Hill373737

The Peel is low and slow - compared to the average water level from 12 months ago, the river is currently about 40cm lower and there isn't a lot of flow. I think this is contributing to the cod fishing not being as good as well as the increase in water temperature due to reduced flow. On the upside, I'm mentally mapping a lot of the snags in the river where I regularly fish that previously weren't visible. Previously, most of the rockbars and small rapids where I mostly fish I could float down in the kayak, however now, I have to get out as they are too shallow. When I was last up in the McDonald a couple of months back, most of the river had very heavy weed growth which makes it virtually unfishable. The dams are dropping so they must be releasing water. 12 months ago the 3 dams were all around 100% - now, Keepit is below 50%, Chaffey is around 80% and Split Rock is at 97% but also slowly starting to drop now.

Sounds like you were here with the crowds for TCMF - let me know if you're coming up again some time, happy to get you out for a fish in the local waters.

Mate, I reckon try the 4" one I gave you, it might be a bit big at Manly Dam so maybe save it for a trip to Wyong River to target the bass above the weir at the old dairy.

Its been tough going lately fishing for cod, with a lot of casting for only a small number of fish. I've been regularly working through my "confidence" lures but decided I needed to do something different. I like to use frogs on spinnerbaits for cod and have dabbled previously rigging them weedless but never really persevered as it always felt like there were better options for fishing in the river. I picked up a pack of the Zman GOAT ToadZ in Purple Death a while back so decided to give it a real go this week to see if the cod had switched to a frog diet. I rigged it weedless with a 6/0 1/8 chinlock jighead as I thought it would give me the option to bloop it on the surface by keeping the rod tip up, or let it sink slowly and retrieve with a few twitches. It was never going to be a deep running lure but I figured even getting down to 60cm on a slow sink around snags would work, and given its weedless nature, I could be completely reckless throwing it deep into overhangs and structure. Sunday morning I headed out for a quick fish on an easy to access piece of water and was surprised that it got hit quite a few times which was a real change to recent fishing, unfortunately, I didn't hook up.. Interestingly, since I was thinking cod with this approach, most of the hits felt like yellowbelly. Back home, feeling more confident with the approach, I rigged a double stinger hook into the legs. Back to the river nice and early on Monday, it was a warm Tamworth morning at 24 degrees at 6am and I was heading to a section that was about 2.5kms upriver. of where I launched the kayak. Along the way, I stopped to cast at a big laydown below a rockbar that is often home to a feisty 40cm cod who regularly bashes lures that run down the log. He was in good form today, the boof for a small fish was impressive and put the frog about 1 metre in the air. This was repeated a few times during the morning, I think cod push a lot of water when they hit a topwater lure and the frog just doesn't weigh enough. The double stinger was making the lure a little snaggy so I removed it and to my surprise, the first fish I managed to hook up was a nice yellowbelly, neatly pinned with the 6/0 hook and most of the frog in its gob. This set the tone for the next hour and I finished with 5 yellowbelly with the biggest at 48cm which is a good Peel River fish. To me the real positive, was that I had close to 25 hits so while the hook up rate is terrible half the fun is just getting a response to your cast. Its early days, and I'll have to do more research (aka fishing) but I'm not sure if its the frog or I just timed it perfectly with the bite window as the just waning full moon set around 9:15am.

hey @big Neil Its always better to get out than be at home thinking about it. The cod fishing is damn tough up here at the moment so good to see you get a couple. I did have a good session on the yellas yesterday so will put a report in later today.

I don't know if there is any science behind this but I've always tied a walk the dog style lure with a loop but use a uni knot to attach a popper, including very small ones I'd throw at bream.

