Two very different Murray cod fisheries share the ACT. Lake Burley Griffin is a six-hundred-and-forty-six-hectare urban lake, stocked with Murray cod on and off since 1980 and turning them up in fish surveys; the lake’s own guide charts the stocking and its steady surface area. The Murrumbidgee River is river water instead, part of the same Murray-Darling fishery the species is named for, with basin monitoring behind its length record.

Fish the lake for a sure thing, fish the river for a wilder version of the same species. Neither one is a substitute for the other.

On the lake, work the hard edges: rock walls, bridge pylons and any sharp drop-off close to deep water, at first and last light before the rowers and the swimmers take the middle of the day. Put the fly tight against the structure, let it sink, and retrieve with long pauses; the take usually comes when the fly is doing nothing. On the river, everything is timber. The fly has to land against the snag, not near it, and a cast a metre off a log is a wasted cast. Surface flies cast as far back into the snags as you dare are a good bet; if you think you have missed the spot, you probably have. Beyond that, fish it the way you would anywhere: the national Murray cod page has the full rundown on rods, lines and flies, and the strip-strike that lands them.

A nine or ten weight and a leader you can pull a fish away from concrete or a red gum with. A floating line with a punchy head for the shallow timber and the lake walls; an intermediate or a sink tip for the deeper outside bends of the river. Big-profile subsurface flies and foam-head poppers on top, barbless, because release matters on a Vulnerable-listed fish.

One writer who fishes the river from Canberra calls a pre-dawn start a prerequisite on most days and rates early December, with steady levels and a little rain, as prime time.

The national page’s spawning windows and water-temperature thresholds are the best guide you have: spawning can start once the water pushes past fifteen degrees and peaks at nineteen to twenty. In our experience the warm months are when the fish move in both waters, and first light, last light and warm overcast days are worth more than a bright noon. The ACT’s closed season, September to November, overlaps the spawning run; check the current ACT dates before you fish for them.

The ACT publishes its recreational fishing rules in an annual brochure and on the territory’s fishing pages, and no licence is required to fish the territory’s public waters. For Murray cod the brochure sets these. A legal fish is between 55 and 75 centimetres. The daily bag limit is 1 in the Murrumbidgee River and 2 in all other ACT waters. Murray cod must not be targeted in the territory’s Open Waters during the closed season, September to November, and any cod caught accidentally in that window goes back unharmed. On the Murrumbidgee downstream of Uriarra Crossing, the Murray Cod Catch-and-Release Zone, every cod goes back at any time of year. Googong Reservoir is fished under New South Wales law and needs a NSW licence. Check the current brochure before you fish.