Also known as Cod, Goodoo, Ponde, Greenfish, Green ghost. Bait, technique, tide windows, and where the bite is on right now.
Murray Cod — AU freshwater apex — surface boofs, snags, structure, the green ghost of the Murray-Darling. Also called Cod, Goodoo, Ponde, Greenfish, Green ghost.
Murray cod are the largest exclusively freshwater fish in Australia, recorded over 113 kg historically — though anything over 90 cm now is a trophy and a slot-limit release in every state. The species spawns in the spring on rising water temperatures (~20°C) and the male guards the egg mass on the underside of a snag for 7–10 days, fanning the eggs until they hatch. That is why the closed season exists.
Murray Cod is also known as: Cod, Goodoo, Ponde, Greenfish, Green ghost. AU freshwater apex — surface boofs, snags, structure, the green ghost of the Murray-Darling.
Regional names can confuse anglers and cause misidentification. The table of common names below covers the most-used alternatives across Australia, New Zealand and the US:
Key to correct identification: check the regulations-authority species sheet for your state or territory before keeping any fish — minimum legal sizes, bag limits and identification guides are published by each fisheries department and are the authoritative source.
Hero spots in our coverage where Murray Cod is in season for June. Click through for the live forecast.
Out of season across our covered spots in June.
Maccullochella peelii — Australia's largest exclusively freshwater fish and apex predator of the Murray-Darling Basin. Adults can exceed 1.8 m and 113 kg, though most fish landed today are 40–80 cm. The species is solitary, fiercely territorial, and long-lived; the oldest verified specimen was 48 years old. Tracking studies show cod will home back to the same individual snag year after year, even after travelling up to 130 km to spawn.
As an apex ambush predator, cod eat almost anything smaller than themselves — smaller cod, golden perch, silver perch, bony bream, eel-tailed catfish, freshwater shrimp, yabbies, freshwater turtles, water rats, ducks, and introduced carp, goldfish and redfin. They'll wedge under the same submerged log all year and ambush whatever swims past.
Spawning happens in spring–summer when river temperatures rise through 16.5–23.5 °C (peak around 20 °C). Pairs form, a hard surface (rock or log) is cleaned at 2–3 m depth, the female deposits an adhesive egg-mat which the male fertilises and then guards for 6–10 days through hatch, plus another week as larvae disperse. A metre-class female can release 80,000–110,000 viable eggs in a single season — which is precisely why the 75 cm-plus fish are protected by slot limits.
Conservation status: listed as Vulnerable federally under the EPBC Act, with wild populations estimated at less than 10% of their pre-European baseline. Decline drivers: historic overfishing (commercial cod fishing only ceased in 2001 in some states), river regulation that breaks the natural pulse-flow cycle, cold-water pollution from low-level dam releases (estimated to affect 2,800+ km of MDB waterways), barriers to migration, weir-pool stagnation, and habitat loss as snags were systematically removed for navigation.
Murray cod belong to the genus Maccullochella, which has four extant species. Three are listed as Endangered; Murray cod is Vulnerable. Telling them apart matters because trout cod and Murray cod overlap in habitat and the size-slot rules are different.
Trout cod (M. macquariensis): Endangered. Looks similar to a Murray cod but smaller, sleeker, with a more uniform mottled pattern and a distinct dark stripe through the eye. Lives in the same Murray-Darling system but favours cooler, more well-oxygenated upland reaches. Release immediately if you suspect one — accidental capture is a reportable item in some NSW and VIC waters, so check current rules.
Mary River cod (M. mariensis): Endangered. Coastal cousin found only in the Mary River system in SE Queensland. Confined to a tiny range; protected and not legally targetable.
Eastern freshwater cod (M. ikei): Endangered. Confined to the Clarence River system in northern NSW. Like Mary River cod, isolated from the inland Maccullochella population by the Great Dividing Range. Strictly no-take.
Murray cod is the only Maccullochella species still legal to target — that status is the direct product of stocking programs and slot limits put in place over the past two decades.
