Welcome to the Saint Augustines Water Hole Fishing Guide. Saint Augustines Water Hole is a small suburban lake in the suburb of Highton past Geelong. A hidden gem nestled within a residential estate is hard to believe as it is quite scenic and tranquil. One of the major highlights of this lake is that it is regularly stocked with rainbow trout yearlings during school holidays. It’s a great fishing location to get there you’ll need to pass the township of Geelong and stop in Highton off South Valley road. This is a great spot for the family with a walking track, a small park, jetties for fishing, and nice views. It’s a great place to take the kids or beginners out fishing.
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Things to do at Saint Augustines Water Hole Highton
Of course, there is fishing for stocked trout as well as Redfin and carp at St Augustine’s water hole. Highton is near surrounding townships Geelong and Waurn Ponds. In both these townships, you will find shopping centers, restaurants, cafes, golf courses, parks, and playgrounds for the kids, and only a short distance from the beach. You’re also only a small drive away from attractions such as Geelong botanic gardens, Adventure park with waterslides and rides, Torquay surf, and further on to the great ocean road attractions.
Fishing at Saint Augustines Water Hole
At Saint Augustine’s Lake, you can target several freshwater fish species including
- rainbow trout ( stocked, refer to the table below ).
- redfin
- carp
A small family fishing lake that has been heavily socked in recent years with rainbow trout, yellowbelly, and silver perch. 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 family fishing lake. 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 reservoir are quite shallow and weedy. This lake is regularly stocked with rainbow trout just prior to the school holidays. In 2019 it will receive 1,500 rainbow trout yearlings. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. If your bait fishing at Saint Augustine’s dam then we would recommend using power bait in bright colours, live minnows, scrub worms, maggots, and mudeye under a float, paternoster rig or a small running sinker rig. When fishing 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. 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 the sundown, particularly in the warmer months.
Recommended lures Saint Augustines Water Hole
Need some help choosing lures & soft plastics. The video is a detailed guide to get you started.
- Rapala countdown floating minnow
- EcoGear MX48
- YoZuri pins minnow
- Daiwa presso minnows
- Nories laydown minnow
- Bluefox spinners
- OSP bent minnow
- Daiwa DR joint minnows
- Strike tiger nymph
- Daiwa bait junkie 2.5-inch grub
- Daiwa double clutch
- Berkley powerbait grub
- Tasmanian devil blade
- Bullet lures 5-0 minnow
- Tasmanian devil lure
- Zman 2.5-inch grub
- Bullet lures 3cm lure
Recommended baits Saint Augustines Water Hole
The video below demonstrates the best baits for trout and how to rig them correctly.
- Mudeye
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- maggots
- Earthworms
- yabbies
- live minnows
Targeting Trout at Saint Augustines Water hole
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 fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader.
We conducted a test to see which would perform better for stocked trout power bait or lures. Watch the video below to find out the results which were interesting.
Targeting Redfin at Saint Augustines Water hole
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.
Targeting Carp at Saint Augustines Water hole
There is a large volume of carp in local lakes however they are fun to catch and you can learn more about catching carp have a read our detailed guide to carp fishing around Victoria. When targeting carp standard baits such as corn, bread, and maggots work great for carp here. Using a simple running sinker rig with a pea-size sinker works great in this area. So, do suspend baits using a float. We have also fished well using unweighted baits. You can also target carp with hard body lures and soft plastics. This is a difficult technique that generally requires sight casting. This means spotting a nearby carp and casting right in there and working the lure of plastic slowly hoping they will strike. It’s tough but very rewarding when you catch a carp using this method. Most however will stick to targeting them with bait.
For rod selection, a 3-5 kilo rod coupled with a 4000 size reel is very suitable. You could even fish a little heavier with rods designed for snapper that are generally 4-7 kilo 7 foot in length. For fun, I have caught some monster size carp using a 2-4 kilo rod and a 6-pound braid. But I am prepared to lose some good fish in the process. We like to target carp on sundown, particularly in the warmer months. This is often when you see carp swimming along the edges or jumping out of the water around September-November which is their spawning season. European carp must not be returned to the water. Always carry your Victorian fishing license.
A simple yet effective fishing rig here is to thread a small running sinker through the mainline shown in blue, which is usually around 8 pounds. Then tie a medium swivel to the end allowing the sinker to run up the mainline freely. Then tie on the other end of the swivel 50cm of 8-pound fluorocarbon leader (the leader is shown in grey ). Finished with a hook. I generally use a size 6 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank which is perfect for corn kernels or scrub worms, however, you can also use small treble style hooks which is a better setup if you use bread.
If you get snagged up then you can also use a float rig. Attach a quill or bubble float to your mainline. Thread the line through and adjust the length using a size 6 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank to keep your bait suspended at a good depth. Ideally cast down breeze which will stop the float from coming back to you. If you’re not getting bites then adjust the line depth and If necessary add a splint shot to add weight.
There is ample parking opposite the park on South Valley road. There is also a playground and jetties to fish from. As with all areas that have water and high grass just always be cautious of snakes in the area. Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Saint Augustines Water Hole Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals.
Thank you for visiting the Saint Augustines Water Hole 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