Welcome to the Murray River Fishing Guide. The Murray River is Australia’s longest river, spanning 2,500 kilometres. It’s the third-longest river in the world, after the Amazon and Nile. The Murray River spans three states Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. It plays a key role in separating the borders between Victoria and New South Wales, starting at the mountains of the Great Dividing Range in NE Victoria and continuing through to South Australia, beginning as a mountain stream in the upper reaches and turning into a river flowing through forests and country townships. Locally known townships along the Murray include Yarrawonga, Wodonga, Cobram, Echuca, Mildura and Swan Hill.
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It’s a great spot for swimming, boating, skiing, kayaking, and fishing. Many great spots to fish along the mighty Murray River, including Yarrawonga and Albury. The prized catch along this strip is Murray Cod, which can be an elusive giant targeted by many. However, there is also a great selection of golden perch and redfin and an abundance of big carp.
Things to do at Murray River
The Murray River is great for recreational water activities, including swimming, kayaking, canoeing, water skiing, jet skiing, boating and fishing. It’s a great place to venture down with a paddle steamer or houseboat. The Murray River is home to much wildlife, including birds, mammals, reptiles and fish. It’s also a prime destination for world-class golf courses and facilities, including Khancoban, Bethanga, Thurgoona, Wodonga, Albury, Rutherglen, Corowa, Howlong, Yarrawonga, Black Bull, Cobram Barooga, Tocumwal, Deniliquin, Mathoura, Rich River, Cohuna, Barham, Murray Downs, Robinvale, Red Cliffs, Riverside, Mildura, and Coomealla. But don’t forget the local food, wine, parks, accommodation, history, camping and more.
Watch a detailed video of Al from FishingMad walking you through how to catch big Murray Cod
Fishing at Murray River
The mighty Murray River is the destination to catch yourself a trophy Murray Cod. These elusive giants can grow up to 1.8 meters, attracting anglers worldwide. You can also catch golden perch, trout, trout cod, redfin, estuary perch and carp. Good bait choices include Scrub/earthworms, Power bait, Yabbies, Mudeye and a wide range of soft plastics & lures. Click here to see our best lures and plastics when targeting Redfin. Some great lure choices would be included if you are targeting cod and yellowbelly. Lip-less crank-baits such as Jackall TN series and stump jumpers can be cast or trolled. There are also surface lures, vibes, spinnerbaits, bassman spinners, and large grub-style soft plastics in dark colours. When targeting Trout and Redfin, we recommend fishing as light as possible, providing you with more fun and control. To maximize your chances, fish with a 2-4 or 1-3 kilo rod and a 2000 to 2500 size reel spooled with a 4-6 pound braid finished with a quality fluorocarbon leader. When targeting golden perch ( yellow belly ) it pays to fish a little heavier, therefore, a slight upgrade to a 2-4 or 3-5 kilo rod coupled with a 2500-3000 reel loaded with 6 or 8-pound braid.
Spring is the best time to target golden perch ( yellow belly ) and cod. They can be caught at any time of the day, but often, the last two hours of daylight can be the best. Trout are more active in the colder months, and redfin ( perch ) are more active in the warmer months. Again, you can catch all these different species during any part of the day, though some fish will be more active at Dawn and Dusk.
Best baits for the Murray River
- Live Yabbies
- Scrub worms
- Bardi Grubs
- Corn
- Cheese
Best lures for the Murray River
- Stump jumpers
- Spinwright Spin jig
- Bidgiwong 200
- Bassman spinnerbait codman
- Daiwa Bait Junkie 2.5 inch grub
- Gulp 3-inch minnow
- Daiwa Bait Junkie paddle tail minnow
- Jackall TN50 & TN60
- Balista Dyno 90 hardbody
- Zerek fish trap
- Jackall Pompadour
- Samaki vibelicious
- Old mate lake Nagambie cod classic lure
- Old mate cod lures
- Codger 55mm cod hard body
- Eco gear ZX40
- Savage Gear Fathead crank shallow diving
- Jackall transams
- Daiwa Duckfin Live Shad
- Wilson slicks back hard body lure
- Koolabung code walker
- Savage Gear 3D snake
- Bassman Biggen spinnerbait
- Icon Carnage Spinnerbaits
- Koolabung codcracker
- Deps buzzjet
Rod & Reel Setup for the Murray River
Multiple target species are at this location, all requiring quite different setups. And even picking a setup for a specific species here can be tricky. For instance, I’ve seen Murray Cod caught in this system as small as 30cm and as large as 1.4 meters. Targeting those giant fish with big lures requires much heavier setups to ensure you can handle the fish’s raw size and power and not break your rod tip when casting heavy lures. Cod lures can weigh anything from 20 grams to 200 grams. Generally, when targeting cod, ideally, a heavy baitcast combo around 6″6 in length and 8-15kg in class paired with a 150/200 baitcast reel spooled with 50lb braid. You can go a bit heavier here if you’re targeting huge fish with large lures or smaller if you’re casting smaller lures for smaller cod.
