I recently had the chance to spend a
couple of days chasing Murray cod
in the magnificent granite gorge
country of the NSW New England region with
my good mate and local cod gun Jackson
Haussler. Like so many areas of our country the
drought is really impacting the rivers and
freshwater impoundments of the parched New
England region. I love cod fishing in the gorge
country but I was stunned in the changes that had
occurred since my last visit to this region less than
12 months previously. Water levels had dropped
considerably and many of the pools were now
choked with aquatic weeds and nigh on
unfishable. Treble armed lures such as swim baits
and bibbed hard bodies can be a source of
frustration when fishing weed infested waterways,
particularly in lowlight conditions so I decided
that my best option would be to fish chatter baits.
It wasn’t a particularly hard decision to fish
chatter baits as they have a lot going for them in
these conditions and my mate Jackson has caught
Anything we can throw at them on casting tackle is
really just a mere morsel compared to some of the
prey that they’re capable of ingesting.
If you haven’t fished these lures before they
produce a tremendous amount of vibration, f lash
and action at really slow retrieve speeds which
makes them ideally suited for use in low light and
dirty water situations. I’ve had my best results using
a slow roll style of retrieve interspersed with pauses
to keep the lure in contact or near the bottom in
deeper water situations. Always try and maintain
contact with these lures when they’re sinking as it’s
not unusual for them to get hit on the drop. Last
winter I had a big gorge fish slam a Cod King
chatterbait on the drop, unfortunately I pulled the
hook after a brief tussle, but I haven’t forgotten the
raw power that fish transmitted up the line.
Because chatterbaits feature an articulated tow
point I believe they can be attached to your leader
with either a loop knot or hard knot and work
effectively, it really is a personal choice. They also
usually come rigged with a soft plastic trailer
which from my experience is most often either a
paddle tail, single tail grub or double tail grub.
The larger size chatterbaits usually also comeWith Mark Williams
Mark details the productive qulities of
chatterbaits on native species.
TIME TO CHAT
so many metre plus monster cod on the locally
produced Cod King chatter baits that it was a bit
of a no brainer to be honest. Firstly, they’re
relatively weedless and snag proof when compared
to treble armed lures and secondly they can
effectively fish all levels of the water column from
the surface through to the deepest gorge hole you
can find. You can’t carry a lot of gear when you’re
hiking up those granite gorges so versatile lures
that cast well are worth their weight in gold.
In recent years I’ve enjoyed good results on
Murray cod using chatter baits made by Cod King
Lures, New England Lures and Bassman
Spinnerbaits. The first two businesses are based in
the cod capital of Inverell in the New England
region and the third is located in Lismore which
isn’t far away as the crow f lies. All these chatterbaits
or mumblers as they’re also known are designed
with input from some of the nation’s leading
Murray cod anglers. I like the fact that they all
produce XOS size models for anglers chasing the
metre plus monster cod that the New England
region is famed for producing. I honestly don’t
believe you could make a casting lure that’s too big
for the huge mouths on those XOS Murray cod.KNOTS & RIGS
52 fishingworld.com.au | September 2019