Welcome to the Newlyn Reservoir Fishing Guide. Originally built in 1870 and upgraded in 1961 Newlyn Reservoir is located roughly an hour’s drive from Melbourne. Heading towards the central highlands between Creswick and Daylesford. It offers year-round fishing with healthy rainbow trout and redfin. Yearly trout are stocked into this location making it a great fishing destination. There are also BBQs and picnic grounds making it a great spot for a day out with the family for a fish.
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Check out this video of how to catch trout at the neighbouring Moorabool reservoir.
Things to do at Newlyn Reservoir
This is a scenic location that’s nice for exploring and a picnic with the family. It has adequate parking and public toilets however there aren’t any formal sit down or bbq areas if that’s what you are after then neighbouring townships such as Daylesford have plenty of other options. Historically water levels have been an issue here but in recent times the water levels are healthy once again. Be careful when walking around with kids in long grass and rock areas as I have seen several snakes on recent outings.
Fishing Newlyn Reservoir
At Newlyn Reservoir you can catch
- Brown trout
- rainbow trout
- Redfin ( English Perch )
Newlyn Reservoir is a challenging fishing destination, however, you can catch brown trout, rainbow trout and redfin and trophy-size trout and redfin are not uncommon at this location. This spot is popular with fly fishermen, however, we have done well using a variety of baits and lures. The reservoir itself is quite shallow and weedy in many areas. This is a great location for lures and soft plastics. Check out our guide on the best lures to catch Redfin. Long-casting metal lures and spoons are a must-have option when fishing from the rocks or banks. They will allow you to cover great distances which are needed and also allow you to target both trout and redfin at the same time. Top options include the nories wasabi and pontoon 21 paco spoon.
Shallow diving hard body lures and heavily weighted soft plastic minnow imitations are also excellent choices. Some good options include bullet lures in bright and natural colours, Daiwa double-clutch, Rapala Countdown series and Savage gear minnows are also excellent choices. Traditional lures such as spinners and Tassie devils will also work well, especially in bright colours. You often see trout surfacing to take fly and crickets off the surface so fly and cricket imitation lures and plastics such as the savage Gear Mayfly are also great options. Bait fishing can be challenging here getting your baits out far enough to get a bite. However, should you choose to fish with bait mudeye under a bubble float ideally with the wind and gentle tidal flow behind you to stop your bait coming back to the shallow bank., or scrub worms on a running sinker rig is a great choice for both trout and redfin. You may also like to try power bait and yabbies.
Trout and redfin are notorious for feeding more aggressively at dawn and dusk. So we highly recommend fishing the first and last hours of sunlight. Redfin is more active in the warmer months and trout is more active in the colder months. Please remember to follow local rules which include, No fishing with waders, Always carry your Victorian fishing license, No firearms, Vehicle access only in approved areas, No digging for bait, Using berley is not permitted, No boating/kayaking.
Here are some great fishing locations in the surrounding area.
You may also want to try these fantastic fishing locations which aren’t too far away including,
- Lauriston Reservoir
- Malmsbury
- Barkers Creek Reservoir
- Lake Daylesford
- Hepburn Lagoon
- Lake Wendouree ( Ballarat )
- Newlyns Reservoir
- Tullaroop Reservoir
- Cairn Curran Reservoir
Newlyn Reservoir Fish Stocking
Newlyn Reservoir has been stocked with almost 200,000 brown trout since 1990.
Recommended baits Newlyn Reservoir
The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.
- Scrub worms
- Powerbait
- Yabbies
- Mudeye
- maggots
- Corn
Recommended lures Newlyn Reservoir
- Bluefox spinners
- Daiwa DR joint minnows
- Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
- Savage Gear 3D Prey minnow
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Daiwa Presso minnows
- Tasmanian Devil Blade
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
- strike tiger nymph
- Nories Wasabi spoon
- Rapala countdown floating minnow
- Pontoon 21 paco spoon
- Daiwa Double Clutch
- Tasmanian Devil lure
- Gulp 3-inch minnow
- Zman 2.5 inch grub
- Daiwa Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Zerek fish trap
- eco gear ZX40
- Savage Gear Fathead crank shallow diving
- Squidges biotough grub
Targeting Trout at Newlyn 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 a 1000, 2000, or 2500 reel spooled with 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 fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader.
Targeting Redfin at Newlyn 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 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.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Newlyn Reservoir Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Newlyn 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