Welcome to the Pakenham Lakes Fishing Guide. Pakenham Lakes is located within the growing residential estate Lakeside Pakenham about an hour’s drive from Melbourne. The lake is quite small and shallow, but has become a popular fishing spot and is stocked with trout during most school holiday breaks. It also holds healthy numbers of redfin. It’s a great place to take kids and beginners fishing, especially with small lures, soft plastics and spinners.
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Things to do at Pakenham Lakeside
You can walk, jog or cycle around the 1.5-kilometre pathed walkway loop. It’s also a great option to take your kids or dog for a walk. The lake is home to an abundance of water birds and native plants. There are scattered playgrounds, cafes and BBQ areas.
Fishing at Pakenham Lakes
Pakenham Lakes holds a healthy population of both freshwater fish species trout and redfin. This lake is regularly stocked with rainbow trout prior to most school holiday breaks. In 2019 the lake received 750 rainbow trout yearlings in quarter 2 and quarter 3 school holidays. It makes this a terrific destination for fishing, especially with kids during these times. You can use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. Most freshwater species tend to feed more aggressively at Dawn and Dusk. Species like perch fish particularity well during sundown in the warmer months.
In October 2020 30 stonker 4 kilo rainbow trout were released into Pakenham Lakes. From time to time VFA team up with local fishing groups to hold fishing clinics. This is a great way to teach your kids a few tricks and get them onto a few fish.
When targeting freshwater species such as trout and redfin 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 pound. Then finished with roughly a rod length of a quality fluorocarbon leader. One of the most popular forms of bait fishing at Pakenham Lakes is using a float with power bait and using trout berley pellets to bring them into the immediate area. Other popular forms of bait fishing include using worms, maggots, live minnows and mudeye on a light running sinker rig, or paternoster rig. You will certainly catch trout and redfin at this location using lures and soft plastics. For soft plastics, we highly recommend small curl tails, minnow imitations, and paddle tails. Both natural and bright colours work well rigged with jig heads from 1/18 through to 1/20 in weight. Small shallow diving hard body lures are also very effective in this system. As are old favourites such as spinners and Tassie devils. Ideally in smaller sizes and nice bright colours. Check out our guide on the Best lures for catching Redfin. Metal lures and spoons are also an option. Allowing you to cast great distances and target slightly bigger fish. But they are quite heavy and very prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Have a look at this video which highlights how to target stocked rainbow trout. Karkarook Lake is stocked heavily with rainbow trout every year during most school holidays so this video should provide you with some helpful tips.
Recommended baits Pakenham Lakes
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- Mudeye
- maggots
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
- Bassman spinner bait
- 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
- Dawia Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Zerek fish trap
- eco gear ZX40
- Savage Gear Fathead crank shallow diving
- Squidges biotough grub
- stump jumpers S3
Targeting Trout at Pakenham Lakes
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 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.
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 Pakenham Lakes
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.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Pakenham Lakes Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals.
Thank you for visiting the Pakenham Lakes 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
