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Fishing around Renmark

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:37 pm
by Dr Enrique dela Costa
Had a few days off last week so went up to lock 7 near Renmark for a look. Had a great trip - awesome camping, no mossies, and plenty of fish.
Caught all the fish on freshwater prawns/shrimp, including 5 Murray Cod, about 20 Golden Perch, 2 silver perch and only one carp. The cod werent big, but i was stoked anyway.
All species were a first for me.
Caught them tying the polycraft up to good looking snags in deep water and dunking baits, plus a few off the bank near camp.
Area fished was in Lindsay Island Reserve/Murray Sunset National Park. Free camping, no designated sites - a bit of a shock for a Territorian used to overregulation (Kakadon't). And i was the only one in the park except for a couple of contractors!

Cod

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:47 pm
by Dingo
I have fished there myself, there is a lot of good camp grounds there around Neds Corner. Glad to see you sored some fish. I called in there on the way down south over chritmas and caught a few cod myself. No crocs and no people is good for sure, and the camping is great, especially being able to swim in the river. But the cod have nothing on the barra i reckon. All i used to fish for was cod before I came up here, it will be hard if i ever go back.

Dingo

murray

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:18 pm
by flicker
G day doc, the dooveys and myself are from that neck of the woods and I bet shane would agree with me that the camping along the murray is hard to beat, literaly hundreds of kms of river to choose a spot from.

Mind you I still have no desire to move back.

Cheers Flicker :mrgreen:

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:59 pm
by Matt Flynn
I like the econorig! Looks like you are set up for 2020 :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Great to hear there is still good fishing in the Murray - nice pix :cheers:

My dad lived in Renmark when I was a tacker - he caughts lots of big redfin back then. As well as yellowbelly, cod and eeltails.

Never did understand some people's aversion to redfin. They are a great fish.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:47 pm
by Shane Doevy
Aaaaaah the memories - certainly is plenty of room to camp out there - unless of course it is easter weekend then it is wall to wall. Glad to hear that you got some fish - the fishing is on the improve but people are having to travel out of town a bit - nothing like the travel we do up here - to catch fish.

Well done mate - brings back some great memories but as Flicker rightly pointed out - im not thinking of moving back there at this point.

When dad bought the property he lives on now the creek that runs right in front of his joint was loaded with redfin and you could catch em on small spinning lures but they are gone now. It also used to be loaded with a green fish we called tench - only good for bait but good fun to catch.

Good to see so many cod around - my mates back there have a ball throwing and trolling lures for em.

Shane

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:29 pm
by Matt Flynn
Interesting about the tench - I knew they were in the Murray but never heard of anyone catching them. I caught some big ones in England - they are prized there.

Here's a pic of a tench. Same fish?
http://www.linfordlakes.co.uk/mediac/40 ... ~tench.jpg

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:48 am
by Dr Enrique dela Costa
I found it interesting that i could only catch one carp - i would have expected more. A chap i was speaking with at Got One reckons the carp have taken a hammering during the drought in the Murray. The number of small cod i caught (4 of them < 50cm and one just over 50) might mean the cod are breeding again? Maybe the big old cod are eating the carp?

As for the econorig - great little outfit. Easy on the fuel (good for a povo student), but bit feral on corrugations. Nearly lost it coming back across the border... Not too great for towing bigger than a 12 foot tinny (or little polycraft) either...

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:56 am
by punter
Matt Flynn wrote:Interesting about the tench - I knew they were in the Murray but never heard of anyone catching them. I caught some big ones in England - they are prized there.

Here's a pic of a tench. Same fish?
http://www.linfordlakes.co.uk/mediac/40 ... ~tench.jpg
I've caught them in Lake Eildon too, pest fish. Last time was probably around 1990 though, dunno how the drought affected things there.

Good fishing Doc, are silver perch still protected down there? We used to call them grunter too.

Cod

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 10:41 am
by Dingo
Silver Perch are still protected and are a pain in alot of spots on the Murray. If you are fishing with grubs for cod the little Silver Perch have a habit of nibbling away at the bait. Bu the good thing is that it is difficult to catch a carp in the Murray now, so that is a good thing. I think the Silver Perch are protected as they eat alot of the carps eggs, someone may be able to clarify this.

Dingo

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:23 am
by punter
Could be, though it was probably originally because of low numbers. They have a pretty small mouth from memory, hence the annoying "nibbling".

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:51 am
by whomper37
The Silver Pearch were in a bad way in some rivers so they stopped letting you take them in all rivers, Looks like it might be working. Good fun to catch on lures very agro

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:36 pm
by jonesy
Interested to see the size limit has gone up to 60 is it? And going up to 65....or is it 55 and up to 60 next year,eitherway interesting move by fisheries. Think they're trying to get another year or two breeding into them before they can be kept. If they've gone to this length they might as well make them a catch and release species. It's just going to promote keeping bigger fish now,and they're the prolific breeders.
If all the 100's of 47-49cm fish you get now are allowed to grow into the 60's then it's going to be come a pretty good fishery even if it will outrage the esky fillers having to let that succulent 56cm fish go.

With all the huff and puff about the dying natives,they've actually been prolific in parts of the Murray for at least 10 years now,longer. Undersize natives are thick in there,try keeping a scrub worm free for two minutes on dusk without getting a small Cod, yella or Trout Cod. My old man caught about 20 last week on a drinking weekend at Echuca from a houseboat using Kabana as bait!

They'll never get rid of the carp unless someone can figure something out genetically,but they're outnumbered in most parts now. They make a good food source for Goodoo

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 1:14 pm
by Dr Enrique dela Costa
So people know... the few Golden Perch i kept tasted pretty good, but all the cod went back after photos. Too pretty to fillet. minimum size 55cm as of december last year, and will be 60cm as of late 2008.
The silver perch are fully protected in SA, but not in Vic, however they are protected in rivers in NSW inclluding the Murray. Had a ratty bite like a bream and stole a lot of bait.
And the prawns that lasted until the end of the session tasted alright too.

One thing that took a while to get used to was the lack of crocodiles. The biggest cod i caught was from the bank near camp, and it stitched me up in a snag. No worries - waded in up to my chest, untangled it and leisurely waded back. Couldnt help but feel nervous though - a lifetime of sharing waterways with lizards has that effect.