Trout Spinning Madness

My story starts when I get a message on my phone on Tuesday from a my mate Steve asking what I am doing tomorrow, I reply with nothing and he suggests we catch up for a fish as his car was getting serviced all day and had nothing to do, of course I agreed. The next day came and business was attended to before we were underway towards a favoured Trout spot, arriving around 10:30am. Lines quickly rigged with spinners and we were underway and off walking along the river. Success was hard to come by to start with, with me losing two lures along with Steve also losing one, retying leaders 3 times before a fish was not looking good and only action was a few timid followers was showing no signs of energy from the fish. A few follows later and Steve was onto his first ever trout, it was a nice little brown which managed to get in the current and get over a log, luckily I was in the water across from him fishing a hole and could just walk over and help him out. He was stoked, I was stoked, we had achieved what we had set out to do, get him onto his first trout. With the day already being called a success we headed on towards some nice looking water that almost guaranteed us a fish. From a high bank I was casting towards the opposite bank across some fast flowing water, receiving a few follows and one take which was soon dropped. The action seemed to be picking up a bit as slightly further down I hooked into a nice solid little brown, my first for the day.

My first Trout for the day

Steve with his first ever Trout

Moving along the river up to a nice long rock and pebble bank saw myself catch another little brown, and both receiving follows from other fish that did not take the lure. Numerous more casts were placed to try and draw a strike were to no avail and we continued our trek upstream. The river flow went under an undercut willow with a depth of a meter or so creating a hole and slight backwater right in under the tree creating shade and great looking fish habitat. We went over to it in the water as quietly as we could and proceeded to cast into the hole. My first cast had interest from an estimated two pound brown as he followed it and gave it a small tap before retreating back to cover. The next few casts were similar with follows coming from fish of varying sizes between one and three pound, following the lure out before retreating. Giving up on this spot and moving up again, slowly walking in the water whilst casting upstream retrieving the spinners back to us was proving productive with myself catching four small browns in quick succession. Feeling a sense that the fish may be fired up today we went on with a eager sense of anticipation that we will catch more and better fish. The next spot we came to had a depth of around 60-70cm and a steady current, I cast my lure upstream a ways about a 45 degree angle from the bank, on retrieve saw a relatively nice sized brown of around 2 pound follow the lure before again retreating to hide amongst the rocks, the next cast to the same location resulted in a lightning fast strike and take. A hard but quick fight resulted before the trout was landed. It was a nicer brown than what we had been catching so we were happy, It was quite fat for its length and it was around a pound maybe slightly over. Fish was quickly released after a happy snap and we were back to the fishing.

Nice little fat Brown

Still fishing the same location, Steve managed to hook another small trout but the hooks pulled, fortunately the next cast hooked into another one and landed it. It was another little brown and was released after a picture. I also managed to get another one in the same location just before leaving for another spot upstream. Here we had to walk around overgrown blackberries and other shrubs in order to fish the river so a few minutes later and the fish were biting again, In a short period of time, I landed a little brown, Steve landed a little brown and I managed to score again with a brown slightly bigger then the previous two. Now we were at a location where I had caught my first ever trout from, we decided to fish the opposite side which had some amazing water in it, casting up under trees and letting the lure drift with the current and into a deeper sort of hole. I cast out my lure into the crystal clear water that was flowing past the overhanging willow, the lure landed with a soft splash, that could not be heard over the sound of the water. I watched as the lure was spun towards the swift section of water before I pulled it into the hole and the force of the water pushed it down under my sight. I regained the slack line that the water had caused as it pushed the lure down and continued my retrieve. The gold flash of the spinner came into view, it all happened in a matter of moments, I watched as a big white mouth came up from the depths, I watched as the whiteness dissapeared along with the flashing of my lure, I watched as the trout surfaced in front of me, and I watched as it took of downstream in the fast flowing current, peeling drag with ease. With an exclamation I clicked into gear and chased it down the fast water and tried to regain control of the fish. A few minutes later i managed to bring the fish to where I could easily land him and the fight was over. It was a nice healthy Brown Trout, I estimated him at around three pound, the photos do not do it justice it is heavier and bigger then it looks. It measured at 44cm and was photographed and then released to fight another day.

