Lake Eildon is one of the closest lakes to where we live, and definitely the biggest lake – it has a capacity of 3,300,000 mega litres of fresh water.
It is a lake that was created when the Eildon Dam was built across the Goulburn River. The construction of the dam originally happened in 1915, and then again in 1929 and 1935 to increase the capacity. But the reservoir is still limited in its capacity to meet the demands of the farmers and food bowl in the Goulburn Valley. There was a significant drought throughout the 2000s that saw Eildon as low as 15% capacity.
Lake Eildon National Park surrounds much of the lake, in the northern foothills of Victoria’s Central Highlands, 150 km north-east of Melbourne. Situated on the shores of Lake Eildon, the park protects 27,750 ha of rugged hills with open woodlands through to dense forest.
Fish in Eildon include brown and rainbow trout, yellow belly perch, red fin perch, Murray cod, and carp. There are lots of options for fishing the varied terrain – rocky or muddy banks, lightly or heavily treed, or plenty of submerged timber.
The lake is popular for trolling trout, or yellow belly. But our favourite fishing is pulling into the timber and bait fishing. I find that you can catch some of the biggest fish on a simple worm bouncing on the bottom – you just have to persevere that the carp also love this form of fishing.
The population of red fin has exploded in Lake Eildon in recent years, and because they are a schooling fish, as soon as you get one you will usually get many. I have fished a spot in Eildon that had so many red fin that you could not keep a bait in the water – it was non-stop catching every couple of minutes.
Last summer, there were also so many yabbies in the lake that you could pull them up one after another on a line, because they would hold onto the worm all the way until they landed on the deck of the boat!
One thing to check before you plan your day fishing at Lake Eildon is the amount of water that is being released. I have found that if a lot of water is being released, then the fish will all go off the bite because of the pressure in the lake. But then they will be hungry again once they stop releasing water!
