Truedogz wrote:I'm the first one back from the cod trip so I'll put in a report. Most people are packing up and heading home with the gale blowing up here but a few are still fishing re the PIRTEK challenge.
Everyone has caught fish with lots of 'endangered' species, ie, trout cod, silver perch and Murray cod. A few small carp but no yellowbelly. Fishing has been difficult due to a very high river making it difficult to fish lures from boats, troll or just even tie up to bait fish.
Millzee was a new member who attended. It took a while for a few of us to pick our tongues up off the dirt after we saw his boat - obviously a very experienced and dedicated cod angler. He was also a gentleman taking a few of us out who didn't have boats :thumbsup: .
Others will put in some detailed reports but here is a bit of an overview. Davo and Milkman have caught quite a number of cod in the 50-60 cm range on bait. Davo got boofed a few times by one fish that just doesn't want to take the lure properly. Millzee and his son similarly have taken cod up to 60 cm too and I know one of Boonanza's sons has caught cod in to 50cm+ class as well as stacks of silver perch.
In the end I didn't drown a bait I just used surface lures. First night I went out in Millzee's boat and landed this one about 45 cm as well as dropping a smaller one:
boat.jpg
The next morning I missed one smallish boof but picked up this beauty in daylight. I didn't muck around too much with the brag matt as the cod swallowed the lure and I wanted to get it out asap without doing any harm. With one pic of the brag mat roughly rolled out next to it (with part of the tail cut off in the pic) I'd say its 79 cm and it was in top condition (my best for this season so far, and off the top):
79 cm.jpg
I picked up another one yesterday arvo in the 40-45 cm range:
arvo.jpg
The surface fishing was hard work but last night I got boofed by another good fish. This morning I had another crack at him and he hooked up for a few seconds but got off. So for the trip I landed 3 cod without wetting a bait. The rest of the time I just enjoyed the camp.
I had a great time, thanks guys! :a_goodjob:
Best Wishes
Truedogz