Species · Maccullochella macquariensis
Trout Cod
A blue-grey cod that looks enough like a small Murray cod to get people fined, and the only endangered native you may legally chase with a fly, in one dam, and only to let it go.
Family
Percichthyidae
Origin
Endemic
How to tell it
The trout cod is the other cod. It lives in the same snags as the Murray cod, eats the same yabbies and shrimp, takes the same flies, and for most of the twentieth century nobody bothered to separate the two. The Victorian Fisheries Authority notes that although the fish was first described in 1829, it was not recognised as a species distinct from Murray cod until 1972. By then it was nearly gone.
It is listed endangered under the Commonwealth’s EPBC Act and endangered in New South Wales. NSW DPIRD says the last known reproducing natural population is confined to the Murray River below Yarrawonga, downstream towards Tocumwal. Everything else, in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT, is the work of hatcheries and translocations, and recent work at that.
So this is mostly a fish to recognise. NSW DPI’s guide for fishers warns that trout cod are aggressive, easily caught and often hooked by anglers chasing other species. Know it on sight, know the one New South Wales dam where you may fish for it, and know how to put one back.
The quick read
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Status: endangered nationally (EPBC Act) and in New South Wales; protected in Victoria and the ACT.
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Size: NSW DPIRD gives up to 85 cm and 16 kg, but more commonly about 50 cm and 1.5 kg.
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Where you may target one: in New South Wales, only Talbingo Reservoir, and only catch and release. In Victoria, only Lake Sambell and Lake Kerferd in the north-east have a bag limit.
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Everywhere else: release it at once, with as little harm as you can manage.
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Look for: a straight head profile, an upper jaw that overhangs the lower, and blue-grey flanks with small dark spots and dashes.
Range in Australia
NSW DPIRD describes the trout cod as endemic to the southern Murray-Darling system, including the Murrumbidgee and Murray rivers and the Macquarie River in central New South Wales, once widespread and abundant there and now reduced to a fraction of that. Its 2016 guide for fishers puts the only self-sustaining natural population in the Murray between Yarrawonga Weir and Barmah, with other populations re-established in New South Wales and Victoria by stocking hatchery fingerlings or moving fish.
That stocking has picked up sharply. The NSW Government reported in March 2026 that more than 174,000 fingerlings were harvested at the Narrandera Fisheries Centre that season, with about 62,100 released into the Goodradigbee River, 82,000 into the Murrumbidgee above Burrinjuck Dam and 30,000 into Talbingo Dam. In Victoria, the VFA names the Seven Creeks system near Euroa as the state’s only known remaining self-sustaining population, with stocked fish from Snobs Creek Hatchery establishing others, including in the Goulburn River.
Our own water records show trout cod in the Mitta Mitta River, recorded there from 1970 to 1995 and stocked in the mid-1990s; in the Cotter River, recorded in 2023; in the Murrumbidgee, recorded between 2007 and 2015; and in Talbingo Reservoir, stocked every year from 2019 to 2026. A record is not a fishery. In the Cotter, most of the catchment upstream of the new Cotter Dam is closed to all fishing under ACT rules.
Habitat and behaviour
NSW DPIRD finds trout cod most often in faster water over rock and gravel, but also in some slower lowland rivers, and says large woody snags matter at every stage of the fish’s life. The VFA describes the classic upland water: flowing pools between falls and rapids over bedrock, boulders, sand or gravel, with the bigger fish in the deeper holes and the smaller ones under and among the boulders.
It eats aquatic insects and crustaceans such as yabbies, crayfish and shrimp, and the VFA notes it will leap from the water to take food just above the surface. The VFA also suggests introduced trout may have contributed to its decline, because the two share habitat, territorial habits and food.
Confusing species
The Murray cod is the one that matters, because one may be legal to keep in season and the other never is. NSW DPI’s guide is blunt that the dark stripe through the eye, the feature everyone quotes, should not be used on its own: juvenile Murray cod can carry a similar stripe, and on a trout cod it can be broken, faint or missing. Use the features together.
