Buxton Trout & Salmon Farm — Attraction in Buxton

Been here a few times now. We try to drop in each time we are in the area to get some fresh caught trout, Caviar or smoked Trout. They have a newly built, very large undercover area that can easily cater for a 100 or so people looking out onto the ponds. Heaps of BBQs both at the shelter and sprinkled around the ponds to cook your freshly caught Trout or Salmon. They prepare your fish for you once you've caught it and get it ready to cook for free and pack it in ice if it's take away. A great location for a few hours or a whole day of fishing in the very green landscaped pondage areas.

You pay to enter to fish per person, then for each fish you catch you pay by the kilogram. Price per kilogram is for the live/whole fish and is about the same as what you pay for a cleaned/gutted fish at the supermarket. But the fish you catch is FRESH as you can get! Pond to BBQ in 10 minutes or so! NO catch and release, whatever you catch you have to keep and pay for. Entry price includes a fishing rod per person, which is nothing fancy but perfectly adequate as well as bait and bucket. You can bring you own rod etc, but the fee is the same. Whatever you catch is paid for and includes gutting and cleaning, ready for cooking, bagged with crushed ice for the trip home, so bring an Esky. There are under cover picnic tables and barbeques if you want to cook and eat your fish etc on the spot. As we did, staff can also go out with you and net a Trout or Salmon for you, pick the ones you want and prepare them for you. We got 2 very large Rainbow Trout, 2Kg and 1Kg approx, prepped, paid and leaving in about 20minutes. A variety of smoked fish, Caviar (in season), honeys, souvenirs etc also available.

If you have young children, please be very vigilant: ponds are completely open and unfenced. Don't take your eyes of bubs and toddlers etc even for a second. Catching fish or other animals, also necessarily involves killing them. This can be confronting for both children and adults, but can be a valuable learning experience. If you don't want to do it yourself, staff are available to despatch your catch quickly...

Arrrrr, the Buxton Trout and Salmon farm! Such nostalgia! Much Relax! I remember coming here for my 10-12th birthday 20 years ago, it still has the same owners! Super friendly, accessible (i'd say you can get a wheelchair around if you need to, no stairs). They have 4 ponds, 2 Trout, 1 Salmon and the challenge lake. We had good fun on the challenge lake before switching over to the Trout pond and getting 3.5kg of fresh trout all within about 10 minutes. The ponds are very well irrigated, aerated, good water flow, water is really fresh which you know must keep the fish healthy. Cooking facilities, including smoking pots, are all available for use. They'll gut and prepare your fish if you're a bit squeemy, otherwise they have the facilities to prepare your own fish yourself too. If your there during their lunch and dinner hours (I think 12-2pm then 6-8pm, but not 100%) they'll even cook your catch for you at the restaurant. Had a great time! Awesome throwback, almost felt i'd time traveled back to a better time! I think i'll have to come again next time i drive down to Melbourne, might even stay at Marysville next time too so i can cook up my catch on the camp fire. Great...

The experience overall was pretty nice. Went there with the whole family and most of the time everyone enjoyed it. Trout and salmon were delicious.

Sadly we totally missed we had to kill the fish with an orange rod and pretty much got abused by staff for this mistake. The rod was never provided or mentioned when we paid in reception. I killed a few with a stick I found, and one on a bench.

Probably was not the best approach but the amount of abuse we got from this was inappropriate and unnecessary. Being yelled and verbally abused in front of the kids and other family members was a terrible experience. I chose to stay calm and quiet to de-escalate the situation, mostly for the kids as they were clearly uneased. I said sorry and stayed quiet, but the calmer I was the more I got yelled at and insulted.

The farm is beautiful and great fish. I was going to give it a five but yeah this experience ruined our holiday. Staff needs to be more patient and kind with customers especially if there are kids around.

If you decide to go I recommend asking for all their rules at the entry to...