Closed season ends and cod fishing begins . . . . . . . . . . . by Brian Dare

AS you start to read through this article, you’ll find it’s time to get into cod fishing once again, and on both sides of the border rivers in Queensland and NSW.

Where I live – on that section called ‘the wiggly bit’ of the border – the Dumaresq River and then the Macintyre form the border between the states.

Until the end of November, it will be closed season on rivers and most storages in NSW, except for Copeton Dam and Blowering Dam.

The above two storages allow the taking of cod from 55-75cm, to eat or to catch and release.

Let’s go back over possession limits in NSW for our main table fish on rivers and dams.

The no-take species in rivers are catfish and silver perch.

In the listed storages and dams, there is a size limit of 25cm for silver perch with a bag limit of five and possession limit of 10.

Catfish are no take in western rivers and 30cm legal limit in listed dams and storages.

With yellowbelly, there’s a 30cm minimum length, a bag limit of five and a possession limit of 10.

Murray cod is 5575cm legal length take home, a possession limit of four and a bag limit of two.

And there you have it for NSW.

In Queensland this year, during the closed season on rivers it was a bit of a dud for cod, also on dams that hold the Murray cod species.

In this neck of the woods, we saw the storages climb out of their previous low water dismal situation to where most are now three quarters full to overflowing – which is great news.

On-farm storages are full, the river on the border is still flowing very well and any more rain will cause some flood concern out west.

I mentioned NSW and its bag and size limits, let’s do Queensland now.

The minimum length for Murray cod is 60cm with no maximum size limit for dams or rivers, and a possession limit of two over 60cm only.

Golden perch have a 30cm minimum size limit and no maximum, with a possession limit of 10 for dams and rivers.

Silver perch are 30cm minimum, no maximum and a possession limit of two only on dams, with no take whatsoever on rivers.

Catfish are 35cm minimum, no maximum and a possession limit of five on dams and rivers.

As previously mentioned, we are still seeing good flows in the rivers, with some inflow into the storages.

I don’t think we have seen the last of the rain just yet this year, as we move into our wet season with the threat of large cyclones a possibility.

With a bit of luck, we may see some natural recruitment of both silver perch and yellowbelly in rivers and storages.

Yes, storages!

Given that both species move into new areas upstream and given the right conditions, we

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