Big splash at North Pine Dam

[Little grey men]

Check this out.... I had a little fish Early Monday morning ( sorry Bloody Grinner if your reading this, we could have had a fish afterall. I was given leave after good behaviour all weekend to go for a quick flick ) anyway, it was very peaceful out there, started fishing about 6.00am. A few people will know where the island is at the dam. I was fishing about three hundred metres away from the island, just flicking away when I heard what I would describe as a very big "KERSPLASH" right near said island...far too big to be described as a " SPLASH"...definitely a "KERSPLASH"....All of the pelicans and seagulls took off that were sitting on the island. Made me move out of the water a bit too. Curse this overactive imagination.
Lots of fish hit the surface at that time of the morning but this was far too big to be a bass smacking the surface.
Was anyone else out there at that time ? I'm sure if you were fishing at Forgans you would have also heard it, it was LOUD.........weird.

[bdowdy]

hi lgm wouldnt be one of those famous LUNGFISH ROLLING ??????? cheers bdowdy..brett

[tunaticer]

Either a NPD lungfish or a NPD Locknessie

Jack.

[dinodadog]

At the end of last winter I found a 25lb carp that had just died, called the rangers and they wanted it so they came and collected it. So you never know whats in there. When a fish attacks a school of bonies and they all break the surface at the same time it makes quite a racket.

[haybii]

mmm locknessie...

[the_matrix]

You sure you aint got Barra fever Michael?;D
jas

[Little grey men]

hi lgm wouldnt be one of those famous LUNGFISH ROLLING ??????? cheers bdowdy..brett

Too big for a lungfish mate, tell your bro next time he goes out there to take a speargun with explosive tips, I think the stocking association has been putting killer whales in there.;D

[Little grey men]

Either a NPD lungfish or a NPD Locknessie

Jack.

Locknessie hey ??? That would explain why the bass were quiet. I'll have to have my camera ready to take a really grainy shot Jack.:)

[Little grey men]

At the end of last winter I found a 25lb carp that had just died, called the rangers and they wanted it so they came and collected it. So you never know whats in there. When a fish attacks a school of bonies and they all break the surface at the same time it makes quite a racket.

G'day mate, if fifty 25lb carp hit the surface all at once it may have made this splash. it honestly sounded like someone dropped a tractor in the water.
I thought someone may have been working on the other bank and had dropped something big in the water...had a look around but nothing was there.
I wonder how many carp are left in there. Haven't caught one for a while. Awesome fun to hook...a 25lber would go really well.

[Little grey men]

You sure you aint got Barra fever Michael?;D
jas

Got it something fierce mate.....but it's the sort of sickness I'm happy to live with. I'll have to have some medicine soon.

[Little grey men]

Here ya go Jack...photographic evidence ;D

[bdowdy]

Too big for a lungfish mate, tell your bro next time he goes out there to take a speargun with explosive tips, I think the stocking association has been putting killer whales in there.;D
hi lgm i think scott has been getting afew bass and yellas lately,,,as for the speargun;) ;D ,,,love the loch ness piccy mate. cheers bdowdy..brett:)

[OISTA]

Could it have been one of the feral pigs that live around the dam? Have seen them eating mussels and swimming around.

[FNQCairns]

Wish I had seen this thread earlier. mate the noise was me, pretty sure anyway. Was having a slash at the water edge enjoying the view and piece an quiet then I dropped it! bloody loud and I got soaked again, on the upside there is now a new drain to fish.

:):)


cheers fnq

[Outsider1]

You wish Scott!!

No seriously::), it had to be a Drop Bear falling out of a tree into the dam!:o:o;D

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3695/db.htm

http://www.cfr.com.au/dropbears/index.html

http://members.ozemail.com.au/%7Eenigman/dropbear.html

http://www.dropbears.com/about.htm

http://www.pbase.com/12footer/image/65173806http://

Dave

[Little grey men]

Wish I had seen this thread earlier. mate the noise was me, pretty sure anyway. Was having a slash at the water edge enjoying the view and piece an quiet then I dropped it! bloody loud and I got soaked again, on the upside there is now a new drain to fish.

