The handling of the various publicly ‘owned’ land (eg TSRs, Crown Reserves and Crown Roads) has been a continuing issue for anglers within NSW. The loss of access to waters due to the sale of TSRs etc has been considerable. The transparency of Government consideration has reduced over the years and it is only through dedicated monitoring by a few (eg President MAS Steve Samuels) that plans have been identified and, where necessary, objected to. (Steve has had some great wins in the Snowy Monaro).
The ever vigilant NSWCFA (thanks Ray Tang) has spotted this exposure document in respect to Crown Land. I’d encourage all readers here to examine the draft for education and consideration. When the formal public consideration period commences I’d encourage strong individual participation. No doubts NSWCFA Executive will put a consolidated position into the process as well.
You might recall anglers were asked to contribute to the development of a new Native Fish Recovery Strategy.
We’ve been advised today that on Friday 19 June Murray-Darling Basin Ministers endorsed the Strategy, “which provides guidance and practical actions that governments, communities and the private sector can take to strengthen the health of native fish”.
We have been patiently waiting for this. DPI have been quietly doing a lot of research, some in the context of the Trout Strategy. Now we can read about it on this new webpage.
Lyall has certainly outdone himself here. This is more of a story about food than a specific recipe – complete with a haiku. We can all seek to emulate.
Thread: 8/0 black or, **any colour depending on what colour people want their fly to be. And maybe a fluro yellow, orange, pink, red acting as a ‘hotspot’ or cheeks. Keep the thread small as the fly is pretty small. 6/0 is ok, but still pretty thick.
Body: Tinsel – Gold, silver, red, copper, blue, green (med) – Whatever colour people like for a body. Any colour thread even!
Body Rib: Small/ med wire – or stripped peacock quill.
Wing: Marabou or rabbit zonka – colour of people’s choice
Cheeks: Jungle cock or medium sized tinsel for cheeks.. Goose biots are very good too. We can even use fluro thread..
Varnish, nail polish or UV resin.. no preference. And BeesWax for thread
Notes/ Tips from JQ: Below are some notes & tips from my experiences. – You might find them useful 1. We often buy tying gear because a recipe insists on something** but we can easily substitute that ‘something’ with an equivalent or like product. Our gear becomes more consolidated, reducing gear that we may only use a couple of times. Our money will go much further allowing you to spend more elsewhere! I will go through some flies where you will use these materials again and again 2. Buy a hank of Flashabou tinsel (Code: 6998) or, Polarflash (Code: 2015) rather than bobbins of tinsel.. Works out much cheaper and you get heaps of colours in your hank of tinsel.. You can use it for cheeks but it is pretty narrow. Buying hanks of flashabou etc. allows you the opportunity to use it in your wooly buggers, humongous, shreks etc, even collars, nymph cases, ribbing etc 3. SPOTLIGHT or Craft stores have Goose Biots and they have like a pack of 10 with 2x red, 2x blue, 2x yellow, 2x white and 2x green? If not, get on to Troutlore.com.au and checkout Rob’s Hareline range 4. Colours/ variants are endless for this fly. If you haven’t got the exact materials we can substitute it and it’ll still be a fish-catcher. We can go through some variants on the night 5. EP Streamer Brush is also very handy – Orange in particular is very productive in local lakes. Check out Craig Dawson write up in the book Australian Trout Flies ‘revisited’. And then the streamer brush is good for cod flies, salt and many other flies 6. UV resin is great for instant completion to your flies, but has a nice price tag and a UV light is required. Most of the time $5.00 Sally Hansens is more than fine and is as robust. Sally Hansens does smell and so do some UV resins. The choice is yours! 7. Jungle cock is difficult to obtain these days (limited supply), suppliers have plastic printed ones. Or we can use tinsel or biots 8. Fish these anywhere in your team of flies. Swing them, Tweak them
UMDR needs 10 mins of your time to fill out the community fish knowledge survey by Monday 15th June.
Local Land Services is leading a team with a long term vision to recover populations of the Endangered Macquarie Perch in South East NSW. The upper Murrumbidgee has the longest length of river where the fish remain Australia wide, yet the fish face critical challenges here. With the help of the local community and of a committed team of scientists and practitioners we have a chance to work towards a long term plan to Bring Back the Mac. A quick online ‘baseline community knowledge survey’ has been put together that we hope you will participate in.
