Over the past couple of months the fishing around Echuca on the Murray and further north on the Edward river has been quite productive.

Cod from 55cm to 92cm and golden perch up to 60cm have been taken, an improvement in size over earlier in the season.

A Deniliquin angler had a good run on the Edward River above Stevens Weir, trolling up an average half a dozen cod from 45cm to 92cm over a couple of outings. Any dark lure, especially in purple, black or green, seemed get the fishes’ attention.

Some colours seem to work better in different waters, as another angler landed 20 cod over two trips using a lure with a silver scale and pink gill pattern – a lot lighter and brighter.

Back in February the Deniliquin RSL held its annual fishing classic which attracted record entry numbers topping 1200 in perfect weather. Ray Jeffries claimed the biggest cod with a 74cm fish.

On the Murray River at Mathoura Dean Lierch spent the evening around the boat ramp at Picnic Point landing several carp and some good-sized silver perch before finishing the night with a 55cm cod taken on a yabby tail.

Downstream towards Barmah, Conrad Farrell trolled up a 67cm cod and half an hour later and further down, I trolled up a 69cm cod on the ever-reliable purple/black Oar-Gee Plow. Working the lure close to the bank in only 2.4m of water and bouncing off plenty of timber had the desired effect.

The area around the Goulburn Junction has given up some quality fish in recent times with a thumper 60cm yellowbelly caught on a hook loaded with three good-sized shrimps. Jim Kane from Moama fished the same area for a couple of carp and a nice yellowbelly while bank fishing with shrimps and worm.

A few weeks back my family fished with bait from the bank just upstream from the Goulburn with mixed results. The kids managed a couple of larger silver perch and some smaller carp while the good wife landed a well-conditioned cod. I could only brag about a few bites – out fished by the girls again!

The most annoying thing was that I had fished the same snag as Tammy earlier that morning with shrimp for no glory and she tossed in a bardi grub and 10 minutes later she was releasing a legal size cod. That’s fishing!

The waters of Kow Swamp, just out of Gunbower, recently fired up for some golden perch to 3kg on lures. John Howard of Supreme Custom Rods in Rochester caught several around 1.5kg on his custom spinnerbaits.

Several lure casters have had success on the yellas using orange/brown skirted 3/8oz spinnerbaits. Outlaw Spinnerbaits do this colour (colour 15) as does Bassman, (colour 9) and both of these look really natural when worked through the water.

With the Murray cray season kicking off on May 1, let’s hope it’s a better season than the last, which was a write-off with floodwater shutting down the crays. We’ve found in the past seasons that a rise in the river can turn the crays off, let alone a massive amount of water.

Tammy McLeish caught and released this Murray cod that took a bardi grub near the Goulburn Junction on the Murray.