G'day fishos. The news on the fish kill front is still evolving.
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What we do know is that it would appear the worst of the event in the Upper Murray took place below the influence of Horse Creek at Jingellic, with numerous sightings of dead fish from its junction with the Murray downstream for about 45km.
Apparently the ash slurry that came out of Horse Creek had to be seen to be believed and was the "highway of supply" of the toxic water that killed most fish in the Murray.
Lavington Anglers Club organised a clean-up in a section of that area - roughly from Burrowe through to a few kilometres below Dora - last Monday, joined by members of Jindera Anglers Club.
It was a great effort under very trying conditions for all concerned.
They tell me lunch was a little hard to get down after handling dead, smelly fish all morning.
Numbers of fish removed were 72 Murray cod (up to 1.250), six trout cod, six yellowbelly, 410 carp, two redfin and two crays. Interesting that a lot of the cod were large. It seems unusual considering smaller cod normally represent the larger proportion of most catches.
Did they survive better than the big fellas? Were they dead but hadn't floated yet? These were just a couple of the questions that were put to fisheries representatives from both states at a meeting held at Jingellic on Thursday evening, where representatives from angling clubs and associations got together to get up to date info on this event.
A couple of the more interesting bits to come out were that the dissolved oxygen levels went to zero for a short time resulting in the fish kill, but rose quite quickly after that initial flush.
At this time it's believed there's a good chance there might not have been a 100 per cent fish kill.
It's also believed the reason the bigger cod represented a fairly high proportion of dead cod found is the fact they need more oxygen than smaller fish.
Organisation for a recovery plan is well under way, with both states committing to substantial fish releases as soon as practical.
The Murray and Corryong and Cudgewa creeks, which were both knocked about by this event, will all benefit.
It was great to see that both states working together as much as possible.
Things certainly don't look as bad as first thought and it was fantastic to hear news that there have already been a couple of cod caught above Jingellic since this event.
Of course, we're not out of the woods yet and another decent rain event will more than likely see us going through all this again unfortunately. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
AT A GLANCE
Dartmouth (49.1) - fired a little last weekend. One of our customers managed seven trout in two sessions over two mornings. All were caught at 12 metres using downriggers with Tassie Devils in colour #123, 111 and 89 while trolling around the main basin and the eight mile. The yabbies are also still on the chew.
There's also been a couple of ripper fish come out of Lake Banamboola recently, so land-based fishos have every chance of catching something too.
The Bidgee's - still worth a hit too, with reasonable numbers being caught on bait and lure.
Lake Hume (19.6) - has been the lucky recipient of a couple of decent doses of yellowbelly. About 80,000 were released on Thursday and they'll be mixing it with another 120,000 that were recently released out there.
That's a great dose of fish we're all hoping survive the expected low lake levels this year and then jump on our hooks in a couple of years' time. There are still a few yellas coming in at the moment using the slow rolling grub technique, as well as a few on bait. The reddies have been reasonable, too.
I had to put up with Nev Coulson coming in again this week, bragging about all the fish he caught on Wednesday. He wasn't that bad really, but was happy to say he'd kept about 30 or so up to just over 300mm - a nice feed or two for sure. Nev caught them on bait and jaggers.
The Murray - below Albury has been a bit patchy on the cod scene, as the river's been moving about a bit. Most fishos are still managing a couple here and there.
Streams - are generally still pretty low and clear but fishing OK, particularly early morning and late evening.
There's reports of land slips after those rains we had, creating a lot of dirty water in some streams. This makes it tough going, so getting above those would obviously be your best bet.
Cooler weather predicted tomorrow will help too, I'd reckon.
Hopefully we get a drop or two of rain - not too much though, thanks.