With the frosty mornings and cold days well and truly here, getting out of the warmth and comfort of the house is becoming hard.

We all know what it’s like though, you got to listen to your heart because your body is probably quite happy tucked up in bed. Though on the other hand, your heart wants to race from that hit of a green steam train known as the mighty Murray cod this winter. That rush you get when they nearly pull the rod out of your hands, but you just manage to hold on to it, and begin to fight the beast is the rush that gets you up and onto the water at this time of year.

That rush at the moment can be found downstream of Wentworth, Curlwaa and the Mildura area, mainly for goldens. These areas have been producing solid numbers of goldens both on bait and lures. Rigging up a juicy scrubworm and fresh shrimp will put you in for a good chance at tricking a solid golden perch.

For those chasing that heart racing rush from the green specimens, you’ll need to put in the endless days out on the water trolling and casting. The important thing at this time of year is to try different things to finally hit the right spot at the right time.

The cod have been much quieter around this time making it hard for anglers, but persistence is key. VFM writer Neil Slater recently visited the Merbein to Wentworth region for a recent fishing and camping trip over several days. He and another boat fished the area, which saw good numbers of golden perch, though no cod on this trip.

Neil mentioned to me that he mainly worked the deeper water around 8m holding the deep structure.

Within the winter months, standard diving lures will be the go to lures, working the more open water column instead of right on the structure.

Nonetheless Neil and his crew had a ball chasing golden perch around on scrubbies with decent results each day, making the trip up to Mildura worthwhile and enjoyable. Solid golden perch were caught and released with the biggest coming in at 52cm, and that is very decent for the river.