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Special Interest => Fish Restocking / Acclimatisation and Environment => Topic started by: StevenM on October 04, 2013, 06:56:54 PM

Title: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: StevenM on October 04, 2013, 06:56:54 PM
You have to ask why

http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/dam-bass-may-be-jack-fodder/2040832/ (http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/dam-bass-may-be-jack-fodder/2040832/)
Title: Re: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: rayke1938 on October 04, 2013, 07:24:37 PM
I would hope that they have done some studies on the comparability of both species on co existence.. Alot of people say bass and barra do not mix but Monduran and lenthalls put the lie to this with both producing good fish.
If successful I reckon that the jacks would bring the tourist bucks whilst the purists would continue to target the bass.
Cheers
Ray
Title: Dam bass may be jack fodder
Post by: Editor on October 04, 2013, 08:30:07 PM
Dam bass may be jack fodder - Northern Star Newspaper 4/10/13

THAT Clarrie Hall Dam mangrove jack study is for twice as much money as was reported here a few weeks ago.

A Southern Cross University application to breed and stock jack fingerlings into the dam to "provide NSW anglers with an exciting new high quality recreational fishing opportunity" has received $81,200 from the Recreational Fishing Trusts (our licence money), according to the trusts' draft outcomes report of July 17.

The project must address the risks of stocking outside the species distribution and impacts on other species, according to the report.

And given the predatory nature of jacks, the bass that have been stocked in the dam for close to 20 years through the Australian Bass Association could well be in for a hard time.

The group has been stocking Clarrie Hall under the auspices of the dam owners, the Tweed Shire Council, making it one of the most productive - and definitely the most scenic - bass impoundments in the state.

An ABA member said yesterday that, to his knowledge, the university had made only brief contact several months ago and at that stage had no funding for the scheme.

"A lot of people who like fishing for mangrove jacks could be excited about this if it works out, but it could also mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a bass fishery," he said. "Any bass fingerlings we stock would have a big chance of ending up as jack food."

Apart from the bass themselves, there isn't a huge amount of food in the dam for mangrove jacks, which can grow to 20kg in the wild.

The bass association isn't likely to keep battling to raise money to stock the dam with bass fingerlings that would be doomed to become jack fodder.

Other food sources in the dam include tiny feral gambusia mosquito fish, native firetail gudgeons, native eel-tail catfish, frogs, insects and zooplankton - hardly enough to feed a 2kg jack, let alone a 10kg red devil.

And given the dam's propensity to spill over regularly during autumn floods, taking many fish downstream forever, most of the stocked jacks are going to end up in the Tweed River with their wild brethren.

For that kind of money, you could employ another Fisheries compliance officer for a year to help ferret out and convict some of the black marketeers that have ostensibly forced Fisheries managers to slash recreational bag limits.

I'd love to be proven wrong, but to me the whole scheme smells like something cooked up in the uni staffroom at playlunch…

http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/dam-bass-may-be-jack-fodder/2040832/ (http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/dam-bass-may-be-jack-fodder/2040832/)
Title: Re: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: elops on October 04, 2013, 08:32:49 PM
Shameful waste of 81K, who oversees these grants ?
Title: Re: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: wesfish on November 04, 2013, 06:55:03 AM
Never been there, is their no mullet, boney's , gar , rainbows , shrimp , yabbies , spangles , silvers , yellas or cod in there??
Title: Re: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: aussiebasser on November 04, 2013, 07:03:19 AM
If you wanted an impoundment to trial a fair dinkum study of Mangrove Jack stocking, Clarrie Hall is probably the best place to do it.  Small and reasonably easy to control, empties directly into a river which already has a healthy Mangrove Jack population and has some good structure.  I wonder what all the doomsayers would have said about the first stockings of Barramundi in Awoonga and Monduran, the first stockings of Bass in Somerset and Wivenhoe or the First Stocking of Yellas and Silvers this side of the Great Divide.  Should we have stocked Murray Cod into any impoundments?
Title: Re: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: elops on November 04, 2013, 08:48:55 AM
Not doomsaying just saying 81 K for study that can be done simply with a bit of research of the work done thus far. Water parameters are not ideal, overwinter temps are marginal, growth would be slow with entrainment most likely at first opportunity. Current cost of fingerlings does make a smaller impoundment more viable as a trial in the southern impoundments. Spend half that contract it to one of the local hatcheries with broodstock that is capable of producing fingerlings and you would have a trial there.
Title: Re: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: aussiebasser on November 04, 2013, 08:58:27 AM
Are there any NSW hatcheries breeding Jacks?  This is a University Study, not a straight out Commercial venture.   I would think the University will breed the fish allowing Students to study this work.  A bit like the work Kilcoy High School was doing.
Title: Re: Could this mean the end of Clarrie Hall as a Bass Fisery
Post by: elops on November 04, 2013, 10:54:48 AM
No hatcheries that I know of. NSW fisheries and a couple of commercial hatcheries have suitable facilities. Genetic studies done have shown that east coast and gulf populations belong to a single ESU. The thing with Jacks is they are a marine fish, a small number recruit to suitable "freshwater" (sic) though they do have the proven capability to spend most if not all of their lives in suitable freshwater habitat. One of those other species which trial stockings have been insufficient to draw any real conclusions from IMHO.