Jingle bells, jingle bells — just getting in tune for three weeks’ time when Santa arrives in his Christmas fishing boat delivering gifts and good cheer to all anglers.
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I admit that over the past few weeks I have been checking my wish list for a swag of gear for my tackle box, which by the way is already full, but you can never have enough fishing gear, can you?
From major items like a boat and trailer, to rods and reels, as well as stocking fillers like hooks and other terminal gear, all will be gratefully accepted.
Yes, I really love Christmas.
All that aside, we are now well and truly into the new cod season.
Reports have still been patchy.
One group, who has a regular cod opening gathering on the Murray, reported not too many keepers but one among the group did land one fish that he described as the fish of a lifetime; it was released back into the river to fight another day.
The end of the story is the number of quality fish taken by anglers fishing in the Goulburn River.
The best numbers are around Murchison to the Nagambie area with cheese, chicken and scrub worms being the best baits.
Below Shepparton a lot of small fish are being caught.
Surprisingly there have been few carp.
It has been the same in the Murray River as well.
The Broken River, between Shepparton and Gowangardie Weir, is patchy, but cod have been caught in the deeper holes by the anglers using surface lures as well as bait.
The Murray below the Hume is on a rise as water continues to be released from the dam and I was always told that a rising river was the best time to fish along with thunderstorms.
The wind has played havoc with anglers who fish Eildon, Waranga Basin and other lakes at the basin, with reports of waves being whipped up so big it was like being on the ocean, making conditions for small boats quite dangerous.
The same was reported at Eildon, although some sheltered areas could be found.
However they were not always where the fish were.
Trout in the high country have been biting; anglers casting lures and bait have been doing well in the rivers and at Dartmouth.
If you don’t mind getting your feet wet, wading the edges of the pondage is always worth a try.
Just a thought: if you do go camping in the hills, add a portable firepit to your gift list.
There are several models on the market and one locally designed and manufactured one is a beauty, portable and safe; even comes in its own carry bag.
Okay ‘salties’, time to talk snapper, and Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters at Queenscliff said Santa had been kind to anglers with some great fishing on the go around the heads.
Among the plate-sized pinky snapper, larger fish have been caught.
And by large, I mean fish between 8-10kg, a good-sized fish in any language.
The bag limit for snapper is no more than 10 fish per angler and, of these, no more than three fish may exceed 40cm; the minimum length is 28cm.
Rod said that depending on weather conditions, the reefs off Barwon Heads, Point Lonsdale and Point Nepean had all been fishing well.
Inside the heads, the tried-and-true marks off the port and further up the bay around St Leonards and Mt Martha at Mornington had been noted for some horse-sized fish as well.
Rod sad he was also bagging salmon, silver trevally, flathead and whiting were starting to come on the bite around the mouth of Swan Bay.
Western Port was also producing snapper along the rubble lining, the shipping channels off Hastings and the steel works.
Whiting are biting in the shallow grass beds near the navy base and off Cowes at Phillip Island.
Up north, with travel restrictions less severe, John Liddell at Eden expected a bumper snapper season along the inshore reefs between Boyd’s Lookout and Green Cape.
John said the boys from Freedom Charters were getting big hauls of table fish when they could go offshore.
He said so far only a few tuna had been caught off the shelf.
Graham Cowley at Narooma reported a similar story around Montague Island, but added good-sized flatheads were being caught along the sandy bottom.
With Christmas coming at a rate of knots, get that wish list done, stay safe and don’t spoil the holiday season by getting sick or passing it on to others.
Don’t miss a chance for cod
Trelly has been getting reports of cod being caught wherever there are people casting a line, including a giant more than a 1m long caught in one of the main channels near Waranga Basin, and a 114cm beauty at Mulwala.
Trelly likes to be prepared, so this week, here’s a bunch of lures that can help catch a cod.
Surface lures from $24.99
Go big with a surface lure. Plenty of varieties in stock.
Ballista Tremor - $99
At 200mm in length and diving to 2m-plus in depth, these great lures come with three different bibs: diving, surface and wakebait.
They include advanced LED Lighting to get that big fish to pay attention.