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So, I was asked the question, “What are your top 5 tips for fishing Nagambie?”

As always, these questions are hard to answer when it comes to fishing, because things change from week to week, and this leads into my first tip…

  1. BE READY FOR CHANGE

This is a tip you take with you to most waterways, but even more so with Nagambie. Water systems change from week to week depending on the weather conditions, water level and flow and the behaviour of the fish. You need to always be adaptable to the situation and realise that things can change.

Here is a short few rules to go by:

Cold change, low barometer, cold water from Eildon – in these situations you will find the fishing to be very slow. The Golden Perch will shut right down and the cod will as well. Your best chance of landing a fish in this situation is to use bait, or fish your lures extremely slowly. The shallow margins of the lake will fish the best and most likely in the afternoon, especially if there is a bit of sun. You need to expect the fishing to be tough, so don’t give up because everyone has the same conditions.

Warm weather, stable pressure & sunny – this is perfect for active fish, especially if there is a warm week leading up to the event. This is where you want to be casting and trolling and trying to cover as much water as you can. If you’re fishing around a lot of other anglers, try to find a good area and stay there until you have covered the water. The shallow margins out away from the main river channel will fish best early in the morning and they will be good to work as they will see less pressure.

2. DO YOUR RESEARCH

Do a research trip! Nothing beats visit the lake and spending some time fishing before competition day. If you want to have a chance at winning the comp, do your research. Spend some time on the lake so you understand how the system works, the kind of structure and test different techniques and try to come up with a plan for the tournament. That’s my second and also an extremely important tip.

3. FISH SHALLOW AND DEEP – WORK OUT WHERE THE FISH ARE FEEDING

On the day the fish could be feeding shallow, or they could be feeding deep… maybe even both. Whatever it is, you need to work it out. Early morning I would start in the shallow and see if it works. Chances are you’ll find fish on first light and then after the sun rises you may find they could go off the bite. This is when you might need to find water deeper than 3m and fish in those areas. Once you figure out a pattern, stick to it for the event as this will give you the best chance are taking out a prize.

4. WORK HARD FROM THE BUZZER

I know this is an obvious one, but it is critical for success! Don’t stop… keep fishing and fish hard. Be up well before the start of day one and on the water ready to implement your plan. And then fish flat out for the entire duration of the competition. The more time on the water fishing, the more chance of encountering that $80K cod.

5. GO NATURAL

My last tip and this is more leading towards the competition is to use natural presentations. If you’re a lure caster I’d still be throwing spinnerbaits and hardbodies, but swimbaits will come into play. With so many lures being thrown around you will need to use something as natural as possible and Carp imitation swimbaits are hard to beat. They aren’t the easiest lure to fish but working them in the shallow margins and past the standing stumps is where they come into play.

The other options which is as natural as you can get, is to use bait. In a competition like this using large yabbies, bardi grubs and shrimp is a great option. Not only will you catch numbers of fish but you’ll be in for a good chance at the winning cod.

Bonus – Enjoy the event

As a bonus tip for GoFish Nagambie, make sure you have fun! This event is all about sharing and enjoying this passion we all have for fishing. Start a new conversation with someone, share your stories or if you caught a fish, help someone out if they are struggling.

Fishing is all about having fun and enjoying your time on the water!

We all know the big prize at Nagambie is for the biggest cod… but its not the only prize! There is cash to be won for carp and prizes (yet to be announced) that you could win and best of all you can win them with a Carp.

In this edition of GoFishing with Rhys I’m going to share my tips that will help you to catch that winning Carp.

CARP TACTICS FOR NAGAMBIE

Like all freshwater waterways, Nagambie is loaded with the invasive species. This competition is a great opportunity to remove a few from the water, but even better, a great chance to win some prizes. Carp are a relatively easy species to catch, as they love searching for any food to suck up off the bottom. They are primarily a bottom feeder and will suck around in the mud and silt looking for food.

Best Baits for Carp

Using bait is the only way to go. You can catch them on lures, but it is rare and if you want to give yourself the best chance… use bait. The best baits to use are bread, corn and worms. The reason these three all work well is because they have a strong smell which attract the Carp from a long way, the scent the carp can smell in the bread and corn is sugar, they love anything sweet.

Tip: when using bread, make sure you only use white bread. Firstly, because it is the easiest to mould onto the hook and it stays on for longer, but more importantly is has the highest concentration of sugar. Whereas wholemeal or grain has little sugar and you’ll reduce your catch rate significantly.

