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Author Topic: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS  (Read 11710 times)

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JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« on: June 01, 2011, 05:40:04 PM »
Just a little info on Bass and Goldens please.

There has been a lot of talk on the Bass reaching the length of 60cm, the magic figure.
Do they have the same growth patten as the Barra, where, if left undisturbed and in a well fed impoundment they will just keep on growing. 

I am talking length rather than weight and does the same go for Golden Perch ?

Thanks in advance fellas.

Gordon


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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #1 on: June 01, 2011, 07:06:31 PM »
Being a lover I Wild bass I must correct that statement and say the 'magic' figure is 50cm ;). As for their growth rates, to be honest I don't know but have an inkling that Bass are more susceptible to heavier stocking rates producing smaller fish than Barra are.

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2011, 07:25:54 PM »
I personally know of at least one Bass caught in my area around Lismore that was at least 60cm. However my personal best was just a fin over 50cm taken in the Clarence Gorge. As far as yella's are concerned I've never heard of one bigger that about 55cm but that's not final obviously. Yella's tend to explode outwards like a fat kid in a chocolate factory. It seems therefore that most folk guage their bass capture by length while the yella's are guaged by weight?
JD

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #3 on: June 01, 2011, 08:27:43 PM »
They are about the sizes I have seen JD, my lagest Bass was just on 50.   But, with the Barra in impoundments they have this 'problem', for the fisherman that is, where they keep on growing.

The hardware has to be upgraded every few years to match the fish that you may catch.

I am wondering if the Bass has the same affliction if left alone in the dams.

Someone will fill us in on this  shortly.

Gordon

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #4 on: June 01, 2011, 09:04:20 PM »
Gordon

I believe it has a bit to do with generic variation as well as food source.  22yrs ago, I was fishing in a river below a dam in NSW when we happened upon a section of river containing extra large bass.  Given the difficulties of getting to that section, I doubt it had much pressure and there was an abundance of bait.  Dozen or so fish over 60cm topping out to my PB of 65cm.  We only found this size in that area and it was locked up to waterholes due to years of dry.

Steve

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2011, 09:43:28 PM »
I personally know of at least one Bass caught in my area around Lismore that was at least 60cm. However my personal best was just a fin over 50cm taken in the Clarence Gorge. As far as yella's are concerned I've never heard of one bigger that about 55cm but that's not final obviously. Yella's tend to explode outwards like a fat kid in a chocolate factory. It seems therefore that most folk guage their bass capture by length while the yella's are guaged by weight?
JD

A fish kill happened a while ago at Ewen Maddock Dam below the spillway where oxygen levels got too low and I have reports from very reliable sources that Yella's were measured around 70cm.

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #6 on: June 01, 2011, 10:35:25 PM »
I've personally caught bass to 59cm & golden perch to 74cm.

Speaking to research guys in various state fisheries, they've described bass to in excess of 70cm, the mind boggles!!!!  :OMG

I recon there a trend for wild bass which can have a similar trend in some barra waters, that being.... bigger river = bigger fish.

The Richmond & Clarence produce some cracker wild fish,  smaller systems don't seem to produce fish this big (not a hard n dast rule)

There was a bass in the Qld Times newspaper in the 70s at 69cm so they do get that size in SEQ systems.

Im not convinced that bass in lakes don't suffer from fatty liver like sooties can. I recon they could be dying from getting overweight as we just don't seem to get a big number go far past 56/ 58cm long.... that or they change their feeding habits & we (anglers in general) havent cracked the pattern as yet.

fitz..

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #7 on: June 01, 2011, 10:36:59 PM »
Longest Yella I have caught was 70cm in the Barcoo many years ago.
Heaviest yella I have caught was in an impoundment a couple of years ago, went 60cm, and was nearly a kilo heavier than the yella mentioned above.

I take reports of big bass from NSW with a grain of salt, they are overlapping with the estuary perch range. The Perch grow bigger, and to the uninitiated the two are difficult to tell apart. Odds are a "big bass" could be an estuary perch.