When targeting yellowbelly, you can significantly reduce this to a Light or medium baitcasting rod paired with a 150 baitcast reel or, as we often prefer, targeting them with a 2-5kg spin rod paired with a 2500-size reel. When targeting redfin and trout, we recommend a 2-4 kg spin rod paired with a 2500 size reel. If bait fishing for multiple species such as carp, yellowbelly, and redfin, a 3-5kg spin rod paired with a 2500 reel would work great.
Targeting Murray Cod at Murray River
Murray Cod is Australia’s largest freshwater fish that grows to impressive sizes. Cod are ambush predators that love the cover of structure, so make sure you concentrate your efforts on any visible structure, including logs and submerged trees. They will also seek shelter in deeper holes and rock ledges. Murray Cod are most active in low light conditions such as sunrise and sundown. A medium to heavy bait-caster rod is ideal when targeting cod. This might be a stiff 6-foot rods in 6-10 kilo class matched with a suitable size bait caster reel spooled with 20lb to 30lb braid and 30lb to 40lb leader. Good lure options for Murray Cod include hard body lures, surface lures, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, shads, lipless crankbaits, paddle tail and curtail soft plastics. If access is permitted, these should be worked slowly or tolled from your boat or kayak. There are some amazing surface lures on the market these days, including imitation mice, frogs, ducks, and snakes with realistic action that are fun to target cod with. Bait anglers can target Murray cod with live yabbies and worms.
Targeting Yellowbelly at Murray River
Yellow belly, AKA Golden Perch, is a beautiful freshwater fish in this system. Good lure choices include curl tail soft plastics with the zman 2.5-inch grubz and Gulp 3-inch grub minnow, both in black. Soft vibes like the Zerek fish trap, Jackall transams and Samaki vibelicious are great options. Lip-less crank-baits like Jackall TN50 and TN60 continue to be very popular, as do blades such as the eco gear ZX40 with stinger hooks. Other favourites are the reliable stump jumpers, spinnerbaits, bassman spinners, and large grub style soft plastics in dark colours. Soft plastics work best on a 1/8 or 1/4 jig head slow-rolled along with any structure. This works particularly well when tying your boat or kayak up against trees and working the soft plastic slowly up against the tree and adding some noise to the action by tapping the butt of your rod or by hitting the jig head into the timber. This brings out the predatory nature of the yellowbelly. Take advantage of down scan and side scan technologies on your sounder and spend some time moving between the structures to find the fish. Other lures can be worked amongst the timber, but generally work well in open water when slowly rolled or trolled.
Regarding rod selection, we generally use a light spin rod around 7 feet in length in 1-4, 2-4 or 3-5 kilo class paired with a 1000, 2000 or 2500 size reel. Spooled with 8-12 pound braid and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader. Baitcaster rods and reels are a very popular choice when targeting yellowbelly. Good options include a 3-5 or 4-6 bait caster with a 2000 bait caster reel. When bait fishing, a 7-foot light rod paired with a 3000 size reel is used. Good bait rigs include a paternoster rig with a small sinker at the bottom or a running sinker rig with scrub worms or yabbies.
