Freshwater

During the heavy rain just two weeks prior to the trip, immense amounts of water had gone over the dam wall. Even so, we were still keen to give it a crack. As we arrived at the dam, a massive storm rolled through and we had to wait it out before hitting the water. We launched the boat at about …

We hit this area hard because of the consistent water temperature. In this section you can find numerous small points with bushy trees in 1-3m of water and water lilies along the edges. These points were by far the standouts. Dad and I located four points holding barra thanks to our Humminbird Helix sounder with Mega Imaging. Once we found …

LOOKING back over eight years of working with cod, with two professors, two doctors of biology and three biologists, not to mention 100 mad-keen cod anglers who stuck tags into over 1500 of these great freshwater fish, what has happened with the results? In Queensland, we are still using the same size limit for cod. Thank god. While in NSW …

At this first spot we caught about 10 fish. No big ones but it was good to see the fish were biting. After this, we headed up the dam to the start of the trees. This is where the fun really began. We found two locations where the fish were thick. I had recently bought a Humminbird Helix 12 sounder with Mega Imaging. This unit …

Some fish have been hooked in 5m of water and deeper throughout the day, however the majority are coming from shallower water. The fish have not yet started to school in big numbers but several smaller schools of fish can be targeted. These schools have usually been found near some sort of structure, whether it’s a log or stump, drop-off …

With Copeton open to anglers 12 months of the year with no Murray cod closed season, the economy it generates through the fishing industry is massive. Lure makers are working overtime to keep up to Copeton’s demanding anglers and the monster fish that will happily straighten your trebles or cause some form of damage to your lure. Copeton has found …

We had travelled only a short distance when the first strike hit the lure like a stray bullet, the rod tip cracking hard on the side of the boat as it loaded up solidly. In less than 2m of water, we would no doubt have driven over this fish dozens of times during the season and not had a clue …

Now for some these conditions might mean land-based bait fishing, spinning and working the sheltered areas, or perhaps sightseeing and beer sampling from the local publicans. As much as we love a barley soda, when you travel 4000km (round trip) and $1000 is up for the taking every day for the biggest brown and rainbow trout, you certainly look at …