The three pound Brown

The release

With adrenaline levels still high we moved on upstream and fished the exact location of my first ever trout, I let Steve have the first cast where he hooked but quickly dropped a tiny brown, before catching one the next cast. I managed a follower but no luck my way here. Moving on up the water casting to the bank and logs just off the fast water. This is when the action turned hot, I caught a little brown which was quickly released, the next cast I caught another one, which was also released straight away. Walking up further Steve managed a fish from the opposite side of the river. I cast into a bit of water that was not flowing fast in the current due to a log and hooked up straight away, this was followed by a second cast resulting in another small brown trout. As I was fighting this fish, Steve hooked into another trout from the same location, it was a double hookup, three fish in three casts situation. We were astounded at the amount of fish we were catching in so little time from the one small area, all up about 20 meters of water resulted in just under 10 fish between the two of us. Reaching the end of where we could walk comfortably in the water, we excited and walked out along the bank. The spot we chose to cast wasn’t ideal as the water was flowing steadily and it was a meter to two meters deep, but we cast anyway. My first cast was followed by what I originally thought was a big carp, but as it got closer and in the clear water, it was a trout that I would say close to eight maybe nine pounds, an absolute monster of a fish, unfortunately it lost interest in the lure and turned and sat in the current right in front of me, as if to tease me, this gave me a good look at it. Shortly after I hooked up to a solid little trout casting across the river, this in turn spooked the large trout away from where he was sitting. A quick snap of the trout and it was away back to his home. We continued up stream resulting in a few more captures all of the average half a pound size that we had been catching all day.

One of Steve's Trout

Nice sized Brown Trout

In the end we managed to catch 28 trout between the two of us in just under six hours, I managed 22 and Steve with six. All fish that were captured were Brown Trout and all returned to the water and swam away. Lure of choice for the day was a Celta and method of the day was casting into the deeper cooler water, around one to one and a half foot was the best depth, and if it was shaded it was even better. My guess is here that the trout were seeking to escape from the sun and heat into the deeper water. I chose to release all the fish instead of keeping one or two for dinner, just because the feeling and satisfaction I get out of releasing a fish alive and well is just as good as actually catching the fish itself. As I have heard others say, and now say so myself when Trout fishing, “Only take what you need, or take nothing at all”.

Patience may be Hume’s Key

Lake Hume is situated on the border of New South Wales and Victoria on the Murray River at Albury-Wodonga. It is a large lake containing just over three million Mega Liters of water. Although not renowned for a major Golden Perch fishery, populations of them thrive and reach great sizes.

My story begins Wednesday, 19th of October, the weather had been perfect for days, and the water should have been heating up nicely. Which in theory, draws the Golden Perch into a feeding frenzy. We tried, and tried, but could not raise a single yellow bellied fish. We tried bait, we tried different lures, we tried trolling, we tried casting both from the boat and the shore, but these illustrious fish still stayed well hidden. We retired for the day with only a few smaller reddies and two carp under our belts, surprisingly all fish were caught on lures even the carp.

The next day we went out for an afternoon session to try again, but still the Goldens remained quiet. We were trying every trick in the book, for no luck, but regardless we continued on. Early Friday morning saw windy conditions and cooler weather. Thinking that a sudden change in weather might be a trigger for the fish, we headed out once again, but for the same result. We were confused and left wondering what was the missing factor and why were we not catching any fish, it just did not make sense.