This is always a good topic for discussion and I put it in the category of one percenters, the little things you can do when fishing to improve your chance of hooking and landing a fish. Same as @big Neil, I've used the Fastach clips for many years on everything from 3lb leader to tiny HBs for bream through to 50lb leader on very big cod lures. I've only had one fail in all of that time and in hindsight, it was on a cod lure and the clip felt like it went on easily, usually its a bit of an arm wrestle so I should have checked it. It got me thinking of other options as I won't tie leader to a split ring and I'm not a huge fan of tying loop knots in heavy leader. I've put a solid ring on the split ring of my cod HBs and topwater lures and tie directly to that with a uni knot. Early days, it seems to work well and doesn't impact the action, but they are big lures so its not a solution for a jackal Chubby or similar. As an aside, I've probably found a dozen lures hanging in snags since moving to Tamworth, mostly in winter when the water is too cold for a fisho walking the bank to go for a swim and I'm amazed at the number that have braid tied directly to a split ring or attached using a massive swivel clip.

@AlbertW Mate, great report and it was a fun couple of days although I'm disappointed that you didn't get onto a cod. Its typical of cod fishing that I set you up on what I consider the best snags in that part of the river and I pull a 70 off an ugly snag on the shallow side of the river that I would rarely cast at. That snag will get hammered from now on when I'm down there. You're a good learner, it didn't take you long to get the hang off positioning the kayak to best work over a snag and I saw a noticeable improvement in your confidence casting into structure. It takes a bit to work out that getting hooked up in snags occasionally just means you are getting in tight enough to have a real chance at a fish. We'll have another go at it later this year when you come back up again, maybe next time we'll hit some of the harder to get to water in the kayaks! @DerekD Thanks Derek .... I was fortunate as a kid that my dad and an uncle were mad fisherman so I had plenty of on the job training, Fishraider is a great information and support resource for fishos but a session on the water with a more experienced person can fast track your learning. I know you and others on Fishraider get that and happily give up your time.

hey Neil, I'm glad you put that back up, thats a very special day for you and Luke. It would have taken a while to get that smile off Luke's face. Consecutive casts but how far apart were they in the river? I've caught small cod (and cod mixed with yellas) to mid 50s off the same snag but understand they become a lot more territorial once they get bigger than that. I've got some video footage of the "hit" by a cod in my kayak, I'll tidy them up when I get a chance and post them. Great soundtrack, I haven't listened to Coodabeen Champions since they took it off the ABC years ago - I just googled them and see they still broadcast on a station out of Mornington Peninsula. thanks mate! Hilly

Nice work mate,can't wait to hear of you doing battle with a 70cm model. If you don't care too much about being a fly fishing purist and just think of a fly rod as a different lure delivery method, try a cut down slim swimz or 2" squidgy paddletail on an unweighted worm hook or 1/40th jig head if you want some sink. I used this method on bream when I wanted a different challenge and I know the carp around here will readily inhale a small paddletail.

The fish are definitely in good condition and well fed. I track metrics like moon phase, position, barometer, water levels and flow rate but I can't see any real pattern for days where the bite has been better. Wide action HBs like the oargee and stumpys seem to be working better than spinnerbaits at the moment in the rivers around here and I've only managed a couple of fish off the top since the season started. I do wonder how much of their diet now is carp that are in plague proportions in most inland waterways. Previously, my goto would be mainly purple/chartreuse colours but I've started using some darker lures with a bit of flash to see if that can trigger a more consistent bite.

Hey Neil, its why you love cod fishing - 5 hours, one fish and it goes 73cm. Every cast is an opportunity to produce a really good fish! Through closed season, the cod around here were smashing tiny lures meant for yellowbelly, since December 1, the fishing has been tough with fairly unstable weather conditions and a bit of rain early December that flushed the river.

My advice, if you're serious about fishing its a lifetime journey so immerse yourself in fishing and especially your target species, in todays world there is a huge amount of resources but always remember the only true way to learn and improve is to just go fishing ..... and its not only about the fish you catch or don't catch!! 🙂

Thanks mate - Neil actually encouraged me to get back on Fishraider, I usually fish 3 to 4 times a week and have been spending a lot less time on screens etc. I fish spinnerbaits a fair bit especially when fishing the river in my kayak, they're reasonably snag proof, cast well especially if its windy and I like to rig them with a Zman frog as it adds some bulk and I think also slows the sink rate. Plenty of people have told me that cod are great eating but the cod I meet get a cuddle, some conversation and maybe a photo before heading back to their snag.

