June 4 Murray River
Evening, no boofs
June 5 Murray River
Murray cod ≈ 70 cm, one hour before sunrise
Evening, lure followed to bank by a metre cod
June 6 Murray River
morning, no boofs
I headed up to the Murray River on Tuesday for the last boof effort for this season. I went to enjoy a campfire, expected to catch nothing, and if I caught a fish it would be a bonus.
Yesterday morning I picked up this fish before sunrise, about 70 cm long:
In the evening I tried out one of my huge musky lures. I was fishing a bank that receives a lot of attention from bait fishermen from all of the empty bait containers I saw. The bank gently sloped into some deep water with a snag pile about 20 m upstream. I'd made a dozen casts and when the lure was about 5 m from the bank a cod of about a metre came cruising along the bank in only a few feet of water.
It swung around and sat behind the lure just as the lure reached the bank. We looked at each other for a few seconds, I twitched the lure (it was half out of the water) and the cod turned around with a big swirl of mud and took off. Even though I would have like to have caught it, it still was amazing experience. I've had it happen plenty of times with small fish like trout but to see a big cod too it well as I said it was amazing. It was so close I could have touched its nose with the tip of my rod, its back was nearly out of the water. As to why it didn't strike, I don't know. Maybe it was curious to see what was causing the commotion and wasn't in feeding mode, quite possible in the cool water. Perhaps it has been stung by a few lures along the way. It might be simply that it was following the bank, I ran out of space with the lure and it could see me. It was quite bright, the sun hadn't quite set.
This season I have spotted 3 cod in the waters of the Murray and managed to catch two of them. They look a magnificent blue grey color in the water. They are experiences I won't forget.
So this post closes off the boof diary for this season. I've gone back and edited some posts to bring them all into the same diary format. In one of my posts I said I'd caught 3 cod in December. My memory was faulty, for the sake of completeness of this diary here are my boof efforts for December and early January:
4 Dec Goulburn River
60 cm trout cod, 30 cm trout cod
5 Dec Murray River
40 cm Murray cod, 70 cm Murray cod
6 Dec Goulburn River
65 cm Murray cod
19 Dec Goulburn River
15 cm redfin (yes on a 120 cm cod cracker!)
24 Dec Goulburn River
70 cm Murray cod
6 Jan Goulburn River
no boofs
7 Jan Goulburn River
no boofs
8 Jan Goulburn River
40 cm tc
That gives me a grand total of 19 Murray cod, 6 trout cod, 1 golden perch and 1 redfin on surface lures. That compares with 73 cod the previous season. As indicated my strategy this season was to target the big ones. For the Murray cod here is the breakdown on sizes:
<50 cm = 1 <79cm = 5 <99cm = 5 <109cm = 5 >109cm =3
For the season I fished 48 sessions with surface lures. In 22 sessions I caught fish. If I allow 3 hrs on average per session and 25 casts per hour (some time spent walking) that is 3600 casts or 133 casts per fish. If I include boofs it is 67 casts for any action.
It has been a season I will never forget. Last season I got one metery out of the Goulburn and thought it might have been a fluke. By putting in the effort I proved otherwise. I landed 7 meteries fishing from the bank (so you can do it without a boat) and of those, 6 were taken from locations I have never fished before. The key point is anyone can do it and you don't need to know someones 'secret spot'. Put in the time, plan the trips (use Google maps, consider river height, time of day/shade, moon conditions) and learn to read the water. I am happy to share information on tackle and methods. Handing out locations is irrelevant.
Obviously, the highlights were the biggest fish, but for different reasons. The 120 cm from the Goulburn was an absolutely brutal tussle as I fought to keep the fish out of two huge logs. The biggest one which was up around 130 is unforgettable for having seen the fish beforehand and watch it take the lure. Again, there was a big struggle in the fast water. The 110 also put up quite a battle but the highlight is I got a pick of it next to a brag mat. Thats the only negative of the two biggest cod that the pictures don't do them justice. They don't look like the big fat cod caught out of Mulwala, Copeton, wide angle lenses, etc. The river fish tend to slimmer. This series of shots of a 123 cm cod out of the Murray gives a good indication of what the big fish looked like on the bank:
https://www.facebook.com/searchforgreen ... =3&theater
So its time now to put the cod tackle away till December 1. Next season I will chase the big ones again and try new areas like the Gunbower Island as well as targeting cod off the top in Eildon. Due to pressure cod are getting harder to get on the surface in the rivers and the future lies in lakes. Next season I will be less single minded about cod and spend more time on blackies, trout, bass, yellowbelly and redfin. The next big date is trout opening in September.
Thanks everyone for your support and I hope you have enjoyed the reports.
Best Wishes
Truedogz