# Qld. A Changed River, looking for some cod.



## Nativeman (Sep 6, 2005)

Recently my good friend Steven M and I ventured down to the Queensland/New South Wales border near Texas to fish the Dumeresq River for some natives, the mighty Murray Cod. A trip with a couple of trials, Steven with his new dual cab Ford Ranger and myself with my new Hobie Quest 11.

We decided early on in the week to do the trip over two days. Leave early Saturday Morning, get our last supplies, petrol, food and fishing gear at Warwick and then head straight to the river via Inglewood to fish what was left of the day. This would allow us to fish Sunday Morning and then come back to camp, pack up and leave for home. At Warwick we always stop at Tackle and Tusk, this is an awesome tackle shop, has all the best cod fishing lures and is incorporated with the BP service station so its a one stop on the way, as I said earlier Petrol, Food and last minute fishing gear.

Steven picked me up around six o'clock in the morning, loaded my Hobie Quest and gear and we were away on the journey. We had a good trip down, stopped in at Warwick, and roughly 4 1/2 hours later we were on the river fishing. Our usual launch spot was taken so we had to move slightly up river and drop into the river from a small ledge with a reasonably flat area nearby to roll out our swags to camp the night.























































In the hours we had in the day we ventured downstream fishing all the snags, what we look for is piles of timber, fallen trees, and longtime submerged logs. With the recent 2013 January Floods there was plenty of such structure and spots that we had recognised from past trips. We made our way past our normal put in spot and the campers there said hello saying the fishing had been very quiet as they had only caught a carp, but by the look of their set up they would have been bait fishermen for sure.

At first I was using my own lure, the Rag Tangle and later a Deep River McPerch, but either were getting me any strikes, Steven was getting some but no hook ups and if he did he was losing them as he brought the fish to the kayak. Steven is well and truly into making his own timber lures and he was using one of his Kattzz RR's lures.

We finally caught a Murray Cod each after a very slow fish wise on the water. Steven came upon a mid water snag, these can be something as small as just a single log lying in the water up to a massive root ball. But in this case in was just a few logs laying parallel to the bank with just a small section of timber exposed. Steven peppered the area with casts and after what seemed 20 to 30 casts he finally hooked on to a fish. One for Steven finally and what we thought at the time was a good starter for better things to come. While holding the fish for a photo Steven noticed that its belly seemed full and you could feel the shape of a recently consumed fish in there. So it just goes to show that even though this fish had a recent meal it was still looking for another meal. in this case Steven's Lure. After release of the fish Steven moved on to try a snag on the opposite bank. I worked the same snag Steven had caught his fish on from down river, spraying in over twenty odd casts in all areas of the snag to no avail. So I decided to move up river and try it from the other side. I had recently tied on a Garra Lure, Tera in Black/Red/Yellow, and my first cast to the same area I was on in an instant, the lure had just hit the water and I had just wound the handle of my Baitcaster once and I was hooked up, I was onto my only Murray Cod for the trip, a small fight and I had it netted, a photo and released it back to fight another day. Although my cod was a small model, it still strikes me at just how beautiful these fish are, they sure are an icon of Australian Freshwater Fishing.


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## Nativeman (Sep 6, 2005)

After an early start to the day, getting up ready to go, driving down, fishing it was time to get back to camp, set up the swags, slip into the nearby town, Texas to grab something to eat and head back to camp to settle in for the night. We both had a few fireside drinks and retired early to start over the next morning to fish the river, this time upstream.

Next Morning we slept in a little as it was cool, and started around eight o'clock. We decided to fish till lunch time or till we made it to the top of the island as the section of river we were fishing was an anabranch of the main river. There was alot of dragging around logged sections of the river and also around fast flowing water. Many times we paddled right up into the fast flowing water and fished it before getting out of the kayaks and dragging them around. The Hobie Quests seem to hold themselves extremely straight into the current and across the current, many other kayaks I have owned would have been swept away but not with the Quest. It held its position allowing both of us to fire of casts in our desired spots. Steven was to catch another cod this morning after a tiring amount of casts again, similar to yesterday. Steven commented that the river had well and truly changed since he was last there and it was evident that the floods that past through during January of this year had done some significant damage. There was alot of erosion and undercut banks and the snags that were once there were gone. We found this to be the case when we reached the top of the island we were working our way around. The main river which was on the channel opposite to the one we were fishing was almost non existent with a very small trickle of water moving through, the water had fallen almost a meter on its previous height and it was almost stagnant. At this point we pulled the kayaks up onto the bank and had a good look around. We even walked across some farm land to find the main branch of the river that I just spoke about. It was absolutely amazing to see what the force of the flood water had done to the river.