Goodoo to the Kamilaroi. Ponde to the Ngarrindjeri. In the great Ngurunderi Dreaming of the lower Murray, the cod's tail-sweeps shaped the river itself — Ngurunderi pursued the giant Ponde down the Murray, and when he finally speared the fish at Lake Alexandrina he cut it into pieces with his stone knife and threw each piece back to create every other freshwater fish species.
The cod is a Ngartji (totem / "special friend") for many First Nations clans of the Murray-Darling. Traditional Owner knowledge of Murray cod feeding and spawning patterns predates Western ecology and continues to inform native-fish management today through bodies like the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) and the Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN). Cultural protocols still apply on many stretches of Country — check with local Land Councils before fishing remote waters.
Fish structure — submerged trees, undercut banks, rock bars, lock walls, fallen timber, drowned snags. Cod ambush from cover, never in open water. The slow surface walk of an AC Invader across glassy summer evening water around dusk is the iconic cod experience, and the "boof" of a fish hitting the top is unforgettable. In dams (Copeton, Mulwala, Blowering, Windamere, Wyangala) troll deep-diving hardbodies along submerged timber and the dam wall — slow troll at 2.5–3 knots with the lure ticking the timber tops. Big-bait big-fish principle holds: a metre cod will eat a half-pound lure. Land them fast — overplayed cod on light line have poor release survival.
River-flow timing is critical. Pre-spawn September pulse moves cod shallow into feeding lanes (the closed season covers this window); post-spawn December–January recovery feed is the open-season trophy window. Winter low-flow holds them deep in pools (winter is the trophy season at Blowering Dam — cold water concentrates bigger fish). After a flood pulse, cod move into newly inundated edge structure — fish the freshly drowned timber and grass with surface walkers or spinnerbaits within the first 48 hours of the flush. Watch state water-agency river-level gauges, not folklore.
Pressure matters more than moon. The old saying "1020 and rising" captures the consensus — a moving barometer beats a stable one of any value. A falling barometer before a thunderstorm front, or a rising barometer right after one, is when surface bites turn on. Stable high or stable low is mediocre. Moon: new-moon dark nights are the classic big-cod time on rivers — a windless dark-moon evening run with a surface paddler is the trophy night, especially leading into a barometric front. Full moon brings a different bite — fish move shallow at the moon-rise window.
Fly fishing for cod has a real AU sub-culture. The technique is less about delicate presentation and more about throwing a large-profile fly tight to structure and ripping it back hard enough to provoke a violent eat.
Tackle: 9 wt or 10 wt fast-action rod with a powerful butt — you're casting large flies and muscling fish away from snags, not delivering nymphs. Floating line for surface work, intermediate or sink-tip for streamer fishing deeper holes. Heavy 30–40 lb bite tippet to handle cod teeth and abrasive snag wood.
Flies: foam-head surface poppers in chartreuse, purple/black, or natural frog patterns for the evening boof session; large 4–6 inch articulated streamers (fire-tiger, purple-and-black, olive, white) for subsurface work. Galaxia and yabby imitations also produce. Ask at a Melbourne or Albury fly shop for current cod patterns — the local tiers know.
Critical technique: strip strike, never a rod-lift trout strike. Cod have bony mouths and the hook needs a hard horizontal pull to set. The standard mistake new-to-cod fly anglers make is lifting the rod on the take — the fly pops out, the cod retreats, and you don't get a second shot. Keep your rod tip pointed at the fly throughout the retrieve and strip-set hard with the line hand when you feel the take.
Closed season: NSW / VIC / ACT 1 September – 30 November, QLD 1 August – 31 October, SA River Murray proper target-prohibited 1 August – 31 December (and effectively catch-and-release year-round in most SA waters — confirm with PIRSA). Year-round open exceptions: NSW Copeton Dam, NSW Blowering Dam, and VIC Lake Eildon. Slot limits: NSW 55–75 cm (release everything outside the slot), VIC 55–75 cm, QLD 60 cm minimum. Bag limits: NSW 2 per day with 4 in possession; VIC 1 per day in rivers, 2 per day in specified impoundments; QLD 2 per day. Some waters require barbless / single hooks (e.g. parts of the Murrumbidgee). Regulations change — always verify with state DPI / VFA / QLD DAF / PIRSA / ACT Environment before fishing, especially around the spawning closure window.
