Most anglers think that fishing slows right down during the winter months but this is far from the case at Blowering Dam.

I had a fantastic session last July; not only was there good numbers of fish to be caught but it was possible to successfully target all winter fish species present.

It was in the middle of July last year that I had a memorable session. Fishing with two mates on board my boat and another two mates on another boat the plan was chase some quality redfin.

After pulling up at my first location, I saw exactly what I wanted to see on my sounder: big fish arches moving all over the place. I immediately told Craig to drop his ice jig down as quickly as he could. Unbelievably after one lift of the rod tip after touch down, something big had grabbed hold. I instantly called it for a 2kg+ redfin but was pleasantly surprised when after a decent fight a nice little Murray cod hit the surface.

I had only ever heard of one other ice jig caught Murray cod in the past so this was a first for me. We stuck to this spot for another half an hour or so landing around 20 smallish redfin but nothing too big so a change of spot was in order.

The next spot we focused on lots of smallish redfin, which were a little frustrating, but then Craig’s rod loaded heavily again and to everyone’s surprise it was another Murray cod. Two in the one day, this was turning out to be a great session.

No more then 10 minutes later and my rod loaded heavily, jokingly I said it’s probably another Murray cod, unbelievably a nice Murray cod slid into the landing net. We decided to stick it out in the area for a bit longer as we were catching lots of redfin, and also felt we had a good chance of hooking another Murray cod.

Not far off giving up and heading to another spot Anthony, who was fishing on the other boat, hooked and landed a Murray cod, this was now four Murray cod caught on ice jigs from water 30-60 feet deep.

After landing close to a 100 redfin and four Murray cod, Anthony and Al had had enough and decided to take off but Craig, Ash and I decided we would go and hit some of my favourite bays in hope of a nice golden perch or possibly a trout to top the day right off.

Surprisingly after no more then half a dozen casts into the first bay Craig hooked up to something large, we really had no idea of what it was except it was pulling extremely hard. After some experienced fighting, a massive golden perch appeared about 2m below the surface with what looked like another big golden perch just behind it. We soon realised it was not another golden perch but a whopping 1.2m worth of big Murray cod! I netted the golden perch before the big cod had a chance to whack it and thankfully I did as it was a PB golden perch on the cast for Craig with the it measuring 65cm.

It was his brother Ash’s turn to hook up next and after a very long battle a massive 72cm (17lb) hybrid carp hit the net. In the next hour or so before we left we landed another two golden perch and another massive hybrid carp.

My mates and I still talk about this trip regularly, as any session you land four species of fish at Blowering Dam is a very good day! All up we landed around 100 redfin, two big hybrid carp, four Murray cod on ice-jigs and three nice golden perch. Not bad for six hours on the water.

So as you can see from this trip last year there are plenty of different options to choose from this month. Jigging for redfin or possibly even Murray cod will be the most popular technique for July but it is always worth a cast or a troll around your favourite banks, points and bays.

A good way to plan your day is to do exactly what I did in July last year, target the plentiful redfin until your happy then head out and target the bigger fish. You just never know when you’re going to strike a day like that.