Bass Eating Cod At Maroon !!!!

Hi all on a trip at maroon last summer a mate of mine was fishing without me :( he was fishing one of the banks and hooked a bass after a short fight just meters from the boat what appeared to be a cod of some sort had a swipe at it near the surface .

Now i was not there with him but i know this fella very well and i have fished with him for 15 years and his word is good enough for me , he tells me it was dark in colour and just under a meterish long and very fat :o .

I was just wondering if anyone has ever had a similar thing happen to them or have anybody targeted these bruisers and caught one ? .

I would like to have a crack at catching one of these cod but do not know where to start tackle ,lures etc so would like some help .

Regards MONOSTRETCHO

Its not unusual to have cod attempt to eat hooked fish - I've hada 40lb murray cod try and eat a 50cm golden I was trying to land in the Murrumbidgee one day!Went back the next weekend and caught it too. Maroon lies in the catchment o f the Mary River and has a population of Mary River Cod in it. Its ileagal to intentionally target or Keep Mary River Cod in the catchment - but they do show up as bycatch when bass fishing especially if your using very large spinner baits or extra deep diving large lures - however Cod breed through the winter to spring months and catching and releasing them can stuff their succesful breeding or fingerling raising (in the case of nest caring papa cod) prospects - so best not to risk such bycatch until summer - autum - Jim

Great response Jim!

Mono, from reading your GC jigging report, I know you conservation minded so don't mind sharing a bit more info.

Mary River Cod are protected but also endangered and should not be deliberately targetted. In saying this, they will take offerings that are meant for other natives like bass and yellows (especially if using larger lures). If caught, they must be returned to the water immediately and unharmed. They best way is to use barbless hooks as they don't often throw hooks and try to release them in the water. They are potentially the worst fish for jaw lifting and that's a sure way of killing a large cod. If you have to lift the fish, ALWAYS support it by the belly especially when lifting into or out of the water. Environets are your best option if you want a photo. Big cod are not easily targetted either - they have been educated with years of experience and usually will not take a lure unless it's right in their face. We have seen more big cod then what we have caught!

Anyway, if you really want to target them, better off doing it after breeding season.

Good luck.

There are Cod in Maroon. It's unknown if they are Murrays or Marys though. There are both Murray and Mary in Lake Wivenhoe. Murrays existed in farm dams before the dam was built. My brother has hooked big cod in Maroon, but never landed one. Many years ago in Victoria we were fishing with Bardies for Cod at night. Brother hooked up and the fish ran hard and jumped then went doggo. He wound in a 6lb Brown Trout with a dirty great fresh crush mark across it's belly.

I was unaware that it could be a mary river cod so i wont bother fishing for them infact i was unaware that there was any cod in there until my mate told me i will continue my afternoon bass sessions though .

as i am a catch and release fisho they would be going back anyway but if they are protected i guess its best not to bother them and leave them well alone .

Regards MONOSTRETCHO

have heard a few storys of huge cod hitting bass caught at marroon..????.any one caught one and taken any piccys.cheers bdowdy..brett

i was fishing the bassmania series a few years back in maroon and while up in the river arm part top end of the dam to the right of the ramp we saw 2 cod around the 10kg mark just cruising up beside our boat ,they didnt care we were there and just went out into the dam ,next morning i was in the same arm and another one came up cruising ,this was smaller around 4kg i threw my spinnerbait at it and it attacked it pretty hard i didnt hook up but it was unbeleivable to see they look very much like the mary river version.

This one (I've posted it before) is from further downstream in the Mary (proposed Traveston Dam reach actually) was about a metre long (95cm) - I was fishing under permit targeting MRC aspart of a baseline survey at the time - saw it free swimming in the middle of the river and prospected around with a large white spinner bait and came up trumps - Jim

Nice Cod Jim_Tait!

Cod love bass. Had a friend catch one at Somerset while trolling thru a school of bass. The cod just wouldn't swim so after an hour of trying to get it to swim he bought it over to us. We gutted it to see what it had been eating. It had 5 small bass in its gut. :o

Jim, Maroon Dam is on the Logan River catchment, not the Mary.
Mary River Cod in Marood Dam are permitted to be targetted & taken, size & bag limit applies.


Mary River cod are totally protected in the whole of the Mary River system including the dams. Outside of the Mary River catchment, Mary River Cod are stocked into several dams & rivers in SEQ. These include the Pine, Stanley, Brisbane, Logan, Albert, Coomera & Nerang Rivers & the dams on these systems. In rivers outside of the Mary Catchment, MRCs are protected but may be targetted & taken in the dams as these are stocked as part of a recreational fishing enhancement program.
However it would be good if the breeders are all released.

Cheers,

fitzy..

Sorry Fitzy I was confused with Baroon Pocket Dam in the upper Mary catchment - still working out my way around SE Qld - Jim

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim_Tait

Sorry Fitzy I was confused with Baroon Pocket Dam in the upper Mary catchment - still working out my way around SE Qld - Jim

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G'Day Jim,

Thought you might have had them mixed up. You were spot on with Baroon Pocket.

Cheers,

fitz..

I have experienced this once on Maroon a few years back...

Hooked into a 36cm Bass and it was boofed by a HUGE cod...three times.

I just about had the Bass at the boat and seen a HUGE shadow following it up...So I freespooled the reel and let the Bass swim back down towards the depths. The Cod grabbed it a few times, but everytime I started lifting the Cod off the bottom it would just spit the Bass out...then grab it again...then spit it...then grab it...then spit it.

Left me standing there with heart palputations and shaking legs.

Leigh.

Great story and can confirm as I have had a similar experience at Wivenhoe.

I was fishing Platypus cliffs in Wivenhoe from the bank. We were catching a few yellows and bass on rattlers and hot lips from the bank.
When teh water was a lot higher but there are quite a few ledges which made it easier to cast from the bank plus good spots to save on battery power.

Anyway I had a 36cm bass absolutely monstered, it was grabbed, swum about viciously for the next 30 seconds, and then spat out about 10ft from the bank.

The bass was dead with all of its top fins broken and the 2 lead fins underneath broken.

Unfortunately the trebles stayed in the bass and not in the cods mouth.

Always remembered the spot and when the water receded, under teh ledge we were fishing from was a large cavern. A perfect spot for an apex predator.

There are quite a few cod in Maroon, saw Harry Watson catch quite a few of them from there in teh early days.

Mind you have not heard about a lot being caught in recent times.

Cheers
Budgebass