G’day fishos. Had an interesting night on Wednesday listening to Dr Zeb Hogan discussing a few of the world’s largest freshwater fish species and the difficulties facing them, particularly regarding migration.
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Zeb was one of over 360 delegates representing countries from around the world who had gathered in Albury over the past week for “Fish Passage 2018 - International Conference on River Connectivity”.
This event also incorporated the first symposium on hydropower and fish management. Wednesday evening was a free night open to the public and Dr Hogan, who also has a show on the National Geographic channel, had the crowd well engaged with fantastic film clips, photos and interesting discussion on his travels around the planet.
One stat that I found interesting was that there are around 200 freshwater fish worldwide that can grow to 100 kilograms or well over!
There are many threats facing these fish but one of the underlying messages from the talk was how hard it is for many of these species to survive when most need to migrate to spawn and we keep building big dams that block their passage.
We in Australia have probably built our last major barriers to fish migration but in a lot of the developing countries people like Dr Hogan, and many of the visitors we’ve had over the past week, are having an input into new dams and how they can be engineered to incorporate fish passages of some kind.
Let’s wish them success because we would all hate to see the demise of any of these “river monsters” I’m sure.
AT A GLANCE
Dartmouth (72.6%): might have freshened up a bit after that midweek downpour. It hasn’t been going gangbusters but still a couple are being caught, with most fishos having to resort to downriggers, lead line etc. to get to them. The other alternative is to get in amongst the timber and drop a gudgeon, mudeye or scrubbie over the side into that 10 to 15 metre mark which has proved pretty successful.
Lake Hume (40.6%): has picked up a little more on the redfin front although it seems 99 per cent of those getting caught are throwbacks. There have been a few rippers coming in but there’s lots of little stuff amongst them. There have also been quite a few yellas being picked up angling around trees in that seven to 10 metre mark, using yabbies, and also a few coming in using the “slow roll black grub” technique as well. A lot of the better reddies and some decent yellas are being trolled though.
Streams: will be pretty ordinary you’d think right at the moment. That deluge we copped will certainly freshen things up for the Christmas break and should help a lot in the long-term. Let’s hope we get another drop or two within a month or so to do it all again! Not quite so much this time though thanks. Reports had been pretty good up until the rain, with a lot of insect activity stirring things up nicely.
Upper Murray: Fished really well last weekend, with a few crews we’ve spoken to doing extremely well on both lure and bait despite the fact that it rose and fell heaps over the 48 hour period.
Most fish were just under legal but there were some mid to high 70s and also heard of two over 900mm reported!
Still haven’t heard of a metery up that way yet though.
The Murray below Albury: Had been pretty good for cod fishos but you would expect it to be high and dirty for a day or two now.
Mulwala: Should still fish ok but will also have a bit of colour for a bit.
Blowering (46%): has picked up a little of late, with some decent cod being trolled on hard bodies down near the dam wall.
Burrinjuck (41%): has also picked up a tad after a slowish start to the cod season.
Bobbing shrimp and yabbies around the timber at about 5 to 7 meters seems to be pretty successful.
You can be in much deeper water but the yellas seem to be holding in that depth range no matter what depth you’re actually in.
The snowy lakes will also benefit from recent rains so let’s hope they keep creeping over new ground and the fishing continues to improve.
Hope you all have a great weekend.
Send your fishing photos and details of your catch to 0475 947 279 or 0475 953 605 or community.vic@fairfaxmedia.com.au.