Clarence River Cod

Fishes of Australia says the species was historically widespread in the Clarence, Richmond and Brisbane river systems of north-eastern New South Wales and southern Queensland, and now survives naturally only in the Clarence system. NSW DPIRD says it is locally extinct in the Richmond and its tributaries, with only remnant non-stocked populations left in parts of the Clarence and its tributaries. Its type locality, the place the species was first described from, is the Nymboida River at its junction with the Mann.

None of the waters in our guide sit in its range. Our catalogue is strongest in southern New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania, and this fish lives on the far north coast.

NSW DPIRD describes clear, flowing streams with a rocky bottom and plenty of in-stream cover, boulders and large woody debris, which give it food and shelter. Fishes of Australia says the same and calls them pristine sections of river.

It is a predator with the cod appetite. Fishes of Australia lists fish, crustaceans, molluscs, frogs, water birds and the occasional reptile. The reasons for its decline read like a history of the district: NSW DPIRD names historical overfishing including with explosives, pollution from the tailings dams of Clarence gold and tin mines, river regulation, silt, cleared banks, introduced fish, and illegal fishing that removes breeding adults. Fishes of Australia adds the damage from railway construction and heavy flooding after bushfire.

NSW DPIRD names the similar species as the Murray cod and the Mary River cod. The features NSW DPIRD gives for the eastern cod are a large, elongated, deep body; relatively small eyes; a short, rounded snout with a distinctly concave head profile; a protruding lower jaw; a large mouth reaching back below the eye; and a yellow-green to golden colour speckled with black to very dark green spots. Fishes of Australia adds white edges on the fins and long, filament-tipped pelvic fins.

Against the trout cod, Fishes of Australia notes the concave head profile and protruding lower jaw of the Clarence fish; the trout cod has a straight head and an overhanging upper jaw. The Clarence and Mary River cods differ mainly in details of body proportions and fin spines that need a specimen in hand and a key.

Keep it in the water, unhook it quickly, and let it swim away. NSW DPIRD is direct: if you accidentally catch one, you must release it immediately causing the least possible harm, and targeting or possessing one at any time, anywhere, carries significant penalties. NSW DPIRD runs a threatened species reporting form for sightings.

If you keep hooking cod while fishing for bass, change spots. In spring especially, a cod you hook may be a male guarding eggs or larvae.

Fishes of Australia says the species spawns in spring once water passes 16 °C, in a short season of eight to ten weeks. Males clean a nest site, court the female in, then guard and fan the eggs until they hatch and defend the larvae for 12 to 14 days afterwards. NSW DPIRD notes that pulling a cod off its nest disturbs egg and larval guarding and leaves the brood open to other fish, eels and turtles. That is why the spring closure exists.

Check the current NSW DPIRD fishing closures before you fish the Clarence system.

Yes. NSW DPIRD uses eastern freshwater cod; Fishes of Australia uses Clarence River cod. Both mean Maccullochella ikei.

Not from 1 August to 31 October in the closed reaches: all fishing is banned there, whatever you are fishing for. Outside the closure you may fish for other species, but any cod you catch goes back.

Size was never the problem. NSW DPIRD’s list of threats, from mining pollution to illegal fishing of breeding adults, cut it back to remnant populations in one river system.