Unfortunately not much to report, we hosted a street party at our place last night so it was a late start this morning, just after 8am by the time I got on the water. After the 50mm rain in the past 24 hours, the river was up a bit and running with more colour. I only fished for a couple of hours in a section close to where I launched but added another donut to the collection.

The Narrandera Fisheries Centre does an amazing job. I read recently that they released 1.28 million hatchlings last cod season ..... I hope I get to meet a few of them in years to come. btw there's been over 50 mm of rain here in the past 24 hours, the river has come up a little, hopefully it doesn't continue to rise and the extra bit of flow fires them up tomorrow morning .... I haven't fished since yesterday so very keen to get out again. 🙂 cheers Hilly

Yeah mate, I definitely agree, surface fishing for any fish is the best, and the hit from a cod is hard to match! Interesting about the same genus as the fish down your way, maybe the Peel River is really the spiritual home of the Maccullochella peelii 🙂

Its been a while since I've been on Fishraider, lifes been a bit busy but thanks to Neil for giving me a nudge recently! My excuse is that I've been too busy fishing, 19 days in since cod season opening and I've been out 10 times, fishing Split Rock in the boat and the Peel and Macdonald Rivers in the kayak. After a crazy spring when I was resorting to throwing SwimZs to tempt yellas and avoid the cod, the weather hasn't been kind and the fishing has been a bit patchy dealing with changing water levels and a fair bit of colour in the usually clear waters around here. It was an early start on 1st December, I decided on a solo session, launching the kayak from one of the stock reserves and heading 3.5 kms up river to get to my one of my favourite places with plenty of snags and reasonably deep holes and fish that don't see a lot of lures (well, apart from mine). After a couple of hits that didn't stick, I opened my account for this season with a nice 65cm cod off the top. Surface fishing for cod is a strange thing, even though you are completely tuned into the lure coming back, its still scares the crap out of you when a cod hits the lure! Here's a few cod from the past few weeks with the best a 70cm fish caught sitting up against a boulder in the Macdonald.. Some cod are just born with attitude, this one hit a Kingfisher Olympus surface lure 8 times before it finally found the hooks! I hope I meet this one again when its a lot bigger! One of the things I love about cod fishing is the crazy things that happen, I must have landed this surface lure flush onto the open gob of a carp. I thought I'd landed on a floating piece of timber until it started swimming away from me. As with all good carp, it was soon having a little rest up on the bank with a bad headache! Apart from the fishing, as always, the scenery is just spectacular. After many years fishing on the coast, the solitude, sunrises, sunsets and lack of crowds make it easy to find something in the donut days!!

Good to see you getting a few cod Dave, the water level is dropping again after the rain just before cod opening but there is still a lot of colour in the water which along with some fairly unstable weather has made the fishing a bit patchy. Forecast is for rain the next few days so will probably stir things up again.

Cracking yella Neil, they go hard so would have been a decent fight!

if any Raiders are heading to Singapore, the tackle shops on Beach Rd when I used to frequent them a few years ago were very good with a lot of Japanese only models at good prices.

I've used nail polish to colour jigheads- you can buy it cheap on the throw out tables at discount chemists and comes in all sorts of sparkly colours.

I keep a fishing diary with a fair bit of detail and just did a quick scan through it - I've had plenty of donuts in the leadup to the full moon but I've also caught an 80 and a couple of 70 models at Split Rock and in the Peel in the leadup. I think what is more important is stable weather and barometric pressure and especially if its in a river, fairly stable water levels and flow rate. I do feel like there is a connection between moonrise and moonset times especially when the bite is slow

Thanks Neil, I'm definitely happy to keep doing it. With a couple of weeks to go, I'm closing in on 100 cod for the season, I sometimes wonder how many casts I've made!

Thanks Dave, I've had a laser focus on cod this year and its starting to come together. We'll have to catch up for another fish next season, I've got access to some very good water on the Peel through one of the land owners that i think you'd enjoy.