Baiting up your Hook

Once you have your chosen bait (I’d go with bread and worms) you need to bait it correctly. With the bread just take a piece off and mould it into a flat ball shape or like a flat long disc. Then pin the hook through the bread and make sure your hook point is exposed (never hide your hook point or you’ll miss fish). If you’re using worms make sure you load up the hook with as many as you can.

Best Rig to Use

I like to run a running sinker rig with a paternoster setup. It’s simple; first cut a 40cm length of line off your mainline (if you’re using monofilament, if your using braid you’ll need some leader material) get a light ball sinker (size 2) and run it up your line, and then tie on a swivel. Then tie on the length of line you cut off to the other end of the swivel (or your leader material). Tie a hook onto the end of the line, this is your first hook. Then you want to make a paternoster loop halfway between your swivel and hook and once this is done, loop on another hook. This way you have two hooks and can use two different baits.

Areas to Fish

Now the most important part is to pick where to fish. The areas you want to find are shallow muddy sections, close to weed. I would avoid chasing Carp in the main river channel. Look for the backwaters and shallow sections in the lake. The key part is to find reedy area, this are places they will feed and search for food.

Final Tip

This could almost be the winning ingredient which will make a massive difference come comp day. Carp are a schooling fish and your goal is to catch as many Carp as you can. You can make this a whole lot easier if you can draw in entire schools of Carp to the area.

You can do this by using burly! Want you want to do is get a bucket and packet of breadcrumbs, find some sand or dirt and even buy a can of creamed corn. Get the sand and mix it with the breadcrumbs, you’ll also want to grab a few slices of bread and try to break them up into tiny pieces. What I like to do is break a piece of and rub it in my hand with the sand to mix it together. Then add your creamed corn to the bucket, this acts as like a glue (don’t make it too wet).

You should now have this fine mixture and what you want to do is grab a handful and throw it in a circular motion out where you are fishing, so it fans out in the area. You don’t need much, its basically something for them to smell and be attracted to, but you don’t want them to spend all their time eating your burly and not your bait.

Do this every 20 mins or so to keep the Carp in the area.

Nagambie Lakes is home to our icon, the Murray Cod, which could win you $80,000 come this April. We are now into 2020 and the competition date is getting closer and closer. Its time to start prepping yourself for a massive competition that could change your life.

With that said, I want to share some tips for targeting cod and how I would go about catching them both during the competition.

Murray Cod

The lake system is full of a healthy population of Murray Cod from plenty of smaller cod in the 45-60cm range, right up to those metre plus models. These large Murray Cod are extremely intelligent and trying to fool them will be difficult, especially when everyone else is trying to chase them as well.

In saying that there are three different tactics that I would use, if you’re chasing that winning fish:

  1. Use Big Baits: there is no denying that bait is the best way to catch cod. It’s the most natural presentation you can offer, and it will successfully catch fish. Even more so when there are hundreds of lines in the water, you want to have to most natural presentation possible. If you prefer to use bait and you want to go big, use massive baits! Try and catch the biggest yabbies possible, that would be my go to bait, as well as big bardi grubs. Try and find the biggest log or deepest hole, tie up and wait for the big cod to find your big bait.
  2. Troll Deep: I’ve said it before, that the main river channels hold good quality fish. The largest cod will hold on the edges of the main river bed on the larger structures and in the deep holes. This is how Paul and I landed the 94cm cod while filming the IFISH episode. Trolling lures larger than 100m close to the bottom and close to structure is a go to technique for chasing big cod.
  3. Shallow Flats: this is the third tactic and probably one of the best to use. The river sees a lot of traffic so trolling and bait fishing the main river could be difficult with the boat traffic close by. A way to move away from the traffic and still find big fish is by moving out onto the flats. You’ll be surprised how shallow cod will go and there are some massive large expanses of water in Nagambie and if you can find these area with at least 1m of water you will find cod, and big cod at that in low light. It’s worth pushing out into the shallow areas and throwing surface lures and swimbaits around the standing and fallen trees as well as the reedy and weedy edges.

Rhys’ Competition Strategy

After covering those three main tactics for chasing that winning cod I want to run through the strategy I would use. The competition runs across two and a half days, and the first thing you need to take away from this, is to fish every moment you get. The more time spent on the water the more chance you’ll have. So don’t give up and keep on fishing.

