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Author Topic: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday  (Read 41729 times)

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #15 on: December 17, 2010, 03:17:10 PM »
the closure for below the dam wall also has and attribute to safety, as trigger releases can happen at any given time.  i have been watching the fish that have been going over for the last week, and there is minimum mincing.  several reports of mass fish kills, but again i must be looking in the wrong river system.  i met with the water commisioner, local politicians and the gawb ceo today and we are all impressed with the transition of the fish from the dam to the river system.  schools of fish are located at the spillway bridge  feeding, so there must not be too much wrong with them.   thanks to all on this site for not causing too much contreversy over the situation, it has been appreciated.  im too busy at the moment with current stocks in the hatchery and fish going over government papers to deal with shyty rumours and stories.  also thanks to the people observing the events surrounding the fishery.

thanks all.

cheers
kurt 

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #16 on: December 17, 2010, 11:03:37 PM »
Should B&FP turn a blind eye in this situation? What do you think?
No. I don't think they should.
The reason of the closure needs to be respected as ol' wild barra is the one at risk. If it became a free-for-all, it'd be like losing all 'touch' with the fragility of the real barra down the river and possibly a lack of appreciation for nature's own.
Without proof, I also think those new slippery dip fish should not be down the river- they are not supposed to be there, and an imbalance will occur. If I had a magic wand, I'd remove them. If authorities reckon its ok, they'd of stocked 100,000 metre fish into the river ages ago- but they didn't, because it's not the right chess move in my opinion, and I reckon they know it.


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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #17 on: December 18, 2010, 10:55:25 AM »
Johnny ,
I reckon you ,Kurt & a few locals should get down there with a big net & put them buggers back in ;D ;D
We have our own probs down here now with all the flooding causing black water right around our district with native fish turnin their toes up in the thousands & it's real gutwrencher to see 1.3 mtr murray cod rotting on top of the water  :( :( even the murray crays are climbing out of the river to get away from it !!!
cheers AL

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #18 on: December 18, 2010, 11:36:07 AM »
Ted, OUCH!

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #19 on: December 19, 2010, 02:31:39 PM »
Would this work at the spillway at Awoonga ....... Downstream migrating fish are instinctively attracted toward increasing water velocities, called attraction flows. The Smith-Root Downstream Guidance and Repelling systems are designed to guide downstream migrating fish away from dangerous attraction flows. Our design uses electrical pulses that do not tetanize fish or in any way reduce their swimming ability. Tetanized fish would be swept further into the electrified zone by water flow. To avoid the tetanizing effect, very short DC pulses are used which provide a sensation much like pins and needles. Repelled fish are guided towards an alternate waterway, with an attraction flow, or repelled toward open water, in the case of resident fish in a lake or reservoir.
 
                                   

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #20 on: December 19, 2010, 06:19:28 PM »
trev
i have been struggling to find solutions to the issue that can be justified in some way to gawb, but due to the limited amount of fish that have exited the dam, this justification gets harder by the minute.  awoonga has been lucky in the fact that it has never gone over since the heavy stocking levels, so in one way i think we should be greatfull, and again, we could be like tinaroo and mackays dams where they watch the barra go splat on a regular basis.  i am with everypone else on this topic, i hate seeing my product going over the wall, in particular the jacks, but i have done everything in my own power to ease the pain a little, as the barra fly over.  still remember, gawb, in particular myself are very inexperienced in forecasting and dealing with the fish going over the spillway event, and i would say after march (and there will be many more events prior to then) i will have a more strategic contigency plan in place.  i have extended my stocking permit for awoonga for barra in the retaliation of loosing fish, and it will be filled by the start of jan 2011. 

again, the expense of the system, long term feasability, and no previous application on a barra impoundment, makes further difficulty in its justification, as well for myself.  remember the dam receives more barra per annum than any other dam in australia, and the resource is renewable.  i will stand by the fact that there has been limited if any impact on the population in awoonga, most of these fish that have gone over would be fish in the nearby vacinity of the dam wall.  you know as good as i do, that the barra from futter creek have not moved to the dam wall for relocation purposes (and trust me i have had some real knobs tell me different in the last week).   

trev, beleive me i am stuck in a hard place and banging my head on the floor thinking of solutions whilst also running a hatchery, my time is limited and priorities must be set, no mass mortalities in the awoonga itself, more concentrating on the injection of fingerlings prior to christmass.  during this overflow event, awoongas visitation levels have risen from 1200 per week to 90,000, all due to the fish over the wall.   

cheers
kurt

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #21 on: December 19, 2010, 08:47:52 PM »
during this overflow event, awoongas visitation levels have risen from 1200 per week to 90,000, all due to the fish over the wall.   

cheers
kurt


Imagine if each visitor dropped a coin in a donation tin for the hatchery...

Was thinking the same the other week when Wivenhoe had folks lined up for 2 hours to get in to see the water being released.

