Monduran Barra - Etiquette

[artesian]

Mayney,

I don't take any barra from Monduran, although I hook a few. They don't taste good to me, or my family.

I also don't take every shot that is offered. Yes, I do have a license. There seem to be quite a few who don't have licenses, you can read about them in the paper.....there often seems to be some sort of connection with illegal drugs.

Either way, from where I sit you took a cheap shot- as is your right on this forum.

As you said, it is that time of the year. Merry Christmas :-), and I hope we have all been good and get all that we wish for.

Rick

[goddy100]

As Mayney stated, there has been no official reply from any fish stocking group on this matter. While I cannot speak for any particular group, I have been involved in fish stocking since the mid nineties. The idea of large barra being a major predator of fingerlings was banded around by the DPI many years ago, and as such I decided to contact them direct by emailing Alf Hogan. Alf is recognised as the pioneer of freshwater impoundment stocking and has many years of knowledge on the subject. Below was his reply:

There hasn't been any formal research in impoundments as far as I am aware, just convincing observations. We used to net barra on a regular basis in Tinaroo. In the early days, we tried all sizes at stocking and regularly found big netted barra spitting up newly stocked 30cm barra. Barra can actually eat fish 2/3 their own body lengths, which is information that has been published. As well, during this year's cold snap that killed a lot of barra in impoundments, there was evidence from dead barra sizes that the big ones had eaten the smaller ones. Bill Sawynok was going to write a report about this and send it to all the stocking groups involved with barra. Contact Bill for more info.

Also, each dam has a certain carrying capacity. If a dam is understocked, then small and large barra are likely to coexist. However, when it starts to become crowded, the big ones will knock off the little ones. This happens with all predators, eg lions.

There was a fair bit of research done on barra in the NT rivers. What they found was that early season spawnings grew quickly, then ate most of the late season fingerling barra. The same happened with two good wet seasons in a row. The first good wet season barra fed on the second good season recruits, so there were only good barra populations every second year, which explained the gap in year class sizes despite good seasons that puzzled many of us. This info has been published. You might be able to find it on the NT Fisheries web site. Have a look at http://www.nt.gov.au/dpifm/Fisheries/Content/File/2004_FSR_barramundi.pdf which will give you some info. Roly Griffin and Paul deLestang were the researchers. They have both left Darwin, but a search for articles written by them should turn up the original research. I don't have a copy on hand.

From his reply you can see that barra do play a major part in eating stocked fingerlings. Even with this, I still would not kill a barra just because it is large. As stated it all depends on stocking levels (and baitfish biomass) and the only dam that I know of that has this issue is Tinaroo. However as other dams mature (such as Awoonga and Proserpine) then they too could be facing the same troubles. Dams that allow barra to escape over the spillway (Moodarra) may not get as many large barra (though 115 to 125cm barras are caught regularly) but will keep the population down enough reduce predation pressure.

Hope this helps clear up some things

Goddy

PS-yes they are put and take fisheries, so as long as people are within the law then as a group we do not have a problem. However just killing fish for no reason (not eating or mounting them) seems like so much of a waste.

PPS – I am also a shooter and gun owner and found the gun comment offensive, so I will leave it alone.

[TinarooTriumph]

goddy - Good on you for emailing Alf - he is a bloody top bloke. If it wasn't for Alf, it would be fair to say no one would be catching Impoundment Barra. A pioneer he definetely is.

[Mayney]

Goody100,

Thanks for your informative response and the extract of correspondence from Alf Hogan at the DPI, Kairi. It really explained some of the reasoning behind the discussions I have had and some of the comments in this debate.

I agree that, as stated by you, killing for no reason (excluding eating or mounting a trophy) is unacceptable. I personally would be satisified with a hook-up, a good fight, a camera shot and a release of the big ones.

I am sorry that you had to feel offended by my comments on gun owners, maybe I cast the net too wide. My comments and warped sense of humour were aimed at the shooters who kill for no reason (like the fishers mentioned in the previous posts who put the carcasses of big barra on guide posts or in rubbish bins). No problems with the killing of vermin though.:wink:

Happy New Year

Mayney

[BR65]

Hey Tinaroo Tiumph,
is there a shortage of naturally occurring bait in Tinaroo?? Just curious, as a lot of the "take the big fish out" thought seems to refer back to early days from that impoundment.
cheers
brian