Two days on and the temperature rose and reached 30 degrees, sunny and partly cloudy, high barometer, today was the day we thought. It all started with a phone call, of course it was Sid again wanting to go out for a late afternoon session in the Hobie, and of course, I said yes. I arrived and we were on the water by half past five, lures tied on and we were off for a troll. Sid was relaying the days events as he had been out all day for no luck, besides a few small reddies, a large carp on a small lure and dropping a very large redfin. We trolled for around 10 minutes before I suggested we go across the lake to some good rocky banks and bays. The decision was made and we started the long journey across. After about five minutes we were halfway across and the lactic acid was building and our leg muscles screaming for a break, we almost regretted the decision as the Lake is so wide and it took us roughly 15 minutes to travel across, but we sucked it up and had our dose of cement and continued across.

Once arriving at the banks of the other side, we set about a slow trolling pace whilst a few diving minnows were thrown out the back to probe the depths. After numerous weed encounters we decided to start casting, lures were chosen, tied on and cast towards the bank. The weed was thick and constantly fouled the sharp sticky hooks of the Jackall and other Lipless Crankbaits that we prospected the banks with. Sid cracked it and started trolling again, but I still kept casting away at good looking parts of bank as we passed them. I kept getting weed, removed the weed, cast again, it was a repetitive process and at times frustrating, but I stuck to it. I soon started casting slightly further out to avoid this annoying weed. I placed a long cast in front of the boat, just off a rocky point that was coming up, let the Jackall sink before a lift and wind technique was taking place with no thought needed. The fish hit hard, absolutely smashing the lure, the butt of the rod jerking painfully into my ribs, the rod loaded up and the fish pulled line. It went down deep and sat there and took line every time I retrieved some. I managed to start lifting the fish and through the crystal clear water I saw a flash of gold and my first Yellowbelly of the season was beneath the Hobie before easily pulling line and going back down. It was a hard fight from a very fit and well conditioned fish. I got out of the Hobie at the bank and pulled the fish to land for its safety. A measure on the brag mat, a happy snap and the fish was released to fight another day. At last, I had successfully gotten onto a Golden Perch, it was very healthy, rather fat with brilliant colours, pushing the mark out to a respectable 48cm.

The first Yella, 48cm on a Jackall

Pushing the mark to 48cm

I got back into the kayak and we started to cast at the banks as this had shown success. Less than ten minutes after the first fish, a second smashed my lure once again, hitting with huge force. This fish came to the surface quicker, but would not give up, it continued to power away, stripping line, going under the kayak many times. After a few minutes the fish tired and gave in, I seized my chance when the fish was next to the boat and scooped him in. We went to the shore to ensure good handling of the fish during measuring and photographing. It was a beauty of a fish, going 55cm and very thick through the shoulders, this was now my new Personal Best Yella. It was released, swimming off under the kayak before disappearing into the depths.

The second Yella at 55cm on a Jackall

My new PB Yella going 55cm

Over the last few days, it has taken incredible patience to finally have some success. It is so easy to go out fishing for one session and not catch anything so you just give up, then thinking there is no point going out again anytime soon because the fish won’t bite again. There are potentially hundreds of reasons why the fish did not bite on that particular day, they may have been at a different location, they may have been feeding down deeper than you were fishing and on a different food source to what you were using or imitating. To make a judgment on one session of fishing is like saying the sun won’t rise in the morning, it is just simply ridiculous. During the last few days I too have had my doubts and have made early judgmental calls, but I still went out and tried again and again until I had success.

Patience is one valuable tool that I have got in my fishing arsenal, and a tool that all good aspiring fishermen need in order to be successful. If you have the ability to continue on when all looks too hard and difficult, then you will eventually find success. But if you cannot do this, if you cannot continue when things get hard, then you will struggle. Not all people possess this tool, not all people have the ability to acquire it, but those who have it, are able to reap the awards, when they come. Trust me, the awards will come to those that show patience.

Trout Action, Was it hot or not?

Gday all, just a quick post about mine and sid’s  fishing session.
Rose early to get out to the water as early as possible, I was greeted with an absolute pearl-er of a day. Sunny, very few clouds and a warmish temperature, met up with sid and off we went. Not long later we pulled up in the car and got the gear out and ready, within 5 minutes of getting there we were on our way along the river. Another 5 minutes later and I was already having follows and landed a beauty of a small brown, was rather small but fought pretty good for his size.

