GT stocking trial for Qld dams.

[Lovey80]

I don’t believe there’s Barra stocking in an impoundment on the Noosa river. Possibly Barra farms like what’s happened in the Maroochy. But I do believe that natural Barra have been caught in the Noosa in small numbers over the years.

at least with Barra and Jacks they are native to the Sal water river down stream and naturally found there. Humans have been netting and targeting Barra and jacks in those systems for years. The floods certainly boost the numbers but surely not to the extent of being a detriment to the fishery? How many Barra were in those rivers pre-settlement?

those big females becoming fertile and outside the legal catch size would do wonders for Barra recruitment numbers. I imagine the jacks wouldn’t stay in the creeks long before heading offshore like they normally would.

[chris69]

I don’t believe there’s Barra stocking in an impoundment on the Noosa river. Possibly Barra farms like what’s happened in the Maroochy. But I do believe that natural Barra have been caught in the Noosa in small numbers over the years.

at least with Barra and Jacks they are native to the Sal water river down stream and naturally found there. Humans have been netting and targeting Barra and jacks in those systems for years. The floods certainly boost the numbers but surely not to the extent of being a detriment to the fishery? How many Barra were in those rivers pre-settlement?

those big females becoming fertile and outside the legal catch size would do wonders for Barra recruitment numbers. I imagine the jacks wouldn’t stay in the creeks long before heading offshore like they normally would.

Yes tagged barra from Awoonga have been caught there thats how they new where they came from when that dam spilled over many years ago they went in Tincan and Noosa ,theres been no stocking of barra in the Noosa river,but the barra were stocked fish that have ended up in a system were they dont normal come from.

[Alchemy]

Barra go over the wall and turn up in the Noosa river System, there not native to that area.

What do you think a dam over flowing with hundreds of 30 kg GTs and big eyes do to the local native fish???

And black bass would not survive in our estuaries as they only live in the fresh to brackish water.

What do you think has happened to all the local native fish Down steam from lenthil dam when it overflowed and hundreds of Barra invade the area were they don’t normally live in great numbers the native fish get eaten just like what happens when every other Barra dam over flows they eat all the native fish all the way down the the estuary .

We are putting fish in dams for sport in vast numbers that don’t normal live there so what’s the difference between black bass and Giant trevally Black Bass aren’t like tilapia that we have in the Pine dam in plague proportions the shags can only eat so many.

My understanding is that Barra have always been present in small numbers in the Noosa River. If you have a close look at the upper Noosa River, you can see that it nearly connects into Tin Can Bay tributaries. I wouldn’t be surprised if it does during big rains and high tides. Lake Lenthal spills into the Burrum River, which is natural Barra territory, as is the Mary River, and the Susan River to its south. There is a seperate strain of Barra in the Sandy Straits, and that is the Susan River strain. It is quite likely that these Barra have made their way down TCB and into the Noosa tributaries during the right rain and tidal conditions.

Now, I never said I was in favour of releasing GT and big eye into dams, I simply stated that I thought it wasn’t a smart idea to introduce a foreign fish into our dams. Whether they can survive in salt or not, or in brackish water. Maybe we should introduce rabbits into the bush so we can hunt those? Oh, hang on, we’ve done that and it was a disaster!

[Dignity]

My understanding is that Barra have always been present in small numbers in the Noosa River. If you have a close look at the upper Noosa River, you can see that it nearly connects into Tin Can Bay tributaries. I wouldn’t be surprised if it does during big rains and high tides. Lake Lenthal spills into the Burrum River, which is natural Barra territory, as is the Mary River, and the Susan River to its south. There is a seperate strain of Barra in the Sandy Straits, and that is the Susan River strain. It is quite likely that these Barra have made their way down TCB and into the Noosa tributaries during the right rain and tidal conditions.

Now, I never said I was in favour of releasing GT and big eye into dams, I simply stated that I thought it wasn’t a smart idea to introduce a foreign fish into our dams. Whether they can survive in salt or not, or in brackish water. Maybe we should introduce rabbits into the bush so we can hunt those? Oh, hang on, we’ve done that and it was a disaster!

Plenty of barra in Pumicestone Passage if you know where to look. They would have been most likely from spill overs from the barra farm at Bli Bli with the many floods over the decades.
I still think it's April first with this research idea for GT'S.

[Corry]

If anyone wants to have a listen, there is normally a lot of talk on the NQ Fishing Show (Townsville, Saturday mornings on 4K1G) about releasing GT's into the Ross River Dam behind Townsville. The same sort of things are mentioned as to why they don't release Jack etc, as they aren't originally found in the system, apparently GT's must be... probably from way back when. I believe that there must be a restriction on only being able to release a species that is/was from the tributary.
I don't know if they are going ahead with it, but it is talked about quite a bit with the guys. (The show is available as a podcast as well if anyone is interested in listening to it but can't do it live on a Saturday morning)
Personally, I couldn't imaging too many wanting to fish and impoundment for GT's, but I don't fish impoundments anymore as it doesn't interest me and my style of fishing, but there may be some out there that think it will bring something.

[Dignity]

I'm interested in how big a GT will grow in fresh, everything I've read about them says juveniles and small Trevor's will survive in fresh or brackish but I've not seen anything about them growing large enough to satisfy whoever it is that wants them in impoundments.

[chris69]

If anyone wants to have a listen, there is normally a lot of talk on the NQ Fishing Show (Townsville, Saturday mornings on 4K1G) about releasing GT's into the Ross River Dam behind Townsville. The same sort of things are mentioned as to why they don't release Jack etc, as they aren't originally found in the system, apparently GT's must be... probably from way back when. I believe that there must be a restriction on only being able to release a species that is/was from the tributary.
I don't know if they are going ahead with it, but it is talked about quite a bit with the guys. (The show is available as a podcast as well if anyone is interested in listening to it but can't do it live on a Saturday morning)
Personally, I couldn't imaging too many wanting to fish and impoundment for GT's, but I don't fish impoundments anymore as it doesn't interest me and my style of fishing, but there may be some out there that think it will bring something.

Thats interesting that no jacks were part of the natural fish in the Ross river tributry and GTs were i would have expected that there were jacks in every tributry and creek and river from lake Illarwarra NSW north to and around to Shark bay WA.

With so many areas to catch GTs in and around Townsville i would not have thought they would think about stocking them in the Ross dam knowing they will get flush out on a regular baises from cyclones being more common in that area.

[Corry]

So listening to the NQ crew again this week, they got Mr Moody on for a chat, apparently GT's/Trevally are an Anadromous fish, can live in fresh and salt. There was also talk about species that are from each tributary, this is still being debated.
From what they were saying, it is being trialed in Kinchant and Awoonga Dams, Kinchant is chosen as it's run off doesn't feed directly into the ocean if they get over the wall during floods, this is different to Awoonga, but there was no mention of what happens if they do.
Other questions that come up were, will they school in fresh like they do in salt, what impact will they have on available food in each dam, and it doesn't seem to be known who actually wants this.
Apparently there will be a school of 30 released into a dam for a 4 year trial. Trevally are a lot cheaper to breed, hence Jack aren't an option, and there are breeding farms for them already. They don't breed in fresh, so if it all goes wrong, eventually the 30 released will be depleted, whether that's from predators, fishing, or there is an option for electro fishing if it's really bad.

[chris69]

I can belive they have spent funding for 30 fish on a maybe.

There put jacks in Awoonga dam many years ago so they were cheap to grow then and theres always some to buy for home aquiriums so someone breeding them some were.

Its all sounding like a university thesious to me.