Episode 80: Lake Eildon Murray Cod With John Cahill

John’s Top Tips For Eildon Murray Cod Fishing

• Lake Eildon is a year-round Murray Cod fishing option, with no closed season for the species in this storage. Winter tends to be characterised by fewer fish, but a better quality of fish being caught.
• John likes to move relatively quickly through the lake, putting a handful of casts into every likely area then moving on in search of active fish. When he comes to a likely piece of structure, a place he knows holds fish or a patch of baitfish he’ll put in a few extra casts.
• It’s a mistake to not mix up the lures and techniques. Just because you caught a cod once on a particular pure or technique doesn’t mean that will always work, so have an open mind and try other lures and techniques.
• When the cod are shut down and the fishing is tough it’s important to keep fishing and be persistent. Low light periods and night are usually best but sometimes you’ll be surprised by quality fish during the day.
• The main bait species are roach or redfin. When you see the schools you’ll know what depth to fish, surface or deep. Sometimes these bait schools are down as deep as 15m, and that’s where the cod will be when this happens.
• Finding cod in Eildon: John like the areas south of an imaginary line through Fraser National Park for cod. There are plenty of cod north of this line, but they’re best fished with weedless presentations, rather than the big swimbaits John loves to use. South of Fraser National Park John likes to focus on the steep rocky banks where swimbaits can be easily worked with less chance of getting snagged.For the novicem throwing spinnerbaits here, letting them sink well down and rolling them super slowly is deadly.
• John finds the Murray cod fishing is especially good when the barometer is falling steeply, lightning is flashing and thunder is roaring. A rising barometer works well too. Periods of stable barometric pressure are still worth fishing, but it can be a little tougher.

John’s Preferred Cod Fishing Tackle

• John is sponsored by Megabass and loves their rods, reels and lures for cod fishing.
• The three rods he likes to use are the Megabass Destroyer TS Poker, Destroyer TS Casino and a Black Jungle Super Red Demon.
• John couples these rods with Megabass Rhodium and Megabass Lynn reels. All are swimbait models designed for working large, heavy baits.
• Lines are usually PE4 or PE5 YGK braid, needed to set big hooks and prevent the loss of expensive swimbaits.
• 60lb mono leader is perfect for protection against abrasion from rocks, logs and other structure.

John’s Top Murray Cod Lures

• A Megabass Magdraft soft plastic swimbait  in 8″ or 10″ fished slow or deep at 6-8m along walls. Expect to get snagged occasionally if you’re fishing them properly, it’s a good indication you’re in the zone. This lure can also be worked slightly faster and shallower at night. Dawn and dusk are the prime swimbait times, along with night time.
• In winter and into spring the fish are moving up on the edges and John like to throw a Megabass Vatalion swimbait. These are fished with plenty of pauses and twitches, with hits invariably occurring on the pause, so don’t be tempted to just slow roll them. John works these from the reel witout too much rod action.
• A large spinnerbait is John’s other “must have” lure. His favourite is a 1oz Cod X Twin Spin fished deep and rolled as slowly as possible. John uses these through the day when the fish are down deeper.