Episode 289: Wyangala Dam Murray Cod With Josh Kopp

Josh’s Wyangala Murray Cod Fishing Tips

• Murray Cod fishing in the summer differs from the cooler months. It’s more comfortable for anglers, and the fish tend to be more active and aggressive, but the bite windows tend to be shorter.
• Josh has seen quality cod caught right through the day on this system but reckons the pre-dawn period through till around 8am fish best, along with dusk and into the night. Cod often move into deeper water (8-12m) during the warmer months, especially once the sun gets up.
• Despite keeping good records of his catches and the conditions, Josh finds it difficult to pick any patterns regarding weather conditions etc that might lead to good cod fishing. He personally prefers periods when the barometric pressure has been stable for a while and likes the moon rise and moon set periods.
• Lures can be a little larger and can be fished a little faster for cod during the warmer months than during the winter. Josh also uses spinnerbaits in summer, but not over winter. Often in summer it’s a reaction bite.
• The Abercrombie arm of the dam is a little like Copeton, being bouldery with some timber. The Lachlan arm of the dam is more timber with grassy and mud banks while the basin is deep and bouldery with scattered timber lines.
• No lure is too big for a Wyangala cod, although they’ll sometimes also gorge themselves on the small gudgeon in the submerged timber. Elephants eat peanuts.
• Big cod seem to be more structure oriented in summer than winter, so look around rocks, timberlines and sunken trees.
• If you have livescope, use it to see how the fish are responding to your lures and make appropriate adjustments to techniques.
• Points are always successful places to fish as cod lie in wait for baitfish that get bottlenecked. Remember that it’s much easier to fish a lure parallel to the banks so that it’s constantly in the same depth of water, rather than at 90 degrees when you have to adjust to keep the lure in contact with the bottom.

Josh’s Wyangala Murray Cod Tackle

• Wyangala cod fishing is all about fishing with big, heavy lures, so tackle has to be up to it. Josh uses all of Daiwa’s Tatula Swimbait Rods at times and couples them with Tatula 300 swimbait reels. 50lb braid and one and a half rod lengths of 50lb fluorocarbon leader completes the outfit. He may switch up to 60lb leader if he’s in really gnarly country.

Josh’s Wyangala Murray Cod Lure Selection

• The Bassman Dam Buster single arm Colarado blade swimbait is a great option for fishing deep and in heavy cover as it can be sunk down and slow rolled with minimum chance of getting snagged. Josh likes to use the Daiwa Duckfin Shad tail on the spinnerbait to create a big profile lure.
• The Jackall Giganterel is a great swimbait for Wyangala and is a very versatile lure. It can be fished unweighted as a sub-surface offering in shallower water or can be fitted with chin weights from ¼ to 1 ounce to fish at various depths. Generally a slow roll is enough to attract the attention of a cod, but sometimes adding pauses or fast bursts can cause a fish to grab the lure. Don’t be afraid to put a 1oz chin weight on at times.
• The Mudeye Rattlesnake would be Josh’s pick of surface lures for Wyangala cod. He admits that he hasn’t cast surface lures around Wyangala enough – but plans to change that soon and this lure has been effective for him at other storages. Being a surface lure, the rattlesnake can be fished through the heaviest of submerged cover, but is also effective when cast from the bank in shallow bays and fished back towards the edges.