With the large amount of anglers hitting the local waters, reports have been coming in thick and fast- some good and some not so good!

Majority of the folks out fishing have been amongst a few fish whether it be cod or yellowbelly or the dreaded carp.

The water clarity along the banks of the Murray through Echuca has been pretty poor due to the wash from all the boat traffic passing through. This hasn’t affected the fishing as Ryan from Echuca was fishing from a houseboat at Chinamans Bend and picked up a nice cod at 75cm on a half mangled grub. Caught in the middle of a hot day with a continuous stream of boats passing by didn’t shut the cod down or have it sitting in deeper water as you would expect in those conditions.

Further upstream at Betts Beach, campers have caught small cod and yellowbelly to 34cm while fishing with shrimp and worm. Although not big fish it’s encouraging for the native fishery.

Around the Goulburn Junction the yellas have been a better size almost reaching 50cm. Small yabbies have been the pick of the baits fished on the low side of the snags in the slower water.

John Berryman boated five nice cod while trolling between Barmah and Picnic Point. Oargee Plows in the red/black was the consistent colour while the boys had no luck bait fishing. The best cod for the month measured 84cm caught by a couple of fisho’s up from Melbourne for a few days. After a couple of outings on the river resulting with a handful of undersize cod; the boys struck gold when their J.D Superbug was engulfed by the well-conditioned fish. A brief struggle around the snags in the fast moving current had their hearts in their mouths, but before long they had the cod beside the boat.

Moama’s Ashley Sutton and his family spent a couple of days fishing out from Picnic Point landing two cod just over 60cm as well as several in the 50cm range, a couple of nice yellas and plenty of silver perch and carp. Scrubworms, shrimp and pieces of chicken were the bait used for the weekend. There’s been no shortage of shrimp in the river and this should continue with the warm water temperatures. We’ve found that the best bait for the shrimp has been a good handful of dry dog food in the nets with a few fresh gum leaves as well.

Geoff and Aaron from Moama had a good day on the water recently catching a cod measuring 64cm, two that were undersize, six yellowbelly with the largest at 40cm and the smallest being around 30cm. The boys also picked up silver perch and some massive carp that really gave their gear a fair work out. All of the fish were caught on the ever-reliable worm. Moving from one snag to the next paid off in locating the native fish.

Further downstream at Koondrook, Neil and Maureen got onto some good cod while being out on the water early. Fishing tight in around the snags with bardi grubs got them onto seven cod in total, some over and some undersize.

As the weather cools off into autumn, the ski boat traffic will taper off and the water shouldn’t be as dirty from boat wash up the banks and this should make it more comfortable to fish from your boat without feeling like you’re riding the high seas!

A fishing competition coming up that’s well worth pencilling in on the calendar is the Moama RSL Fishing Classic. Held on March 23-25 there is $50,000 in prizes to be won, including three boat, motor and trailer packages and great promotions all weekend it’s one for all the family.

There's been plenty of undersize cod caught on various baits around Echuca.