More
Fishing at Bostock Reservoir
At Bostock reservoir, you can catch ( see how to target each species below )
- Redfin
- Brown Trout
- Rainbow Trout
- Tench
- Carp
- Roach
- Eels
Bostock Reservoir is a large open waterway. Most anglers will fish near the entrance opposite the main car park and BBQs and this area can get quite busy during peak times. An effective way to fish this system is to cover ground. Spending 15 minutes in an isolated area and if no bites keep moving. Ideally look for any structure such as submerged trees, rocks, and weeds. ( which were easily identifiable some years ago when the water levels were low ). Certain parts of the reservoir are deeper than others. You’ll find walking right towards the east of the lake will provide deeper sections opposite the pines. The lake is open and very exposed on windy days. The water clarity is generally very clean but can dirty up after days of heavy rain and wind. Certain areas of this reservoir are quite shallow and weedy. This can be a tough system to fish. You will catch plenty of small redfin in the shallows, particularly on small soft plastics and lures and the odd large trout or redfin.
In recent years the reservoir has been heavily stocked with rainbow trout fingerlings. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. Bostock fishes well seasonally with redfin active in the warmer months and trout active in the cooler months. Most freshwater species have a tendency to feed more aggressively at Dawn and Dusk. My personal favourite is fishing sundown, particularly in the warmer months for redfin. In the colder months, you are likely to see trout surfacing at Bostock in the early mornings. This is a great location for lures and 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.
Long casting spoons and spinners weighing between 5 and 12 grams are great for land-based anglers. They allow you to cast a long way covering much ground whilst being able to target both trout and redfin at the same time. Work them back at a medium to slow pace slow roll and the flash colours and darting action will attract fish. You often see trout surfacing in the early mornings and evenings eating insects off the surface so insect imitations are also good options.
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.
Fishing Gear Guide
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.
Places to fish near Bostock Reservoir
Bostock Reservoir Stocking
150,000 trout Salmonids have been stocked in Bostock Reservoir since 1990. ( Table below provided by VFA “Victorian Fisheries Authority” )
Recommended lures Bostock Reservoir
Need some help choosing lures & soft plastics. The video 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 Bostock Reservoir
The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.
- Mudeye
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- maggots
- Earthworms
- yabbies
- live minnows
Targeting Redfin at Bostock 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 equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin responds well to lures and soft plastics, check our guide on the best lures for catching Redfin When using soft plastics, we recommend curl tails, minnow imitations, and paddle tails in both natural and bright colours. Rigged with a jig head that’s 1/6 through to 1/20 in weight. 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 Trout at Bostock Reservoir
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 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.
Targeting Carp at Bostock Reservoir
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 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.
The lake is managed by Barwon Water. There are plenty of snake signs around Bostock Reservoir for good reason, so when walking around please be wary of brown and tiger snakes. I have seen the odd snakes driving into the main entrance area. Feel free to view water levels at Bostock Reservoir before planning your next trip. No fishing with waders fishing is only permitted from the shore, No boats, No cleaning of fish onsite, Always carry your Victorian fishing license, Using berley is not permitted, FishingMad encourages ‘catch & release’ of all native species to help maintain the water quality within the lake however European Carp must not be returned.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All images and videos shown on this page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Bostock Reservoir 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
