Further to the post below, our own entymologist Jaime has put in a bid on behalf of CAA in collaboration with CSIRO. He’ll have more advice soon on how it will progress.
National Waterbug Blitz & Mayfly Muster
Got this today from the National Waterbug Blitz. More information in the Introductory Factsheet
We would like to introduce you to National Waterbug Blitz, Australia’s first nationwide waterway monitoring event, funded by an Inspiring Australia grant. This Spring, Australians are encouraged to become ‘citizen scientists’ and investigate how healthy their local waterways and wetlands are, simply by exploring and identifying what aquatic macroinvertebrates they contain. The type and number of waterbugs found in a waterway can tell us a lot about how healthy that waterway is. We are running training sessions all over Australia from August to November, with recreational fishing groups, fly fishers, Landcare, Natural Resource Management agencies and schools – anyone can participate. Please see attached Information Sheet and visit our website for video tutorials to see what’s involved.
To identify and record waterbugs, the Waterbug App has been specifically designed for this project. It’s a great, easy to use tool and replaces traditional data sheets in the field. It’s free to download, and you can choose to do a detailed Waterbug Survey or a quick Mayfly Muster. See more here about the app.
If you haven’t got the time to do a full Waterbug Survey (takes about half a day), consider just looking for mayflies as part of the Mayfly Muster. Mayflies tend to “opt out” when water quality and habitat conditions in a river become degraded (mainly around towns and cities). By finding the spot where the mayflies stop we can establish which parts of a river need our help the most. If you are a fly fishing enthusiast, you can also use the Mayfly Muster to record when mayflies are emerging, and in areas where other people use the app you can check on old data to see when “the hatch” is most likely.
If you would like more information about training sessions, please email or call us on 0421 769 336. EOIs for sessions for this Spring are open till 12th July.
Kind regards
Mandy
Subscribe to monthly E-news here
Tel: 0421 769 336
—
The National Waterbug Blitz Team
W: www.waterbugblitz.org.au
E: info@waterbugblitz.org.au
The National Waterbug Blitz Project is a collaboration between The Waterbug Company, Federation University Australia’s Centre for e-Research & Digital Innovation, along with Waterwatch Victoria, The Code Sharman, EnviroComm Connections Pty Ltd and NSW Waterwatch, and is funded through a Citizen Science Grant from the Australian Government’s Inspiring Australia program.

The draft activity good practice guide for Angling has just been released for public comment. Members of the outdoors community can have their say about this activity good practice guide by visiting
yoursay.australianaas.org.au/angling/

The draft good practice guide is available to download or readable online via the yoursay website. Feedback submissions can be lodged via the websites submission forms. These include ‘general impressions’, as well the opportunity to provide detailed and ‘specific feedback’ on any piece of content or section.

Feedback submissions for Angling will close on 7 Aug.

Have your say by:

• Getting involved in the public consultation and download the Angling draft GPG at
yoursay.australianaas.org.au/angling/

• Providing feedback on the Angling draft at
yoursay.australianaas.org.au/angling/your-say/
To find out more about the Australian Adventure Activity Standard and Good Practice Guides visit

www.australianaas.org.au

Their privacy policy is available at australianaas.org.au/contact-us/privacy-statement/

In the July Burley Line Peter provided some notes on the recent workshop he and Roger attended. There are now some additional notes from the Rivers of Carbon organisation (including more science says Peter). Lots of photos of the good work being done in respect to habitat as well as the workshop itself. They even got a few snaps of Peter 🙂

The article provides links to even more information on the recovery program.

Some of may have spotted an article in the Canberra Times.

“At the moment there’s two dead ends in the southern part of the catchment that have been hot spots for anti-social activity,” Mr Daines said. “This will just move them back to the main road. It won’t limit people’s access to the catchment.”

We can relax. Enquiries through Access Canberra provided a reassuring response from Nick Daines, Manager, Lower Cotter Catchment

When we were planning the changes, we wanted to make sure people could still access Vanity’s Crossing …keeping the general public on side, especially recreational fishers, is important to us.

The gate I was referring to in the article is on the eastern side of the crossing (which we find people don’t park at very often as it is already a long walk to get to the crossing). So that gate will move around 1km up the road to the intersection of Pipeline Road. However, the gate on the western side, which most people park at as its only a few hundred metres walk to Vanity’s Crossing, will remain where it is. So still plenty of access for fishing.

Further to our recent post on trials of larger trout being stocked. I’ve received the following advice from DPI:

DPI Fisheries is releasing larger Rainbow Trout into selected waters to combat the negative effects of Redfin predation. We are requesting all information from recaptured tagged fish to be submitted via our online recapture form at http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/taggedrecapture. This information helps determine growth rates and the sufficient size class capable of avoiding Redfin predation.

Here is a flyer with more information including the reward.

To see a full list of stocking sites in NSW, our interactive map can be accessed at: https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/resources/stocking

Simply click on any of the green (River) or red (Impoundment) icons and the historical stocking data for each species will be displayed on a graph.

The waters where the tagged trout have been released are currently:

Khancoban Pondage
Oberon Dam
Lake Wallace (Wallerawang not Nimmitabel)
Lake Lyell
Carcoar Dam
Fish River
Duckmaloi River

If you didn’t get there before now to catch a bargain, sorry you’ve missed the boat. Anglers Art is now officially closed.

CAA has had a long relationship with the late Dr Bryan Pratt not least due to his being a long term President and CAA Life Member but also the shop’s support to the club. We will miss their connection to CAA.

We wish Doris well for the future.

DPI are conducting more trials into stocking with larger (20cm) yearlings. This time into the Duckmaloi and Fish Rivers in the Blue Mountains. Read more on their Facebook site. (Membership of Facebook unnecessary).

The word I got that it will close finally at the end of Jun is incorrect, but time remains short. Best get in before they do close. (A selection of the specials are appearing on their Facebook page – you don’t need to be on Facebook to read it)

Just dropped in myself today to find quite a bit still on the shelves, including fly tying material and flies. As Lyall remarked earlier “you might like to pop in for a bargain or see it as supporting Doris.”

Got this from Antia – urgent RSVP will be required (the notice says 2 day leadtime but that means today 🙄, I hope they will take late bookings).

The session is all about endangered plant species and associated citizen science. Mornos and soup for lunch provided.