Afternoons by the river...

[mangler]

Managed to get home to the farm for the weekend gone, as usual the chance of an afternoon fish wasn't turned down.

Friday afternoon seen my father, brother and myself return to an old favourite hole that has come up trumps many times with good sized yellowbelly and Murray Cod. Walking down the dry river bed to the water hole, we all commented how this was the lowest we'd seen the river in a long time, never mind, less water for the fish to hide in. We were a bit jubious about the fishing that afternoon with such low water levels, but those fears were quickly laid aside when dad pulled on a nice cod, just shy of 60cm on his first cast, whilst my brother & I were still clipping on our lures. But sadly this excitement was short lived as cast after cast went fishless for all three of us. The lone fish that afternoon took a fancy to a little size 3 Stumpjumper in pink.

Sunday afternoon came round and dad and I decided to head off to another hole on a different river. The situation was quite different here with a reasonable flow in the river. A couple of casts later I was on to a small mid 30's cod, then not long after dad was onto another cod slightly larger.

From here on in the cod kept biting, but the just kept getting smaller, I managed to land my smallest ever cod, which hopefully is a good indication they are breeding in this system, as it has been a few years since any stocking of cod here, just got to find the bigger ones next time!

Just on dusk I had a hard hit on my lure, then after a short tustle with a fish that definitely wasn't a cod, up came a small yellowbelly, I was also quite happy to see that as this was the first time that either of us had caught a fish other than a Murray Cod at this location.

The Sunday arvo session was only for just over an hour or so, I think the final tally was half a dozen cod and a yellowbelly between us, with no real size to the cod. Succesful lures for the arvo were black and pink Stumpjumpers in the smaller sizes, 80mm Predatek Boomerangs, 50mm Viking Talismans and a red Kingfisher Tempest in the 55mm size.

[mangler]

Ambitious little cod...

[mangler]

Healthy little yellowbelly...

All fish released,

Thanks for reading,

Matt

[tomca]

Sounds like its not all doom and gloom for the native out that way

Nice session, no matter how small they got, its always good to get a bend in the rod.

Any pics of your dads big one, they are a beautiful fish

[nadders]

thanks for the report mangler, i enjoy the locations your fishing takes you to, very nice scenery indeed

[Dinodadog]

Well done on the cod

[meldrum1]

Great report, well done, looks like a lot of fun. I'm yet to catch my first cod.

[mangler]

tomca wrote:

Sounds like its not all doom and gloom for the native out that way

Nice session, no matter how small they got, its always good to get a bend in the rod.

Any pics of your dads big one, they are a beautiful fish

Yeah, the natives are doing quite well in the area at the moment, thanks to previous restocking and thoughtful angling practices. And in these middle stretches I've been fishing the cod seem to have kept the trout right up in the high country, and the carp completely out of the system, gotta love the good old cod.

Here's a picture of Dad and his nice sized cod.

[mangler]

Dino - thanks mate, definitely my favourite fish.

meldrum - Thanks mate, good luck on the hunt.

Nadders - Thanks mate, will chuck up a couple of other pictures of the scenery.

[mangler]

Have caught several cod standing here...

[mangler]

Gotta love a clear flowing river full of natives...

Cheers,

Matt

[James W]

that place looks magic mangler! how cool are those little cod!!

[mangler]

JamesW - sure is a magic place, and the little cod are pretty cool, would like their parents though!

[Scope]

Mate loving that scenery, you could sit there all day and catch no fish and still not be disappointed haha. Loving that big cod, and the tiny one!

Cheers Jono

[natang]

Mangler that has to be one of the most serene places to go fishing. COngrats to your Dad for the cod too!

[tobie10]

thanks for sharing - what a great weekend! Just curious where approximately were you fishing? Not looking for secret spots or anything, just curious where you can get such nice scenery like that...

cheers,

juls

[mangler]

natang & scope - thanks fella's, it is one of those spots where any fish are a bonus.

tobie10 - most of my spots I fish in the area are on private property (with land holders permission of course). But there are plenty of other accessable areas like this throughout the New England region of NSW.

[tobie10]

thanks mangler - yeah I was just thinking the environment looked quite different from what I've seen around queensland! Look forward to seeing more reports from you.

[ryanyoung]

Great work there Mate,

Ryan.