Healthy Little Brown

Not much further down the track before Sid had some luck, landing a beauty of a brown that fought well using the current, was quite funny watching him run downstream with the fish 😛 Never the less he landed it with my help and I estimated it to be around 2-2.5lb. Was caught on a gillies spinner.

Sid with a nice 2-2.5lb Brown Trout

Another cast went to the same spot that he caught the first one from, and he was on again! As I had walked up the river before his first fish and came back to help him, I had done the same, walked off seen he got a fish on and had to walk all the way back again. The fight was a lot quicker for this one, still used the current well. Landed a small Brown that would have been pushing the one pound mark. A happy snap and the fish was off again.

Sid with a little Brown

Moving on Up River saw a couple of follows again but for no avail. Sid then placed a long cast along a deep pool of water which was smashed by a hungary, rather large Brown, I hard fight and a bit of excitement, the fish was coming ashore, before the hooks pulled and the fish fell back to the water, I dived like in first slip and caught it by the tail and lifted it out of the water, a lucky save! Anyways the fish would have been about 3lb and in superb condition. Easily the best fish of the day.

Sid with a cracker of a Brown Trout, 3lb

Walking on a few kilometers downstream, Sid barely had any action after this, but the action I was having just wasn’t going to plan! I would have had easily 20-30 followers after this point, would have had easily 15 strikes, would have easily have hooked another 10 fish and had them on for a good while, but absolutely none landed :(. I was having a shocker of a day, my only two fish came from the first 5 and last 5 minutes of the fishing time, in around 7 hours fishing!.
An interesting moment came when fishing one spot, I cast and the lure wrapped itself around a branch unable to come off, I let Sid cast a few times before disturbing the spot to get the lure. I had polarized sunnies on where Sid didn’t. I watched his lure off the first cast being followed by a large trout before it swam off, the same with the second, watched a smaller trout follow it in before swimming off. The third and fourth casts where the same, fish of variable sizes following it in before swimming off at our feet. Was quite interesting to watch but disappointing we didn’t get a fish from it.
Plenty of fish about but just nothing staying stuck. A front came through and the fish disappeared all together at one point, before an hour later it warmed up again and the fish came back, interesting to see the fish reaction to the sudden weather changes!

Cheers,
Tom

Spinning a Trouts Tale

Well I am back, it has been a while since my last post, but here is a story about my trout opening success.

One fine and Sunny Wednesday Morning, I am sitting at my computer, slowly tapping out a Uni assignment when my phone gets a message, its Todd wanting to head out for a fish, of course I say when and where and I am soon on my way to his house. Little did I know, this was one of the best decisions that I have made in a while, as of before this day, I had never landed a trout. I get to his house, pack my bag and rod into his car and we are off, no mucking about, although we did stop for KFC on the way for a bite to eat. Travel time was roughly an hour, we then proceeded to walk for about a kilometer before even wetting a line to get to where we wanted to start fishing.

The weapons of choice were spinners, brand of choice was Celtas, I had on a bright coloured yellow and green with red flecks, and Todd had on a green and black striped one. Before long, we were getting some action, with a tiny fish following my lure before Todd had some success casting along the bank in some shade, in slower moving shallow water, landing a nice little 1lb Brown, which was destined for the dinner table. Whilst he was getting a bag and unhooking the fish, I had a cast to his spot and had an estimated one pound fish follow my lure before tapping it and swimming off, so far the signs were looking good for a spectacular day. Moving on to the next spot, Todd decided to chuck a worm out on a hook and me being me, kept walking to cast the spinner. I found some good water along the bank, which had big reeds right near the water, slowly and quietly climbed through at the foot of the hole and had a cast. I watched as a small fish followed it in before turning away to sit virtually at my feet facing up stream, I just left him be and had another cast, when bang, I was on, a nice fight from a little 250 gram Brown before I pulled him out of the water and grabbed onto him. At last, my first ever Trout, and even better, it was on a casted lure. I took the fish over to Todd for a picture of my first Trout, before returning him to the water to I watched him just sit next to a stick. So I poked him to get him out in the faster water to get the oxygen over his gills, as soon as I did this, he zoomed off, ready to fight another day. I was pumped after my success, only a tiny fish, but I loved every minute of it.

