My Cod fishing journey - last shot

[NAGG]

Hi All

Just a quick follow on from my last thread - Old mate & I decided to have one last shot at the cod for this season down at Burrinjuck.

The weather forecast didn't look that great but as I've learnt down that way ..... predictions have been off target so we decided to go - Hey a good fire , beers & the chance of a fish beats sitting at home anyday.

The first thing we noticed is the lake had risen around 1m over the past 3 weeks (snow melt) & with that goes the apprehension of what will this do to the fishing.

Day 1 brought us back to reality ...... up to around 5pm , pretty well didn't get a touch .... 5pm we went back to a spot near camp we had nicknamed "Codly Bay "
It was hit after hit without any hookups - So it ended up a doughnut day. At least we got to see a bit more of the lake though dodging the driftwood which came down with the snow melt was always fun (not) . A couple of bankside cookups (Hamburgers & coffee) made for a pretty nice day out though.

Day 2 - Cold & foggy ..... headed up river to a bay that looked good & we thought we might be in for some surface activity - nope nothin . With the fog still pretty thick we headed across to fish some vertical rock walls where we had success on the previous trip . I've decided to step it up fishing a 8" Megabass Magdraft soft plastic in cod colour - old mate stuck to his spinnerbait. Second cast & I've missed a big hit (surprised me ) but a couple of cast later managed this little tacker ...... Big baits 270823.jpg Check the size of the lure out compared to the fish . Old mate quickly followed it up with another on his spinnerbait - (69cm) 270823-2.jpg happily we are off the doughnut . Not too long after I've managed a 70cm fish which actually gave me a bit of curry even managing to tow the hornet around - another fish on the magdraft 70cm 270823.jpg We managed a couple more fish before the sun broke through the fog pretty well shutting down the bite . A bit more site seeing - bank side cook up & back to codly bay for sunset . A couple more landed plus our first redfin ....... all up a pretty good 6 fish day & a big lesson learnt which would hold us in good stead for our final session .

5.30 wake up ..... & straight off to our rock wall up river . It didn't take long before we were onto fish with 4 landed 60cm Burrinjuck Cod 280823.jpg up to 60cm .
The bite shut down as soon as the sun hit the walls . So taking what we learnt from the previous day we went looking for rock walls that were shaded - fishing 2 new locations we landed another 4 fish 50cm spinnerbait cod 280823.jpg..... lost a few including a boatside inhalation which scared the crap out of me before pulling the pin to pack up & head home.

A 14 fish trip was our best yet ...... still nothing really big - but happy to see a 70,69,62,60 & a couple of 50s hit the deck . Fishing dark walls certainly prolongs the bite . Big baits like the 8" Megabass magdraft certainly attract the attention of those cod .... regardless of their size & I'll be certainly try the bigger 10" version when the cod season kicks off in December.

Now it's pack up the cod gear & start preparing for the Barra trip to Lake Kinchant in Oct .

Chris

[Volvo]

Thanks for the Story and Pics Mate , looks like you had a good time .

[Barry Ehsman]

Good effort Chris, top report.

[bluefin59]

Excellent report and insight into this fishery, thanks Matt

[gunna]

Great report you pair of mad bastards.

[NAGG]

Great report you pair of mad bastards.

Everyone keeps saying that Gotta say though Pete , I've always loved camping in the winter ( technically it's still camping sleeping in the canopy ?)

The real joy is that there aren't too many other boats around ...... we might see 10 other boats over a couple of days (might). We have noted that some people are preparing their onsite vans / cabins for the summer period ...... so it will be interesting seeing what it is like in December .

Chris