On the first day is when you’ll have you’re best chance at getting a fish. This first morning I would pick a good trolling run and fish it hard, troll back and forth over your chosen run. Make sure you choose a good troll run with plenty of timber in about 6-7m.

Continue to do this through till mid-afternoon. By this stage the fish may start to becomes a bit shy due to the traffic on the water. This is when I would venture out into the shallow flats and try to find some good water for the evening session. Then I would fish out in these areas, as far away as you can get from other boats fishing with swimbaits and spinnerbaits before using topwater late in the day.

Day two I would use the same technique from the afternoon before. Start with surface then move to swimbaits and spinnerbaits. Once the sun gets up, if you’re keen to bait fish I’d bait fish during the heat of the day in a shaded spot with a deep hole. Then return to fishing the shallow in the evening.

Then the same process for the last half day. This is my game plan so if you’ve taken the time to read this enews you will be ahead of the other competitors.

Good luck with your Nagambie preparations and I’ll be sharing more tips soon!

Rhys

We are well and truly into the heat of summer now! Extremely hot days means increasing water temperatures and this leads to ACTIVE FISH! As the temperature rises the fish become more active which means they need to feed more and it’s a great time to be out on the water fishing.

I’m going to run through some must have lures for chasing cod over the summer months:

SURFACE LURES

Let’s start with a bang! Surface fishing has taken off over the past 5 years and is one of the most exciting ways to catch Murray Cod. Best of all, now is the best time to be doing it. The stinking hot nights and early summer mornings with both paddlers and wakebaits are perfect for Murray Cod.

With so much activity, creatures and bugs getting around, cod are looking up waiting for food to fall into the water. Large cicadas are a major source of surface food at this time of year as well as mice, ducks and moths. What you want to do is imitate these natural food sources.

Small creeks and rivers: 70-120mm paddler
Larger water bodies: 120mm plus wakebaits and paddlers
Shallow reedy areas: weedless surface fogs

Brands and models:

DIVING HARDBODY

Not just a summer lure but an all year-round lure, the diving hardbody is a must. During summer it works best when trolled deeper down in the water column, especially in larger rivers, lakes and dams. Trolling large 150mm plus lures down in the 6-9m mark is perfect fr chasing big fish that sit down in the cooler water during the heat of summer.

Early in the morning and late afternoon casting 70-100mm hardbodies at the bank side structure in river and streams works well. Also using them to cast at the standing timber, which is a great technique at Nagambie.

Casting: 70-100mm, which crash dives (good gauge is 24ft or more)
Trolling: 70-100mm for smaller fish, 110mm-200mm for large fish. At least 30ft for trolling deep in lakes and dams.

Brands and models:

SPINNERBAITS

One of my all-time favourite lures all year round and they are perfect for the active fish during summer. Casting spinnerbaits close to bank side structure, early and late in the day is a great technique along rivers and creeks. As the sun gets up these fish can sometimes become more reluctant to fish on the edges and that’s where trolling with hardbodies comes into play. In saying that if you have thick shade then they will still eat your cast spinnerbait.

In the large lakes and dams casting large spinnerbaits around heavy structure works great for larger cod. For example, this technique works great in Eildon where there is a lot of heavy, dense structure.

Small waterways: 5/8oz coloardo or willow blade
Large waterways: 1 or 1.5oz Colorado or willow blade, large plastic tail and stinger hook.

Brand and models:

There are a massive range of spinnerbaits on the market and many of them work well. As they are all used the same there is only one brand that I use as it has never let me down and this is Mud Guts Spinnerbaits.

Here is a list of the models I use:

There are my 3 go-to lures to use over the next few months chasing Murray Cod. It all depends on the situation and the place you are fishing. If you’re visiting Nagambie make sure you pack your surface lures; weedless frogs, small paddlers and some larger wakebaits. Surface will be perfect early in the morning.

Once the sun gets up that’s when you want to tie on your hardbodies and spinnerbaits!

Only a few days until cod opening and the excitement is just too hard to contain! Many anglers like myself are getting ready and prepping for opening day. What I want to touch on in this edition is my tips for the day:

START EARLY

First, make sure you hit the water early! As a rule of thumb, the morning fish the best in summer as it is, but even more so on Murray Cod opening when there will be lots of people around. You want to beat the crowds and the sun and get on the water early!

