Welcome to the Stony Creek Reservoir Fishing Guide. Stony Creek Reservoir is located not too far from the township Anakie towards the end of Geelong-Ballan road. It’s a scenic freshwater fishing location that provides domestic drinking water supply for the township of Geelong and surrounding areas. This lake is popular and has been heavily fished in recent years. However, for anglers, it still provides an exciting opportunity to catch a large redfin, rainbow trout or brown trout. I have seen and caught some very large fish from this lake mainly near the slight rock wall. The reservoir has been stocked heavily with both rainbow and brown trout in recent years and this pattern will continue as part of the state government’s target 10 million by 2020 initiative. Please note that there are 3 lakes in the immediate area separated by roads but only 1 is permitted for fishing.
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Check out a video we recorded recently at Stony Creek targeting large rainbow trout using long casting metal spoons.
Things to do at Stoney Creek Reservoir
Upper Stony creek reservoir is located roughly 40 kilometres from Geelong. It’s 1-hour drive from Melbourne nestled within the Brisbane ranges. At the location, there are basic facilities available such as picnic tables. This is a very scenic location and if you enjoy bush walks there are numerous walking trials. There is also bird watching and fishing which presents good options too. It can be tricky keeping your footing with all the rocks, especially along the rock walls. When fishing take care as you walk. Also as with all country, rural areas always be mindful of snakes particularly in the warmer months when snakes are more active. Please note that boats are not permitted, Fish from the shore only (no wading), and No cleaning of fish on site. No berleying, ground baiting, or digging for bait. And of course, a Victorian fishing licence is required. Dogs are not permitted within the area.
Fishing at Stoney Creek Reservoir
Upper Stoney creek contains a healthy population of Redfin. You often get smaller ones following your soft plastics but there are some large ones in there too. This system has also been stocked heavily in recent years with brown and rainbow trout. last year 20,000 rainbow trout and 5,000 brown trout were stocked. Both species can grow to great sizes here. Use this link to follow Victorian trout stocking programs. This is a great location for lures and soft plastics. Click here to see our guide on the best lures and soft plastics to catch redfin. Long casting lures are great for land-based anglers. Top options include the ever-reliable tassie devil, nories wasaby and pontoon 21 paco spoons. These present great options for targeting both trout and Redfin. Shallow diving hard body lures such as bullet lures, Daiwa double-clutch, Rapala Countdown series and Savage gear minnows are also excellent choices. Soft plastics and spinners are also fantastic options.
If you plan on fishing with bait from the banks then live minnows, scrub worms, yabbies and power bait and great options. There are some good size redfin and trout at upper stony creek reservoir so you may choose to fish a little heavier than normal. This also can work well when casting heavy lures and spoons. Generally when targeting Trout and Redfin fish as light as possible which will make the experience more fun and improve your chances. Redfin will actively take many baits or lures. To maximize your chances fish with a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo rod. The main line spooled with 4-pound braid finished with a good quality leader. Again here it’s ok to step that up to 3-5 kilo and 8-pound line and leader. The majority of trout taken here are generally on the first and last 2 hours of the day. Redfin can be caught during any time of day. Trout are more active in the colder months and redfin more active in the warmer month. Have a look at this video which highlights how to target stocked rainbow trout.
Stoney Creek is stocked with rainbow trout regularly so this video should provide you with some helpful tips.
Recommended baits Stoney creek
- live minnows
- yabbies
- Powerbait
- Scrub worms
- Mudeye
- maggots
Recommended lures Stoney creek
- 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 Stoney creek
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 Stoney creek
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 Stony Creek Reservoir Fishing Guide are Fishing Mad originals.
Thank you for visiting the Stony Creek 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
