Where are the Monduran (& Awoonga) Trout?

[Peter4]

There have been quite a number of reports of successful barra trips in recent weeks at both destinations, but in all but one or two reports there is no mention of catfish.

Is no-one catching them (we got none during our last Mondy trip) or are they not being included in reports?

Are catfish populations in decline due to barra predation?

The reason I ask is that generally when you catch catfish, you also catch barra and they are a reasonable indication of how active the fish are...:-/

Just curious....

Regs

Pete

[Barraholic]

Pete,

They are still being caught here at Awoonga - the wonderful joys of nature that they are :)

Kev

[Peter4]

Yeah mate, I thought so......I hate the buggers too but usually where you catch them you also get barra....

[Steve B]

Yeah mate, I thought so......I hate the buggers too but usually where you catch them you also get barra....

They arent game to come near my boat!!;D

But your right Pete (I speak only for Monduran).

there has been a definate decrease in catties. Even through the hotter months last year when they are generally more prolific.

reasons?? mabey preditation of their young by barra and each other?

Plastics?? I have found catties to be tail grabbers....I mean, on B52, Xraps etc the catties I have caught mainly bite the tail trebble...now with the majority of anglers nowdays switching to plastics on regular basis (compared to 2 yrs ago)....mabey the 'tap taps' we get regularly are catties...just not hooking up...whereas in HB days we would have scored a cattie and been pi##ed off.;)

back in March I cast plastics most of an arvo....no catties (or barra) then trolled a B52 around the North arm of B for 1 hour and caught 5 catties (still no barra)..all hooked on the tail trebble.

This is just a theory with no scientific backup;)

Personally, I dont miss them!!! but nature has its reasons good or bad.

Steve

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Peter,
Catfish caught on charter this last week, amongst the barra. Like the barramundi, the catfish also wake up to fake offerings, via whatever reasons. The catfish numbers have decreased since 1996, 13 yrs and 6 months ago. (20 in a session were common back then.) A change in predator rolls took place over that period. Throw out a baited hook in 2009 and you will still catch many catfish.
Cheers,
Johnny

[gladbream]

peter
the catfish populations have been more regular in reports within the past 12-18 months. although i have not found too many in the past couple of weeks (maybe different habitat that i am fishing) they still are poping up more regular. i dont know too much about the predator control by the barra, but it certainly does not help in the bass fisheries (i.e. wivenhoe). the barra would help to an extent but since the inflow events into awoonga the recruit numbers have followed. awoonga had a couple of good years with low numbers of catfish but there was next to nothing inflow into the dam.

just what i have seen with the fishery from my end, may be due to another environmental or ecological factor.

cheers
kh

[BR65]

Dunno Pete, I am the catfish king when I tie on a green and chrome Arafura, but the be-whiskered fiends have featured less and less in my trip diary entries this past year.
personal theory, they are to fat and happy slurping all the insects off the top of the water after dark to be bothered chasing a lure, amazing noises some evenings!

[NAGG]

I'm not concerned ;) ;D ;D

chris

[warrior]

pete i got 4 for the weekend and they were where the barra were biting and they hit hard too

[gunna]

I was at Awoonga ramp a couple months back and there were three blokes in a boat happy as the proverbial pig. They had been catty fishing with frozen prawns and had a ball. Caught heaps.

[Boomi Boy]

I am not afraid to admit to being a big fan of the forky. If others wish to deride them as rubbish or pest fish, thats their call. I reckon they they are great fish. Targetted on appropriate tackle they give a great account of themseves and, IMO, are bloody good tucker, especially in the 40/50cm sizes, taken in good water.
Its each to their own, but somedays I like to catch a lot of fish, rather than 1 monster. I have had some great days catching "trout" on trout gear, and you know the released fish will survive a lot better than most other species. I might take a couple for the table and then the rest go back. I like fishing spinner baits and forkies take them readily. I have caught them on nearly every type of lure straight out of the box, no mysteries or secrets, suits me.
Not many forkies are going to give much against a 10kg stick armed with 50lb braid and a super duper barra reel, but get back to some "fair" tackle and I reckon they go better and longer than some of the other "trophy" species. This 70cm Dawson River specimen was a highlight of a day where I lost count at twenty lure caught fish, beat the hell out of a fishless day chasing barra the day before,

cheers

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/7029/1000261my3.jpg

[NAGG]

I am not afraid to admit to being a big fan of the forky. If others wish to deride them as rubbish or pest fish, thats their call. I reckon they they are great fish. Targetted on appropriate tackle they give a great account of themseves and, IMO, are bloody good tucker, especially in the 40/50cm sizes, taken in good water.
Its each to their own, but somedays I like to catch a lot of fish, rather than 1 monster. I have had some great days catching "trout" on trout gear, and you know the released fish will survive a lot better than most other species. I might take a couple for the table and then the rest go back. I like fishing spinner baits and forkies take them readily. I have caught them on nearly every type of lure straight out of the box, no mysteries or secrets, suits me.
Not many forkies are going to give much against a 10kg stick armed with 50lb braid and a super duper barra reel, but get back to some "fair" tackle and I reckon they go better and longer than some of the other "trophy" species. This 70cm Dawson River specimen was a highlight of a day where I lost count at twenty lure caught fish, beat the hell out of a fishless day chasing barra the day before,

cheers

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/7029/1000261my3.jpg

No worries Boomi ......... I sat on the bank at Awoonga a few months back & flicked in little pieces of prawn on bream gear - - - Yep they go hard on 4lb braid :P
Then you land the fish ....... & :(