Targeting Trout at Murray River
We highly recommend you read our detailed guide on how to catch trout, which details our favourite lures, baits and techniques. You can follow trout stocking timelines by reading the Victorian trout stocking guide as part of the target 1 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022 initiatives. When targeting trout with lures, we recommend using shallow diving hard body minnows, metal spoons, spinners, Tassie devils and soft plastics, which are also very effective on trout. If you’re bait fishing, Mudeye, scrub worms, power bait, yabbies, and minnows suspended from a float or a running sinker rig are great options when targeting trout at this location. Trout are more active in cold conditions, with most catches on first and last light of the day. We recommend targeting trout with a 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 1000, 2000, or 2500 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader. If there are larger trophy-size trout around, you can go heavier, moving up the scale to a 3-5 kilo class spin rod spooled with fine 8-12-pound braid and equivalent fluorocarbon leader.
Targeting Redfin at Murray River
We recommend targeting Redfin with a light spin outfit. This will make the experience more enjoyable and improve your catch rates. A 1-3 or 2-4 kilo fishing rod coupled with a 2000, 2500 or 3000 reel spooled with 4-8-pound braid and an equivalent fluorocarbon leader should be perfect. Redfin responds well to lures and soft plastics, so check out our guide on the best lures for catching Redfin. When using soft plastics, we highly recommend curl tails, minnow imitations, and paddle tails in both natural and bright colours. Rigged with a jig head that’s 1/8 through to 1/20 in weight. The most effective way to use these is to cast towards a visible structure and slow-roll the soft plastic with lifts and pauses for the retrieve. Shallow diving hard body lures, blades and vibes are also very effective in this system. So are traditional spinners and Tassie devils in bright colours. Metal spoons also play a role in allowing you to cast great distances and targeting the bigger reddies. Remember, they are quite heavy and prone to snags in small inland systems like this one.
Watch our detailed video guide on our top 10 redfin lures below.
Targeting Carp at Murray River
There is a large volume of carp in local lakes; however, they are fun to catch, and you can learn more about catching carp by reading our detailed guide to carp fishing around Victoria. Standard baits such as corn, bread, and maggots work great when targeting carp. A simple running sinker rig with a pea-sized sinker works great in this area. So, do suspend baits using a float. We have also fished well using unweighted baits. You can also target carp with hard body lures and soft plastics. This is a difficult technique that generally requires sight casting. This means spotting a nearby carp, casting right in there, and slowly working the lure of plastic, hoping they will strike. It’s tough but very rewarding to catch a carp using this method. Most, however, will stick to targeting them with bait. A 3-5 kilo rod with a 4000 size reel is suitable for rod selection. You could even fish a little heavier with rods designed for snapper that are generally 4-7 kilos and 7 feet long. I have caught some monster-size carp using 2-4 kilo rods and 6-pound braid for fun. But I am prepared to lose some good fish in the process. We like to target carp at sundown, particularly in the warmer months. This is often when you see carp swimming along the edges or jumping out of the water around September-November, their spawning season. European carp must not be returned to the water. Always carry your Victorian fishing license.
A simple yet effective fishing rig is to thread a small running sinker through the mainline shown in blue, usually around 8 pounds. Then, tie a medium swivel to the end, allowing the sinker to run up the mainline freely. Then, tie on the other end of the swivel 50cm of 8-pound fluorocarbon leader (the leader is shown in grey ). Finished with a hook. I generally use a size 6 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank which is perfect for corn kernels or scrub worms, however, you can also use small treble style hooks which is a better setup if you using bread.
If you’re getting snagged, you can also use a float rig. Attach a quill or bubble float to your mainline. Thread the line through and adjust the length using a size 6 bait keeper hook or size 10 long shank to keep your bait suspended at a good depth. Ideally, cast down the breeze, stopping the float from returning to you. If you’re not getting bites, adjust the line depth and, if necessary, add a splint shot to add weight.
All rural areas are inhabited by wildlife such as Snakes and Lizards, so be wary of venomous snakes such as Brown, Tiger and Red-bellied Black. Always carry your Victorian fishing license. FishingMad encourages ‘catch & release’ of all native species to help maintain the water quality within the lake; however, European Carp must not be returned. The images of the fish were supplied by VFA and DEPI, and Google Maps supplied the map. All other images and videos on the Murray River Fishing Guide page are Fishing Mad originals. Thank you for visiting the Murray River Fishing Guide. If you feel this location guide is missing key information or needs any corrections made, then please let us know by emailing our team at [email protected] with specific details in the email. Please also feel free to share any fishing pictures from this location with us. Thank you