Trout cod
Murray cod
Head profile
Straight
Concave
Head width
Narrow
Broad
Jaws
Upper jaw overhangs the lower
Jaws equal, or the lower jaw protrudes
Colour
Blue-grey to dark brown on the back, paler below
Green mottled pattern, extending onto the forehead and snout
Markings
Dark spots and irregular dashes, not on the forehead or snout
Mottling covers head and body
That table follows NSW DPI’s 2016 guide and the ACT Government’s comparison, which add that the VFA describes the trout cod’s eye as larger than a Murray cod’s. If you are holding a cod and cannot decide, treat it as a trout cod and let it go.
Fishing for them, and if you catch one
In New South Wales the only water where you may set out to catch a trout cod is Talbingo Dam in the Snowy Mountains. The NSW Government’s March 2026 release calls it a catch-and-release sportfishery and the only place they can be legally targeted. Check the current NSW freshwater rules for Talbingo before you go; this page does not replace them. Fish it as you would any cod in a timbered dam (our page on fishing timber for Murray cod covers the approach), with lighter tackle to match a fish that is commonly around half a metre.
Everywhere else, a trout cod is a fish caught by accident. NSW DPI’s guide asks anglers to:
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use artificial lures, or non-offset circle hooks if fishing bait, to avoid deep hooking;
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use barbless or reduced-barb hooks;
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unhook the fish in the water if possible, and cut the line close to the mouth if it is hooked deep;
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support its weight with wet hands, never by the gills or eyes, and use a knotless net;
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move or change rigs if you keep catching them.
Then report it. The NSW Government asks anglers to record trout cod captures through the DPIRD threatened species form, and the ACT Government asks for protected fish captures to be reported to Access Canberra.
Spawning season
The VFA says trout cod spawn in spring and early summer when the water is about 17–18 °C, laying adhesive eggs on or near the bottom, and are thought to breed at a smaller size than Murray cod. NSW DPI’s guide puts the breeding season at September to November, the same months as the Murray cod closure, and asks anglers to avoid trout cod water in that period.
Rules that apply
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New South Wales: NSW DPI says deliberately fishing for trout cod in natural rivers and streams is illegal; one caught by accident must be released immediately. Its 2016 guide gives penalties of up to $220,000 and/or two years’ prison for harming, possessing, buying or selling them. All fishing is prohibited in the Murray River and its tributaries between Yarrawonga Weir and the Tocumwal road bridge from 1 September to 30 November each year, and carrying fishing gear beside closed water is itself an offence. Talbingo Dam is the catch-and-release exception.
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Victoria: the VFA’s catch-limits page (checked October 2026) says taking or possessing trout cod is prohibited except in Lake Sambell and Lake Kerferd, where the Recreational Fishing Guide 2026 sets a legal size of 40 to 50 cm, a bag of 1 and a possession limit of 2. Fish caught anywhere else must be returned immediately.
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ACT: trout cod are one of seven totally protected species. It is illegal to target or keep one; release it with as little injury as possible.
Rules change. Check the current NSW DPIRD freshwater rules or the Victorian Recreational Fishing Guide before you fish.
Frequently asked questions
Is the stripe through the eye enough to tell it from a Murray cod?
No. NSW DPI warns that young Murray cod can show a similar stripe and that a trout cod’s can be broken or missing. Check the head profile and the jaws: straight head and overhanging upper jaw for a trout cod, concave head and equal or protruding lower jaw for a Murray cod.
Can I catch one in the Murrumbidgee or the Mitta Mitta?
You may catch one by accident while fishing for something else, and you must put it straight back. You may not target one there. In New South Wales the only water open to targeting is Talbingo Dam.
Will trout cod ever be a fishery again?
That is the stated goal. The NSW Government’s March 2026 release says it is working towards de-listing the species and wants populations back to a point where it can again become a target species for recreational fishers. Until then, each wild fish is part of the recovery.