This is a survey of community knowledge of the Macquarie Perch, its habitat needs and its threats. If you prefer a paper version, please get in touch with felicity.sturgiss@lls.nsw.gov.au or Georgeanna Story at Upper Murrumbidgee Landcare on upper.murrumbidgee@gmail.com. You can find the surveyhereor follow the link on the Upper Murrumbidgee Landcare Website.
(Ed: it is quite short and simple – no need to leave your name)
Two of our members, John and Jason M, normally attend these meetings. On occasion making representation on our behalf, and reporting back. With COVID, the ‘meeting’ is a bit one way and comes as a newsletter 🙂
The social distancing and isolation continues but some folk have managed to get away fishing. With the gradual relaxation I look forward to more reports from you guys.
Some very interesting news in here from our ‘peak recreational freshwater fishing’ body – NSW Council of Freshwater Anglers. CAA has an increasing engagement so please raise with your delegate (Stefan) any issues that you believe need to be raised at state level.
While CAA is not a member, the other key representational body in this region, the Monaro Acclimatisation Society, reports here on their pursuit of the ‘recreational fishing offset’ with Snowy Hydro 2.0 and are hoping for improved engagement with NSW DPI Fisheries. In practical terms, MAS are looking for a facility where larger fish can be grown out for stocking into Tantangara in the event that redfin are translocated by the pumped hydro. Some promising news on the issue of money coming out of Snowy Hydro.
In light of the lack of fishing, I very much appreciate the submission from Anthony Heiser – nice to see some good looking trout grace our pages. Apologies, no such fish photos from the trip Peter and I took.
Good news also from Lyall – our Events Program is set to restart in June given some of the relaxations on social gathering. Mustn’t forget social distancing, but at least we can gather and gab. Meanwhile JQ continues to tease us with photos of warm weather and feisty fish. Our eyes are green with envy.
Steve Samuels has released the following press release. It comes upon a major milestone in the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project, in particular for us the “Recreational Fishing Offset”. As Steve said: “The Snowy Hydro 2.0 Assessment Report was released today. This report outlines what steps Snowy Hydro must take to get final approval for the 2.0 Project. As you will be aware the Monaro Acclimatisation Society has been negotiating with Snowy Hydro for the past three years to gain a recreational fishing offset in the form of a grow-out facility where we could grow trout for stocking to a larger size which will be able to resist predation from redfin. Our work with Snowy Hydro saw this concept placed in the Environmental Impact Statement. The Assessment report released today states that Snowy Hydro is to commit $5 million to this project. While it will be sad if redfin do get into Tantangara and beyond, the MAS has worked hard to ensure that we can maintain a viable trout fishery in the face of redfin invasion.”
(Apologies for temporarily posting an earlier press release. I jumped the gun and uploaded before it was fully finalised. As it happens, the Assessment Report release meant the release needed to be reshaped. Cheers, Bill)
Peter Gibson has outdone himself with lots of news – so much that I can’t possibly leave it until the next CAA Burley Line newsletter.
Hot topics covered are:
NSW Trout Strategy Annual Report Cards – we’ve been waiting for these to be published and Peter has found them hidden away in the DPI website
Environment Minister Kean’s response to the Platypus and Turtle Alliance – NSW moves closer to banning completely ‘opera house’ yabby nets. This is an action that CFA have been lobbying for over the past few years.
Feral horse hospitalises teenager camping in Kosciuszko National Park – watch out if you plan to camp at Blue Waterholes once the restrictions are lifted.
NPWS’s plans for horse management in fire-affected Park – a limited effort here. Meanwhile, did you see the Victorian Supreme Court judgement countering claims of heritage status of brumbies in Victorian high country? Read it here
Snowy 2.0 threat to rivers and fish – never let it be said that CFA ignores news critical of Snowy Hydro 2.0
NSW CFA 16 May general meeting report – CFA had a ordinary general meeting via Zoom on Sat 16 May. As Assistant Secretary, I’ve only just completed the draft minutes and Peter has them up on the web 🙂
Reminder: Dollar For Dollar Native Fish Stocking Program is back – CAA had a bid in last year which of course was impacted by the COVID.
You can get it here. CAA is an affiliated member of NSW CFA. Members might consider whether to personally become a ‘Foundation Member’ to help fund this cause. Information at the bottom of the newsletter.
