We are witnessing one of the biggest man-made fish kills in Australian history.

Murray cod are the ‘whale’ of the Australian freshwater fish and are dying by the thousands.

Let’s not forget all the other fish species and, just as importantly, all the other tiny invertebrates, insects and every other living thing that has evolved over millions of years to form a whole ecosystem in that part of the world.

“Environmental disaster” are the only two words most people would think of to describe this event and luckily we have a government department to deal with such issues – the NSW Minister for the Environment Gabrielle Upton.

Haven’t heard that name before? Well neither has anybody on the Darling River.

For this environmental event to happen, still be unfolding and for an environment minister not to have shown her face, or even made a statement regarding the issue to my knowledge, is a disgrace in the least, and shows total disrespect for those affected.

If this were a flood or a fire I’m sure Gabrielle would dash away from her Vaucluse electorate in Sydney, race across and get some great pics of handshakes with the locals, with her on one side and the also invisible NSW Premier on the other.

Because Menindee and the lower Darling are so far from Sydney nobody seems to give a rats. If a dead whale had drifted onto Bondi Beach, they’d be all over that one. This is an environmental disaster and she is the minister for the environment. So where is she?

We’ve been hearing of some good trout being caught on lure and fly during the week along with some reasonable cod, so it still might be worth a look.

A mate and I picked up five small cod on Thursday afternoon on ‘Chickens Hit’ at the lower end, so you never know.

Streams are warming up, let’s hope we get a bit of respite from this crazy weather shortly. Most stream fishos are still nailing a few though, particularly those drifting hoppers and crickets.

The Murray, both above and below Lake Hume, fished well last weekend and this week.

Both the Jindera and Albury angling clubs had reasonable numbers of cod recorded at their respective weigh-ins and we had a few success stories during the week.

One came from Alf Scammell and his mate Frank, who caught a couple of decent keepers on ‘Chicken’s Hit’, which they released.

Alf swore he lost one of the biggest cod he’s ever hooked. I think we’ve all heard that one before though!

Lake Hume (34 per cent) is dropping but still going okay for most.

We’re still hearing decent stories of plenty of smaller reddies with some good fish thrown in,  few are saying worms did the trick for them this week. If you can catch a small bait size reddie or two to drop back over the side, you’ll have every chance of picking up some quality fish.

Blowering (32 per cent) is dropping and not fishing as well as it could. We’re still hearing of an odd cod and even fewer reports on the reddies. While the Snowy Lakes are pretty average with both Euc and Tanny falling at the moment. Jindabyne is stable but you have to work for your fish at all three.