Surface Addicts Only - Murray Cod Trip

[bersim]

This report is a couple of weeks late but the trip was way too good not to post!  In the last week of holidays Dad took a few days off work to head out into the bush for a few days camping.  We headed up on Thursday morning with the hopes of catching a few on surface just before dark.  After arriving at the first spot it was very disappointing to discover that the lack of water had brought this once amazing stretch of water into a small weed filled creek.  Nevertheless, we launched in because under that weed we knew there were cod.  The problem was, we might has well have been casting onto the grass as it was so thick that even heavy frogs weren't creating any kind of surface disturbance.  There was no way that we would be catching any fish out of there so we headed back to camp thinking that this was going to be a slow trip...

In the morning we decided to paddle down the other way in search of some better water and we did find some with a little less weed.  The fish weren't very active though and I think this may have been due to the reduced oxygen levels in the river.  We did managed a few cod on surface frogs which was fun as well as 1 cod on a spinnerbait.  This was actually the only fish for the trip that wasn't caught on surface!  It definitely wasn't as fun catching them in the weed as they didn't hit it with the same aggression as they do in open water.  They seemed to suck it in a lot more so they didn't eat too much salad with their meat .  They did create an awesome bow wave due to the weed though!

This was the first fish for the trip and the only one that I released with my bare hands .  Ouch!  You'd think I would have learnt by now but I got shredded up by his teeth!

After this abysmal session we headed back for some lunch and sat down to think about what we should do.  We decided to make the move and head off to a different stretch of water that may have less weed.  It was definitely a worthwhile move as we found some exceptional water with unbelievable amounts of cod.  In the short afternoon session we racked up a pretty awesome number of surface hits along with landing lots of very nice cod.  We used an array of lures but the standouts were the paddlers.  The jackall pompadour is still going strong even though it has very little paint and has gone through many hooks, and his smaller brother certainly accounted for just as many fish!  Another cool lure was the lucky craft sammy bug but the fish often missed that one for some reason.  We were pretty stoked after this afternoon session as the surface bit started at 2:00 in the afternoon and got better and better right up until it was pitch black!  We managed around 8 or so cod from one small hole which was so awesome.  We were waiting for a hit on most casts!  After arriving back at camp we were so hungry and exhausted that we decided to drive out and have a proper meal for dinner.  Was nice to finish the day with a big t-bone steak and with the monkeys well and truly off our backs!

Check out the size of this lure compared to the cod!  

This guy was pretty chunky and displaced a nice amount of water

This was a weird looking cod from some very skinny water

The next morning we once again fished some really skinny water.  It was pretty amazing watching cod cruising around shallow pools.  Each small hole that we fished we could virtually guarantee a few hits on the first and second cast.  We managed a few double hookups in the skinny holes and when they would hit the lure around the rocks, the "boof" could be heard from miles away!  Also got a cod on an OSP bent minnow which had a much more reliable hookup rate but not as fun seeing as it darts just under the surface.  We ended up with around 30-40 missed surface strikes and landed 27 cod on surface for the trip.  Was pretty epic seeing them hit the lures in such skinny water too!  I think it's safe to say that the beautiful murray cod is our favourite freshwater fish to target especially on surface!  The biggest went 60cm and was the last fish that Dad caught for the trip!  

This little cod hit the sammy bug 7 times!

This 60cm cod had 2 hits at Dad's lure and man were they aggressive!

Dad found a couple of lures too.  One of them was actually a jitterbug @aussie123.  Has a nice action so can see why togas like them!

Thanks for reading, 

James

[aussie123]

Nice fish again James.

It has been very dry for quite a while now so many of those rivers and creeks will be very low with lots of weed in them.

Lucky find with the Jitterbug.Clean it up and use that one at Borumba, it will be your new lucky lure.

[Angus]

Awesome mate just awesome.

[bersim]

Thanks Lance.  It's a black and white jointed jitterbug and apart from a few scratches and a change of hooks it's good to go.  Yeah it's cool to have seen this system at both ends of the spectrum.  One time it was flooding and now there's only a few skinny holes and no flow to the river. @aussie123

I think it's about time you ticked them off your bucket list @Angus!

James

[Luvit]

Another awesome trip, worth the kms and time to get there.

Great photos and will have to do more of this type of fishing soon with the kids.

Surface fishing is my favourite 

 

[samsteele115]

Great trip and report James, well done. Looks like fun! 

[bersim]

Thanks Sam.  The surface hit of a cod is something you can never forget.  It's hard to imagine such a fat looking fish being able to move so fast!

 

[T_H]

Great report mate. Been way too long since ive landed a cod. Some awesome looking fish and location mate. They are an exceptional species, especially on the surface