Murray Cod season opened on Saturday 1 December 2012 after the annual three month breeding closure. I made camp at Kyffins Reserve on the NSW side of Lake Mulwala early Friday evening. I had camped near this spot last February (see post). I had some dinner and a couple of beers while watching the sunset, got a couple of hours sleep in the warm open air with a star filled sky for a roof before waking at midnight (opening time!) to go out on the lake. Murray Cod are a prized catch for freshwater anglers and are one of Australia's largest freshwater fish that can grow up to 1.8 metres in length and weigh more than 100 kilo's. The minimum legal length to keep a Murray Cod is 60 cm and you can only have one over 100 cm in your possession. The sky was cloudy by now but it was a full moon so visibility was OK. Trolling lures and spinner baits never got a hit so I tried freshwater Long Armed Shrimp, that I had trapped earlier. Then whack I got a 20 cm Murray Cod which I of course released. I later got one about the same size that broke me off at the boat. Around 4:30 am a large storm was approaching and with lots of fork lightning and I knew being in a metal boat in the middle of a lake was a bad idea, so I packed it in.
Sunset Lake Mulwala
Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 3200, 12mm f2.8, 1/5 sec
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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f8, 1/10 sec
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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f2.8, 1/60 sec
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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 200, 12mm f2.8, 1/40 sec
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Nikon D300, Tokina 11-16 f2.8 @ ISO 3200, 12mm f2.8, 1/15 sec
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