Great day on the MacDonald River

[Hill373737]

Here's a quick report from yesterday's session with a mate on the MacDonald River ....... to set the scene, it was minus 5 when we launched at 7:30am, there was a pond near where we parked the car that was frozen over and it was the usual sketchy slide and scramble to get the kayaks in the water. In a first for me, for about the first half hour, I had ice forming on the line guide of my baitcaster. I usually try and take a few photos of the morning light but it was just too damn cold.

The bite wasn't crazy with the water level getting lower and very cold and as usual, there was a lot of casting and kayak dragging over rockbars between the fish. All up, we finished with 3 cod each, and mine included a 73cm and a 70cm.

The 70cm was deep in the back of a snag under an overhanging tree and it would be fair to say it owned me for a while, I was dragged in backwards trying to fight the fish over my shoulder, duck under branches while trying to rotate the kayak.

My GPS track shows we covered around 9kms and all up, I think we dragged kayaks over 10 sets of rapids and rockbars. I think I'm due a recovery day today but tomorrow will be into it again, with a solo trip to a spot thats 3.5kms up the Peel from where I launch that I think of as my personal cod playground.

[Isaac Ct]

Great report mate, lovely fish.

Well done.

[Rebel]

Top report.

Healthy looking fish.

Well done

[dirvin21]

Nice cod grind Steve, you're doing better than me this winter

[Pickles]

Cracker Cod Steve, well done. Makes all the portaging of the yak’s worth it.

[big Neil]

What a fantastic report of a very successful outing in Cod territory. Having said that, rather you than me Steve. If you're happy to keep doing it. I'm happy to keep reading about it. Hope the new trip proved fruitful for you too. Beautiful photos too, well done. bn

[rickmarlin62]

Nice work mate im hopin to go bak in two weeks  but hesitant leadin up to full moon

[Hill373737]

6 hours ago, dirvin21 said:

Nice cod grind Steve, you're doing better than me this winter

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.

[Hill373737]

3 hours ago, big Neil said:

What a fantastic report of a very successful outing in Cod territory. Having said that, rather you than me Steve. If you're happy to keep doing it. I'm happy to keep reading about it. Hope the new trip proved fruitful for you too. Beautiful photos too, well done. bn

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!

[Hill373737]

44 minutes ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Nice work mate im hopin to go bak in two weeks  but hesitant leadin up to full moon

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

[dirvin21]

1 hour ago, Hill373737 said:

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.

Definitely mate