Green Hill Lake Ararat

Welcome to the Green Hill Lake Ararat Fishing Guide. Green Hill Lake is located on the Western Highway 4 kilometers east of Ararat next to the local racecourse. Roughly 2 hour and 20-minute drive from Melbourne.

Things to do at Green Hill Lake Ararat

For starters, you are right next to the Ararat racecourse which welcomes many for its regular horse racing events. Green Hill lake has great onsite amenities including covered Picnic Pavilions, BBQ’s. drinking taps, fire pits, picnic tables, chairs, exercise machines, a fishing pontoon, a boat ramp, ample parking, and showers. You are also able to camp here at no cost however there is a donation box. during your stay. There are walking tracks, active bird life a concrete walking or cycling path that goes into Ararat. It’s a simple yet lovely spot to take the family for a picnic, walk, swim or fish.

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 Green Hill Lake Ararat

Green Hill Lake in Ararat has its own boat ramp and makes excellent fishing for small boats, kayaks and land based. At Green Hill Lake Ararat, you can catch ( see how to target each species below )

• Rainbow Trout
• Redfin
• Carp
• Eels

Watch this video of FishingMad fishing the Grampians

Green Hill Lake is a small fishing lake that has been socked in recent years with rainbow trout. All this is part of the VFA target of 1 million by 2020 and a target of 10 million in 2022 initiatives to improve fishing opportunities around Victoria. Simple fishing methods are very effective in this fishing lake. However, the most effective method may be trolling old-school favourites like Tassie devils, Shallow diving hard body lures and heavily weighted soft plastic minnow imitations are also excellent choices.

Traditional lures such as spinners and Tassie devils will also work really well, especially in bright colours. Long casting metal lures, vibes and spoons are a must-have option when fishing from the banks. They will allow you to cover great distances and target both trout and redfin at the same time. We cover how to target each individual species at this location further down. Either using simple baits such as worms, corn, and maggots of a basic running sinker rig or float. Or working lightly weighted soft plastics, hard body lures, and spinners.

The lake is open and the water clarity is generally clean but can dirty up after days of heavy rain and wind. Certain areas of this lake are quite shallow and weedy. You will catch plenty of small redfin in the shallows, particularly on small soft plastics and lures and the odd large carp or trout. Green Hill 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 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 early mornings and evenings eating insects off the surface so insect imitations are also good options.

Watch our detailed video guide on our top 10 redfin lures and soft plastics

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.

Recommended baits Green Hill Lake Ararat

The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.  

Targeting Trout at Green Hill Lake Ararat

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 your 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 Redfin at Green Hill Lake Ararat

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 Carp at Allans Flat Waterhole

No fishing with waders fishing is only permitted from the shore, No boats, No cleaning of fish onsite, and 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 Green Hill Lake Ararat Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Green Hill Lake Ararat 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