It's a brisk autumn afternoon in Canberra and a lone fisherman is stalking along the southern bank of the Murrumbidgee River.
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With the sun sitting low in the sky, he's careful not to cast a shadow across the water in front of a partially submerged eucalypt.
He notices a slight ripple on the water's surface near the sunken tree, then a few bubbles.
Insects flee.
He squats, squints for focus, lifts his rod above his right shoulder and casts a small, hard-bodied bibbed-minnow lure in the direction of the snag. It plops on the surface - he pauses, then winds slowly, with just enough purpose to bring a skittering action to the artificial bait.
Without warning there's an explosion in the water just behind his lure and his line goes tight on a seven kilogram Murray cod.
The battle is short and the cod, stunned but not harmed, slinks back to his underwater treehouse.
What remains a dream for many is a familiar scenario for one of Australia's most accomplished anglers, Andrew McGovern, a third generation Canberran and the holder of 11 national fishing records. He has been fishing Canberra's urban lakes and surrounding waterways for more than 30 years and when he's not taking a long, slow walk along the Murrumbidgee, he's writing books or magazine articles, or shooting DVDs about his great passion in life.
For the dreamers among us, McGovern's latest book is a gift, the Fishing Atlas for Canberra - 72 pages of detailed maps and information about where and when to fish, what to fish for and how to catch them in the local area.
There is also a chapter devoted to fishing at Batemans Bay and another on baits, lures, rigs and techniques.
The book not only points anglers to more than 150 local fishing spots, it tells them what to do when they get there. Take, for example, McGovern's advice for fishing the dam wall at Gungahlin's Yerrabi Pond.
''Lurecasting and baitfishing are equally successful from the dam wall,'' he writes. ''When casting, use light spinnerbaits with willow leaf blades. The more subtle presentation of the willow leaf is more successful on golden perch than the Colorado bladed lures. Shallow running or diving lures that get down to around two metres are sufficient here as the water is not overly deep. If you are constantly collecting weed on your lure then try retrieving with a slightly higher rod angle to counter the diving effect of the lure's bib …''
No book like it has been published since The Canberra Times' long-serving fishing columnist Bryan Pratt penned The Canberra Fisherman in the late 1970s.
''I remember as a kid growing up in Canberra, I religiously read that [The Canberra Fisherman] every night I went to bed,'' McGovern says.
Another enduring memory is the influence of his father, a keen trout fisherman, who died in a car accident when McGovern was 11.
''All of the memories I have of fishing with Dad now are not so much the fish we caught, but walking along the river bank and talking about different stuff - I suppose it was time shared.
''That was partly the motivation [for writing the book]. I see a lot of guys through fishing clinics and the fishing club who didn't get the opportunity I did to have that love of fishing embedded in them.''
McGovern describes his early-found passion in the book's introduction: ''My youth was spent fishing with my mates, riding our push bikes long distances and walking through paddocks, scrub and open fields chasing everything from trout to golden perch to the iconic Murray cod.''
The Murrumbidgee River has long been one of his favourites.
''I think the Murrumbidgee is pretty special, just that river environment and the fact that it has been there well before any of us has walked on the earth.
''I know our lakes are great but the fact the Murrumbidgee has been there pretty much in the form we see it now and to think that Murray cod have been there for tens of thousands of years, too.
''To catch a wild fish is pretty special.''
That's not to suggest our urban lakes aren't worth exploring.
''People who have fished internationally realise how lucky we are in Canberra,'' he says. ''Our waterways really aren't as polluted … you only have to go up to the Parramatta or Georges river - some of the bream up there are glowing. For a capital city we are pretty unique.''
■ Fishing Atlas for Canberra is published through the Australian Fishing Network and is available at all good local tackle shops. For more information and a photo gallery of some of Andrew McGovern's most memorable catches, go to andrewmcgovernfishing.com.