:):)


cheers fnq

At last...a logical explanation.
In future could you please refrain from taking a tinkle in the dam as you scared the hell out of the fish......I was wondering why the bass had extra wide eyes and were shaking like a leaf....poor little buggers will be mentally scarred for life.
Turn around and do it in the bushes, scare the pigs away instead.;)

[FNQCairns]

At last...a logical explanation.
In future could you please refrain from taking a tinkle in the dam as you scared the hell out of the fish......I was wondering why the bass had extra wide eyes and were shaking like a leaf....poor little buggers will be mentally scarred for life.
Turn around and do it in the bushes, scare the pigs away instead.;)

Ha ha here to help;):D Seriously I have heard one tree fall around a bend 200m away into the Murrumbidgee R and saw the last bits of another but smaller river redgum coming down in old man creek while only 80m away on the bank almost broke my neck snapping round the see the end of its fall.

They both sounded alot like your explanation, noise from start to finish, seemed a good long while from the start to the end in real time as well.

cheers fnq

[Mike Delisser]

There would have to be some Barra in Nth Pine. Pet shops sell thousands of small ones, what do you think happens to them when they grow too big for the tank, most wouldn't kill & fillet a pet they've had for years. And North Pine Dam is the closest large body of fresh water to three cities, Brisbane, Redcliffe & Pine River's.
They even found a few in the Sandgate lagoons when they were drained.

[shayned]

You sure you aint got Barra fever Michael?;D
jas

It was just a big Carp, move along now Sir, nothing to see here. ;D

[Little grey men]

There would have to be some Barra in Nth Pine. Pet shops sell thousands of small ones, what do you think happens to them when they grow too big for the tank, most wouldn't kill & fillet a pet they've had for years. And North Pine Dam is the closest large body of fresh water to three cities, Brisbane, Redcliffe & Pine River's.
They even found a few in the Sandgate lagoons when they were drained.

Might have to take some big slickrigs to the dam in the morning;D

True story: I was walking the banks once around the back of the dam. When the last cold snap hit..... I saw a fish in the shallows moving very slowly. Obviously affected badly by the cold. From what I could see it was a longer sleek fish slightly silverish in colour. It looked as though it had a sloping forehead.
I was very excited and started tossing a lure passed it and eventually hooked it on the back...it went crazy and took off sideways, a few moments later I pulled in a really big old stinkin Tilapia.:( From where I was standing, the angle in the water etc, the fish looked totally different. I really thought I was onto a little barra for a second.
This tilapia had lost all of its blue colour and its eyes had gone white. Took the wind out of my sails real quick
Now thats dissapointment.:-/

[tunaticer]

There are some saratoga in there for a release about 10 years or more ago. I know of two that have been caught up towards Kobble creek before the drought. they were both nearing 60cm mark.

I also have heard of a jewfish (mulloway) being caught there and the guy swears its true. I suspect if there was a jewfish caught there it would have been a released tank fish that has gradually been converted to fresh. I find it hard to believe but then again I have seen a jewfish in freshwater in a tank live quite happily for about 3 years.

There has been rumors of barras there but I know of nobody that claims to have seen one or caught one.

As for carp..................yes they are there and bloody big too. Huge goldfish and some huge white goldfish too. DPI enlisted a quite a few locals to castnet the lungfish out of Youngs Crossing in the early 90's when the drought had let salt water come into that stretch of the river. A lot of goldfish were netted and lots over the 50cm mark. Near on 60 lungfish were returned to the lake to live again.

Jack.

[alphas]

I have had a HUGE lungfish slap the side of the boat whilst right up the yabba arm of borumba,absolutely shat myself.Its always worse when there is no one else with you to ask "what the **** was that!!!!"

[Luc]

Also don't forget that cod have been stocked in the dam.

There would have to be some fairly large ones in there by now.

Luc

[loophole]

got to agree i think there is more bara in there then people relaise. I keep nativites and it would be to hard for me to release them into NPD when they outgrew my tank.
While on this subject what would people think if bream where intoduced to NPD?

[tunaticer]

Luc,

One of the guys from PRFMA had a eastern cod frame that was found filleted and discarded near the dam wall about 12 months ago. He had it tested and it came back as being one of the stocked fish and estimated at around 5-6lbs live weight.

I am not sure how fast the cod will grow in that environment but would be surprised if any are reaching 15lb yet.

Jack.

