Sweetwater Fishing Forums
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Catfish Al on June 14, 2011, 11:01:30 PM
-
Okay guys, i'm very new too lures, yaks and the term sweetwater. As a salty most of my life i only ever refered to the sweet as fresh. Using only baits for so long, i assumed it would be easy for me to catch a variety of fish in the sweetwater, however i haven't had that much luck at all. Since I moved out to lowood in 2001 I had landed approx 20 tilapia, 30 eels and about a kazillion catfish. Not a bass or a yellow ever.
A few mates introduced me to some lures about 4 weeks ago. First i was using a jackal my first time with a lure, and i can still remember that first hit, thought my heart was going to stop. i had it hooked reeling it in i was stoked after watching the other guys smash bass all day i thought yea it's my turn. well it wasn't it was a catfish. >:( So I tried again and one after another i caught catfish (hence the name catfish al).
i got a bit annoyed until they pulled out a spinnerbait then it was all good a got myself a nice first bass coming in at 52cm, only to be outdone by my next a big 55cm. since then i've been hooked absolutely love using lures. And thanks to Novice looks like im buying my first yak next week.
Anyway the real reason for this thread is the catfish. Does anyone else think they are out of control? Also should the DPI place them as a class 1 Noxious fish in QLd?
Cheers
Catfish Al
-
I was looking at a list of class 1 noxious fish to see what they were, they appear to be all exotics. The regulations around their movement and control were fairly strict so I don't think you could apply that sort of management to a fish as widespread as ol' mate catfish. That alone I'd expect would keep it off such a list. The other reason would be that it is an Australian native fish and more than likely endemic to that area. So as a native in its natural environment, be it modified to some extent may be declared a nuisance by some but not noxious.
-
well it depends on which catfish, forkies, scurge of the earth! nuke em all I say!
The humble old eel tail? they are supposed to be good chewing and give you a decent fight, I'm happy for them to be in the water.
-
Was fishing the brisbane river a couple of weeks ago using worms and all that was caught was small forktail catfish. It was like a plague. I do remember thinking at the time that they had taken over the river. They seemed to have replaced the spangled perch as the annoying "nibblers".
-
Not sure about classifying them as a noxious pest. They are a native fish to the region, unlike many others that we target and rave about. They're easy to catch, reasonable to eat and they fight well. If someone had decided a few years ago to start up the Australian Catfish Tournaments, we'd be living high around Wivenhoe and the river. Don't hate them, don't kill them, just catch them and enjoy them.
-
Rather a forky than a donut and the bigger ones go hard. Just a shame that they have taken on in some of the dams,.
Re the humble tandans I took a Malaysian bloke with me to Hinze the other day and he loves them. Says in Malaysia you will pay $100 a kg live weight for them. The lips are considered a delicacy.
Cheers
Ray
-
I doubt they will ever be on the noxios fish list but if they are a bit of sport like so many story's ive read dipicted them as let them be.
Old tandanus are great fun i reckon we caught a couple in a row around 60cm...... i didnt think they could reach such lengths but they had us just about swimming after them.
Steve
-
Don't get me wrong they are great sport, I personally have lost about 2 rods thanks to their hard hitting nature. maybe the noxious fish idea was a bit over the top but in today's "bass and yellow" society I think that maybe they need to be controlled in some manner, or should we encourage a more sporting look at the humble catty (fork-tail in particular). Come to think of it I reckon a catty tournament would be pretty fun i mean I've seen some monsters.
Catfish Al
-
Al ,
If you end up buying a yak and then doing the Wivy comp in September , you can have all the catfish you like :thumbsup
Cheers,
Dave.
-
If you're fishing correctly for Bass in Winter in Wivenhoe, you should rarely catch a Powertail.
-
There used to be a forky comp at Monduran every year till the barra took over.
Cheers
Ray
-
Old tandanus are great fun i reckon we caught a couple in a row around 60cm...... i didnt think they could reach such lengths but they had us just about swimming after them.
Steve
Used to get them over the meter mark in Somerset commonly some years back. Very rarely these days with tilapia & maybe big redclaw raiding their nests....
fitz..
-
When they go Fitz they hammer pretty hard i think..... but bugger a metery :-X
Steve
-
seen a mega fish either A cat fish or lung ish must have been over 1 metre