We soon turned around, fished a few spots on the return journey for no luck. On the way up the river we took notice of which channels to take on the river for our downstream return and we were able to paddle all parts of the river on the way back through a few rapids only to stop at one large log that covered the whole width of the river just before our campsite.

On return to the camp, it was a quick pack, rolling up our swags, packing away the gear, loading the kayaks not before doing a sweep of the campsite to make sure we had left nothing behind and to make sure the bush was in a better condition then when we arrived by picking up rubbish and the like. Then we hit the road for Steven to drive the three and a half hours home. You could say it was not a great trip fish wise, but it was great to get out there, paddle some new water and have a chance to catch a Murray cod.


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## Nativeman (Sep 6, 2005)




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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Great report Sel

Those pics of Cunninghams Gap bring back lots of memories
Driving to and from the Stanthorpe area for wine, walking and fishing
Driving to and from New England for trout

Ah, there's nothing quite like a road trip ...


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## BigPete68 (Oct 7, 2012)

Great report and some real nice pics.


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## Junglefisher (Jun 2, 2008)

I am officially, for the first since arriving in Canada, homesick!!!! You bastards!!
Great pics Sel.


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## antsrealm (Nov 22, 2011)

Have you got a google maps link of where you were fishing ? Looks like a nice spot.


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## rob316 (Oct 2, 2007)

Gods country with gods fish but not visited by a pair of angels....great trip report, like BCF stands for.... " Beers, Campfires, Fishing" .... this is living
great stuff, you 2 really know your freshwater....


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## stew70 (Apr 6, 2013)

think I know the camping spot your talking about,it looks familiar.
have camped out that way many a time and love it,its great country.

also worth a try for fresh water is lees reserve just out of Yelarbon on the way to Goondiwindi,3hrs from Ipswich.

stewart


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## andrewG (Jun 15, 2011)

antsrealm said:


> Have you got a google maps link of where you were fishing ? Looks like a nice spot.


I'd be suprised if they want to give it away, but given the description in the several threads over the past 12 months or so on the same location by them and others, and the pictures in each thread it should be pretty easy to find on Google earth yourself. The powerlines in the pictures virtually give it away.


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## Nativeman (Sep 6, 2005)

antsrealm said:


> Have you got a google maps link of where you were fishing ? Looks like a nice spot.


Not a thing to do on an open forum....but this is available on the net and is a good starting point.... http://www.upstreampaddle.com/media/Dum ... r%2008.pdf

Thanks to All for the comments...


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## Zilch (Oct 10, 2011)

Brilliant !

Has got to be in the best 5 posts i have read this year.

Steve


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Good pics of a pretty location that you two blokes visited Sel.


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## Nativeman (Sep 6, 2005)

Bertros said:


> Why you bumping all your old posts Sel?


I'm breaking a Rule? I hit the bump button once, and I liked it so I did it again and again.


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## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

Nativeman said:


> Bertros said:
> 
> 
> > Why you bumping all your old posts Sel?
> ...


If everybody did that with their old posts the forum would become chaos (more than it is already anyway)


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## WayneD (Jul 11, 2006)

There's a bump button?


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## RhubarbTheYeti (Oct 28, 2013)

WayneD said:


> There's a bump button?


See recent posts in the "About the Site" section


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

WayneD said:


> There's a bump button?


uh huh huh huh
bump button


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## anselmo (Aug 26, 2008)

Nativeman said:


> Bertros said:
> 
> 
> > Why you bumping all your old posts Sel?
> ...


Sel, I like your new signature - when is almost?
Does that mean you're no longer going back the best (hobie) or is that where you are?


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