PARINGA HOLIDAY PARK - DENILIQUIN

Some years ago friends from Sydney contacted me to advise that they had just purchased a caravan park in Deniliquin, situated beside the Edward River. The park was run down and could only be described as a ‘renovators dream’. To their credit, Frank & Lynda White and Bruce & Glenys Catto have created a showpiece for the region with the Big4 Paringa Holiday Park.

When Bruce first asked me to fish the Edward River around the Deniliquin township to see what the fishing was like, I was a little hesitant. In my experience fishing in the middle of any built up area is tough as this is where most people are concentrated and accordingly the fish are well educated and hard to catch. I believed that the fishing wouldn’t be anything special.

I had come into the region ‘cold’ and was planning to use my knowledge of the Murrumbidgee River at Wagga Wagga and target fish in similar areas. Immediately this plan was shot to pieces as my first glimpse of the Edward showed a wide, deep and slow weir pool. Given that Stevens Weir is about 20km downstream, I assumed that Deniliquin would be above the weir pool, but the flat terrain backs the water up right through town.

I decided to travel downstream and fish below where the average fisherman would concentrate their efforts. As I motored along it was obvious that the river is integral to the people of Deniliquin. Every spare inch of waterfront had some form of development along it from fisherman’s shacks to multi-million dollar houses. It was evident that a lot of people used this river and this further enhanced my assumption that the fish were being hammered.

I wanted to catch a variety of species and wasn’t fussy about size, so I collected a wide selection of fresh bait including fresh bardi grubs, scrub worms, yabbies and shrimps to make sure that I had options for whatever finned creatures lived below us.

As I drove down river, the sounder showed a relatively constant depth of around four metres with little midstream structure. Once I was several kilometers downstream and satisfied that this area was not fished as much as in town, I tied up in a deep, snaggy corner, cast a selection of baits out and sat back to wait and see what was tempted. As could be expected, the scrub worm was the first bait to be harassed with a 40cm cod as fish number one. From this fish a procession of undersize cod started to attack anything placed in the water and a picture was developing of a very healthy river system.

As the weekend went on, I tried bait fishing in a variety of locations from shallow, deep, snags and no snags and caught fish everywhere. By far the most common capture was cod, however a number of respectable golden perch were caught and there were very few carp to be seen. My initial thoughts on the fishing couldn’t have been more wrong as this river is teeming with native fish.

As I drove home, I was already planning my return and this time my focus would be on my favoured technique using lures and targeting larger cod.

From my initial reconnaissance I had found that the best water likely to hold big cod was from the water-ski club right through to the bridge in town. This water is up to eight metres in depth and despite little visible timber above the water, there are plenty of snags lying on the bottom providing housing for giant cod.

The area cleared for water-skiing provides a unique opportunity for trolling lures. Over the years the snags that fall across the river get sawn off. This creates a pile of logs along the shoreline and relatively little mid-stream structure (you don’t want your $70,000 Malibu running into a log!). As you troll through this area, the lures run beside the logs and are less likely to be dragged up and out of the strike zone (as happens when you pass over a log that is lying perpendicular to the shore).

Another unique area is the slalom course and ski jump. This section of river is very deep and fringed with enormous snags. In short, it’s big cod central. However trying to get a fish out of here is tricky as the buoys for the slalom course and jump are anchored in place by a network of cables that run just off the bottom of the river. A line under load is cut effortlessly when in contacts the wire. It makes trolling through this section difficult, but casting between the wires is productive (but don’t give the fish any latitude when hooked).

A New Day

I had success on my last trip with bait and after that weekend I pretty much had the bait fishing down pat, however on this trip I planned to lure fish primarily and bait fish off the bank at night.

The skiing area was of most interest to me as it had all the characteristics that cod like, and being late May, the water was too cold for the ski enthusiasts so I had the area to myself. After working this region for almost a whole day with only a 55cm cod to show for it, I was beginning to question whether large cod had succumbed to many years of fishing pressure or whether they just weren’t biting.

As darkness descended we returned to the Paringa and the warmth of a fire bucket. I rigged up my rod with a juicy grub and lobbed it in the middle of the ski course in the hope that the fish may bite on a fresh grub.

The take of a big cod on bait is unmistakable. The rod slowly folded over with line pouring off the reel. I dived for the rod and struck hard to set the hook into what was clearly not an undersize fish. As the fish felt the hook bite in, it surged toward the surface and sat in mid stream eyeballing us. By this time my family and friends who had been sitting around the fire had come to watch what I believed would be a short lived fight.