Fishing during the night is another great option throughout December on the warmer nights, the cod will be active and even surface fishing is a great option.

TIPS FOR RIVERS AND CREEKS

Flowing water will be on the top of anglers lists for December 1st. The fish wouldn’t have seen a lure for over 3 months, they will be hungry and it’s the perfect time to fish these areas.

As the middle of summer hits these smaller waterways can become very slow so early December is the prime time before this heat hits.

The go to lure all depends on the type of water you are fishing but I love using surface lures in low light periods. I have a local creek not far from me which I fish during the night and then the next morning using surface lures and its great fun in December. If you’re fishing a small creek using 60-100mm paddlers, nothing too big is the best option. They are easy to cast, work well and the small fish love them.

In a lot of the local rivers casting spinnerbaits and hardbodies at the bank side structure is a proven method that you cannot go wrong with for cod opening, and if you’re fishing boulder water then soft plastic and swimbaits are a good option.

You may find the fish might slow down come the middle of the day but that’s normal for cod. Just try to focus on the darkest shadows you can find. Even pull up for a bait fish under a shady tree.

TIPS FOR LAKES AND DAMS

Our large bodies of water are another great option to look at for your cod opening trip. The middle of the day will be very tough in deep impoundments like Eildon, Blowering, Copeton etc so fishing the morning and afternoon are key in these places.

The you have the shallow lake systems like our one and only, Nagambie and Mulwala. These places will fish well all day with the bankside cover and standing timber and it’s a great time to fish both lake systems.

Fishing shallow edges in the morning with surface lures can bring some incredible fishing action and also during the night. Surface sessions at Mulwala in December during the night can be incredible, especially on a full moon, so definitely give that a crack. During the day casting spinnerbaits in against the willows along the edges works well and running diving hardbodies past the shaded side of the standing trees works well.

USE YOUR CONFIDENCE LURE

When you first hit the water, I recommend using your confidence lure and your go-to technique. Why? It’s always good to get off the mark early for the season ahead and its amazing what confidence can do to your session.

If you get your confidence up you’ll land your casts better, be in the zone and have a better opening day. My go-to is casting Mud Guts spinnerbaits to bank side structure if I’m fishing in a river or creek. If its nighttime, I’ll probably use an 80mm Gobsmacked paddler.

If I head to Blowering, I’d cast an IGNITE Cod Fury at the bank right on first light or during the night. Or if I visit Nagambie I’ll cast Mud Guts Spinnerbaits at the willows along the bank or use a Balista Dyno to cast at the standing stumps along the edge of the river.

Whatever you confidence lure is, use it on December 1st.

Good luck with your session this weekend and I hope you land that personal best cod!

Wherever you are reading this from chances are there is a lake or river near you with hungry fish! Spring is the time when the activity starts to bloom and the fishing is red hot, especially on Golden Perch.

In this edition of ‘GoFishing with Rhys’ I wanted to talk about how to find fish as this is a massive key to catch more when your out on the water… and these could be very handy come April next year.

STRUCTURE

First rule of thumb is to search for structure! When it comes to native fish you cannot beat any form of cover; fallen snags and logs, standing trees, willows, reedy edges, deep holes and sections, shaded areas and steep banks. If you are fishing in a dam look for; rocky banks, creek beds and bays, manmade structures, standing trees and fallen logs.

This is the safest bet because where there is structure there will be fish. If your fishing in a river, definitely follow the structure.

What about a dam or lake? This is where you need to look a little further than structure.

USING YOUR SOUNDER

Having and using a good quality sounder is a big game changer and will put you ahead of other anglers. But more importantly is using them correctly and to your advantage.

First of all I want to touch on the detail that new sounders show and they help you to identify not only fish but the structure below the water. I have been using a sounder with side imaging for a while now and to say it makes a massive difference… is actually an understatement!

It makes a WORLD of difference in my fishing. What I love is how I can be fishing an area and see what the structure is like either side of where I’m fishing. I can see where the rocky point runs down the bank in the dam and exactly where I need to cast my lure. Or even when it comes to finding big fallen logs either side of my boat.

The biggest advantage is it helps me to locate our target… the fish! When fishing in lakes and dams, having a sounder that can help you pinpoint that there is a school of Golden Perch and this helps take out all the guess work. I can spot fish say 15m to my right, cast o them and then I know I’m in the right spot and fishing where the fish are.

NO SOUNDER. NO WORRIES.

