Jul 03, 2026

Trellys Fishing Report 3rd July 2026

Late last week the Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) stocked rainbow trout into many of the family friendly waterways across Victoria.
These waterways range from larger lakes to tiny little ornamental ponds in the middle of towns.

There are too many individual waterways to list here in this report, so here is a link to the VFA website where you can see exactly which waterways were stocked and how many fish they received: https://vfa.vic.gov.au/recreational-fishing/fish-stocking/holidaystocking

These rainbow trout are usually around 25 to 32cm long. Some may be slightly larger or slightly smaller, but they are a catchable size just in time for the school holidays.
To avoid confusion regarding the closed trout season, in Victoria the trout season closes at midnight on the Kings birthday weekend each year and opens on the first Saturday in September.

It is only the streams that are closed. With the exception of a couple of coastal flowing waterways in South West Victoria, all creeks and rivers are now closed to trout fishing, but the lakes and dams remain open all year round.
In NSW, the season closes at the same time but does not re-open until the long weekend in October.

Lake Nillahcootie

Last Thursday I dedicated a whole day to fishing in lake Nillahcootie and Lake Eildon.
With a week of rain forecast for this week I wanted to make the most of the fine weather.
I arrived at Lake Nillahcootie and set up in the dark. I fished with 2 rods, with worms on each rod from 6:45am until 11:30am. In that time, I caught absolutely nothing!
I had one decent bite that almost pulled my fishing rod in and a few nibbles and that was it.
I was fishing down near the wall. Perhaps further up the lake towards where the fresh water is flowing in may have been a better option.
I have never seen the water in Lake Nillahcootie looking as clear as it does right now. Well, as it did, we have had a lot of rain since I visited last week so that may have changed now.

Lake Eildon

After my fishless adventure to Lake Nillahcootie, I ventured to Lake Eildon where I fished from 1:00pm until 5:30pm. In those 4.5 hours I caught 3 carp all on worms, and had a few other nibbles.

I was fishing at Kennedy Point in the Brankeet arm.

If you are going bait fishing from the bank at the moment, definitely choose Lake Eildon over Lake Nillahcootie.

While I was there I bumped into local fishing guide Jesse Polkinghorne, along with his brother and son. They caught a 109cm Murray cod from their boat while I was sitting on the bank catching carp.

Jesse said that they have been catching a lot of big Murray cod at Lake Eildon in recent weeks, and mornings seem to be the best.

Lower Murray River
There have been quite a lot of carp caught in the lower Murray River, along with the odd Yellowbelly. One of my favourite YouTube channels called “Aussies” caught a heap of carp, and Helen even caught her personal best Yellowbelly, just angling off the bank last week. Here is the video of their adventure:

Goulburn River
I haven’t actually received any reports from the Goulburn River this week, but as I type the river is at minor flood level at Seymour which is quite amazing given that half of the Goulburn River catchment is being held back in Lake Eildon.
If I lived near the Goulburn River, I would definitely be fishing it while the water is up. No doubt it will be very dirty, but a bunch of warms on a paternoster rig in a flooded backwater works very well for me in the ovens River, so I can’t see why it wouldn’t work in the Goulburn River too.