Sometimes big fish make bad decisions. This cod was clearly over a metre and on 12lb line it was in control. The fish only had to swim near the bottom to find a cable to cut the line, but it decided to fight on the surface, thrashing wildly in the moonlight, before it charged directly toward the pontoon we were standing on. Winding madly to stay tight to the fish, the fish slowed before calmly finning in plain sight a metre under the pontoon.

My brother-in-law, Troy Ashcroft, arrived with the net just as the fish sparked into life and accelerated from under the pontoon toward the ski course. Troy jumped forward and stuck the net out at full stretch and the fish careered into the mesh. At just over 120cm and estimated seventy pounds, it was a fluky capture, but more than anything it gave me the confidence that this water contained more than small cod and golden perch.

We didn’t hook any more monsters that weekend but we were busting to get back for another chance at a big Edward River cod. The opportunity for another trip would come several months later.

Magic Morning

I was the first to awake to an Edward River dawn shattered by the screeching of a thousand corellas. I threw on a jacket to protect from the morning chill, grabbed my casting rod and started flicking spinnerbaits along the retaining wall at the front of the Paringa. I was killing time until Rhys emerged from his slumber and we could head out in the boat. I wasn’t expecting to catch anything and sent out a half hearted cast when my lure was nailed. The fish didn’t connect, but a few casts later the line zipped sideways on the drop and I came up tight to a strong fish. The 15kg braid was a bit heavy for the fish and I quickly overpowered a 45cm golden perch.

By the time I released the fish Rhys was ready to go and we jumped in the boat (pre-launched the night before and tied to one of the Paringa’s jetty’s) and started trolling. We had only traveled a hundred metres when Rhys’ lure was smacked and line growled off his old ABU. The fish stayed deep and the slow headshakes indicated a sizeable cod. A couple of minutes passed before the fish surfaced and I was able to net a magnificent 89cm cod.

Our ripping start to the day continued until lunchtime with a 74cm, 69cm and a smaller cod of 53cm taking a liking to our lures, but the highlight of the day came as we were heading back for lunch when Rhys rod bent double and 50m of line howled off as though a tuna were attached. The smoking run stopped momentarily adjacent to a large snag before the fish burrowed deep into the sunken tree, de-hooking itself in the process. Even though we didn’t sight the fish, remembering the look on Rhys face after that run still brings a smile.

Buoyed by this excellent morning, my subsequent trips to Deniliquin have mainly been chasing cod on lures with most of my success in the area right in the middle of town. I watch most days as boats roar down river seeking lightly fished water (which I did initially) and very few people stop to fish the deep water practically where you launch your boat.

In addition to the deep water, the relatively stable water levels allow substantial weed beds to form along the shoreline down to where sunlight can still penetrate. These weed beds are home to hordes of shrimp that hide from the predators in the aquatic tangle. Golden perch in particular patrol along the edges of the weeds snapping up stray creatures that venture out too far from cover.

These weed beds are ideal for casting spinnerbaits under the stealth of an electric motor, especially early morning and late afternoon when the sun is yet to shine deep into the water. However if you are shore based, the waterfront through Deniliquin has plenty of public access where walking the bank casting lures to snags or weed beds or soaking a bait is a almost a certainty to catch a fish.

The township of Deniliquin is very well endowed with boat ramps with five public structures within a few kilometres from the centre of town (McLean’s Beach, Sloane Street, Lawson Syphon Road, Twin Rivers Reserve and Harfleur Street), and a further three private ramps at the Paringa Holiday Park, Riverside Caravan Park and the Water-Ski Club.

During the warmer months Deniliquin is popular with water-skiers, however if you don’t want to compete with them, there is almost unlimited water away from the designated ski zones. Another option is to fish during the cooler times of year when the ski boats are tucked away. Cod and golden perch are able to be caught year round with September to November the peak times for golden perch (these months are also the Murray cod closed season) and March to June being the peak months to fish for Murray cod.

If you would like to experience the fishing around Deniliquin with a guide, I am available for day and multi-day trips on 0427 692522 or visit www.riverinasportfishing.com. The Edward River at Deniliquin is a vibrant, healthy fishery and well worth a visit.

© Jamin Forbes June 2007