Cod Walloped Lake Mulwala Style

Situated on the New South Wales and Victorian borders, Lake Mulwala is about a four-hour drive from Canberra and about three hours from Melbourne. It was once an expansive river flat studded with huge red gums and pockmarked with many ox bow lakes.

An ox bow lake is a puddle of water that forms when a tight curve in a watercourse is bridged - the flow taking a short cut across the narrow neck, resulting in isolation of the tight bend.

These lakes are normally home to myriad freshwater fish and crustaceans that come and go with the floods and droughts. But when they become totally and permanently submerged, as occurs in Lake Mulwala, they are home to the elusive Murray cod.

GHOSTLY GUMS
From 10,000m on a commercial airline flight, Lake Mulwala's decayed river red gums look ghostly during an early morning sunrise. From water level, their hollow trunks are sanctuary for literally thousands of nesting cockatoos.

The weir at Yarrawonga, the neighbouring town of Mulwala, holds back this body of water that covers the millions of submerged logs and branches forming the habitat of the cod, yellowbelly, catfish and silver perch.

Over the last decade - putting pen to paper about all manner of fish in Australia and the South Pacific - I have occasionally mentioned my demise in the Murray cod stakes. Despite being born in a Murray River town in South Australia, and spending 16 years wagging school to fish and shoot (returning a hundred times a year during my working career), I still remained codless!

Considering the state of the remainder of the Murray system (similar to most other freshwater systems in Australia, with the exception of the Northern Territory), if I was ever to attain this piscatorial goal it would be in Lake Mulwala. I was not without my reservations though, having previously embarked on three fruitless trips to the lake.

GREEN WITH ENVY
Along with Dave Silva of Lowrance Australia, who classes Lake Mulwala as his second home, I put in a two-day effort in search of my first green fish.

Basing ourselves at Alan Way's Shoreline Park was a good move. Plenty of shade, a park boat ramp and a short walk to the local store made life easy.

The temperature in the surrounding countryside hovered around 39 degree and had been up around that mark for a few days, which had a dramatic effect on the water in the lake. Big rains the week prior and fishing the Monday after a busy skiboat weekend on the lake, which keeps the water stirred, all had an adverse effect on the fishing. You know the story (eg. you should have been here a week ago!)

Dave and I forged across the lake and up into the Ovens River, which drains into the River Murray before the Murray is transformed temporarily into the lake.

Test driving Lowrance's new X15mt sounder, its temperature probe measured the water temperature in the Ovens at an alarming 30 degree. This was barramundi water! Trolling the sticks and ledges, Dave pulled a small pale-looking cod and a bonus Stump Jumper lure off a snag before opting to look for cooler water.

Back in the lake proper the southern side of the system is lined with willow trees and good submerged timber. There are two ramps on this side of the lake.

Drifting downstream with the breeze and a slight current, Dave pulled a couple of small cod out of the sticks and I managed a heartening 'bump' on a Kokoda spinnerbait that I helicoptered down the side of a dead tree trunk. These fish were a darker green colour indicating that perhaps the hot water was making the fish upstream take on a pale appearance and might account for their reluctance to bite (I was looking for any excuse by that stage).

COMPLETELY CODLESS
At the completion of day one, I was still codless. Well there is always the ski club to drown the sorrows.

Rolling out of the swag the following morning, I subconsciously questioned the need for an alarm clock. The cockatoos that nest in the dead tree trunks also like to roost in the shade of the park from first light and the constant chorus will ensure there are no late starters at Mulwala.

Out on the water the breeze had picked up from the previous day, with the air temperature dropping at least a couple of degrees. And with the wind blowing from the wrong direction for drifting the willows, a decision was made to troll.

Mulwala has marked boating lanes among the maze of dead timber. These lanes have water averaging depths of 6-7m. Among the trees, the water will average depths of 2-3m. Although some unmarked areas look clear, rock-solid stumps sit just below the waterline and can decimate your outboard leg. I noted one boating lane that had the port and starboard markers on the incorrect sides. It was right in the heart of timber country, so watch out for that one.

Trolling the edges of these lanes, which are in fact the old riverbed, produces good fish. A lot of weed grows on the shallow shoulders of the old banks and this is where cod head to when hooked-up.

ROAD TO NOWHERE
Branching off the main lanes there are areas (possibly stretching for 500m or more) which have depths of around seven metres, before coming to a cul-de-sac and reverting to stump-strewn shallow water. These 'dead ends' provide good fishing along the edges as, being remote from the main thoroughfares, the fish are less disturbed.

The northern side of the lake, known as 'Kiffens', is shallow and the water strewn with horizontal timber. First light to late morning is perfect for casting to these submerged logs that can be seen in water only one-metre deep. Also 4pm till dark is worth a cast or troll. Many of these logs lay at right angles to the bank, so lures cast to their far end and drawn along the trunks should get some attention. Dave and Richard proved this with seven fish that morning.

The lake's foreshore has a number of small headlands, which jut out and are ideal to get in behind when the wind is playing havoc with your casting. Once the wind is up and you are outside of those prime casting hours, trolling is the better option.

We tried a bit of everything on the last morning - casting, trolling, deepwater trolling, trolling among the minefields of snags outside of the boating lanes.

The highlight of that last day was nearly having the rod ripped out of my hands by a strike from a fish that would have been big enough to put the wind up a 15kg barra!

TUnfortunately the only legacy was a few grazes on a Poltergeist lure. We went back for seconds, but the fish wouldn't 'play ball'. Oh boy, did I cop some stick over that!

I CAN'T LIE...
I would prefer to say I did not catch a fish at all - but I cannot tell a lie. I am a fisherman after all. I did catch my first Murray cod... A miniscule bump on the rod that slightly aroused my attention followed by the lifeless drag that felt like a bit of weed on the hook - so small was the drag that the Poltergeist could still be felt swimming away unimpeded. Boatside and hidden by the gunwale, I contemplated how I could get this minute green fish (which must surely have had its embryonic sac still attached) to let go of my lure without attracting attention. Its pitiful splashes for help attracted the unwanted attention from others and I was sprung! Oh well, things can only get better. Nothing like having room for improvement!

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