April saw the running of the 16th Mulwala Classic, an invitational tournament with 100 anglers participating. After two days of competition, exactly 100 legal-sized Murray cod had been measured and released.

A further 156 under-sized cod, 33 golden perch and four redfin were landed. Greg Rourke from Deniliquin landed a magnificent 1.14m fish that won him the biggest fish trophy. Michael Bressan of Narre Warren came in with a great 1.10m cod. This, coupled with his other legal fish over the weekend, helped Mick take home the prestigious title of Champion Angler.

In the teams event, Roy Holmes, Steven Dietrich, David Tricky and Scott Jones were victors with over 10 legal fish caught between them. A 52.5cm golden perch saw Troy Mitchell walk away with the goods for his effort. Thanks must go to Graeme Clark, Warren Solomon, Jim Taylor and Alan Way for their hard work in organising this great event.

The local angling club also hosted their annual fishing competition in April, with 441 entrants taking part. The biggest recorded cod was 1.1m. Also caught were 92 other legal-sized cod, 217 under-sized cod, 41 golden perch, 47 redfin and 38 carp.

The majority of anglers fishing the lake have reported catching one or two cod per session. The feature of most reports though is the number and quality of the redfin. Those casting spinnerbaits and smaller hard-bodied lures around the edges of the weed beds are having great success. With the increased weed in the lake there is perfect habitat for the reddies and they are becoming a viable target for anglers.

Winton Brown and his mate put in two solid days for 10 legal cod measuring between 55-75cm. They were also busted off by a couple of big fish. These were all taken trolling big deep diving lures between Majors and Bundalong.

Over the past fortnight I received numerous reports via e-mail. One from Gary read: “I have just returned from a very successful weekend at Bundalong. Over 50 cod were caught and released between four boats, with two fish over 100cm. I was lucky enough to catch one of these and at 103cm it was my best by far. Most fish were caught on the troll, with a few caught casting to the snags. There were also some big golden perch caught. Almost everyone I spoke to had caught fish.”

Another from Mick Truscott: “Norm Smith, Andrew Cheetham, Brad and Mick Truscott fished Mulwala for two days to catch eight cod under 50cm, three of 53-63cm and one of 69cm. All were caught on Predator lures”

And finally an e-mail from VFM’s Geelong correspondent, Neil Slater. “Had a ball up at Bundalong. Caught a 58cm cod casting over the weed on a spinnerbait, and a 45cm version by trolling buzzbaits past the sand ramp at Kyffins. We had three hits trolling buzzbaits. We fished the river a fair bit, and near Majors as well, for zero. Lots of people were catching golden perch including one bloke who caught 9 casting lures to one log”.

Anglers fishing in the Yarrawonga outlet channel downstream towards Cobram have caught good numbers of redfin around the drop-offs. Wayne and Nat Giddley caught some great fish, while Trevor Beach continues to land heaps on soft plastics.

A couple of great fish have been caught below the weir, which may be a sign of things to come for the next month or two. First, a great cod measuring 1.18m was landed by Peter Tidd from Corowa. He was casting a small Predatek lure chasing a few golden perch around Hincheys when he was greeted with this great surprise. Topping this fish was not going to be easy, but 14 year old Toby Jefcott did just that. While casting an Oar-Gee lure around the timber in the Chinamans area, he was lucky enough to hook and land a 1.26m monster.

If you have a report from Lake Mulwala please send it to me at --e-mail address hidden--