This species needs careful handling to survive release. The slot limit only works if released fish actually live.
The Murray cod was commercially fished in some states until 2001. Combined with cold-water dam releases, river regulation, weir construction, and the systematic removal of in-stream snags for boat navigation, wild populations crashed to less than 10% of their pre-European baseline by the 1990s.
The recovery story is real and ongoing. The Narrandera Fisheries Centre has been the heart of NSW Murray cod aquaculture since the cod-breeding research pioneered there in the 1970s–80s (Stuart Rowland and colleagues). The centre now releases hundreds of thousands of juvenile cod into NSW waterways each year, with peak production seasons exceeding a million fingerlings. Victoria, Queensland and SA run parallel programs.
Slot limits (55–75 cm) were introduced in 2014 to protect both the immature recruitment fish and the trophy-sized breeders. Combined with stocking, this has rebuilt enough population that recreational fishing is again legal and well-supported — but the species remains Vulnerable.
Threats today: cold-water pollution from deep-release dams (2,800+ km of MDB waterways affected, suppressing spawning and growth); climate-change-driven extreme low flows like the 2018–19 Menindee fish-kill event; ongoing weir-pool habitat degradation; carp competition; over-extraction of irrigation water. Recreational anglers contribute through licence fees, citizen-science tagging programs (Aquna's tagged-cod release program is one), and by practising rigorous catch-and-release.
From our training corpus of ~1.1M angler-logged catches across 14 regions. Last refreshed 2026-05-18.
Murray cod tournaments are catch-and-release-only with strict handling rules, and they're the biggest events on the AU freshwater calendar.
Mulwala Cod Classic (Yamaha Cod Classic) — Lake Mulwala, late October / early November. Australia's biggest freshwater fishing event, now well into its third decade. Thousands of anglers, big prize pool, strict catch-and-release. Title-sponsored by Yamaha; current sponsor list on the event website.
Copeton Cod Classic (Profishent Tackle) — Copeton Dam. Catch-and-release format with measure-by-camera-mat photography; prize money for top teams.
Murrabit Cod Challenge — Murray River at Murrabit. Catch-and-release for cod and golden perch. Family-friendly event.
Riverina Classic — Murrumbidgee River. Catch-and-release format designed around fish welfare (less time in keep-nets = better survival); oversized cod entries accepted.
Aquna Murray Cod Reel of Fortune — tagged cod are released into the Murrumbidgee between Wagga and Hay each year, with substantial cash prizes for anglers who catch a tagged fish during the open season.
The biggest Murray cod ever recorded was reportedly 113 kg (250 lb) and 1.8 m long, caught near Walgett on the Barwon River in 1902. The detail is folklore — the record traces to a 1955 letter from a Mr Noble to the Sydney Morning Herald recalling the catch — and large fish of this scale required pre-regulation river ecology that no longer exists. The record has stood for over 120 years.
Modern rod-and-reel records are line-class specific and tracked by ANSA (Australian National Sportfishing Association). Verified trophy cod today are anything over 90 cm; a metre-plus fish is a fish of a lifetime — patient angling, the right snag, the right barometric window, often years of trying.
A 75 cm fish is a damn good cod and the most you can legally keep. A 90 cm fish is a story you'll tell for decades. A metre is the milestone every serious cod angler wants on the camera-mat.
Olli-Mikael Vaittinen has fished his whole life. Fifteen years of fly fishing, guiding seasons on Norway's Lakselva — his favourite Atlantic salmon river — and a blue marlin landed in Vava'u, Tonga. Founder of Fishare — the app that puts the data behind the decisions every angler makes on the water.
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