Episode 161: Blowering Dam Murray Cod With Daniel Nogare

Dan’s Top Tips For Murray Cod Fishing

• Blowering Dam can be a tough place to go Murray cod fishing. Anglers can do everything right and still put in a lot of hours without so much as a bite. It’s important to have confidence in your gear and technique and just stick to your plan until it comes together.
• Get some advice from locals before heading to the Dam and check that they are feeding, what lures are working and what depth of water they’re holding in.
• Don’t try and fish 24/7. Daniel reckons it’s more effective to rest up during those periods when fish are usually quiet and put in the effort during the prime times.
• Don’t be tempted to move around too often or change lures every few minutes. Have confidence and just continue.
• Blowering fishes best during the winter months and Daniel usually finds the colder water yields bigger fish. 
• The lead up to the full moon of the few days after the full usually fish best. The time period between 4am and 10am is the most productive.
• Before fishing, take a couple of hours out of your day to sound around the dam and look for structure and areas holding baitfish such as redfin, carp and trout.

Dan’s Tackle Recommendations For Murray Cod

• Daniel chooses his rod depending on which lures he’s using at the time. He usually has three Millerods rigged up and ready to fish at any one time: The Ambush for big swimbaits, the Beast Freak is very versatile swimbait rod and the 7’10” Dream Freak for surface lures and large swimbaits.
• Reels consist of either Shimano Calcutta Conquest/Tranx or Daiwa Zillion baitcast reels loaded with Shimano Ocea PE8 braid and 50lb Sunline FC Rock Fluorocarbon leader.

Dan’s Best Murray Cod Lures

• The original Mudeye Lures Snake is a great surface lure that Daniel likes to fish in the pre-dawn period right up until the sun hits the horizon and the light starts to change. After positioning himself over flats in 15-20ft of water, he’ll fan out long casts and retrieve the lure using a slow roll. Daniel often fishes this lure just a little quicker than most finding that this increases the urgency for the cod, resulting in solid hookups with less boils and refusals.
• The Megabass Magdraft is a large paddletail soft plastic. Daniel starts to fish it on first light after the Mudeye Snake. He fans out long casts, counts the lure down for ten seconds and then slow rolls it back with occasional pauses.
• Defiant 247 is a large soft plastic with line-through technology. Daniel likes the in moderate sink version and fishes it in much the same way as the Magdraft.
• When it’s time to switch from the surface snake to a subsurface lure it’s 50:50 whether Daniel will choose the Magdraft or Defiance first. Either one can work, so he’ll start with one and switch between them if he’s having no luck.