Fishing this past month has been steady along the Murray River and some very good Murray cod and golden perch found their way onto the hook. The pool water at Robinvale produced a good run of small to medium cod and some solid golden perch.

Most fish have been caught on bait but some of the better cod have taken lures. The back of the Nine-Mile has been the pick of spots where cod are concerned. The reports upstream to Boundary Bend have been good with plenty of cod to 75cm on bait and lures among good numbers of perch.

Below the weir at Euston downstream to Wemen and beyond continues to produce some very large cod. The biggest this past month was 120cm on a trolled StumpJumper. Perch have also taken lures in this area and anglers who fish baits of shrimp and small yabbies have really cracked the cod code. It would be fair to say that so far this season the shallow current rich water of this area has been the most consistent habitat of larger sized cod. With that in mind, be careful of the many shallow rock bars that, while great for holding fish, will also do you plenty of damage if you strike them in the boat at speed. Most good cod anglers will tell you that going flat out has little to do with catching fish.

For those prepared to try, some very good surface action occurs at either end of the day and into the night. Summer cod fishing in our local waters can be a difficult affair as anglers suffer the torment of relentless heat and a stream of seemingly endless river traffic. When we talk wake along the Murray at this time and into early autumn the first thing that springs to mind is the speaker clad wake boats that push enough water to cause an endless rise of bank side tsunamis. Forget fishing the pool water during the heat of the day as the water is churned to the turbid tune of jet skis and motors. The calm returns at the end of the day, when the roar finally subsides and the natural sounds of the river return to a tranquil calm. Now it’s time to create a new kind of wake, one that’s often interrupted with a shotgun like explosion. Surface lures and wake baits have come of age over the past few seasons. The continual stream of new and exciting models becoming available seems endless and this explosive form of angling has turned up plenty of good fish.

While standard paddling surface lures have been the choice of most low light fishers in the past few years, it’s only been of recent times that large wake baits have come into their own. When I say ‘large’, the average length of these wake baits would be at least 170mm long. From here they grow in size to the point where you require specially designed rods like the 8kg, 7ft Venom Baitcast to hurl them at distance. Some wake baits are designed to mimic fish, while others look like water rats and snakes as they wiggle their way across the surface making a distinct clicking sound. These baits are popular in some of the larger impoundments for the unique noise that sets them aside from other more commonly heard surface lures. These lures are quickly finding a home along the Murray and its adjoining rivers and they will no doubt continue to fool surface seasoned cod into taking a swipe. With that said as we roll into autumn the fishing should only get better as the water temperature begins to slowly drop. We are now about to enter the real start of the big cod season so good luck to all those wetting a line up this way over the coming month.