[Boomi Boy]

Why the frown smiley?
Did you get one over 1kg? Did you get one over 40cm? There are thousands of fisho,s chasing bream every weekend that consider a fish over a kg or 40cm a trophy. What did you want the fish to do? They eat a whole lot better than impoundment barra and fight ok on a lb for lb basis, how much better does a 40cm barra go?
Barra snobs! They amuse me, try hanging your 130cm barra next to a 400kg blue, or this baby(caught by a girly)

http://www.fishing.net.nz/asp_forums/uploads/70246/hardcorefishing.jpg


http://www.fishing.net.nz/asp_forums/uploads/70246/hardcorefishing.jpg

Wake up bud, there are fishos spending heaps of hard earned catching shitty little 25cm rainbows dagging on people catching 10kg carp on 2kg, I do a bit of both, the wank factor is amazing.

cheers

[NAGG]

Why the frown smiley?
Did you get one over 1kg? Did you get one over 40cm? There are thousands of fisho,s chasing bream every weekend that consider a fish over a kg or 40cm a trophy. What did you want the fish to do? They eat a whole lot better than impoundment barra and fight ok on a lb for lb basis, how much better does a 40cm barra go?
Barra snobs! They amuse me, try hanging your 130cm barra next to a 400kg blue, or this baby(caught by a girly)

http://www.fishing.net.nz/asp_forums/uploads/70246/hardcorefishing.jpg


http://www.fishing.net.nz/asp_forums/uploads/70246/hardcorefishing.jpg

Wake up bud, there are fishos spending heaps of hard earned catching shitty little 25cm rainbows dagging on people catching 10kg carp on 2kg, I do a bit of both, the wank factor is amazing.

cheers

Bloody trollers ::) ;D

[BR65]

Is that a girl???
Do they relay eat up OK B.B. How do you prepare them? I see the water color has a slight greenish tinge in that photo, is there any flow on taste from that?

Im not taking the p*ss, I would like to know.

[Dick Pasfield]

Do they relay eat up OK B.B. How do you prepare them?

From this neck of the woods –

Giant salmon catfish (Arius thalassinus) mainly found in the tidal sections of a river and associated areas. Usually take a bait for a barra or threadfin. Some locals will turn one into roll mops on and eat them throughout the day, just to help the beer go down.


http://i464.photobucket.com/albums/rr4/dickpasfield/Fish/1-31.jpg



Shovel nosed catfish (Arius midgleyi) one of my chief targets on the river and the lake, will take jigs in the deep water minnows along the weed beds and surface lures, all with gusto. They are commercially targeted on Lake Argyle and sold as ‘Silver Cobbler’

http://i464.photobucket.com/albums/rr4/dickpasfield/Fish/2-16.jpg



Lesser salmon catfish (Arius graeffei) taste like crap and don’t get all that big. They also take lures. If you have a close look at ol’ mate midgleyi above you’ll note a somewhat dazed graeffei that had just taken a surface crawler and was been wound in for release got hammered as a live bait!

[Boomi Boy]

For the Dawson, that waters pretty clear, end of winter. Its a good flowing river, pretty healthy, no algae or shite. As far as eating, I just stuff em with a bit of butter and garlic to taste, wrap em in foil and shove em on the hot plate. They ain,t ever gunna compare with the topline salt species, but for sweetwater fish they eat fine by me and the missus loves em. Just get all the slime off em. Some of the old hands insist on skinning em, which is easy enough with a pair of pliers, but I don,t. One big tip, I snip the three spines with side cutters before handling the keepers, don,t find out the hard way why,

cheers

[A_DIFF_PERSPECTIVE]

Cheers Boomi Boy, I see your point.

Nice phots Dick. Is catfish number 2 (small one) connected to the lure, or did big bertha regurgitate it? Who ate who, when?
Johnny

[Dick Pasfield]

Cheers Boomi Boy, I see your point.

Nice phots Dick. Is catfish number 2 (small one) connected to the lure, or did big bertha regurgitate it? Who ate who, when?
Johnny

Small one hit the lure (half its size) and was been pulled in, splashing on the surface. Big one took a liking and wore the second treble for its trouble. Not the first time a big one has hit a little one as its been pulled to the boat.

Had one of about a kilo once belted and we all went for a ride around the lake for a little while. Finally as I start to gain more line than lost little tacker comes free. Pull it in and there's a very dazed cattie missing its two pectoral spines (each about 50mm long). Its not hard to imagine those sticking into the gullet of the big one as little tacker says "You're not eating me!" The spines jammed in was all that kept the big one connected, until it managed to shake the little one free.