First Ever Trout

First Little Brown

Moving on upstream, we got a few hook ups which managed to throw the hooks, before Todd once again landed a small Brown around 300 grams, which was quickly unhooked and released. Coming up to the next location Todd got into the better spot first and was casting. I was just standing back a bit and up on a hill with about a two meter drop into the water, I decided to cast from here into some very shallow water, this proved to be a good decision as almost as soon as the lure hit the water, I was on to a nice fish. Taken fully by surprise and way out of position to fight this nice fish which was flapping all over the water. I quickly moved to a better spot and saw just how nice this fish actually was, my mate, seeing the predicament I was in, ran over and landed the fish for me. It was a beautiful fish, a nice 2.5-3lb female Brown Trout, it was a bit skinny due to the just ended spawning season, but otherwise a ripper fish for my second ever Trout. I couldn’t believe it, I had gone fishing with the hopes of catching one trout, and I had landed a fish, that not many catch very often. A few photos and the fish was killed and placed in a bag, I didn’t feel that good about keeping him, as I like returning fish, but I had to take it home to show the family, and it would make a great meal.

One of Todd's Little Fellas

My 2.5-3lb Brown Trout. 47cm

We kept hiking upstream, for another couple of hundred meters, because the blackberries were a bit thick along the river. We came upon this stretch of water which looked sensational, it was screaming fish to us as we started casting, slowly working our way along the bank. Todd hooked into a nice fish, which looked like a Rainbow due to its light colours, estimated around 4 or 5lb, then it spat the hooks, leaving us disappointed, but keen to keep fishing. Minutes later I was retrieving my lure and it was about two meters off the bank straight out from me, when an almighty Brown screamed into view and smashed it, pulled drag and was bucking the rod tip with its wild shakes, leaving me absolutely helpless, I gave it time to do its thing, before it had one last shake and the lure came out. The fish was about 5lb, it sped off back to where it came from and I felt the disappointment that Todd had just felt, but I said to Todd, that’s fishing and we should go get another one.

We then came across a point where we had to walk a long way from the river around a massive blackberry out break, so we stopped for a break and so Todd could call his old man to tell him how we were going. Meanwhile I was having a cast in a deep hole whilst standing on an old tree, I placed a cast right near the bank at the base of a small bunch of branches about 10 meters away, upon letting the lure sink, the rod just started bending when I wound in. I thought I was snagged, until the rod just kept going down, then all of a sudden the tip went ballistic, massive shakes and I was struggling to hold the rod, my initial thoughts was a Cod but I ruled that out when I saw a flash of colour near the surface and it looked like an absolute ripper fish, Todd meanwhile had told his Dad that I was on and needed to assist me as it looked like a monster from the deep. Once I got it into the shallows, I could see that it was big, almost had it on the bank, when it turned and made a last run for it, almost getting under a log and escaping, but it changed direction and wrapped around some grass, which was easily manageable because I was standing over the water on the log, got him back around it and onto shore where my mate grabbed him and it was caught. It was a 4-4.5lb male Brown Trout, skinny from the spawning season, if it was in better condition it would have pushed the 6lb mark, going around the 60-65cm range. I was stoked. A lot of pictures, my thumb getting torn up and I had him back in the water and off he went, down under the logs. I was shaking from the adrenalin, I had just caught a fish that I probably would not match for a long time, if ever.

