Episode 233: Blowering Dam Murray Cod With Clint Hansell

Clint’s Top Murray Cod Fishing Tips

• Blowering Dam has a reputation as a big cod fishery. Unfortunately, it’s earned a reputation as not being an easy storage to fish! Clint enjoys the unpredictable nature of this storage and does pretty well on its resident cod.
• Blowering is used for irrigation purposes and receives most of its water from the numerous dams further upstream on the Tumut River system. It’s not uncommon for large volumes of water to be released into Blowering in a short period of time, which usually results in the fish becoming shut down.
• Murray cod fishing can be good on a constant rising, falling or stable water level, however rapid fluctuations usually result in poor fishing.
• The best cod fishing in this system occurs during hours of darkness. It’s very erratic and hard to predict the best fishing times, but usually around dusk and dawn fish quite well, plus the evenings.The early hours of the morning and daylight hours can be tough.
• The water in this storage is crystal clear and Clint finds this forces the fish down deeper during the bright nights around a full moon. When the moon is darker or the sky is overcast the fish will come into shallower water and/or feed on the surface more freely.
• There is very little in the way of hard structure in the dam. Fish tend to become pelagic and swim higher in the water column when they’re hunting. Good places to try are the ledges where the water has been lapping and anywhere you can find bait, which usually is more scattered than in other storages. Moderate to shallow sloping banks can both fish well at times.
• The cooler months are the best. From the first frost through until the start of December school holidays is the prime time. There are better options for cod fishing in summer.

Clint’s Murray Cod Fishing Tackle

• Clint likes big lures in the winter months and leans towards a pair of TD Sol Swimbait rods, one in the heavier range and one medium. He prefers 50lb braid and 50lb fluorocarbon leader.

Clint’s Murray Cod Fishing Lures

• Clint wouldn’t go to Blowering without a 250mm Chatterbait, his favourite being the Cod King Chatterbait. Cast these and let them sink, and hop them off the bottom a couple of times before pausing and letting them sink back to bottom. These lures make plenty of commotion and do a mgood job of imitating the Murray cray that cod love to feed on. 
• A 200mm swimbait such as the Giganterel or the Zerek Affinity (especially one that can take a chin weight) is a good option when the Chatterbait proves too noisy. Clint likes to fish these by casting to the bank over shallow flats of 4-6m and winds a few times, then pauses and allows the lure to sink before starting again. Alternatively, he’ll add a chin weight and fish the lure by slow rolling it back to the boat – go all the way to the boat and then pause before lifting the lure from the water, cod have a habit of following a lure till the last second. He finds that mixing up the retrieve helps to find what’s working on the day, so mix it up until you find the right retrieve for the trip.
• A large soft plastic lure such as a 10″ Savage Gear Line-through Trout or a Magdraft  10″ soft plastic is great when a silent option is needed. Lures in the 1/2 to 3/4 oz weight range work best, if the lure is hitting bottom too often, switch to a lighter offering.
• These three lure styles will cover most situations, so rotate between each style until you find the cods daily favourite.