Welcome to the Lake Pertobe Fishing Guide. Lake Pertobe is a small suburban lake in the suburb of Warnambool. It’s a vibrant area opposite McGennans surf beach and surrounded by Caravan parks and sporting clubs including the athletics track, tennis club, skate park and mini-golf centre. This is a managed family fishing lake as part of local initiatives to grow fishing ( Target 1 million by 2020 ) and has a yearly stocking of rainbow trout yearlings. It’s an ideal location to take the family and beginners for a fish.
**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.
Check out this video with some helpful tips on catching stocked trout.
Things to do at Lake Pertobe
This is a lovely location for the family for a picnic with well-maintained grasslands spreading over 8 hectares. There are good facilities including BBQs and sheltered picnic areas. There is a large children’s adventure playground with slides, flying foxes, a maze, boat rides and more. There is also a walking or cycling track that goes around the lake. It’s a picturesque scenic location great for photos at sunrise and sundown. It has been rated as one of the best parks in our state. Warnambool is a popular tourist destination in winter there is whale watching, clean beaches, swimming, good accommodation, scenic views and a vibrant town with cafes and restaurants. Nearby attractions include the Lake Pertrobe playgrounds, bay of islands spectacular scenic formation the 12 apostles historic rocks, Warnambool botanic gardens, Warnabmool art gallery, Warnambool racetrack and an amazing coastline full of fishing opportunities and Logans beach for whale sightings.
The breakwater is a spectacular sight with crashing waves, sights and sounds. It also has a good assortment of picnic tables and amenities.
Fishing at Lake Pertobe
There are some fishing platforms and the majority of the shoreline is accessible to land-based anglers. At Lake Pertobe, you can target several freshwater fish species including
- rainbow trout
- redfin
This lake is regularly stocked with rainbow trout during school holidays breaks. In 2020 the lake received 900 rainbow trout yearlings. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs.
If your bait fishing, we would recommend using power bait in bright colours, live minnows, scrub worms, maggots, corn and mudeye. Either suspended from a float, paternoster rig or a small running sinker rig ( using a very small sinker when using a paternoster rig or running sinker rig ). This location also fishes well with lures and soft plastics. We would strongly suggest starting with small soft plastics including curl tails and paddle tails, spinners and shallow diving hard body lures around 5cm in size. For more suggestions read our guide on the Best lures and soft plastics to catch redfin
When targeting freshwater species such as trout and redfin we recommend fishing with a spinning light rod. This will make the experience more enjoyable whilst improving your catch rates. We suggest a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo capacity fishing rod. Coupled with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 size reel. Spooled with a decent quality braid between 4-8 pound finished with a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader. 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 sundown, particularly in the warmer months.
Recommended baits Lake Pertobe
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- Mudeye
- maggots
Recommended lures Lake Pertobe
- Bluefox spinners
- Daiwa DR joint minnows
- Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
- Savage Gear minnow blade
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Daiwa Presso minnows
- Tasmanian Devil Blade
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
- strike tiger nymph
- Rapala countdown floating minnow
- Daiwa Double Clutch
- Tasmanian Devil lure
- Gulp 3 inch minnow
- Zman 2.5 inch grub
- Dawia Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Savage Gear Fathead crank shallow diving
- Squidges biotough grub
Targeting Trout at Lake Pertobe
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 a 1000, 2000, or 2500 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader. If there are larger trophy size trout around than you can go heavier moving up the scale to a 3-5 kilo class spin rod spooled with fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader.
We conducted a test to see which would perform better for stocked trout powerbait or lures. Watch the video below to find out the results which were interesting.
Targeting Redfin at Lake Pertobe
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 really 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.
Watch our detailed video guide on our top 10 redfin lures below
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Lake Pertobe Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals.
Thank you for visiting the Lake Pertobe 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