My 4-4.5lb Beauty of a Brown

4-4.5lb Brown. est. 60-65cm

Moving on around the large blackberry out break, we found some absolutely ripping water, Todd hooked a fish first cast but dropped him. Moving further up we came to a bit of rather turbulent water, which I had a follow and strike but no hookup by what looked to be around a 2lb Rainbow, then the same again a couple of casts later, for no luck. Further up again Todd hooked a fish but lost it, then I managed to hook and land a tiny little brown which engulfed the spinner that I was using. A bit further upstream and we decided to chuck a bait in whilst we gut the two fish that we kept. The contents of each the stomachs of each of the fish, were relatively empty, the larger one had a few eggs and dirt and grit, and the smaller one had a few insects and more dirt and grit. After this we decided to make the long trek back to the car as it was getting late.

I had successfully caught my first trout, plus a bonus of catching two absolute beauties. In total we caught seven fish between us, myself with four and Todd with 3, we had several followers and many strikes and hookups without luck. It was an absolute cracking session and according to my mate, it will only get better in the coming weeks, the fish will fatten up and really start eating and the numbers caught will sky rocket. I had an absolute ball trout fishing, and will certainly be getting back out for another session somewhere soon. In my opinion spinning is a fantastic way to trout fish, it is effective and fun and can be done by everyone, just use a light spin stick and a small spin reel, and tie on a spinner and your good to catch some trout.

Patience, Persistence and Perseverance

There will always come a time in the world of Cod Fishing where these words could not be more true. Patience, Persistence and Perseverance. You will face a session where the fish just do not want to cooperate and you can not raise them no matter what you do. You might fish there for 10 minutes before moving on, only placing a small amount of casts to a likely looking snag. This may be what you are doing wrong. A technique that I and many other have found is that to tempt these shut down fish into biting, you may need to just keep casting, you may place between 30-50 casts to a snag, maybe even more before raising that strike, but your patience may be rewarded with that fish of a lifetime. But then again, you may not even raise this bite, but if this is the case, then you can say to yourself, if there was a fish there, I gave myself the best chance to catch it. A saying that I have made for this is “Just one more cast”.

The technique is rather simple, just cast at the structure repeatedly. That is pretty much all there is too it. The retrieve can be however you want it to be, could be a slow roll along the bottom, or it could be a slow or fast bouncy retrieve. What I tend to do when I adopt this technique into my fishing is cast at the exact same spot for four casts, say the front of the structure, the first two casts are a slow roll along the bottom, allowing the lure to drop right down, and the second two are a slow jerky retrieve. I then cast to either side of the structure for the set of four casts, before repeating the entire process. This technique requires a very large amount of patience, not everyone can do it, and it is a very good skill to have, not just for fishing, but for general life as well.

An example of when I have used this technique to good success was way back in the summer of 2007 at Lake Mulwala. We had caught nothing but a couple of little tiny Cod Friday night and very early Saturday morning, and fishing was slow all day Saturday. It was late Saturday Afternoon and I decided to cast at this same tree until I caught a fish, this is when I developed my mindset of  “One more cast”. I had placed about 40 casts at the base and sides of this one particular tree before I got a strike, instead of trying to rip the head of the fish with a big jerk of the rod tip, I played the patience card by slowing the retrieve and twitching the lure, which resulted in the fish taking the lure, it was a nice little legal cod back then of 55cm. After releasing the fish, we moved to a new location, where I proceeded to cast at a log pile repeatedly, and was once again rewarded, a bit earlier this time after about 30 casts with a small 49cm cod. Once again we moved to a new location, where I would have placed about 70 casts at this one tree, I was starting to think that maybe there was no fish here. Dad had cooked up a couple of snags and my mate cracked open a packet of lollies, as I was standing on the front of the boat and had to climb back over the canopy and windscreen to get back in, I decided to Have one more cast at the tree, so I said “I’ll just have one more cast and then I will come down”. That one extra cast I did, was absolutely smashed by a fish, took me by surprise and I nearly fell off the front of the boat. After the fight I landed a nice healthy 65cm Cod.

