"

Maintain to Sustain
  |  First Published: February 2009



In the weeks after the cod opening, anglers are still cashing in on some excellent action. Robinvale has been the hot spot for big cod with several over a meter landed in the past month.

Consistency has come for those trolling large deep diving lures, with the new 150mm Deep Running Invader a good choice. Other lures of note have included Muldoon’s Big Mong and the JD python.

Colour choice has been all over the shop from fluoro pink to jet black and in-between, there is no rhyme or reason as to what they will scoff. Therefore, my colour selection for the coming weeks is the one that gets closest to a hungry fish!

Anglers casting the timber have had mixed results with some excellent golden perch falling to both spinnerbaits and smaller hardbodied lures. Cod have been a little tougher and I suspect that most of the larger specimens are held up in the deeper water.

Morning and dusk have been the most productive time to find a few greenfish in the shallows and fish to a meter or more have been landed on the cast. Once the sun comes up, they seem to once again retreat to depth.

Down stream of Euston Weir through to Wemen is still producing plenty of fish with mixed catches of cod and golden perch. Spinnerbaits are working well, especially on the goldens, with most sessions producing a few fish. There are always a few cod to be found muscling in, with fish to 7-8kg common of late.

Bait anglers are also getting in on the action with shrimp, worms and small yabbies accounting for plenty of perch and cod. Cheese and bardi grubs have been the best for cod with scrub worms a reliable back up.

Most of the smaller waters have been fishing well, such as Bidgee, Wakool and Edward rivers. These smaller waterways are temperamental and are often boom or bust fisheries. Even though all these rivers are full of large cod, the fish are often reluctance to scoff.

The most significant windows for large fish come just prior to a rise in water levels. If you are on location at this exact time it seems every old snag holds a giant fish, with some specimens unstoppable. Arrive a few days either side of this event and the large fish become rare captures amongst a number of smaller specimens.

Overall, the fishing so far has been great as the warmth of summer begins to fry. We can also expect to see plenty of wake boats invade the pool water, so for your own fishing sanity I suggest you fish the shallow regions of the river where snags are many and the ‘look at me’ brigade are few.

PLAY US A TUNE CLEATUS

It seems that the majority of anglers are happy enough to fish within the parameters of the law. Now, we may not agree with all the laws but they are set in place to enhance and improve, or at least sustain, a viable fishery. Set line fishing was banned for this exact reason. While the majority of anglers have accepted this ruling, there are still plenty of meat gatherers out there that see it as their God given right.

In the past few months literally hundreds of set lines have been found in most of the above mentioned locations. Most are hidden out of sight and tied off underwater where they are unlikely to be discovered.

Others take the art of poaching to a whole new level where the care factor for the fishery is blatantly nonexistent. An example of this was found in the Edward River where some lure fishers stumbled across a full breadth cross line baited with 30 or more hooks. Several of the hooks were baited with large yabbies while the rest had live silver perch hanging from them.

This is Deliverance-styled fishing where the right to play a banjo and wear a dead animal on your head is right up there with family relations and the fine art of whittling. Unfortunately, the banjo pickers far outweigh the on-water Fisheries Officers so I guess other than a little self-intervention it’s something time will have to take care of.

Reads: 1510

Matched Content ... powered by Google




Latest Articles




Fishing Monthly Magazines On Instagram

Digital Editions

Read Digital Editions

Current Magazine - Editorial Content

Western Australia Fishing Monthly
Victoria Fishing Monthly
Queensland Fishing Monthly