Cheers,

fitz..

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #22 on: December 19, 2010, 08:54:17 PM »
yeah fitzy,
would be nice as you could imagine..... :o :o :o 8)  look you guys would be more experienced than me at it, maybe you guys can have some contribution to it that may be relevant to awoonga.....

cheers
kurt

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #23 on: December 19, 2010, 09:00:29 PM »
yeah fitzy,
would be nice as you could imagine..... :o :o :o 8)  look you guys would be more experienced than me at it, maybe you guys can have some contribution to it that may be relevant to awoonga.....

cheers
kurt
G'Day Kurt,

In what way mate??

fitz..

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #24 on: December 20, 2010, 05:41:18 AM »
fitzy,
well i have only experienced 1 week of fish going over the spillway, where you are involved with several impoundments that have done this in 2010, what management approaches did you put in place re fish going over and did you experience and mortalities at the receiving end of the everflow?  do you have any further management contingencies for future events?  (i know that this is going to become sticky with other members teabagging their 2 bobs worth in by may be a good discussion point to get veiws on the events an future approaches that other restocking groups on this site can take advantage of).

cheers
kurt

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #25 on: December 20, 2010, 06:17:56 AM »
Kurt, our strategy -  we just put more fish in, the local salt water fisho's get a nice bonus for a season or two, and being as our stockings are mostly bass, lots of the local fresh water streams will probably see bass for the first time in a lot of years.

We also watch the immediate down stream areas for the white bucket brigade and keep fisheries informed.

You've previously mentioned your getting your brood stock from the local area, so I dont see a problem with fish going over the wall. Be a big pick me up for the local systems for years to come. Particularly if the big girls  are healthy enough after their ride to still breed this season!

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #26 on: December 20, 2010, 08:23:01 AM »
First off l had a email sent to me yesterday from a person that spent 8 hours at the spillway. They asked if l would post there results on the forum sites to make people aware of how many fish are going over the wall.My reply was sorry because what happened on one day might not happen on another day..ie fish going over the spillway. What they where trying to do was guess the number of fish that Awoonga has lost in a week...Last week is gone, forget about last week its the future weeks that concern me a bit. If Awoonga continues to overflow for say the next month or two months what then ? Lets look at some facts. Barra grow fast not like bass.. We do have a educated fishery,  No dumb fish in Awoonga  So we lose 20% of our stock and Kurt replaces them with new stock. Awoonga could return to its glory days. But what about the now time ? There are quite a few people that derive a income directly from the lake. As Kurt said the rumor mill is alive and well and bad news travels fast .l have had several phone calls telling me that Awoonga as a fishery is doomed "Yea right " There is nothing we can do to prevent or stop those fish from going over the spillway this time but l am sure we could inform the community at large that Awoonga is still a viable fishery

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #27 on: December 20, 2010, 09:10:18 AM »
I read that awoonga has been stocked with over 3 million fish and this is the first time it has ever gone over the spillway. What kind of a w@nker would say that awoonga is doomed? I fish borumba quite a bit and its where my sips money ends up. Its been running out for the last 2 years and hasnt been stocked with anywhere near the amount of fish that awoonga has, but fishing is still awesome. If anything seeing some of those big girls go over the wall is a good thing, i mean how smart do u think they might be getting. How many times would you eat a lure?  :youbeauty

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #28 on: December 20, 2010, 10:22:02 AM »
With the number of times Somerset and Wivenhoe have overflowed in the years since stocking began, I think it can be seen that this phenomena does not doom the fishery.  We have released close to half a million Bass into these two lakes in the last week.  They will take a couple of years to get to legal size and then maybe another 10 to 15 years to get to "trophy" size.  Borumba has overflowed regularly, as Franke said, and it has not been ruined as a fishery.  The doom sayers are coming out of the woodwork, as they always do, when the dams overflow.  There is nobody to blame for this, it is an event that has happened for many years in the older dams.  In reality, Barra stocking is in it's infancy.  The major southern dams, not having overflowed since the stocking began.  If weather patterns return to their historic normality, we will see overflow events on a much more regular timetable, and then we won't need a crystal ball to see if there is an adverse effect on the renewable population.  I can't imagine that we'll have to be careful driving up the dam, trying to avoid the fish queued up to take the leap into the river.  I'm sure Kurt and GAWB will get some valuable information from this event, but expecting any answers quickly would be a bit unreasonable.  In the meantime, all we can do is continue to enjoy the fishery they have created, because there are still plenty of fish to be caught.

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Re: Barra going over the Awoonga wall yesterday
« Reply #29 on: December 20, 2010, 12:25:07 PM »
In the meantime, all we can do is continue to enjoy the fishery they have created, because there are still plenty of fish to be caught.

Awoonga is still a viable fishery

Here-Here;
what they said. :thumb

 

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