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2011, 07:00:13 AM »
I think you're wrong in one area Gordon.  Barra in impoundments don't just keep growing.  If they did, we'd see 3 metre fish coming out of Tinaroo :o.  Like all animals and even humans, nothing just keeps growing.  It doesn't matter how long he lives, and as long as my butt is pointing at the ground Fitzy will never be 6' tall, the same as you'll never see a 12 foot tall kangaroo or a 100 foot tall giraffe.  The misconception that Bass keep growing his held by many.  I'm of the view that the "normal" growth of a Bass will see the average fish reach low to mid 50's, then there are a few Michael Jordan's that may reach 60, and the extremely rare chinese guy in the Guiness Book of records, who at 8'6" tall is the equivilent of the 83cm Bass the DEEDI guys elecrofished in a river up north.  How many people do you see, even if they live to be 100 years old keep growing in height?  Nature sees to it that animals and fish reach their maximum size when they are at the peak of their physical fitness.  It's how the world works.  Alfred Glassel caught the world record Marlin in 1952.  It was 1560lbs.  There has never, ever been one caught bigger.  Surely if thy kept growing someone would have caught an older and bigger one in the last 59 years.  Tagging data tells us that a Bass my brother caught in Moogerah took 12 years to grow from 32cm to 53cm.  It doesn't tell us if it only took 4 years to grow to that size and remained the same size, or even shrank a bit in the following 8 years.  That is the failing of tagging data.

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #9 on: June 02, 2011, 07:29:48 AM »
Thanks for all the above fellas, still gives us some grist for the mill and one to aim for.   

I had read that somewhere Dale, must have been one of the tackle suppliers started the yarn
Also if would have given Fitzy something to hope for.

The Clarence Gorge is on my go to list again I have landed some small Bass there and seen a very good one, nobody had a tape at the time.
Could the Estaury Perch be getting up into the flats where you enter the boulder country.
This would be handy to know.

Thanks again
Gordon

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #10 on: June 02, 2011, 01:28:38 PM »
59 is my biggest.

Have heard so many stories of the magical "unicorn" of 60 cm but still to see one.

I know its out there, here fishy fishy.

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #11 on: June 02, 2011, 07:14:55 PM »
Fellas I have seen solid proof of a 65cm Bass. It was caught near the boat ramp in Lismore on the Wilson River less than a year back. I was in Suffolks Sports store when the bloke came in and had taken a picture of it with his mobile phone with his wifes dressmaking tape along it. The thing is that the tape wasn't dead straight. Had it been straight it could have added about 2-3cm to the length. We asked him if it swam away OK and he said "Oh I took it home and ate it." Bogan! It's just possible that this fish was getting old and tired and the smelly thing this clod had on his hook was to easy to pass up. Thought for the day; When these big fish die what happens to them? Is there a bass graveyard somewhere like the mythical Elephants graveyard? I have never seen a dead Bass floating other than after a fish kill when there were many others and various species as well.
JD

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #12 on: June 02, 2011, 09:01:03 PM »
Seen solid proof of the unicorn  :o

ANd crinkle cut frozen brag mats are not proof  C:-)

Someone show me the money. Or I will be forced to stretch the next high fiddy to the mark.  :-X

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #13 on: June 02, 2011, 09:34:05 PM »


I take reports of big bass from NSW with a grain of salt, they are overlapping with the estuary perch range. The Perch grow bigger, and to the uninitiated the two are difficult to tell apart. Odds are a "big bass" could be an estuary perch.

Hmmm, could be.  I would have sworn mine were bass, but I don't claim to be a expert in fish ID, so you may be right.  The area was in the upper north hunter valley area, which I thought would be well away from EP country, but I could be wrong.

I did cross tracks with a bloke about 10 years ago who talked about catching XOS bass in a particular area.  When we later compared notes, it was the same area and fish in the same size bracket.

Steve

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Re: JUST A QUESTION FELLAS
« Reply #14 on: June 03, 2011, 07:10:26 AM »
Fellas I have seen solid proof of a 65cm Bass. It was caught near the boat ramp in Lismore on the Wilson River less than a year back. I was in Suffolks Sports store when the bloke came in and had taken a picture of it with his mobile phone with his wifes dressmaking tape along it. The thing is that the tape wasn't dead straight. Had it been straight it could have added about 2-3cm to the length. We asked him if it swam away OK and he said "Oh I took it home and ate it." Bogan! It's just possible that this fish was getting old and tired and the smelly thing this clod had on his hook was to easy to pass up. Thought for the day; When these big fish die what happens to them? Is there a bass graveyard somewhere like the mythical Elephants graveyard? I have never seen a dead Bass floating other than after a fish kill when there were many others and various species as well.
JD

If his tape was crooked the fish would have been shorter when it was straightened out, not longer!  There was once a 63cm Bass photo shown in a national magazine which came from the Clarence River.  When that picture was blown up to actual size, ie. the fish measuring 63cm printed on paper, the anglers ring finger at the first knuckle was 25mm wide. 

Here's a challenge.  $100 voucher for the Sweetwater Shop to the first person who posts a pic of a 60+cm Bass on a verifiable measure.  If you're holding it up, it won't count, because, surprising enough, some fishermen have been known to tell porkies....

 

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