Welcome to the Spavin Lake Fishing Guide. Spavin Lake is located within the township of Sunbury, it’s a shallow lake with local birdlife. It’s a great little lake located within a growing residential and housing estate within Sunbury. It’s stocked regularly with rainbow trout prior to school holiday breaks and some natives in 2020 and 2021 making it a fun prospect for anglers and kids. This is a scenic area which presents a nice walk. It doesn’t have playgrounds but can be a nice place for kids. There are plenty of ducks ready for a feed.
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Things to do in Sunbury
Sunbury is a popular and growing country township roughly 40 kilometres northwest of Melbourne. With a recent boom in residential growth backed by retail growth, the township has around 40,000 residents. This town is full of history with the local post office which still stands today originally opening in 1858. Some enjoyable places to visit in Sunbury include the Craiglee vineyard to try a selection of locally onsite grown wines. There is also the Rupertswood mansion the birthplace of the Ashes and today more known for lush gardens and structures. Sunbury is also well known for horse agistment and riding. You can also play golf at the Goonawarra golf course. Not too far out of town local attractions include the Dingo Discovery Sanctuary and Research Centre in Toolern Vale. There is also the Organ Pipes National Park. The 70-meter basalt columns create a natural amphitheatre formed approximately one million years ago.
Watch our detailed video guide on our top 10 redfin lures
Fishing at Spavin Lake in Sunbury
Spavin Lake is a great family-friendly fishing location where you can target several freshwater fish species including trout and redfin. Recently as part of the target 1 million initiative, the VFA has also stocked native fish species including yellowbelly and Murray Cod. This lake is generally stocked with rainbow trout prior to most school holiday breaks. However, stocking was temporarily suspended in recent years due to low water levels. Thankfully levels are back to acceptable levels and in September 2019 600 rainbow trout were stocked. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. In 2020 30 rainbow trout up to 4 kilos in size each were also released into the lake to encourage more fishing in the area.
Victorian fisheries also have plans to start stocking native fish species in this lake. In 2019 60 Murray Cod were stocked and 220 yellowbelly were released. This is part of the start government target of 10 million by 2022 initiative. At this stage, small redfin and stocked trout will be your main catches from this lake. Most freshwater species tend to feed more aggressively at Dawn and Dusk. Species like perch fish particularly well during sundown in the warmer months. We have had the most success here slowly retrieving small spinners for both trout and redfin. Particularly on the deeper side away from the submerged trees. We also suggest using small soft plastics and shallow diving hard body lures. Click here to read our guide on the Best lures to catch redfin. We haven’t had quite as much success with bait but would recommend using scrub worms, Power bait, Yabbies, and Mudeye on a float or with a small running sinker.
Fish Stocking at Spavin Lake
Spavin Lake has consistently been stocked with rainbow trout since 2008. To date around 15,000 rainbow trout have been stocked in this system typically before school holidays.
In 2020 the system was stocked with 223 yellowbelly, 1,000 Murray cod and in 2021 a further 1,000 Murray cod and 2,000 silver perch.
How to catch fish in Spavin Lake
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. If you plan to fish with bait from the banks then good options include power bait in bright colours, worms, maggots, live minnows and mudeye. Either on a light running sinker rig, paternoster rig or suspended from a float. We have seen many trout and perch caught using these baits and methods. 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 can be effective in this system. As are old favourites such as spinners and Tassie devils. Ideally in smaller sizes and nice bright colours.
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. You may also consider using surface lures for estuary perch, especially during dawn and dusk. A couple of good options include floating minnows and surface poppers in smaller sizes.
Have a look at this video which highlights how to target stocked rainbow trout. Spavin Lake is stocked with rainbow trout regularly so this video should provide you with some helpful tips.
Recommended baits Spavin Lake Sunbury
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- Mudeye
- maggots
Recommended lures Spavin Lake Sunbury
- 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
- Daiwa Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Savage Gear Fathead crank shallow diving
- Squidges biotough grub
Targeting Trout at Spavin Lake Sunbury
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 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 Spavin Lake Sunbury
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 slowly 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 Yellowbelly at Spavin Lake Sunbury
Yellow belly AKA Golden Perch is a beautiful freshwater fish found in this system. With a rich food source available the yellowbelly here grows 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 as do blades such as the eco gear ZX40 with stinger hooks. Other favourites are the reliable stump jumpers, spinnerbaits, bassman spinners, and large grub style soft plastics in dark colours.
Soft plastics work 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 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 feet 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.
Targeting Murray Cod at Spavin Lake Sunbury
Murray Cod is Australia’s largest freshwater fish that grows to impressive sizes. Cod are ambush predators that love the cover of structure so make sure you concentrate your efforts on any visible structure including logs and submerged trees. They will also seek shelter in deeper holes and rock ledges. Cod are most active in low light conditions such as sunrise and sundown. A medium to heavy bait caster rod is ideal when targeting cod. This might be a stiff 6-foot rod in 6-10 kilo class matched with a suitable size bait caster reel spooled with 20lb to 30lb braid and 30lb to 40lb leader. Good lure options for Murray Cod include hard body lures, surface lures, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, shads, lipless crankbaits, paddle tail and curtail soft plastics. These should be worked slowly or tolled from your boat or kayak if access is permitted. There are some amazing surface lures on the market these days including imitation mice, frogs, ducks, and snakes with realistic action that are fun to target cod with. Bait anglers can target Murray cod with live yabbies and worms.
Images of fish supplied VFA and DEPI. All other images and videos shown on the Spavin Lake Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals.
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