Finally, Murray cod season has arrived! All we cod enthusiasts love catching and releasing these great fish.

Lately I’ve been fishing the rivers in my Koastal Kayak with mate Aaron Keech. One absolutely beautiful Sunday around lunchtime we headed to some riverside private property I hadn't fished in months, hoping to catch a few golden perch to keep our cod fixation at bay until the season opens.

After gaining permission we launched the kayak and headed straight across to a great snag I always spend time at whenever I fish this part of the river. I put in two casts without luck but on Aaron’s second cast he had a great smack. His little Bassman spinnerbait got absolutely smashed by a nice healthy cod which was his personal best. After a couple of happy snaps we sent the fish on its way.

After spending a good while around the snag we headed further downstream to see if we could catch anything else. Unfortunately we had no luck downstream so we decided to head back to the lucky snag.

A lucky snag it was, producing another nice little cod for release and many more hits. Aaron even managed to catch a nice fat catfish on his spinnerbait, something I have never seen before. I think catfish are a bit underrated as sport fish; they hit hard and they fight all the way to the boat.

Overall, we didn’t land any yellowbelly but we did have great fun and managed to land a couple of nice healthy fish

The fishing in most of the dams around Tamworth has picked up slightly and I think as the weather warms further we’re in for a great Summer of fishing. Dad has had reports of great fishing from customers at North West Fishing Tackle, including some spectacular reports about Keepit Dam, so it’s worth getting out and sampling the region’s fishing – especially now it’s cod season.