It has been one year since the passing of Canberra’s recreational fishing identity Dr Bryan Pratt. As well as establishing the A.C.T. Parks and Conservation Service he lobbied strenuously to have Googong Dam stocked with fish and opened to recreational angling. Many of you will recall his willingness to provide angling advice from his fishing tackle shops in Canberra and his relaxed and humorous fishing stories from behind the counter.

In memory of Dr Pratt, Canberra Anglers’ Association, of which he was long time President, has arranged for a memorial plaque to be placed overlooking his beloved Googong Dam.

As part of bringing science into trout management DPI have been investing in some very innovative spawning run monitoring equipment. Check out this Facebook post – has an impressive video.

No need for you to have Facebook to view.

https://www.facebook.com/142000969329939/posts/1125445357652157/?app=fbl

The Recreational Fishing NSW Ministerial Advisory Council has been moribund for most of this year. Recall its responsibilities including oversight of spending of licence fees.

Finally, DPI has put out a request for expressions of interest from recreational anglers to join this body. Steve Samuels has been our voice on this body and I’m hoping he’ll re-apply, but others should think about it too.

Expression of Interest site, including remuneration and selection criteria is here.

More about the regions that members each represent is here.

Applications close on 29 Sep.

CAA has been successful in its bid to the $for$ native fish stocking program. Recreational Fishing Trust Funds dollars (ie our licence fees) will provide $2,000 to match $2,000 from club funds (this encompasses around $1,200 granted to CAA for stocking purposes from the wind up of the CRFA).

Jason M is project lead and no doubt will be looking for volunteers to help. Expect an email to all members soon.

Well done to JM for putting together this successful bid – I believe based on last year’s bid put together by Lyall. Last year’s $for$ did not go ahead due to poor conditions and competing demands for fish out of the hatcheries.

Did everyone note that Ash’s 60.5cm yellowbelly beat his 100cm cod this year for the Keith Shield’s Natives trophy? This is all due to CAA Native Fish calculator, designed to level the playing field for our different sized natives. The yella scored 85% vs cod 74%.

The key parameters in the calculator are the legal length in NSW and the length record as managed by ANSA. NSW length rules are unchanged and the record for the fish in the calculator has not been exceeded. So the calculator remains valid. I’ve now updated the page to show it is in effect for trophy year 2019-2020

You may remember our news post about the National Waterbug Blitz and that Jaime was negotiating for CAA to join in.

He tells us we’re in. We’ll be partnering with a local Waterwatch group who have experience in the conduct of the survey.

Pencil in Sat 16 Nov. We’ll be getting access through the Tidbinbilla Road gate for easy access to the survey site around Vanity’s Crossing. More info from Jaime soon.

Meantime read about this national program here:

2019-08-12 Media Release – National Waterbug Blitz Launch

We’ve just received this from Steve Samuels and the MAS.

After discussing with Steve can I dismiss one misconception, it was said to me that the grown out fish would not be permitted to be stocked into Tantangara due to National Par rules on introduced species. 1. Trout are already stocked in KNP eg the Thredbo, besides which 2. Tantangara lake is owned by Snowy Hydro. I should also add that MAS are quite confident that engineering efforts to develop barriers to redfin escaping down the Bidgee or through the Portal will be successful.

You will be aware that the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project poses a threat to Tantangara Dam with the possibility that redfin will be pumped into it from Talbingo Dam. The Monaro Acclimatisation Society (MAS) began negotiations over this with Snowy Hydro the day the project was announced by former PM, Malcolm Turnbull.

The MAS has taken a pragmatic view on this issue. We knew that it would be impossible to stop the project due the high level of commitment from the Federal and State Governments. Instead we started negotiating with Snowy Hydro to see if we could formulate a recreational fishing offset that could be implemented to protect Tantangara if redfin did get in.

Our experience in NSW is that wherever redfin have invaded a trout fishery, the trout (especially the rainbow trout) fail to thrive. The redfin prey on the naturally spawned young as well as the small fingerlings we stock.

We are aware that in Victoria, the preference there is to stock larger trout in redfin affected waters and this has had good success. However, in NSW we are very limited in the number of larger trout we can grow out for stocking. Both our hatcheries are not capable of producing the large number required if we were to make an impact on redfin.

The MAS has presented the idea of building a trout grow-out facility which would consist of grow-out cages to get the trout from 50mm to about 200mm. These bigger trout would be used to stock Tantangara if redfin got in there, but in the meantime they could be used to stock other Snowy waters that have redfin such as Khancoban Dam, or they could be used to bolster our stocking of other Snowy waters.

The attached Joint Statement outlines our agreement with Snowy Hydro to work towards a recreational fishing offset that will compensate anglers for the threat to Tantangara Dam.

At this time the agreement is to investigate the possibilities, but the MAS is committed to providing the best outcome possible to maintain Tantangara as a trout fishery of significance and the MAS will be developing a plan to put forward to Snowy Hydro and other stakeholders such as NSW Fisheries, local communities and the Council.

The MAS will keep anglers advised of our negotiations and updates will be posted on our website. http://www.monarofishsociety.org/

For further information please contact MAS or Burley Line via the CAA website

Media release – Working with fishing community

Received from Steve Samuels:

Dear Supporters

Those of you who have been trout fishing for a while may well remember the fantastic trout fishing that used to be on offer in Googong Dam just outside of Queanbeyan NSW, but with the masses of Redfin Perch in Googong the trout fishery has declined dramatically. Under the NSW Trout Strategy there will be an emphasis on stocking larger trout into redfin infected waters to try and re-create the good trout fishing of the past.

At 1pm today, Monday 22 July 2019, NSW Fisheries released adult trout into Googong Dam. Each of these fish is tagged with a unique eye tag that consists of one or two luminous bars behind the left eye (see attached photo).

In the future it is hoped that more substantial trout stockings will occur with yearling sized trout that will be able to out-swim the Redfin.

If you go to Googong and catch one of these tagged trout, please feel free to let me know so the information can be passed onto NSW Fisheries.

We all know that Googong is a first-class Murray Cod and Golden Perch fishery and it is hoped that bringing back trout will see more angling opportunities for recreational anglers.

I wish you luck

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc.

Must be the time of year for public consultation.

DPI stock hundreds of thousands of Murray Cod, Australian Bass and Golden Perch.

They are seeking comments on the stocking plan for 2019/20 including advice on additional lakes that should be added to the list. You can read the survey promotion including the link at the DPI Facebook page (membership of Facebook not required).

The survey closes 9 Aug.

I’ve archived the survey on angling good practice. The draft is a bit bureaucratic with lots of statements of common sense. As you would expect a heavy emphasis on rock fishing. Nevertheless it isn’t that long to read and provides some good reminders, particularly if you are taking out beginners.

Survey closes 7 Aug.

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.