NSW
The end of summer ALBURY/WODONGA
Connor Heir
As we turn the page on the calendar to say goodbye to February and a welcome to March, we
very different from the past few seasons gone by. Very wet, high flows for all the rivers and creeks around the area has been the new normal for months now! This has made fishing some of these systems much more
and rivers. Once the wet weather pattern of La Niña does eventually pass, these water levels will drop, clear up and go back to normal, and I predict that this will make fishing boom. Flushes of large amounts of
A true giant fish from the shallow depths of Lake Mulwala. This 115cm cod was caught on a Zerek Ruby. more. With that much water around, all of our lakes are high, and as I write this Lake Hume is sitting at a massive 99%. It remained in the high 90s all summer. Lately, my focus has
can be difficult to navigate through the weed, it’s still definitely worth fishing it, and for good reason. Fish definitely aren’t shy of feeding and living in the weed, and they don’t really
confident in what you’re using, the results will come, especially when you least expect it. That’s the joy of cod fishing. On a recent trip down to Mulwala, I was fishing
An exceptionally well conditioned Lake Mulwala cod. Fishing during the heat of the day can be difficult but you can still get the bites with persistence. open the chapter of the cod season into autumn. March is a really exciting month, especially towards the end where the weather becomes just a touch cooler and it makes it that little bit easier physically to fish in. This season has been
difficult, because with high levels of water also comes the clarity factor; the water is much more dirty, making it harder to lure and fly fish. While this can be irritating at the present time, be patient because this is actually a fantastic occurrence for our creeks
water are such a good thing for our water systems – it’s the natural ecosystem’s way of freshening the waterways up. In areas across the region, we’ve seen downpours almost weekly of up to 100mm at a time, and in some places even
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catching golden perch during the hottest months of the year. Slow rolling soft plastics up the sides of standing timber that is either adjacent to a drop-off or is in 5-15m of water will put you in with just as big a chance of landing a yella as the bait fishos. There are all types of yabby imitation plastics on the market, and all these when rigged and used correctly will catch fish. However, minnowstyle plastics and the ever-reliable curl tail soft plastics just slow rolled are deadly on shutdown golden perch. Slow rolling spinnerbaits and even lipless crankbaits in the same areas is also worth a shot. Trolling the shallower banks super early and late in the day with small to medium sized lures can also get you in on some golden perch action during March.
Lake Mulwala at sunrise and sunset is a magical place. It’s something everyone should experience with a rod in hand.
Big redfin are well within range of land-based anglers in most of our impoundments at the moment, but this won’t last so make the most of it before they start their annual retreat to deep water.
been downstream from the local Lake Hume, to Lake Mulwala. This is mainly because it’s been fairly difficult to fish most of the rivers and creeks around the region, due to the heavy rainfall. The clarity at Mulwala hasn’t been fantastic of late, however the lake is never perfectly clear, so fishing it with a bit more colour than usual isn’t game over. The amount of weed in Mulwala, however, is the most weed I’ve ever seen in there over the time I’ve fished it. In most areas, it’s very thick. While it
have a choice! If you ever get the chance to fish lake Mulwala at night, shine a torch into the weed and just see the amount of life that litters the weed! If you’re not so confident in fishing the weed, this may just change your mindset on it. It often comes down to how you fish it too. Obviously if you aren’t using appropriate lures to fish the weed, it may be a bit more difficult. There are stacks of tackle stores down at Yarrawonga/ Mulwala, so finding your poison isn’t far from the lake. If you persist and are
a few different areas and doing some prep for upcoming competitions held at the lake. I was lucky enough to bump into my second metre-plus cod for the season, measuring 115cm. This fish was caught on a Zerek Ruby, which is a crankbait-style lure measuring only 75mm. I’m not surprised that a large cod would eat a small lure, but I just thought I would write that the unexpected is always a possibility. After all, elephants do eat peanuts! Best of luck to everyone fishing this month, and I hope to see you on the water! MARCH 2022
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