Lilydale lake being drained

[ChrisD]

just a heads up for anyone thinking of heading out to Lilydale lake at the moment - the lake has been drained to sort out the weed problem.
Hopefully will be good news once it is refilled in Spring and stocked again.

[cotte]

WHAT??!! I was gonna go tomorrow! Damnit. Well thanks for the heads up, looks like I'll be catching carp tomorrow then.

I was having dreams of smoked trout too lol

[ChrisD]

I plan to get out there over the weekend just to see how it looks drained - might even earmark some of those deeper spots that might be worth targeting later on.....who knows - might even get back some of my lost spinners....

[cotte]

Oh yeah let us know if it's still fishable from the shore, big cbf to driving all that way from Rowville to find i can't fish it...However there's always some talent running around the track lol. Also, I have caught some big carp from that little pond bit behind the RC track, so it may not all be lost.

Oh and some pics if you could too would be awesome!

[ChrisD]

Just back from the lake and draining is well under way. Not sure what has been done with the fish that were in the lake, but if they are still in there, they are rapidly running out of water .......

[TackleNut]

I went down there a coiuple of weeks ago, my wife was away on a day off from me in full time care and here I was supposed to go out to enjoy myself. It's been nearly 10 years since I fished Lilydale that I was actaully excited about it, all geared up and ready to go..hmmmm
I got tell you that I was nearly crying , in fact I did think that I shed a tear or 2. Did the walk around the lake and all I could see worth fishing was the run off creek, boy that must have had some big fish go through and down that creek in May/June when they decided to empty it.
There is a sign there saying that it's been done to try to get rid of some of the pest weeds.
I can't ever see it being the lake that it was before the drain out, now that they have declared reddies out of bounds for Victoria as well.
The few Rainbows that they will stock it with, it's going to take more than my lifetime for the lake to catch back up to were it was once.

cheers
tacklenut

[ChrisD]

Yes was dissappointed myself.
Guess the council had no options and had to get the weed under control, but even if they restock it once it refills, i agree it will take years before it is back to fishing well again.
Lilydale lake was not far from home and was a good spot to go after work.
We still have the Yarra close by, and Rowville Lakes are not too much further.

[Andoki]

it is really sad to see a nice lake like this one drained ... I hope the council has some better plans to bring it back to action soon.