What’s doing my head in is trying to predict what will be going on with Lake Mulwala when this report goes to print.

At the time of writing, the lake is included in the 400km-plus of water below Lake Hume that is affected by blue–green algae. How long this will last is anybody’s guess.

The next quandary I have is that water authorities plan to lower Lake Mulwala, as they did last year. The draw-down is planned to start slowly in late April with increased outflows planned for mid-May.

Water conservation, along with an attempt to kill off the ever-increasing weed problem with frosts, are the reasons given. Best bet is keep you ear to the ground or ring a local tackle shop for up-to-date information before coming to town.

With the days becoming more angler-friendly, plenty of anglers took the chance to get out onto the lake in search of a cod or two.

The general feedback from all reports was that most anglers were encountering fair numbers of fish with the average size between 45cm and 65cm.

I had the privilege to meet a great young fella from Flowerdale who had been affected by the bushfires. He had come to Mulwala to get away for a bit of R and R. Unfortunately after a few days he had not managed to land a fish or gain much info that would put him onto one.

After talking to him for a fair while in the store and drawing maps to suggested locations, I decided to take him out for an hour or two.

This is no Cinderella story but to see the smile on his face when he caught his first fish on a spinnerbait was priceless. To top off the day, he rang me later that night to tell me of the 68cm carp he landed on bait.

I also had a special visitor in William Fau, from France. He is a top tournament fisher back home and an absolute fishing nut.

I got chatting to William on an internet fishing chat site and suggested that if he could get to Mulwala, I would take him out for a day or two chasing cod. He turned up, so off we went.

This was to be a Cinderella story as he managed to land a 58cm cod with about his 10th cast, so the pressure was off me to get him a fish.

To see him continually go back to his camera to check if it was for real, that he had just caught a Murray cod – something he could only dream about halfway across the side of the world – was something I will never forget.

He went on to catch around 25 fish in his four-day stay in the area, having an absolute ball.

His fishing style was certainly different from ours but it certainly paid dividends when it came to targeting natives.

The inaugural His & Hers Partners Classic was held in late March with 87 teams participating.

It turned out to be a massively successful event with 12 women catching their first ever cod. I could write a book on the happenings for the weekend but I think a lot of the goings-on should be kept under wraps!

A total of 32 legal cod, 18 yellas and a heap of redfin were captured. Team S&M, Mick Miller and Sue Carter, took the title with five legal cod for the day including the longest, at 74cm, all taken on Bassman spinnerbaits.

Longest golden perch was taken out by Andrew Jacotine with a 49.5cm model while Lolita Landerman got the cash for a 39.5cm reddie.

Fishing below the weir has remained steady with the traditional plethora of small fish being reported.

This was blown out of the water when Ron Nott cast his Outlaw spinnerbait into a hungry cod’s lair and proceeded to do battle with a 116cm monster. Ron did a great job to land this fish and was rewarded with a couple of happy snaps before it was released to fight another day.

The response has been amazing to our new store, Lake Mulwala Fish Camp & Ski, opposite the Mulwala Post Office. Drop in for a chat and hopefully we can help put you onto a fish or two.