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Cod Opening 2020
By Luke Smith
December first every year marks the opening of the Victorian Murray Cod season. Whilst lakes like Eildon are open year-round, the rivers are closed during the annual breeding season.
Cod opening is a much anticipated time for many freshwater fishos, with many taking the week off work or planning a mad one-day dash to try and hit up their favourite spots, before the next bloke does.
This year I ventured on a spur of the moment trip to Lake Mulwala on the New South Wales / Victoria border. Opening fell on a Tuesday and it was on about the Saturday prior that I decided to make the 550km trek to see what all the commotion was about. I charged all of the boat batteries, greased the trailer bearings and tied five new FG knots, making sure all the tackle was good to go.
I then drove up on the Monday evening, set the boat up, launched and tied some lures on to chase a golden perch for a few hours, to familiarise myself with my surroundings before swapping over to cod tactics once it hit midnight.
First impressions of the lake centred on its sheer size and the amount of standing timber in the lake. I have only read a few articles and seen the odd television show on Lake Mulwala and they do not do the lake's size any justice. I jumped onto the Google Earth App and began to search for likely looking areas to fish. With wind forecast overnight and the next few days, I opted to fish the end of the river where it meets the lake. This meant that I had plenty of spots to hide from the wind, whilst throwing lures in the dark.
Murray cod absolutely love smashing a surface lure at night and it is one of the easiest ways to target them in the dark. With limited visibility at night, throwing surface lures helps to avoid all underwater snags that can't be seen and means that you can fish some very skinny water.
I started off with a small split bodied surface paddler that made a great little 'blooping' noise, that I was able to tune in on and listen for to make sure that my lure was swimming correctly each cast.
It was rather peaceful to be out on the water in complete darkness, in the early hours of the morning, just listening to my 110mm lure doing its thing. Surprisingly though, I was not the only boat out. In the area that I had chosen to fish there was three other boats fishing lures and baits.
After an hour of casting I found the easier method was to turn my head torch on and quickly scan the next 100m of bank, checking for snags above the water and any likely looking structure or weed beds. Cod love to ambush their prey, so I found myself casting over any visible weed beds and working the lure right back to the rod tip.
My first strike came from one of these weed beds and it caught me off guard. I made a cast, then started winding and listening to the lure blooping away. I then paused mid retrieve to have a stretch and as I turned around, I heard a cod 'boof' on the surface.
I thought, jeez that was close to me, and I turned around to see a wall of white water in the moonlight... right where my lure should have been! A quick swipe of the rod and I was on. The fish charged towards me as I cranked hard to keep up, then turned away from me and I finally got to load the rod right up and feel the weight of the fish. It was big... and then it was gone. The hook had pulled out. The joy of surface fishing is that you tend to miss a fair few fish and that was just one more challenge to overcome.
An hour later I had another hook up on the same lure. A small cod ate it in only 600mm of water and performed its best barramundi impersonation by taking to the air and throwing the lure back to my feet. Murray cod 2, Luke 0.
I kept on casting and casting through the night. The sun rose and renewed my confidence, however, after 14 hours on the water, I had finally decided to call it a day and get some much needed sleep.
I woke to twenty knot winds and began the task of using Google Earth to again find a likely looking area, where I would have some protection from the wind. I chose to launch at Bundalong and head up the river a bit as there was some backwaters that should be more sheltered.
Whilst there were still some daylight hours remaining, I chose to start with a ZMan Quadzilla, paired with a Pearl coloured ZMan 5" DieZel MinnowZ. This lure looked great in the water, offering plenty of flash, snag resistance and a good size meal.
I kept persisting and working different banks until I came across a sheltered bend full of weed. The weed stopped about 100mm under the surface of the water. I swapped over to a surface paddler and began working these shallow weed beds, just before the sun went down. Five casts in and I was on. It was only a little fish of around 550mm long, however it put up a good scrap after running through all the weed beds.
I had cracked the donut and had the monkey off my back. This made me stress less about the missed opportunities from the night before and it also boosted my confidence, making me work harder for the limited time that I had left on the water.
I fished until 11pm and then called it a night. The next morning I was up before sunrise and resumed casting where I had finished. It was still blowing a gale, so my options were limited. After sunrise I started working a bank with some laydowns that were sitting a bit deeper. To fish this I rotated between the Quadzilla and a Bagley Monster Shad depending on what structure was in front of me.
If it was heavy timber, I used the Quadzilla to avoid snags and sink the lure right in amongst the submerged timber. When the banks were more open and clear, I would cast up tight with the Monster Shad, make two or three sharp winds to get the lure diving and working, and then begin a slow roll. If I felt the bib hit a snag I would then pause, drop the rod tip to give the lure some slack and then let it float over the snag. This worked great as I did not get the lure snagged once.
I managed to get one fish on the Monster Shad. Again it was a small fish, however each Murray cod is unique, with their own patterns, and I was grateful to be catching at least.
The rest of this day was a lot worse than forecast and did not drop off as expected. I tried to fish a new area on the lake but the wind kept blowing... until that plan blew out the window. I opted for a good night's sleep to try rest my aching back and be refreshed for the drive home the next day.
It was a great experience to hit up a new waterway and try figure it out on the fly. It was certainly more challenging with the wind blowing, however it was made easier thanks to a good mate Troy Butler who shared some of his knowledge of the area. Troy suggested areas to try with the wind blowing in certain directions, along with how to fish them.
I now understand the hype of cod opening. It's certainly an addictive form of fishing and one that I will be exploring more down the track. Whilst the numbers of fish encountered are often a lot lower than when fishing in the salt, each fish is well earnt and you appreciate these moments more.
Cheers 😊
Gearing Up:
Okuma Komodo Baitcast Rods
Okuma Komodo Baitcast Reels
Okuma Cerros Baitcast Rods
Okuma Cerros Baitcast Reels