Native fishing in urban lakes
Imagine being able to come home from work or school and cast a line for a Murray cod in metropolitan Melbourne.
Well, you can stop dreaming because we’ve been stocking urban lakes with catchable size Murray cod, golden perch and silver perch!
In recent years, more than 36,000 catchable size Murray cod and golden perch were stocked into Victorian lakes, many in urban areas, to further improve freshwater fishing opportunities.
These native fish were much larger than the fingerling size native fish we normally release at 1 to 2 grams each.
The on-grown Murray cod and golden perch provide immediate fishing opportunities during the summer months when trout fishing in these waterways can quieten off with warmer water temperatures.
Anglers big and small will be able to experience the thrill of catching a mixture of species year-round. We reckon reeling in a fish beats screen-time any day of the week!
Please note that some of these on-grown native fish were not legal minimum size when stocked, but should grow quickly depending on the productivity of the waterbody.
Check out the tables below to keep up to date with our progress.
Fish stocking is funded by your recreational fishing licence fees and has received support from the State Government’s Go Fishing Victoria plan phases two and three to get more people fishing, more often, in more places. For current stocking data you can search our stocking database.
Waterway | Species | Number | Average weight (g) |
|---|---|---|---|
Albert Park Lake | Golden perch | 5,437 | 334 |
Casey Fields Lake, Cranbourne East 1 | Murray cod | 20 | 625 |
Golden perch | 103 | 546 | |
Quarry Lake, Ferntree Gully 2 | Golden perch | 183 | 546 |
Karkarook Lake 3 | Murray cod | 514 | 609 |
Golden perch | 2,874 | 447 | |
Linear Park Lake, Taylors Lakes | Golden perch | 50 | 502 |
Lilydale Lake | Golden perch | 3,035 | 248 |
Melton Reservoir | Murray cod | 1,800 | 170 |
Golden perch | 7,599 | 329 | |
Navan Park Lake, Melton | Murray cod | 50 | 613 |
Golden perch | 200 | 502 | |
Spavin Lake, Sunbury | Murray cod | 58 | 613 |
Golden perch | 223 | 502 | |
Roxburgh Park Lake | Murray cod | 162 | 562 |
Several regional waters have also shared in the stocking of ongrown native fish.
Waterway | Species | Number | Average weight (g) |
|---|---|---|---|
Barkers Creek Reservoir, Harcourt | Murray cod | 4,829 | 170 |
Lauriston Reservoir, Kyneton | Murray cod | 4,168 | 501 |
Melton Reservoir*, Melton | Murray cod | 1,800 | 170 |
Golden perch | 7,599 | 329 | |
Navan Park Lake, Melton* | Murray cod | 50 | 613 |
Golden perch | 200 | 502 | |
Spavin Lake, Sunbury* | Murray cod | 58 | 613 |
Golden perch | 223 | 502 | |
Upper Coliban Reservoir, Tylden | Murray cod | 5,172 | 462 |
1 Casey Fields Lake in Cranbourne East also received 7 golden perch weighing 2kg each, and 12 silver perch weighing 400g each in April 2019
2 Quarry Lake in Ferntree Gully also received 12 Murray cod weighing 1.5kg each, and 12 golden perch weighing 800g each in June 2019.
3 Karkarook Lake also received 200 golden perch weighing 400g each, and 50 Murray cod weighing 600g each in March 2019.
* Urban fringe areas such as Melton and Sunbury included in both urban and regional lists given proximity to both.