Surprise Bass

[Jim_Tait]

Kids wanted to go and drown a worm for a cattie for the smoker yesterday arvo - but by the time we dug some worms it was tea time - so mum agreed we could have a 'short' fish after tea and before bath time - we raced down the swimming hole behind the house and just about the time we were meant to be going up for bath time we started getting a few bites.

My girl Bodhi dropped one fish near the surface and I was surprised by the fight and its appearance - looked more like a bass than a cattie - which we generally don't get this far up the creek due to a road crossing barrier downstream - next bite I pulled in and scored a nice cattie.

Since it was time to go I told my young fella Jules to pull his line in as well and as he was doing it he came up taunt on a fish - turned into quite a battle on his little ugly stick and bugger me when he fiinally got it to the bank - turned out to be a nice bass - he's never kept one before so I said he could as we're all fans on the occasional crispy fried bass!

Regards - Jim

[bdowdy]

good stuff congrats to the young fella on anice fish.cheers bdowdy

[Little grey men]

Hey Jim, I'm guessing that your avatar picture is of you as a critter, if so, it's good to see the young bloke following in the old man's footsteps. And your little princess too.

[Leigh77]

Its good to see you gettin the young ones into fishing early...but its a pity you kept the Bass, afterall, you did say yourself that there arent many up the way. So the first one you catch, you kill.

Thats one less Bass in those waters.

[tonyp]

Its good to see you gettin the young ones into fishing early...but its a pity you kept the Bass, afterall, you did say yourself that there arent many up the way. So the first one you catch, you kill.

Thats one less Bass in those waters.

Leigh, we stock im so people can take them, one for the fry pan won't hurt .

Great look on the kids face though

[Fitzy]

Great stuff Jim, Bodhi & Jules.

Aint nothing better than getting the kids outdoors & catching a fish. Better than nintendo.....


Congrats Jim.

Fitz..

[Jim_Tait]

Its good to see you gettin the young ones into fishing early...but its a pity you kept the Bass, afterall, you did say yourself that there arent many up the way. So the first one you catch, you kill.

Thats one less Bass in those waters.

Leigh,

save me the rightous lecture on eating bass mate! I've worked in fish habitat conservation all my profesional life as a fish biologist and wetland manager - and I don't know you from a bar of soap but I'd hazard a guess that I've been responsible for more fish ending up back in native habitats than you have.

The barrier affecting my home swimming hole is 300 m downstream, below which there is a very healthy bass population - in fact the Richmond basin as a whole probably has one of the better bass populations of any NSW river. Bass are a migratory and not resident fish and depending upon how long the creek bridge gets flooded out downstream from my house (or if I get a rock ramp built on it as planned) - there'll be bass back in it next flood flow or the next one.

As I said in my post I hadn't let my young fella keep one before - despite the fact he has caught several and this was his first keeper and rightly so - it will be delicious and our family will appreciate it (usually with a little appreciation mention before the meal) and the Richmond bass population will be one fish less off (regardless of where it came from) and one bass loving angler conservationist better off!!

While I predominantly practice catch and release - i'm not averse to keeping a feed for my family from healthy fish populations - and I work personally toward making more fish populations healthy - if you'r one who feels tyou come from high moral ground because you only only practice catch and release and don't like eating fish or can't bring yourself to killing the poor fishy wishy - take you high moral stanch up with PETA - i'm sure they'd have a few notes to compare with you!!

Regards Jim

[Leigh77]

Leigh,

save me the rightous lecture on eating bass mate! I've worked in fish habitat conservation all my profesional life as a fish biologist and wetland manager - and I don't know you from a bar of soap but I'd hazard a guess that I've been responsible for more fish ending up back in native habitats than you have.

You said it yourself, you dont know me from a bar of soap, hence the "guess" that would prove you mistaken. I am not going to get into a tally count with you, but I have been an active member of a Stocking Organisation for 13 of my 30 year life and in that time have seen thousands (dare I say 10s of thousands) of Bass and Cod released into their natural riverine environment.

