Where and when to catch Murray Cod in South Australia: the SA season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find SA's current size and bag limits.
Jan–Jul, catch and release only (closed to targeting 1 Aug–31 Dec in the River Murray and Lakes)
SA spots
4
Closed
Targeting Murray cod in the River Murray and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert is prohibited from 1 August to 31 December, including trolling. Murray cod can never be kept in SA.
Murray cod in South Australia are strictly a catch-and-release fish: you can never keep one. In the River Murray and Lakes Alexandrina and Albert you may fish for them from January to July; from 1 August to 31 December even targeting them is banned, trolling included, to protect spawning fish. Stocked SA Water reservoirs such as Myponga allow catch and release year-round. The fish is listed as threatened nationally, and the SA rules are built around putting every one back in good shape.
Western Australian limits don't apply in South Australia.
Where to Catch Murray Cod in SA
In the river, cod sit tight to the heaviest timber, rock and deep holes, often in the same water as callop. The spots below list them: three River Murray spots between Blanchetown and Murray Bridge, plus Myponga Reservoir, which was stocked with cod in 2020.
Where bait fishing for cod is allowed: yabbies, bardi grubs, big bunches of scrub worms and cheese. Use them on single hooks and fish them tight to cover.
Lures
Big lures for big fish: large spinnerbaits, deep-diving hardbodies cast or trolled along snags, swimbaits, and big surface lures (wakebaits and paddlers) after dark in summer.
Rigs
Strong gear, because the fight is short and happens right next to a snag: a 6–10 kg baitcast outfit with 30–50 lb braid and a 40–80 lb leader. Avoid light lines that lead to long, exhausting fights. Barbless hooks or barbless trebles on lures make unhooking quick and gentle, and a large knotless landing net is essential.
Technique
Cast repeatedly and accurately to the same snag; a cod may watch a lure go past a dozen times before it eats. Slow-rolled spinnerbaits and deep-divers bumping the timber get the most bites. When the fish hits, pull it away from the snag immediately. For release: net it, keep it in the water as much as possible, wet your hands, support its belly horizontally and never hang it vertically by the jaw or gills, and let it swim off on its own.
Best Time
Cod feed most in the warmer months, with low light and darkness the peak: dawn, dusk and after dark in summer, especially before a change in the weather. Through winter they feed less often but the big fish can still bite on slow presentations. Spawning happens in spring, and that's when most closures apply.
In SA, PIRSA's handling rules apply to every Murray cod you hook, including the ones caught by accident while fishing for callop: barbless hooks, barbless trebles on lures, a knotless landing net, and never hold the fish vertically. Avoid light lines that exhaust the fish.
The Chowilla floodplain area near the NSW and Victorian borders is excluded from the river's catch-and-release season. See the PIRSA page for the map.
Identification
Also known asCod
A big, heavy-headed, long-bodied fish with a huge mouth, a rounded tail and rounded fins. Colour is green to yellow-green with darker green, grey-brown or black mottling over the back, sides and head, fading to a pale belly; big fish often look netted rather than spotted. The jaws are about equal, or the lower jaw slightly longer. The main look-alike is the rare, protected trout cod, which has an overhanging upper jaw, a dark stripe through the eye and small speckles rather than mottling. Golden perch are smaller-headed and deep-bodied with a concave forehead.
Size & Growth
Most cod caught weigh under 5 kg and are 50–80 cm. A metre-long cod is the fish of a lifetime for most anglers, and the species has been recorded to about 1.8 m and over 110 kg. They're slow growing and long lived, several decades for the big ones, and only start breeding at around 4–5 years, which is why the big breeding fish matter so much.
Diet & Habitat
Cod live in everything from clear, rocky upland streams to slow, turbid lowland rivers, lakes and billabongs, and stocked impoundments. They're strongly territorial and sit in deep holes beside woody snags, undercut banks and rock, waiting for something to swim past. They eat fish (including other cod), yabbies, shrimp, mussels and, with that mouth, almost anything that hits the water: frogs, ducklings, mice, snakes and turtles have all been found inside them.
Eating Quality
Historically a prized table fish, but it's threatened, slow growing and fully protected or release-only in many waters, so for most anglers the question doesn't come up. Where keeping one is legal, the rules usually set a size slot and a small bag; check the regulator before you consider it.