Charles West of the Ipswich United Sportfishing club went out for a morning fish at Kholo on Saturday 10 March 2007....

A Beautiful morning with fog rolling off the river, nothing but the sound of the electric cruising through the water.
I reached a spot on the river where I started to flick a popper at some snags. Found a promising snag where I saw a fish follow my popper out and I realized it was a Cod, so I flicked the popper on the other side of the snag and within 3 pops it was gone. Straight down a massive cod’s mouth, it made a mass splash when it hit. Fighting it through lots of snags and realised I only have a 12lb leader and this cod looks big, “ I thought I was going to loose it” so I got my partners cousin, who is 10 years old, to start filming it as no one would believe me if I lost the cod. Then finally, I got it in the boat by using my fishing shirt as a glove to carefully lift this fine specimen into the boat. That’s when all the yahooing and swearing started, my heart was pumping the whole time and I could not believe what I had caught, a 74cm Mary River Cod on a popper. Never again do expect to catch another cod like this at Kholo, as I have been fishing there for 10 years and never seen or heard about them being caught. This is my first Mary River Cod tagged and released. It was an experience I will never forget, a fish of a life time.                       - Charles West

Yeah - we think so too!