The barrier affecting my home swimming hole is 300 m downstream, below which there is a very healthy bass population - in fact the Richmond basin as a whole probably has one of the better bass populations of any NSW river.

This I was not aware of at the time of my post, I will admit that, but it doesnt change my opinion.

Bass are a migratory and not resident fish and depending upon how long the creek bridge gets flooded out downstream from my house (or if I get a rock ramp built on it as planned) - there'll be bass back in it next flood flow or the next one.

No need to explain the ins and outs of Bass migration, but since you dont know me from a bar of soap, you wouldnt of known my level of experience with Bass.

As I said in my post I hadn't let my young fella keep one before - despite the fact he has caught several and this was his first keeper and rightly so - it will be delicious and our family will appreciate it (usually with a little appreciation mention before the meal) and the Richmond bass population will be one fish less off (regardless of where it came from) and one bass loving angler conservationist better off!!

While I predominantly practice catch and release - i'm not averse to keeping a feed for my family from healthy fish populations - and I work personally toward making more fish populations healthy - if you'r one who feels tyou come from high moral ground because you only only practice catch and release and don't like eating fish or can't bring yourself to killing the poor fishy wishy - take you high moral stanch up with PETA - i'm sure they'd have a few notes to compare with you!!

Once again the whole idea of free speech and having your own opinion on a matter has gone out the window...Yes, I do practise catch and release 100% of the time and I acknowledge that not everyone does the same. If thats what you want to do then go ahead, but dont attack someone for disagreeing with your actions. I never attacked you personally, became childish or unreasonable, yet when someone disagrees with your actions you did all 3.

Regards Jim

I think that covers just about everything I have to say.

[TonyM]

Great stuff Jim and well done kids!

ahh you're making me pine for living on the water again - it has to be one of, if not the best place to raise kids. (we used to live on the Hawkesbury)

Cheers,
Tony

[Jim_Tait]

I am not going to get into a tally count with you, but I have been an active member of a Stocking Organisation for 13 of my 30 year life and in that time have seen thousands (dare I say 10s of thousands) of Bass and Cod released into their natural riverine environment.

To be honest with you Leigh I am not really a big fan of stocking bass into open river systems (as opposed to impoundments or threatened species such as cod) while the real causes of population decline i.e. recruitment bottlenecks associated with habitat impacts go unaddressed - can potentially do more damage than good - something I wrote about in a paper you'll find at

http://www.frdc.com.au/research/onli...port_final.pdf


Regards Jim

[Leigh77]

I fully agree with you there Jim, but as you would know getting the appropriate departments to even acknowledge a problem can be a tough battle...then you have to wait and see what (if anything) they are going to do about. This could take years in some cases.

While the ultimate goal is to have fish ladders on all weirs (would be better to remove weirs all together I think) , bankside vegetation fully re-established, and the river back to what it was before mans hand touched it...but sometimes we must take a short term approach, while we tackle the long term issues.

If we leave Mother Nature alone, she will sort herself out...but due to human activities in past generations, sometimes she needs a little of our help today.

[Jim_Tait]

Fully agree mate - as I discussed in the 'Habitat Restoration - beyond the easy fix for fish stocks" paper, stocking has an important and legitimate role in fish stock recovery / enhancement - just need to make sure that we're not flogging a dead horse when the main impact on some fish stocks is a habitat quality and availability one!, and that we're able to identify when habitat restoration options might provide a more cost effective stock recovery option.

Regards - Jim

[Leigh77]

Blowing up the weirs/man made obstructions would make a good start!

[Jim_Tait]

High explosive is hard to come across these days!!

Stop making or proposing to make new new dams / weirs would also be a help - but dealing with the water drought also requires dealing with the people floood (in SE Qld at least) - and not too many pollies see electoral value in that.

Regards - Jim

[Fitzy]

Blowing up the weirs/man made obstructions would make a good start!

There are lots of unused weirs around. A great place to start!!!

Leigh, you would have paddles around Luscombe Wr? That one needs a stick of C4 to let the bass & cod move up/down the river.

fitz..