Our colleague (amongst many other hats, Vice President for our region on the NSW CFA) Steve Samuels has disseminated the minutes.

The minutes from the Advisory Council has been popped up on our blog.  Some of the more interesting points are:

• The Trout Strategy is being progressed and the working group is awaiting the appointment of a scientist – great to hear some real science is coming to this effort.
• Recall that Jason M has spoken about the concept of a ‘social licence’ – ie public acceptance of an activity. The council is in the process of pursuing of a social licence strategy.
• The council is seeking advice from Snowy Hydro on the potential for reopening these waters for water activities including fishing.
• The potential issue of redfin translocation coming out of Snowy Hydro 2.0. The Chair will seek NSW Govt to raise the issue with the Commonwealth.
• Council concerns about the Travelling Stock Reserves review will be taken to the Minister

RFNSW_outcomes_meeting_5_2nd_June_2017

Got the following from Steve Samuels.

Dear  Supporters

As many of you know I am a member of the Recreational Fishing NSW Advisory Council (RFNSW), the aim of which is to advise the Minister on matters relating to fishing in NSW.  At the March 2017 meeting, I proposed that a NSW Trout Strategy be devised and implemented to address the declining trout fisheries across NSW.  I am pleased to announce that the Minister has agreed to this and that NSW Fisheries will now be sitting down with anglers to devise and implement a strategy that addresses the declining trout fisheries in NSW.

The most important item on the agenda will be dealing with redfin perch.  As most of you know, many of our once great trout fisheries have declined to nothing once redfin got into the system.  Sadly, there does not seem the possibility of developing a biological control for redfin.  Where carp are distinctly different to any of our native fish, redfin are quite closely related to our perch in evolutionary terms.  This means that any disease control for redfin will likely impact our native species.

But all is not lost.  We have looked closely at the Victorian model of stocking larger trout in redfin areas and they have had a measure of success.

It is important to remember that we will be focussing on all of our trout fisheries and not just the redfin infected ones.

I Have included my paper first paper on the issue that I submitted to the 2015 Trout Allocation Committee.  Now that I am on the RFNSW I have been able to push the issue and we now have a result that is heading in the right direction.  I hope this paper informs you. 

As the strategy unfolds I will endeavour to keep you all informed, but in the mean-time if you have any ideas that I can take forward to build a good trout strategy I would be happy to receive them and put them forward during discussions.

Good fishing to you all and let’s hope for a brighter trout fishing future.

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

 trout_stocking_samuels

A Victorian angler who Ian, Lyall and I met on a secret river in NZ has pointed me to this link.  http://www.waterwaysguide.org.au/river-levels.  It looks more oriented to kayakers (especially with its judgement on whether to visit) and doesn’t have many of our favourite trout streams, but I thought a useful resource and I’ve added it to our useful link page.