MURRAY cod is one of our most popular freshwater fish for those of us in the southern part of eastern Australia. Reputed to have been captured up to 1.8m in ength weighing in at 113kg, the Murray cod are the stuff of myths and legends.
The 113kg cod was caught in the Barwon near Walgett in the drought of 1902 and now some 120 years later the record has yet to be beaten.
The Murray Darling system has come under enormous pressures from farming and land practices and irrigators growing water hungry crops such as rice and cotton. This mighty system is just a shell of its formal self.
Once supporting a commercial fishery for Murray cod, the Murray River has now no commercial cod fishing and is fighting for survival with changes to habitat and flows with many barriers stopping fish movement in all but the largest floods.
The big dams that have been built on these river systems have certainly created cod fisheries that consistently produce many cod in excess of the one metre mark. Copeton Dam is probably the most well- known dam and has high visitation by anglers throughout the year as it like Blowering are open to cod fishing year-round.
Winter time has proven to be a good time for the massive fish that now call these huge dams and lakes home.
With the advent of technology such as Live Scope, it has been a real eye opener as to how many fish are in these dams and the enormous sizes they reach.
It’s now not uncommon to capture several metre-plus fish in a single session using this technology. I tend to think if the record of 1902 is to be beaten it will be by an angler using this new technology in these lakes.
Swim baits would be the most popular way of targeting these big fish as they have such a realistic swimming action.
An angler fishing a bait of yabby, worm, wood grub or even cheese from the bank is always in with a chance.
It is with great anticipation anglers wait for the first of December when the cod season opens. That’s when the rivers and streams can be fished.
Anglers can go road tripping on the cod highway from Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, there are numerous rivers and creeks that hold cod in the Murray Darling Basin.
Some of the Southern streams will also contain the trout cod which are making a successful comeback thanks to Fisheries Recovery Plans.
Murray cod have also been stocked onto the Lake Eyre Basin streams and even as far as Western Australia but the mainstay of cod is still in the Murray Darling Basin.
Summer will see me loading the canoe and setting off on long down-river journeys chasing the Murray cod. These trips can last up to two weeks and cover many kilometres of river.
A canoe loaded with a small tent, sleeping bag, billy, wire grilling rack, an esky with food and drink and fishing gear is my favourite way to chase these fish.
On long summer trips where frozen meats and such have a limited life in the esky under the sun, fresh fish will become part of our diet along with fresh fruit such as black berries and also the numerous fruit from the trees that are a legacy of the gold mining days.
Dams that have been spilling with all the flood water of recent times are also worth checking out.
Native fish run upriver on spawning runs and can congregate below barriers, a typical example currently is the regulators at Menindee Lakes where fish now are concentrated in huge numbers.
The rivers above the lakes are also worth fishing for cod as the resident fish will also be induced to run up river to spawn.
Anglers should be familiar with section 38 of the Fisheries Act which allows us to access rivers and creeks from a public access point.
See you on a river somewhere!
