Lake Hamilton

Welcome to the Lake Hamilton Fishing Guide. Lake Hamilton is a great fishing location near the Grampians. This manmade lake was built in 1977 and is found on the eastern side of the suburb of Hamilton surrounded by an emerging housing estate. A popular lake for a range of water sports

**BECOME A FISHINGMAD MEMBER** Exclusive Fishing Workshops, Exciting Monthly Giveaways, In-Depth Fishing Reports with GPS Coordinates, Members Podcast, Interactive Maps, Catch of the Month Competitions, Kayak Club, Gear Guides, Rigging Tutorials, Tackle Talks, Sounder School, Fishing Tips, Fish Cleaning tutorials, Behind the scenes content & more.

Watch a detailed video of us freshwater fishing and walking through trolling techniques

Things to do at Lake Hamilton

Lake Hamilton is a scenic lake not too far from the Grampians. It’s a popular spot for the family for a whole range of activities including walking or cycling around the track that goes around the lake. Also on water activities like fishing, sailing and rowing. There is a boat ramp on Mills road great for motored sports including speed boats and jet skis. The Lake itself has a car park, picnic grounds, BBQ facilities and Lakes Edge Adventure Playground for the kids. Nearby you can also enjoy the Hamilton Skate Park and the Dog Park. There is also a weekly 5km run around the lake.

Please note there are scedules of when powered and non-powered vessels. This is done for safety reasons.

Fishing at Lake Hamilton

Lake Hamilton is a diverse fishing location with multiple freshwater species to target. You can catch rainbow trout, brown trout, redfin, estuary perch, golden perch, tench and eels. The lake is mainly shallow and weedy in some areas. This is a great location for kayak fishing and fishing with lures and soft plastics. However, the most effective method may be trolling Tassie devils and shallow diving hard body lures. When fishing from the banks long casting metal lures, vibes and spoons are a must-have option  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.

Here you can see recent fish stocking in Lake Hamilton which has received almost 150,000 stocked trout over the past 10 years.

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. You won’t need to get too fancy here a simple cast and slow roll will be effective. You may also consider trolling these slowly from your boat or kayak. In the early mornings, you may spot trout breaking the surface to take flys and crickets. Therefore bug imitations lures and soft plastics are also options worth trying. When targeting freshwater species such as trout, redfin and estuary perch we recommend fishing with 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 finished with roughly a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader. 

Bait fishing here can be quite productive from the banks. Some excellent bait options include mudeye on a float or scrub worms, power bait & yabbies on a light running sinker rig. This is a great choice for trout and redfin. Trout and redfin are notorious for feeding more aggressively at dawn and dusk. So we highly recommend fishing in the first and last hours of sunlight. With redfin more active in the warmer months and trout more active in the colder months. In recent years the reservoir has been heavily stocked with trout fingerlings.

Check out this video if you after some tips on how to catch recently stocked freshwater fish

• Daiwa Double Clutch
• Rapala countdown floating minnow
• Tassie Devils 13.5 grams in pinks and whites
• Bluefox spinners
• Daiwa DR joint minnows
• Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
• Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
• Berkley powerbait grub
• Daiwa Presso minnows
• Tasmanian Devil Blade
• Bassman spinnerbait
• Bullet lures 3cm lure
• strike tiger nymph
• Nories Wasabi spoon
• Pontoon 21 paco spoon
• Tasmanian Devil lure
• Gulp 3-inch minnow
• Zman 2.5 inch grub
• Daiwa Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
• eco gear ZX40
• Savage Gear Fathead crank shallow diving
• Squidges biotough grub

Golden Perch stocking only started here in 2020, so it will take time to see how successful the stocking has been. Pykes Creek Reservoir has a limited structure but we are still optimistic these fish in time will florish here. Yellow belly AKA Golden Perch is a beautiful freshwater fish found in this system. With a rich food source available the yellowbelly here grow too 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 such as the Zerek fish trap, Jackall transams and Samaki vibelicious are great options. lip-less crank-baits such as Jackall TN50 and TN60 continue to be very popular so do blades such as the eco gear ZX40 with stinger hooks. Other favourites are the reliable stump jumpers, spinnerbaits, bassman spinners, large grub style soft plastics in dark colours.

Soft plastics are worked best on a 1/8 or 1/4 jig head slow-rolled along any structure. This works particularly well when tying your boat or kayak up against trees and working the soft plastic slowly up against the tree and adding 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 to can be worked amongst the timber but in general work really well in open water being slow-rolled or trolled.

When it comes to rod selection we generally use a light spin rod around 7 foot in length in 1-4, 2-4 or 3-5 kilo class paired with a 1000, 2000 or 2500 size reel. 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 bait caster with a 2000 bait caster reel. When bait fishing a 7 foot light rod paired with a 3000 size reel. Good bait rigs would include a paternoster rig with a small sinker at the bottom or a running sinker rig with scrub worms or yabbies.

Camping and open fires are prohibited. Always carry your Victorian fishing license, 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 and stocking information supplied VFA and DEPI. A header from homely.com.au. All other images and videos shown on the Pykes Creek Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals.