Episode 136: New England Murray Cod With Rob Paxevanous

Rob’s Top Tips For New England Murray Cod Fishing

• Surface fishing for Murray Cod in the New England area can be broken into a couple of main options. The many streams and rivers produce plenty of willing, aggressive fish, mostly up to around 80cm. Fish within New England storages are usually less willing, but get much larger.

Flowing water

• In the rivers, focus on the heads and tails of pools, if you catch a fish or put in a few casts without catching a fish, move to the next pool.
• If you’re keen on surface fishing for cod, focus on rivers that have plenty of overhanging branches.
• Smaller lures tend to work best in the river systems and cod can be targeted from the surface throughout the day. 

Storages

• Look for areas where there is a large rock or other structure adjacent to a weed beds. It’s good to look for these when lake levels are low and come back to them in later months when the levels have risen again. 
• Cod will rest up under an overhanging rock and then make forays into channels nearby weedbeds to hunt for bait. 
• Some of the bigger cod will often sip a lure delicately off the surface, if they miss the lure they’ll often come back aggressively on a subsequent cast.
• Lake fish usually have a “beat”. You can figure out their movements and come back during prime bite windows to target them. 
• Low light periods are best for surface cod in the storages, including throughout the night.
• Don’t move too close to the structure. Big cod in the structure during prime periods are usually resting, not hunting. When they’re feeding they will move away from the structure and into the weed beds where the bait are, so start casting 200m or so before you get to the structure.
• On map, pick 5-6 spots you’re going to target on a trip given the expected weather conditions and move between them until you find fish.

Robs Murray Cod Tackle Recommendations

• In the flowing waters Rob is happy to use either spinning or baitcast reels, but he often leans towards spin gear for its versatility. He suggests a line class of 15-30lb braid with a 20-30lb leader is usually adequate for most cod. Retire the lure every couple of fish. In rivers where the cod are a little larger, switch up to 30lb braid and 30lb leader.

• Likewise, Rob finds the versatility of spin gear to be advantageous in lakes. He’ll usually opt for a 50-60 size reel loaded with 30-40lb braid and a 40-60lb leader. Rarely, he’ll go up to 80lb braid if he expects really big fish.

Rob’s Best Murray Cod Lures

• Denguri Gaeru 70mm surface walker from BigYellaTime is Robs favourite lure for New Englandsurface cod. This lure has a small prop on the back. You’ll need to bend the light gauge hooks back into shape a little after a good fish, but this also helps with lure recovery when you get snagged. Cast the lure out, let it sit for a few seconds, then start a slow retrieve back to the rod tip.

• 50mm Mazzy poppers are also a good choice for the smaller river fish and are cast tight to cover, let sit for a few seconds and then blooped back to the rod tip.

• Kingfisher Lures by Inverell Fishing and Hunting. This is a 150mm jointed, handmade timber lure is one of Robs favourites for big impoundment cod. These are worked around the feeding lanes through weedbeds or along shorelines near big submerged rocks, starting a couple of hundred metres before the rock. Working along the shoreline is a good option when there’s no weedbed in depths of 0.5 to 3-4m depth. Don’t cast too close to the bank, within a metre is fine and reduces the chances of having to retrieve a lure and spook the fish.