The reason that I believe why the fish respond to this constant casting is because it simply annoys them. It’s a constant visual and vibration annoyance that repeatedly goes past their nose, and they eventually snap because of it. Another reason may be because they believe the lure, to be another fish, is trying to move in on their territory as it keeps returning. Both these are just theories and we will never really know the true answer to this.

You can spend anywhere between 20 minutes, if the casts are quick, or a hour at a location, just repeatedly casting at the same piece of structure over and over again. Some people may think casting at the same snag for too long is a waste of time, but if you think of it this way, would you rather waste an hour casting at the same snag before catching that meter Cod we are all after, or would you rather cast at the snag for twenty minutes before moving on to another spot for another half an hour and only catch a small fish in the same amount of time.

Another way of looking at Patience, Persistence and Perseverance is with the retrieve, if you feel a strike, you don’t really want to jerk the rod, the fish may not have actually taken the lure in its mouth, they often bump the lure before actually trying to eat it, this is because they want to see what it does.

A quote from Jamie Condon demonstrates the practice of Patience, persistence and Perseverance, “had a little touch there, see if he’s going to come back, yeah, he’s still playing it, nice and steady, he’ll be trailing it, few little twitches, yep on”, “ok that was a bit of an interesting one, cast over against the rocks, basically he hit the lure as soon as it hit the water, he spat it straight away, and just patience again, twitching the lure around to make it look like its injured, he tapped it for about 5 or 6 meters, he tapped it a few times, let the lure float to the top and he took it, he followed that lure for at least 8 meters, it just shows you that they will, persevere and investigate what is going on, it just shows you, once you get that hit, just be patient”. (Quote from Fishing the Gorges with Josh and Jamie)

So next time you are out Cod fishing and the going is tough, just be patient, and the fish will come.

Cheers,

Tom

Mulwala and Secret Creek

Gday all, early April saw myself and two other mates, Stolzy and Todd, head off on a 3 day long fishing trip, which saw a total of 9 cod caught on Macs and Bassman spinnerbaits.

We Kicked off the trip at Lake Mulwala, making the journey across very early on tuesday morning. We then proceeded to unpack the car and launch the boat, all taking around 15-20 minutes. It was relatively quiet for the first hour until the first fish was hooked, she fell to  a purple and green Bassman spinnerbait, it was a beautiful 69cm Murray Cod, this was at the hands of Stolzy who was quite pleased. The next few hours was tough fishing until I picked up a nice little 45cm Cod on a orange and purple Macs spinnerbait. The fishing then proceeded to be quiet for the rest of the day, resulting in an early stop for a meal before later on that night we heading along the shore for a surface fish that night. The fish were well and truly going for the surface lures, resulting in a total of 7 strikes and 3 hooked up fish which to our dismay all managed to spit the hooks.

Early Wednesday morning came and the third member of our party, Todd, joined us and we headed out once again onto the lake to face a quiet few hours of fishing. I managed to hook onto another small cod of 48cm once again on a spinnerbait but that was the only piece of excitement for the day.

The next day we rose early to travel around 100km to one of our secret spots, which produced the goods for us. The first of the Cod came not that long after arrival, caught by me stretching the tape out to 51cm. Soon after Todd managed to hook onto his first for the trip, a lovely and fat 55cm model. From here the fishing went quiet for around an hour until Stolzy went bang, bang, two lovely small Cod in the space of 10 casts in 10 minutes, the first was a short and fat fella, which looked slightly deformed and the second a nice healthy looking 47cm. We kept walking hooking numerous fish who kept managing to throw the lure before I got smashed by a fat healthy 55cm Cod, that had attacked Todd’s lure about 10 casts before. The final fish of the trip went to Todd measuring 48cm.

Although the fish were not that large, they fought exceptionally well and were all very healthy and were all good fun. Check out  http://www.macsspinnerbaits.com.au/ to see what we used.

Cheers,

Tom