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Author Topic: Murray Cod.  (Read 4043 times)

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Murray Cod.
« on: December 08, 2015, 09:47:17 AM »
With the opening of the Cod Season for 2015/16 what better time to have a yak about our native icon.  I guess I was lucky, growing up as the son of a Codger who owned a tackle store in the best Cod fishing area of Victoria.  The shop backed on to the Ovens River in Wangaratta, just downstream from the junction with the King River.  Plenty of good fish were taken from this stretch, right in the middle of town.  About 20 miles downstream, the Ovens met the Murray at "The Junction" just upstream from Lake Mulwala at Bundalong.  The fish pictured below was Dad's best ever, a skinny fish that should have weighed a lot more than it's 72 pounds. (I'm the guy in the horizontal stripes.)  That fish took a large Green Flopy trolled at Brimin between Bundalong and Rutherglen in the Murray.  A good friend of Dad's, Bill Burns, a local stock agent got a 50lb Trout Cod in Punt Creek which ran between the Murray and the Ovens near The Junction.  That was the biggest Trout Cod I've heard of and it was a monster.  There was another fish, Dad and his mates called it a Blue Nose, or a Collendina Cod.  Collendina was a large property on the Murray near Corowa and it had a big lagoon right next to the river.  These Cod were mostly caught around that area.  I guess they could have been hybrid Murray/Trout Cod, because nothing is officially recorded about a third specie, and nobody catches them now. The second pic is two of Dad's mates with a good bag, my older brother is the little fella holding the fish with it's tail on the ground.  The last pic is another couple of Dad's mates with a good bag taken down the Murray near Wentworth in South Australia.  A 6" Coachdog Flatfish seems to have been the gun lure that trip.  The biggest Murray Cod I saw was 105lb and caught in the Murray, he said he trolled it, but I wouldn't be surprised if he got it on a set-line, I cannot remember the blokes name who got that one.  My brother trolled an 85lb fish in the Murray about 20 years ago, he won't troll now, and spends most of his time casting lures around Mulwala when he can get one of his boats back from his two sons.  Anyway, I guess the passion for Greenfish, Cod or Goodoo was bred into me, and once it's in your blood it's hard to get rid of.  (Please don't be offended by the dead fish, during the 60's catch and release fishing hadn't been heard of.)


Dale

I fish because the little voices in my head tell me to.

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Re: Murray Cod.
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2015, 02:19:07 PM »
Great story = Thanks for sharing it with us.  :thanks

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Re: Murray Cod.
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2015, 06:46:08 AM »
During the big drought of 1967 Lake Hume was reduced to the Murray and Mitta Mitta River beds, that was the year Dad got together with 3 of his mates and bought 2 1/2 acres of land from a local farmer and built our Holiday House.  The house is still there, right on the water between Boathaven and Ebden Reserve.  From then on our weekends were spent "up the weir" fishing, skiing, swimming and canoeing.  With four families there were 8 adults and 13 kids at a minimum every weekend.  During that big drought, we'd explore the land that had been under water since before WWII.  The treasures we found were amazing.  Apart from rusty hooks, lures and enough sinkers to last us a lifetime there was the stuff the authorities dumped after the war.  We found thirteen Thompson sub-machine guns rusted together in a big clump, the fins off the back of mortar shells, wheels and tyres, engine blocks and bits of tank tracks, but never a full jeep.  When the lake filled again it was a fishing heaven.  Natives were sadly lacking back in the 60s and 70s so it was mainly Redfin and Trout.  Reddies were suckers for Baltic Bobbers jigged beside tree trunks between Ebden and Ludlows.  The bigger fish loved live yabbies, with some massive fish congregating in the narrows heading up towards Tallangatta.  Mum got a Reddie well over 5 pounds up there, and Dad and Allan got 5 fish that combined to over 20 pounds one morning.  Our favorite spot for trout was trolling the banks from the old yacht club to the dam wall.  I never caught a cod or a yella in the weir.  We'd catch little Reddies in their hundreds every evening, casting small Flopys, Celtas, Hog Backs or Dixon Sonettes from the bank.  This is where I started Fly Fishing, after being taught by Ron MacKenzie in Wang.  We'd tie two Mrs. Simpsons a foot apart on the leader and and catch Reddies two at a time until it was time to go inside and eat.........

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Re: Murray Cod.
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2015, 07:09:29 AM »
The family car and boat packed and ready to leave from the Service Station to head up the Weir for the weekend.

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Re: Murray Cod.
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2015, 09:19:44 AM »
Thats a great story. Sounds like a fantastic childhood.

 

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