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Natives still lurking in the cold
  |  First Published: July 2017



The ice-cold mornings and chilly days are forcing anglers to stay inside huddled around the wood fire heater at this time of year. We all know the struggles of waking up and getting your body into gear at this time of year is hard, though with those monster green fish out there to be caught, you just have to knock yourself into first and get out there amongst it.

You need to push those thoughts to the side, brush off the dust from the rods and reels and rip into one of the most iconic freshwater fish, the mighty Murray cod.

This time of the year is different to any other time for fishing along the Murray and around the Mildura region. The winter months require a different approach and strategy for catching a monster Murray cod. This approach includes working the open shallow water of the river channel with your standard diving lures. This might seem weird and unusual to do, but metre plus Murray cod will be on the hunt within these areas chasing a feed of bony bream.

Standard diving lures that dive to around 6m will be the go-to lures throughout the winter months. Instead of working your lures hard on structure, crank them up and hold on. Murray cod will be on the move and chasing a feed at the moment, with little food on the menu due to the cold-water temperatures.

I recommend trying a natural coloured lure, such as a white or silver that represents a bony bream. This will put you in the game. The next step is putting your lure in the right spot, and that can either be done on the troll or on the cast, and putting it in the right area will entice a monster Murray cod to absolutely destroy your lure within seconds.

Casting at this time of year can produce good results, and by putting your lure hard up against the bank and fluttering or cranking it down to an appropriate depth, you’ll be in the game. Koolabung Codzilla 6m, Koolabung Cod Baits, JD Python 140mm standard diver, 24ft diving ACs and Bassman Spinerbaits have been working in recent weeks when chasing the metre plus Murray cod. Large surface lures will also be a go-to over the winter months, with big surface presentations starting to prove themselves recently with good reports.

The cod have been much quieter recently around the Mildura region, taking time and repeated casts to entice. Mildura anglers have been doing the miles to get the smiles, with recent reports of local anglers getting smoked by several metre plus Murray cod within a session. Golden perch have still been caught, with many reports of very reasonable size specimens caught. Don’t let the cold weather keep you off the water this winter, there’s still plenty of fish to be caught.

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