Hi guys I'm Mickey from Tom's Outdoors and today we're going to go through some
simple tips for winter fishing for Murray Cod in an impoundment. Now these tips will have a lot to
do with fishing in winter for Murray Cod but you can take them towards your impoundment fishing
for Murray Cod at any time of the year. We're going to go through a few of the basic lines,
rods and flies that you might need to have success for yourself here in an impoundment
and go through a few tips and techniques so you can hopefully get a really big trophy fish. Now
the first step in fishing for Murray Cod in an impoundment in winter is to get up really early.
You want to be on the water ideally two to three hours before sunrise or two to three hours after
sunrise, those are your prime bite times. Now you can fish either side of that as you can see today
we went and fished on through into the almost middle of the day and we actually had our best
success at about 11 o'clock. Now if you can't get out in those early hours just get out when
you can and get casting, but your opportunities will be greatly enhanced by getting out early.
Now the first and most important thing about cod fishing in any impoundment,
any time of year is having the right type of sinking lines. Floating lines or intermediate
tip lines can be great for river fishing as we've talked about in our previous videos but for cod
fishing in winter your most valuable tool in an impoundment is a full sinking line. Now this is
the Scientific Anglers Titan Taper Intermediate sink 3/sink 5 in about a 9 weight which matches
really well with this rod that we're going to talk about in a second. That's a great all rounder line
for fishing off a boat, if you're going to be fishing off the bank then what I prefer to use
is the titan taper but with the intermediate tip. We're going to go through why, in a second. if
you're fishing from a boat you can quite often start off on a shallow bay for the morning or
a shallow bank and then transition through your favourite steeper banks throughout the afternoon,
stick and move until you find fish. Use your sounder, use your electric motor and try and
cover as much water as possible. If you're on the bank try and make as many casts as possible. Casts
count in this game, the more casts you make the more likely you are of catching a trophy Murray
Cod. So to start off with, if you're fishing from a boat the best thing you can do is cover water
aggressively with a fast sinking line. You want to put your fly in front of as many fish as humanly
possible. Now a fast sink line and an unweighted or neutrally buoyant fly like this game changer
or any of these bufords will do really well on a full sink line because you can work them
aggressively and quickly and keep them quite high up in the water column or you can let them sink a
little bit deeper and then work them aggressively through different areas of the medium and bottom
section of the water column. So casting back to the bank and working short firm strips with long
pauses in between is quite an aggressive retrieve. Your flies, when it comes down to fly selection,
are important. You want to have the right level of floating flies, intermediate sinking or hovering
flies and then fast sinking flies so you can match them to how deep you're going to fish
throughout the day. However, when it comes down to it you can have a lot of fun with your flies,
tie up some new stuff. We've got a rather large range online which you can choose from,
but you can throw anything as long as it's about six inches to 15 inches and a cod will probably
eat it. Now I tend to fish my aggressive sinking line and unweighted or neutrally buoyant flies
on a two-hand rod. I really like this 7x switch rod from Loop. This is an 11 footer and it means I
can two-hand overhead cast, punch out long casts, tuck it under my arm and aggressively retrieve
flies. Now you don't need to use a two-hander, a single-hander will work perfectly well too.
This is a nine weight which also does the job nicely and a nine weight is a good all-round
weight for cod. Even on impoundments I've caught all my best cod in impoundments on a nine weight
and you won't be undergone throwing these types of small brush flies or even some of the larger
flies too as long as you select the right line. Sometimes it's worth going up a line weight
or two. Now I always have two rods rigged. The reason for that is that with this rod and this
line I can aggressively search different aspects of long, not so steep banks and everything else in
between. With this line I can really slowly and efficiently drop a fly down close into a snag
and let it hang there for a long period of time. It's worth thinking about the most important tool
in your kit being your line when you're cod fishing. Now lines and flies are as important
as what joins them. You want to be using at least 40 pounds for a big impoundment like this
you can get away with lighter from time to time but you never know at this time of year
what might be the next thing to grab your fly. I use this 40 pound fluorocarbon from SA in
about three or four foot nothing too fancy. You can make a twisted leader if you want to
however I've got this one connected straight through in a section of three foot
straight to my fly line. Now if I only had one rod and one fly to fish it would be this setup.
With this I can mix through various retrieves and find out what the fish are doing that day.
It's quite often more important to have a good sinking line and one or two good quality flies
than it is to have every single fly under the sun and change flies throughout the day.
Stick with a fly you have confidence in and vary your retrieves and depths. Lake Cod will move
at different depths at different times of the day and they'll also respond differently to different
retrieves throughout the day. Try some that are aggressive and fast with short stops and try some
that have faster retrieves and very long stops and mix up everything that you can in between.
Keep working through different retrieves until you find something that works. Now you've probably
noticed throughout this video that when I retrieve I tend to have the rod tucked in under my arm.
That's one, because this is a very long rod and it's hard to retrieve in a single hand fashion.
The other reason is that when a cod does grab my fly I can't lift the rod, I have to strip to set
the hook. You need to strip strike big cod and all cod for that matter. When you're fishing big hooks
to big fish in big water you need to make your one opportunity for the day count. That might
be all you get. Strip striking removes all of the bend in the rod, all of the slack in the
line and sticks this big hook into a cod's bony jaw and that's what we have to do to get a fish.
Now I hope you get out there and have some fun. Remember winter time is not the time to probably
go and try and catch your first cod on fly, it's a great time to go and hunt the bigger
specimens but you can definitely still go down and fish the river for numbers of fish but out
here on an impoundment such as Blowering you're really looking for the big dogs. Now if you're
like me and you're crazy get up at four o'clock in the morning and go to catch some big cod.