G'day fishos. As expected, cod opening wasn't up to normal expectations in many areas due to high, and in many cases, dirty water.
That doesn't mean there weren't any caught, but it was a much slower start to this season for many which becomes really noticeable when talking to fishos in larger camps.
One crew who fish the Upper Murray above Walwa landed only eight between them this opening compared to 64 last year, with many other fishos telling similar stories from far and wide.
Of course, with the fishing a little slower that particularly competitive crew had a bit more time on their hands and competition for the biggest fish of the trip heated up, resulting in a fair bit of cheating going on.
The end result was that David "Buck" Rodgers won the worst cheaters award for taking and sharing a photo among the crew, of the tail end of a cod on a brag mat that showed it was 1.100 when it was actually .370mm.
He then posted another photo of a big cod he'd caught a year or two back to try and add authenticity, but turned up back at camp in a completely different shirt to the one in the photo.
Let this be a warning to all those young people under 50 out there.
This is what a mix of old age, alcohol and boredom will do to you, particularly if the fish aren't biting when you go away with a group of old blokes who used to play footy together in the same era.
Dartmouth (87 per cent): I would assume fished ok but didn't get any reports. I'm assuming a lot of fishos were concentrating on cod opening last weekend and I hope to have some info for you next week.
Streams: are still struggling to get to what you'd call good fishable heights. Every time they start to take shape, down comes the rain again.
In saying that, there have been quite a few trout being caught with all methods seeming to be catching a few.
Look out when we actually get a bit of a rain-free spell.
The Upper Murray: as mentioned earlier, it wasn't in fantastic condition but there were a few nice fish landed despite high and coloured water.
Peter Birthisel landed a fat looking 87cm near Walwa, but for the most part the fishing was below par.
Water conditions should be much better this week and I'm expecting some better reports from up that way come Monday.
Hume Dam (98 per cent): is pretty much the same as it has been, really good.
Yellas trolling, grubbing on trees and bait.
Reddies on the troll, bait, flicking vibes or blades or plastics with small plastics above in the open or at trees.
Trout, well they've definitely slowed a bit now, but if you give them a crack really early and maybe even use lead line to get down a little as well, you'd still definitely be in with a shot.
Cod seem to have slowed a little. We've definitely heard less reports in the past week or so.
Maybe that's partly to do with a lot of fishos heading in all directions for cod opening last weekend, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next week or two.
Mulwala: was tough going for lure fishos. Coloured water and copious amounts of weed made it hard going.
Bait fishos faired reasonably well though, catching reasonable numbers.
The biggest fish of the comp, well over the metre mark, was also picked up on bait.
It was a difficult opening for those fishos that would normally camp and fish on one of the many reserves below Mulwala as many were closed due to the high river.
Not exactly sure on the status of those reserves now, but believe they should be awfully close to opening, if they're not already.
Murray below Albury: was still high and dropping for cod opening, which isn't ideal. Despite that there were quite a few caught on bait and a few on lures with the biggest I heard of picked up by Kyle McKenzie. A 1.200 monster caught on a surface lure near Rutherglen.
There's also a few trout cod showing up so make sure you know the difference between the two as trout cod are fully protected.
Can only see things improving as the water settles down a little and the fish get used to it. It's up and down like a yo yo, but doesn't appear to be too much rain predicted for the next week so there's a start.
The Bidgee: was just as tough and is still virtually at minor flood level! There were cod caught but certainly not in the numbers you'd expect from the Bidgee.
Blowering (99.2 per cent): was reasonably slow, with old school methods of bait and trolling hard bodies doing as well as anything else.
If I was going to travel, I'd add the extra hour or so and head for Burrinjuck (92.5 per cent). It is definitely producing more cod, yellas and redfin than Blowering now.
Eucumbene (45.6 per cent): is still the pick of the Snowy impoundments with quite a few reasonable stories of decent fishing and solid fish being caught on bait, lure and fly at the minute, although Tantangara (26.2 per cent) is also on the improve.
Hope you can get out somewhere this week, tight lines.
