releasing large barra

[mylestom]

Thanks Brett for letting us all know.

Great to have eyes and ears on the ground.

Sometimes these things tend to sneak by without much consultation.


Regards Trev

[still_water]

No worries Trev. See you all on the water.

Oh yeh they are hittin hard at the moment to. But keep that quiet so they dont make me donate them. LOL.

Brett

[mylestom]

Will catch up with you at Monduran in early Oct.

Tnks Trev

[barramad.]

Brett,
Thanks for the info mate, its plain to see how you feel about the place, despite it being a source of income for you.

Good to hear its firing, much be catch........Awoonga has fished the best Ive seen it for a month or so.
VERY good numbers of metreys during the day.
Squidgys doing the damage for me and a few mates from back home.

Wont get a chance to catch up until after the 25th mate, heading to Maningrida for a week on the 19th.
Might drag down the new Mozzie for its maiden voyage
Cheers
Jas

[rick_k]

This will add more heat than light to the argument, but here goes.

Blue green algae and similar are bad.

Daphnia and similar eat blue green algae etc, so Daphnia are good.

Bony bream/spangled perch/?, eat daphnia, so Bony Bream are bad.

Small barra/biggish bass/? eat Bony Bream, so they are good.

Big barra eat whatever swims past, including small barra and all bass, so they are bad.

Simple solution; appropriate mesh sized gill net, and since the big barra would be hard to sell because they taste not so nice as a salty. Well, pretty bad, then lets turn them into fish meal.

OR

We could, (and in my view should) since we are paying for it with SIPS and tax, put in enough small fish; barra/jacks/gar/?/whatever else is endemic, so it doesn't matter if the big'uns eat a few. (And, although I haven't seen the research on birds, they have to be eating something to be there in such big numbers.) Some of the fish released are going to die, and maybe more of the big ones than the less big ones.

That way, an environment already changed out of sight by construction of the dam and changes in water level of same, is put to good use; the water quality is maintained, fishers are happy and the surrounding economy, and that of Australia, does well. The only unhappy ones are those who thing we should turn all carnivores, from us to the barra, into benign vegetarians. And since that ain't going to happen, why worry about them?

Following the trend of putting full names after inflamatory posts, mine is Rick Knott. And I'm not a scientist, not a guide, and don't work for DPI.

[banshee]

I received two emails today concerning Awoonga and the culling of Barramundi,one was quite brief but the other was detailed, both left me in no doubt that there was absolutely no case for the culling of Barramundi of any size in the dam.The underlying message was by all means take some for food if you want (preferably the smaller fish for palatability) but any fish not wanted for food should be carefully handled (detailed instructions given) and released.I have asked for permission to show the email to anglers heading north from here thinking that they should be killing the fish,if anyone else is interested I could post it hear,if permission is forthcoming.

[barramad.]

Which is what Ive said from the very start.
Jas

[mylestom]

We will all be interested in seeing the email, once you get the permission.

The BS that some people are spreading around the dams about killing all the large fish is just that BS.

Without factual science behind any of their claims.

For me the joy of catching and releasing a metre plus barra is one of those things that you remember for a long time.

It doesn't decrease the more you catch the big ones, the memory is still just as good.

That big barra released may bring the same enjoyment to another fellow angler, and so on it goes.

They are too valuable a resource to be only caught once and killed for the freezer.

If you want to keep one for the fillets, the smaller ones sure taste a lot better.

Really looking forward to my next trip at the end of the month. Bring on those big girls.


Trev