Fishing in Victoria

Victoria offers diverse, year-round recreational fishing opportunities – from freshwater rivers and lakes, to estuaries, inlets, bays, beaches, and offshore fishing.

Freshwater streams, lakes and reservoirs provide good catches from the bank, shoreline or boat, with the most commonly caught species being trout, chinook salmon, Murray cod and golden perch. The bays and beaches and offshore fishing grounds give anglers good opportunities to target snapper, tuna and kingfish.

Freshwater fishing

Fishing a fast flowing, freestone stream in the northeast of Victoria is an absolute joy. Streams such as Mitta Mitta and Kiewa in the Legends, Wine and High Country region are first rate trout streams while Lake Eildon and the Goulburn River, with its many tributaries, are Victoria's most popular trout fisheries.

Excellent trout fishing can also be found in lakes such as Toolondo, Wartook and Fyans in the Grampians region. The region contains a third of Victoria's lakes and few inland areas in Australia boast a greater variety of fish.

Similarly, with its multitude of public and private trout lakes, the sensational trout fisheries of the Goldfields region afford anglers a chance of catching trophy trout of exceptional proportions.

Anglers keen to tackle one of Australia's most prized inland species, the Murray cod have their best chance of doing so in the Murray River system. Waterways such as Lake Hume, Lake Mulwala and many areas along the length of the Murray River produce fantastic fishing for Murray cod and golden perch.

Saltwater fishing

In Melbourne's Bays and Peninsulas, the twin ports of Western Port and Port Phillip are the major fishing attractions. Both consistently provide excellent catches of top quality fish including whiting, gummy and school shark, squid, salmon, garfish, flathead, elephant fish and, notably, snapper.

The pristine waters of the Gippsland Lakes and Wilderness region are delights to fish. Famed for such clean and unsullied estuaries as Mallacoota, Wingan, Tamboon, Sydenham and Marlo inlets, these areas among others are some of the best in Victoria to fish for bream, flathead and other typical estuarine species. The Gippsland Lakes and 90 Mile Beach area are equally esteemed as fishing havens.

The Phillip Island and Gippsland Discovery region is quite probably Victoria's premier area for serious offshore anglers. Those who venture out into the Bass Strait catch shark, tuna and kingfish. The area also offers excellent inshore fishing for standard estuary species such as flathead, snapper, shark and whiting.

The Great Ocean Road region provides access to some excellent offshore fishing grounds, giving anglers good opportunities to target snapper, tuna and kingfish.

Events

Fisheries Victoria hosts these family fishing days in 2009:

Eildon Pondage (Eildon) 18 April
Lake Highland (Churchill) 2 May
Kennington Reservoir (Bendigo) 9 August
Lillydale Lake (Lilydale) 19 September
Jubilee Lake (Daylesford) 18 October

For more information visit the Department of Primary Industries.