Episode 610: Lake Mulwala Murray Cod With Jack Hocking

Jack’s Mulwala Cod Fishing Tips

• The “Charted Waters” map card is essential for anyone who fishes Lake Mulwala regularly. It will show you exactly what’s under the water in very fine resolution. It’s especially deadly when combined with live sonar.
• Cod are scattered around everywhere in Lake Mulwala, so never discount any piece of structure. Focus on perfecting a few lures and fish each piece of structure thoroughly.
• In the winter, look for places where you can see a lot of baitfish either splashing around or showing on your sonar. Often this will be around standing, or especially laydown timber. Seriously big logs in 3-4m of water are the most productive cod lairs.
• Scattered patches of weed also occur around the lake during winter also hold bait and thus cod.
• Much of the Lake Mulwala bed is relatively flat, and that’s where much od the timber structure is found. The water depth on the flats ranges from 1-4m deep (shallower at the top end, deeper close to the wall).
• In winter, the bottom end of the lake around the weed edges tends to fish best. It’s harder to find fish at the top end of the lake in the shallower water.
• The main flow in Mulwala follows the south side of the lake but are generally pretty slow unless there is a big dump of rain.
• Jack prefers reasonably still, calm days for cod fishing, and if it’s a windy day he’ll look for sheltered spots to fish. Likewise, he prefers to find clean water where the fish have better visibility than to fish dirty water areas.
• Foggy mornings are great and tend to extend the early bite period when cod are out in the open. A rising barometer also tends to favour cod fishing.
• The hours just before till just after dawn and dusk tend to fish best. Cod can be caught at any time, especially if you can get away from other boats, but the dawn and dusk periods are definitely the peak times.
• The Murray cod in Lake Mulwala are used to boating traffic, but they still bite better is you can sneak up on them, so minimise electric motor use and find places away from boats if you can.

Jacks Mulwala Cod Fishing Tackle

• A short, light rod is handy for casting spinnerbaits, hard bodies, lipless cranks and surface lures. Jack uses a Millerods Cod Freak with 13 Fishing Concept baitcast reel, 30lb braid and 30-40lb leader.
• A longer rod is best for casting swimbaits and Jack likes the Millerods Swimfreak Power with 13 Fishing Concept baitcast reel, 50lb braid and 50-60lb leader. This outfit can hand anything from a 6-10” swimbait.

Jacks Top Mulwala Cod Lures

• A Thirsty Lures Rat (120mm) or Paddler (>150mm) is perfect for big fish at this time of year. It’s usually best to stick with these during the dawn and dusk periods, although it’s possible to get quality cod on surface later in the morning if it’ not a super-bright day. Focus on shallower water of 2.5m or less when surface fishing and work the lures over all kinds of structure and along rocky banks. Let the lure sit for a little bit after it hits the water to allow the fish to come looking, then slow roll all the way right back to the boat.
• A Spinrod mumbler or chatterbait in the 1oz weight range with a 120-200mm soft plastic tail or a 5/8 oz single blade spinnerbait with a 100mm soft plastic tail is a good choice through the day when the dawn surface bite tapers off. The chatterbaits are more snag-prone, but have accounted for more big fish for Jack than the other styles. Whites and natural colours usually work best for Jack, but sometimes you’ll need to try other colours. The lure styles can be fished in deeper water than the surface lures. The mumblers can be fished with a lift and drop, lifting just enough to feel the lure work and then allowing it to drop back on a semi-taut line. Sometimes the big fish don’t bit as hard as you’d expect, it can sometimes be like a tick on the line.
• A large soft or hard swimbait that looks like a trout, redfin or carp is good. A Jackall Gantia, Giganterel or similar is good. Make the first few casts over the top of the structure first, keeping the rod tip high and the lure up shallow. Then try casting parallel with the structure and allowing it to sink a little deeper. These lures can be used pretty much any time of the day.