If you ever want some heart pumping excitement then chasing Murray cod on lures and bait is the recipe. 

Big Murray cod are the top predators in our fresh waterways… and they act like it.

I’ve heard stories of cod taking mice, water fowl and snakes off the water surface and seen a photo of a cod caught on a big stump jumper lure….with an even bigger duck in its mouth! 

Cod will swallow anything that fits in their mouths…and they have very big mouths! This is important to remember when you fish for them….they want big bait.

I usually fish pretty light in our rivers – light line and small hooks or if I’m lure fishing I go with small lures but when it comes to targeting cod I go big.

I learnt this lesson a number of years ago when I fished the Goulburn river. I cast into a few likely cod holding spots and got broken off twice by dirty big cod…

… trouble is, cod have a lot of power and live in the snags so you always have a fight on your hands and they go straight for cover.

 If you don’t get control they’ll make you pay. 

Standard gear for 5kg PLUS cod is a strong rod 2 to 3 metres long, and capable of handling 7kg to 10kg line…and some anglers go much heavier.

A reel to match these weights, with a good drag,  should keep you safe.

Use hook sizes to suit the bait. I use anything from a size 8 to a size 2 hook to cover most occasions.

I usually take 2 rods. I use different bait and different strain line on both to give me options with fish in the area.

Due to poor water quality and over fishing we don’t have massive numbers of cod in our water ways…

It’s a shame!

They are a fantastic game fish and an icon of the southern Australian river systems. For this reason I handle with care any cod I catch and always, always release them….most anglers I know do the same. 

There is a closed season for cod to allow them to breed. It exists across Vic, NSW and ACT and usually starts early September  through to end of November, but it can change each year.

For the future of our fish stocks it’s important to observe these closed seasons. 

Locating cod can be a challenge and getting them to bite can be even harder.

 Cod like their own space….and don’t play well with others. A big cod is a loner, it wont share with anyone so if you catch a big one….you probably wont get another in the same spot.

Murray cod like to hide most of the day. They tend to be ambush predators so they will look for cover from where they can launch a sudden attack on their prey. 

Look for overhanging banks on a river bend, fallen trees and branches, deep holes, and slow moving water. These areas may hold a resident “beast” that will stay there until it gets a good chance of a meal….and that’s the thing, sometimes the food has to be right in front of them before they attack it.

Lure anglers know that sometimes the lure almost has to hit the cod on the nose before they’ll take a bite.

So…

…when you fish an area, look for the likely areas then fan your casts around a 180 degree arcs…you just might have to land your bait right in front of a fish to get a bite.

As far as bait is concerned there are a few all time favourites… Bardy grubs, scrub worms and yabbies are always a big hit but I have used carp fillets and more recently, cheese, to catch cod. The cheese bait has become real popular and I’m not completely sure if it is the actual cheese or the shrimp it attracts that makes the cod bite…but it works.

A friend of mine who fishes the Murray River a lot uses meat as bait…and he catches plenty of big cod. He never pays for his meat but tends to use roadkill as his free source of bait. Any freshly killed animal seems to satisfy him but he especially likes kangaroo…I haven’t tried this myself but can’t dismiss it….cos it works for him.

Like most fish, morning and evening are good times to target cod but warm evenings in the hotter weather seems to work well. I’ve caught my biggest fish just before dark….on baits and lures.  

As far a s lures are concerned, the big hard bodied types are most popular, especially those with rattles and plenty of movement.

Deep divers are useful in getting down to where the cod are hiding and soft plastics are gaining more popularity… but surface lures seem to be the real “buzz”.

If you really want to increase your pulse rate these are the way to go. Surface poppers let you watch the lure cut across the surface and seeing a cod ‘hit and run’ is a heart stopping experience… 

Having said this, just about any lures work and if you use them as the barometric pressure is dropping, just before a storm, you can really get into the action… 

….so get out there and get into the cod. There’s nothing like the excitement of relaxing on a calm, warm, eventing and suddenly being jolted into absolute chaos as a big cod decides to take you into a snag…you really know you’re alive!