Sounders are expensive and I fished for a long time without the new advanced technology, and I’m here to say you can still catch quality fish without one. How do you do it… I’m going to share.

Target the windy areas

I know fishing in the wind is painful sometimes, but its actually makes the fish feed and this is ever so true for Goldens in lakes. At this time of year what you want to do is follow the wind and fish on banks where the wind is pushing. This wind pushed the food to this side but also stirs up the edge of the water and dislodges food, therefore you’ll be in for a good chance of fishing feeding fish.

Dirty water

Along with wind comes dirty water as its common for these banks to build up a discoloration from the wind. The dirtier the water, the more food and also the more confident the fish are. When fishing lakes like Blowering and Eildon this is one of my go to places to fish throughout October and November. This rule also goes for cod as well.

September not only marks the beginning of spring but also where we switch our attention from Murray Cod to their best mates, the Golden Perch.

Luckily for us anglers, spring is by far the best time to target Golden Perch and below are our top tips to help you out this spring.

LURE SIZE – LESS IS MORE

Using small lures will increase your catch rate. Yes, they’ll smash a big cod lure happily, but during this time of year, they’re emerging from hibernation and will eat what they naturally find around them. Think small insects, fish, yabby’s and shrimp. For lures, think;

RETRIEVE SPEED

This is arguably the most important factor for targeting Golden Perch. Most the time, you’ll want to be running with a slow roll with lots of pauses. This early on in the season, the fish will be sluggish, so you need to give them time to look at your lure.

If you find the slow roll isn’t yielding any results, add some speed to the retrieve with a quick flick of the rod tip or a quick burn of the lure to get the attention of the fish nearby.

LAST HOUR OF LIGHT

Golden hour doesn’t just get its name from the sunset! It is certainly the best bite period of the day. As the days become more sunny, the water temperature will always be at its warmest at last light.

WATER TEMPERATURE

Water temperature is one of the best indicators as to whether the fish are biting or not. Golden Perch are like the three bears. If its not ‘just right’ they’re less likely to come to play.

When the water hits 14 degrees the fish will be starting to feed and can be caught. What you really want is temperatures between 16-18 degrees. The fish will be super active at these temperatures.

With Murray Cod season coming to a close at the end of this Month, we wanted to share our top tips for targeting big winter Murray Cod in rivers.

There’s no denying the days can be tough with lots of trips yielding little reward, but there are two weekends left to get out and experience that big BOOF for it all to become worthwhile.

Here are our top 4 tips.

YOU GOTTA FIND THE BIG FISH

You can make an educated guess as to where the big Murray Cod are hiding, here’s what we’d look for in the waterways you are targeting.

If you can find deep water, big structure and still water, you’ll find the hideout for the monster Murray Cod.

GO BIG OR GO HOME

When we talk about going big, do you think we’re talking about the fish or the lure? We’re talking about both. Think big with your lure and the cod will follow suit.

FISH HARDER IN LESS LOCATIONS

When it’s cold you have to put in the hard yards and chuck our a huge number of casts in less locations.

DO THE SIMPLE THINGS RIGHT

Here is freshwater fishing guru and GoFish Nagambie Ambassador Rhys Creed with some tips on casting at structure for Murray Cod. Check out his insights here.

The above image demonstrates the perfect piece of structure for Murray Cod and as you can see there are a number of good areas to cast along this log.

1. This is by far the best! The root ball is usually where the largest fish hides out and provides the best cover and ambush location for the fish. This spot is definitely worth 3-5 casts.

2. Moving along you can see there is evidence of a small stick poking up which could mean more structure under the log. There is also plenty of cover and shade for the fish.

3. You always want to cast to as many spots as you can and in this situation, you should work your way down the log. There could be fish hiding tight under the fallen trunk.

4. This is an area where you might find a small and hungry fish waiting for food to flow past.
Now my last tip… on a log like this a spinnerbait is by far the preferred lure choice. Reason being, you are casting tight to a log and you need to allow it to sink underneath the structure.

The below image is another example of Murray Cod structure!

This shows how much structure can actually be beneath the water surface. The picture in the top right shows a high river and the X is a location where we have previously caught a large Murray Cod.

As you can see, when the water is lower there is a gap between the logs which is the perfect hole for a big fish to hide. This is exactly where the big cod was sitting in wait for something to eat.

$80K IS ON OFFER FOR THE BIGGEST MURRY COD

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