Mother Nature can provide many clues relating to the change of seasons.

The earth’s epic journey around the sun continues paving the way for shorter days and chilly nights that are generally enjoyed around a warm fire. The earth’s characteristics are transforming once again into winter.

In fishing terms autumn and winter are not only considered a good time to start lure fishing for Murray Cod, but also a window into what is considered the best cod fishing periods. Most anglers will have their own ideas when it comes to interpreting this change. For many of the die-hard fishos out there, it is not until the start of June that begins the start of, what has been dubbed, the unofficial cod opening.

However, autumn has been unusually warm around Mildura and water temperatures have been higher than normal. Coming off the back of a very hot summer, the cod simply haven’t started to fire as yet. Hopefully this will all change very soon.

Murray cod fishing has been a bit of hard work of late, but those anglers putting in the long hours and those willing to work out where the fish are holding are reaping the benefits.

A few nice Murray cod have been caught on large lures upstream of Mildura lately, with the biggest going around 90cm. A few smaller models coming in at around 70-80cm have also been caught in the clearer waters we are experiencing at the moment. Most of these cod have been caught using 120mm Koolabung Codzillas and King Mongs in yellows and greens.

Good news is that cod are starting to move into the shallows as some of the cod caught lately have been in around 3-4m of water.

Considering the size of the bait fish that cod are feeding on, upsizing lures is a must. Most of the cod caught lately have been achieved on large, trolled lures. Trolling speeds have also been up from the norm indicating that the fish are starting to come on the chew, but aren’t completely firing yet.

Some nice yellas have been caught recently on larger spinnerbaits in the Murray. Most of the fish have been holding close to timber and a slow retrieve seems to be doing the damage. Some of the creeks outside the main river have also been fishing well for big yellas.

Bait fishos are reporting nice yellowbelly and catfish below Wentworth on a cocktail of worm and shrimp.

The Mildura Weir pool is expected to drop toward the end of May and into June for general maintenance on the weir structure. This will affect the water levels and clarity below Wentworth too, which ultimately will affect the quality of fishing, particularly when luring for Murray cod.

More water is due to make its way down the system that may dirty things up for a while, once again, making fishing difficult in the main river.

If the water stays relatively level Murray cod should start to move closer to snags up in the water column and we should see a thumper of a winter for big cod on lures.

Brett Evans holding up a nice Murray cod caught recently on a large trolled lure. It seems the bigger the lure the better the fishing at the moment.