Fishing throughout January and into early February remained very quiet in and around Lake Mulwala. I only received a couple of reports for the month and they both suggested that pulling a scale was pretty difficult.

Locals Dan and Ray Hawkins have been putting in a fair bit of time on the water, only getting about 1 legal size fish for every 4hrs of fishing. Their preferred method has been to troll spinnerbaits in around 8ft of water. The only other person that got amongst a few fish was Roger Miles. Roger uses many different techniques and this time his fish were caught using surface lures. As I have mentioned previously, Roger is one of the finest Murray cod fishermen going around. Luckily, for the every day angler or someone new to the sport, Roger has just started up a guiding business named “Cod Hunter Tours”. Spending a day on the water with a guide of Roger’s quality would not only be very enjoyable but should improve your fishing knowledge and techniques immensely. Give Roger a call on 0427 483 286 or send me an e-mail if you can’t track him down.

The only other report I have is of a nice fish measuring around 1.2m being taken around the Majors Creek area on Australia Day.

Over the next month there are a few fishing competitions being on Lake Mulwala including the Fitters Classic, Mulwala Masters and the Lowrance Dash 4 Cash Super Series. With the increased fishing on the lake, I should be able to give you a better report next month.

The fishing downstream from the weir wall has improved to the point where undersize Murray cod, trout cod and silver perch are becoming annoying for those who are bait fishing. Cheese seems to be the bait of the moment but personally I would be using a nice sized bardi grub if was in search of a nice cod.

While fishing down the river in late February I was lucky enough to witness a very happy young fella catch his first native fish. How’s this for a story? 9 year-old Dylan Scarpetti had found an Oar-Gee Lure floating down the river and decided to try his luck with it on a sandbar in 1ft of water in the afternoon on a stinking hot day. Now I wouldn’t be writing this story if he hadn’t caught a fish so you guessed it, a magnificent 53cm yellow belly was the result. To top off this story, I promised Dylan that if they released the fish I would put his picture and story about the catch in this fishing magazine. So here you go Dylan – well done! Us so called “experts” would say that casting up a fish in this scenario is almost impossible but it goes to show that if you are in the right place at the right time, anything is possible.

Fishing on Lake Mulwala from now until May should begin to pick up with bigger fish starting to move around. As the season progresses the fish tend to move down from the top end of the lake to the town end. The most productive method for producing quality fish is trolling in water that is 12ft or deeper. Once the speedboats disappear some good yellas should be available for those bobbing bait around the snags or casting smaller sized lures.

If anybody has a good story or would like to report their catch from this area, drop me a line at --e-mail address hidden--

Nine year-old Dylan Scarpetti with a 53cm yellow belly caught below Lake Mulwala in the Murray River on an Oar-Gee lure.