Date:
29/4/09
Riverina Sport Fishing Report
28th April 2009
Where has all the warm Autumn weather gone? It’s freezing cold, overcast and raining most days, with wind that could cut through bone. So why would you want to be out fishing?
Because the fish are biting. And not just biting but being as active as they have been all season. The freezing nights have chilled the water down to a frosty 12 degrees but this has far from deterred the cod.
In the past two weeks my slowest day has been eleven fish with the best being eighteen in the boat. Aside from the one’s requiring de-hooking there are plenty of hits, misses, follows and dropped fish to keep the adrenalin flowing all day.
The cold water also heralds the beginning of the big cod bite. I have got a few fish around the 70cm mark and have been concerned about the lack of really big fish until yesterday when we dropped a fish well over a metre beside the boat when the spinnerbait inexplicably fell out of the fish’s mouth. In the crystal clear water you could see this great fish swimming calmly under the boat ready for the net, but losing a big fish like that is just fishing. Enjoy the experience and try to get over it.
Casting spinnerbaits has been my preferred technique with plenty of small fish to fill in the gaps whilst waiting for a bigger fish, but lure trollers have also been doing well where you can find enough water. With the water low, it can be difficult to travel long distances in the boat without hitting logs and you need to take care when navigating, but once you learn how to read the river, you don’t bump into much and fish are very easy to locate in clear, shallow water.
I have plenty of tricks to tempt fish in shallow water, so if you’re keen to learn give me a call. The fishing will be strong right through May with the bite starting to slow down in Mid June when the small fish disappear. But if you’re very patient you could get a cold water monster.
Jamin Forbes
