Many years ago I used to surface fish the Goulburn River at night for trout. The strategy was to lure fish during the afternoon, taking note of where the backwaters were, and fish the backwaters on the return journey at night. It was a great way of targeting the bigger trout - my best haul was eight fish in one night from 2 to 5 pounds.
Tuesday night I applied the same strategy with cod. As the crow flies I walked about 7 km from my truck fish casting lures for several small cod, the biggest being this feisty trout cod at about 35 cm:
Just on dusk I changed over to a big surface lure and soon picked up this 58 cm cod:
Nothing happened till after dark at about 10 pm; from then on I caught cod after cod of the top. The next was the biggest fish which was just savage! It boofed, I waited, wound the handle, boof again. It did it four times the last at my feet without hooking up. So I cast out again wound the handle a few turns and the water absolutely erupted :super: :
It was the largest for the night. I didn't muck around with getting the brag mat out in the dark, but it was bigger than the previous one, so at least 60 cm.
From 10 pm till a quarter to 3 I landed nine cod from about 40 to 60 cm, 10 fish all up off the top for the session; I reckon only about a third of the boofs hooked up:
My last boof was at 3 am and I got back to my truck at a quarter past 3 and was absolutely knackered. I spent most of yesterday asleep recovering.
You don't just catch cod on the surface at twilight, you can catch them all through the night if you know what you are doing. And the sound of the boofs is amazing even when you don't hook up. :banana:
Best Wishes
Truedogz
