With X-Mass out of the way, the tourists moved into town and it seemed every water skier from Sunbury to Bunbury was here trying to see who could make the most noise with their doof doof boats and throw out the biggest waves.

With the skiers came a dedicated band of fishermen also. Those who persisted came up trumps with fish of varying sizes. The lure fishing brigade produced remarkably better results than the bait boys.

The boys from Bendigo, Hromenko, Stevens, Miles, Scoble, Harrison, Blow & Co spent countless hours searching the lake and turned up plenty of fish over the 70cm mark. Peter Hromenko toped the table with a beautiful fish of 105cm taking a liking to his Bassman spinnerbait. Roger Miles was part of this crew and he managed a magnificent fish off the surface measuring in at 95cms.

Mr. Lowrance, Dave Silva had many guests staying with him over the holiday period and they fished hard every day trolling up plenty of fish. The pick of these was caught by “Andre the Giant”; big Grant Noonan coming in at 97cm. Lure of choice here was a purple / black Oar Gee.

The run of big fish continued when Mulwala gun, Dan Hawkins trolled up a 93cm Cod on a Bassman once again.

Keen Echuca lure test pilot Winton Brown made a day trip over to fish the top end of the lake and was rewarded with several top fish. The pick of his haul came in at 96cms.
As per usual, local George Jovanovic spent countless hours towing big deep diving lures around. Again he was rewarded with 2 nice cod of over a meter. Until I have a yak to George I won’t have much more info regarding his captures.

All these big fish mentioned were released so well done to all concerned.

As I was penning this report, I received another story from Mulwala’s new boom football recruit Joe Lineham with a story about the on that got away. After numerous attempts to land a big green fella only with a set of lip grips, Joe’s leader gave with him watching a fish estimated around the meter mark swim away.

Mr. Oar-Gee lures, Wayne Lennon made a day trip down from Wagga with a super keen young angler Zac Manning to hopefully put him onto a fish. Zac had a great afternoon out picking up a couple of fish on the troll with 57cm being his new PB.

Personally, I had one afternoon / evening session for the month with the little butcher from Finley, Paul Hetherington and Anthony Pavlou from L. Wilson & Co tackle. Paul opened the account with a nice 48cm Yella on an Outlaw Spinnerbait. Anthony followed up with a Cod on a Bassman mumbler then a fish on one of his new personally designed lures, soon to be released on the market. I was lucky enough to tangle with another four cod with 2 of these being taken from the surface. The best of these came in a touch over legal size but all in all, seven fish in a couple of hours made for some great fun.

Fishing below the weir is proving very hard for all lure fisherman with this being proven in the recent Golden $$$ fishing Challenge. Wagga boys Graeme Clark & Jim Taylor took home the big $$ with their 3 quality yella’s for the day. Gravo & Billy Bob from Deniliquin came home in second place while event favorite Joe Lineham and partner Will Smith finished a disappointing 3rd in their favorite piece of water.

The next month or so should see the lake continue to fish well with most deeper part of the lake producing fish. The river hasn’t seemed to fire yet but as per usual plenty of undersize fish will be about for the bait fishermen.

Coming up over the weekend of 19th & 20th April is the local Yarrawonga / Mulwala Angling Clubs yearly competition. A great weekend is assured for all who attend. For more info call Mal @ Mal’s Tackle Box on 0357 431711.

If you do come across a god fish around the Yarrawonga / Mulwala area, I’m keen to hear about it and will try and report it in future editions. Send all reports to codclassic [AT] aapt.net.au

As this report is being sent, I’ve had reports that a couple of boys from Wagga have landed 24 fish between them in the last 24hrs casting various styles of lures in the lake.

Also – Final Reminder – Lowrance Da$h 4 Ca$h this weekend, $10000+ Cash Prizes, still plenty of places available. Enq Ph 0357 441667

Tony Bennet

CodClassic Tournament Director
2008 Yamaha Cod Classic
Mulwala Football Netball Club