First Murray Cod of season 2021/22

big Neil · December 24, 2021

Hi Fishraiders. I hope you're all keeping safe and about to enjoy some new toys when Santa has been.

Most of you would know that the Murrumbidgee River is in flood, has been for a few months. Hard to say when it will become fishable where I live???

I had heard that the Edwards River at Deniliquin was fishable and decided to lob down there for a few days. I didn't take the boat as I wanted to see what the boat ramps are like before doing so. Turns out that I could have benefitted from taking it, but that's alright. Here's a brief summary of the trip.

DAY 1: Arrived in the afternoon and spent a few hours fishing an area that was far from ideal. Caught a couple of smallish Carp and a Silver Perch. Now these things are an absolute nuisance as they pick, pick, pick away at your bait. Hard to hook them unless you SPECIFICALLY target them, which is what I did in the end. A 25cm model...

DAY 2: A full day (almost) of fishing. Very hot and not much shade in the sparsely wooded riverbank areas where I ended up fishing. Only got one Carp on a chunk of bread. It was still great to be out there on the river bank. The entire area was just like the Murrumbidgee should be like. People camping, fishing, water skiing, and enjoying life in the Southern Central West of the state.

DAY 3: That was today and I packed up at the motel and headed to the river for a few hours fishing before the 3 hour trip home. It is 3 weeks into the Cod season and I still hadn't caught one, so that was the focus for the session. I didn't think it was going to happen as the session started out without a single bite for nearly 2 hours...then the familiar tap,tap, tapping of the Silver Perch moving in to annoy me. I resisted targeting them and stuck to the plan which included a variety of baits. Bread, cheese, worms and shrimp all offered on the double paternoster rigs. I caught a couple of nice sized Carp on the shrimps so ended up just fishing with these for bait. I have to say the shrimp that I was catching were huge compared to what I get in my local irrigation channel. About 3 1/2 hrs into the session I caught a small, very healthy, Murray Cod of about 48cms. Mission accomplished and time to head home. Got another Carp while I was packing up.