Those who read the August newsletter will be aware, but there is some more information here.

Late in Jul an alarm was raised that the ACT Govt was looking to lock permanently the southern gate to the Googong foreshores (down near London Bridge and Burra).  There was a quick response from the angling community, especially ACTFF, and through them the Environment Department was called to explain the situation on the ABC Local Radio (666) Drive program on Wed 26 Jul. Go to:

http://www.abc.net.au/radio/canberra/programs/drive/drive/8725826

The interview with Matt Kendall was at 4:07PM but the recording starts at 3:00PM. If you fast forward about a third of the way through you’ll hear it.  The key outcome is that the Department is looking to install an automatically locking gate in lieu of sending rangers down to lock the gate each evening

The key complaint is the opaque manner that this had been considered by the Environment Department. From here on our energies should be focussed on ensuring the Govt consults with the public as the performance of the gate is examined – probably through their Recreational User Group. Also to ensure irresponsible damage to the gate doesn’t give the Govt an excuse to take the option to permanently lock the gate in the future.

Readers might consider signing a petition started by Andrew Wall MLA.

Received this encouraging message from the ever energetic Steve Samuels. Members might wish to be a part of this experiment – it involves catching trout folks!

We’ve now learnt that fish were over 20cm when stocked.  The tag is the same as the yellow tags we’ve seen on ex-brood stock released into Jindabyne so will be easy to identify.  Don’t forget to phone in the number to receive the promised lure.  Hopefully anglers will carefully release any caught to continue the experiment.  While they are under legal size, they ought to be big enough to compete against redfin predation.

This is shaping up to be a very useful experiment.  I will keenly await advice on the results if I can’t get up there myself. (Shame that Oberon is outside NSW CFA Region 3 and 4 so any trout we caught would be ineligible for a CAA trophy … unless we have an official event there – now that’s an idea we can discuss ).

Dear Supporters

As you may know, as President of the Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc, I have been campaigning for a better approach to fixing our problems with many of our trout dams in NSW.  Most of you will be aware that redfin have become a serious pest, and where they have colonised in trout waters, the rainbow trout have virtually disappeared.  Earlier this year I was successful in gaining support for the development of a NSW Trout Strategy to try and get better trout fishing in the dams that now have redfin.

Yesterday (Monday 17^th July) a small but significant experiment was launched at Oberon Dam.  NSW Fisheries have released 500 tagged yearling trout into the dam and the hope is that anglers will fish for them over the next season and report their captures.  One of the significant approaches will be to see that if stocking bigger rainbows will allow them to survive the redfin.

Below is a short statement from Cameron Westaway on this stocking and I hope that all of you who fish here will support the experiment as it will inform us for future stockings.

We have a long way to go to bring back many of our once famous trout lakes, but it seems that this first small step signals a new approach to support our trout fisheries.

Regards

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

Dear Trout strategy working group members.

As a dummy run for a possible trout strategy action we are stocking 500 tagged yearling rainbow trout from the Dutton Trout Hatchery at the “reef” in Oberon dam (which has been the subject of redfin degradation) next Monday at 11:30am  with the Member for Bathurst and Minister for Lands & Forestry the Hon.  Paul Toole.

People who ring in details of recaptured tagged fish will be sent a free little ripper oar gee lure.

Cameron Westaway,

Senior Fisheries Manager Inland 

Message from Steve Samuels, Pres MAS

Dear Supporters

Please find the attached photo and advice from Charles Litchfield from Snowy Hydro and the work being done at Tantangara Dam launching site.  I hope those of you who fish here will enjoy the improvement.

Steve Samuels

President

Monaro Acclimatisation Society Inc

Hi Steve

Below is a photo of the boat launch area at Tantangara (stage 1) after work this week. You will see that it has been graded and more turning area provided and will allow people to launch while we are carrying out work at Tantangara. 

There is an area further along which we are using for the project. Once the project is finished, that area too will be available for launching (stage 2). We think this is already a reasonable improvement and should be further improved once the work is done, 

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.

Claude found this interesting research paper undertaken by Curtin University’s Centre of Excellence for Science, Seafood and Health.  The key findings were summarised as:

considerable health and well-being benefits can be gained through involvement in recreational fishing. Encouraging young children, youth, adults and families to fish offers a cost effective and healthful outdoor recreational activity that can be enjoyed throughout life. Benefits were evident for individuals and groups. Recreational fishing was also noted to provide significant benefits to children and youth with behavioural and mental health issues. Finally, educational strategies that focus on how to minimise the environmental impacts of recreational fishing can ensure today’s and tomorrow’s recreational fishers are aware of sustainable fishing practices.

The original piece is available at the university’s website, specifically here.

The latest brochure is up on the Government website, available by clicking here. Mention is made of the issue of white spot disease of prawns so clearly it has been recently updated.

I’d not seen this before but one sentence puts paid to that urban myth of having to kill carp and redfin “You can keep them or return them to the water where they were caught.”

The latest news appeared on the DPI’s Facebook page. This has declared the foreshadowed vehicular access closure is now implemented.

(Note the closure is for the entire year and mechanisms are in place to enforce this. An earlier post on this blog was incorrect and the matter has been clarified with the DPI.)

Access via vehicle for those with legitimate mobility constraints are being catered for throughout the full stream season but with special permit and rules during the high demand period of April through to closing. Go to https://goo.gl/OgjF5b for details on how to access these arrangements.

The rest of us can walk down the hill or use a bike from the Denison camping ground.

(Well done Nathan for picking this up and posting on our Facebook)