Cool Cod on Fly

[Member]

Friday morning loomed bright and wonderful as I packed the last of the gear needed for the “Cod on Fly” trip.
Stood out the front of the house a for few minutes getting everything sorted, sniffed the air and got another pair of gloves and a beanie 
Tony arrived promptly at 9am. He drove into the carport where we lowered my yak onto his roof racks,
reversed out of carport leaving the said yak behind (note to self; Hilux roof racks are taller than Santa Fe ones).
Finally left at 9:30 for the four hour trip to Glenlyon Caravan Park. Stopped at Stanthorpe for yummy  coffee and a pie.
After a quick chat with some of the locals

we kept going to the dam where we met up with Gavin.

After a lightning camp setup

we headed off for a late arvo reccie.

A bunch of stick in the middle of the river saw Tony get his first Cod on fly coming in at 72cm.

After a night around the campfire, some yummy smoked pork chops and a few bourbons (or more) we leapt
out of bed at the crack of dawn and were promptly on the river by 9am.
By this stage the wind had started to blow and it looked like it was going to be hard work.
The portages were long and the pools were in general very shallow.  Found this girl hiding out of the wind.



We got a few thunderstorms along the way as well, one we abandoned the river for shelter under a big gum.



Back on the river and within a few minutes Tony hooked up to another nice girl.

Minutes later I hooked up to my first Cod of the trip, then was quickly unhooked. 
Bugger. It was big midstream snag so I put in a few more casts along it anyway.
Well blow me down if I didn’t hook up again and this time to something a bit more serious.
I screamed like a little girl saying things like, “she’s pulling me in”, “holy sh$%”, and such like.
I only had a 20lb leader as Tony was screaming further downstream, “keep her head up Norm I’m coming”.
So as she decided to bust me off in her snag I put maximum pressure on her waiting for the leader to pop.
Thankfully she was only lip hooked and I managed to turn her around for a clean fight mid-river.
82cm of gorgeous Dumeresq Cod. Big thanks to Tony for fighting directions and netting her.



Now all we had to do was get Gavin a cod.  Unfortunately that wasn’t to happen on this trip.
The next morning we went upstream where the portages were worse, the water skinnier
  and full of duckweed

Tony was the only one to score on Sunday with a lovely 50cm model

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing a “school” of Cod travelling upstream.
We saw maybe 6-10 Cod all together and obviously oblivious to any offerings from us.
Apparently they are starting to pair up and search for likely nesting sites. 
Hard fishing but fabulous country and a groovy bunch of BFFCer’s to do it with.
 

[Member]

 .....Clearly I don't use the tent often enough!! Norm...!!

[Member]

A great report Norm, thanks for sharing.   

Did you go launch at the junction hole now that the "keep out" & "private property" signs have been removed?
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Gents if you're fluff chuckin in those skinny water from kayak / canoe, do you use a full length rod? Always seemed a bit awkward to me, so I've just run the fly line up a stiff spin rod & used that in the past. Or is that blasphemy?
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[Member]

.....Clearly I don't use the tent often enough!! Norm...!!

That's gold...!!!! 

[Member]

Hey mate, the signs were still up but we were told all was good to access there as old mate has agreed to remove the signs...didnt see the gun dude thankfully..
I use a Sage Largemouth rod that is 7'11" out of Brian's canoe and it was fine. I think that on those skinny parts of the stream a shorter rod is best.....I have used full length rods out of my float tube with no troubles but not in that tight water....

[Member]

well done guys.

The go usually is around the 7-8ft mark 10#....

Looking at a Ross flystik 7'11" 10# atm myself....

Too cold for the slime suckers was it ?

[Member]

well done guys.

The go usually is around the 7-8ft mark 10#....

Looking at a Ross flystik 7'11" 10# atm myself....

Too cold for the slime suckers was it ?

Go the Ross 10#. I had the 8# and it suffered casting 6/0 Mega Dobson flies.

[Member]

Hey mate, the signs were still up but we were told all was good to access there as old mate has agreed to remove the signs...didnt see the gun dude thankfully..
I use a Sage Largemouth rod that is 7'11" out of Brian's canoe and it was fine. I think that on those skinny parts of the stream a shorter rod is best.....I have used full length rods out of my float tube with no troubles but not in that tight water....

I got a letter back from DNRM last week saying the road closure application was declined.    

[Member]

Funny .... my TFO 7 weight handles 6/0 flies pretty well it just cant quite manage the hits

[Member]

The Flystik's are pretty floppy (technical term obviously). My DanCraft 7wt handled the flies better as well, on my last trip.