[Luc]

Hi Tunaticer,

I beleive that cod were initially stocked in NPD several years (5+) ago and that there would be some >10lb.

Many years ago, I've kept Mary River cods from fingerling size (obtained from Jerry Cook at the McDonal hatchery) and found that if you're happy keeping the food up to them, their growth rate is rapid.

Luc

[Obi _ Wan]

Hi All,
For those interested in just what , how many and when stocked, here are the figures.

Mary River Cod: First stocked in 93/94 - 920 fish, 94/95- 1,000 fish, 95/96 - 2,340 fish, 97/98 - 870 fish, 2001/02 - 3,000 fish, 02/03 - 2,500 fish, 03/04 - 3,000 fish, 04/05 - 3,900 fish, 05/06 - 3,500 fish, 06/07 - 3,000 fish. Note we have seen the frame of a cod that would have been around 30/35lb and i do have a fairly poor photo copy of the picture, the size of the fish was discussed with Fitzy one night at one of our meetings.

Saratoga (Dawson River) First officially stocked in 94/95 - 25 fish, 96/97 - 46 fish, 97/98 - 87 fish, 2001/02 - 84 fish, 04/05 - 53 fish. The small numbers of stocked fish relate to the fact that they are very expensive to source, some of the fish stocked have cost up to $40 each so we ask people to practise catch and release with this species (please). Also some large toga have been sighted, (not by me) at close to a meter long.

Total numbers of stocked fish are as follows.
Bass - 492,368 first stocked 90/91. Yellowbelly - 369,961 first stocked 92/93.
Silver Perch - 423,784 first stocked in 91/92, none stocked since 02/03.

NPD is a very healthy fishery with a number of trophy sized fish, bass in the 60cm bracket, (i have seen a few this size).

Cheers & good fishing,
John.

[Obi _ Wan]

LGM,
Mate i know just what you mean by backing out of the water, probably also needing a change of underdaks.
A couple of years ago i was up at Monduran sneaking around in the back of a heavily timbered bay seeking the mighty barra when there was a massive KERSPLASH, i almost broke my neck turning around to see just what was about to swallow my boat and i saw a plume of water about twenty feet high. When it quitened down i thought, if that was a barra it could swallow my boat, but what in the heell was it, i carefully motored over on the electric, wondering if it was a supply ship coming into an underwater base for Extra Terrestrial beings on the bottom of the lake?? Mind racing what was it????
Then there it was, a massive branch had broken off a rather large tree and fallen into the water. Now this branch was about twenty feet long and a couple of feet in diameter. If this had landed on my boat i would have been at the bottom of the lake, since then i have been very aware of trees around the area i am fishing.

Now NPD does not have the timber that there is in Monduran, UNFORTUNATELY, so mate perhaps it was a supply ship?????? hahahaha.

Might just see you out there one morning soon.

Cheers,
John.

[Cammy]

Agreed luc same goes with the murrys.

Also bream in npd?, i dont rekon that would work at all since,there hasnt been much study into bream being relesed into dams,except for private dams. And i dont think the bream will be able to breed in the dam to keep up the population??

They will have to compete with tilarpia, and we all know how every other native fish has turned out competing with this rubbish fish. If anything is to happen with bream it will be many years into the future.

i would liek to think that the big splash was a big cod! .......



Cammo

[Obi _ Wan]

Cammy,
Both Yellowfin and Pikey Bream have been released into Lake Awoonga.

Yellowfin Bream - 78,003.
Pikey Bream - 14.

I have not heard of any of these being caught.

Cheers,
John.

[Cammy]

when were they last stocked? the barras probably ate them.

Although, why would they put such small fish in with bigger fish?
Or was this a test to see how the bream survive in dams?

Cammo

[Obi _ Wan]

Cammy,

You could be right, the barra may have eaten them, they have also stocked Mangrove Jack into Awoonga and some of these have been caught.

I don't know when the bream were last stocked as i only have a summary of the quantity of the species stocked. The summary also states that there was no record of the size of the stocked fish (bream).

Most fish that are stocked into the impoundments are only small fish, 25 to 75 millimeters long apart from some that are grown out and then released (this does not happen at NPD).
I have been told by friends from the Faust Stocking Association that earlier this year when they were releasing some grown out barra (about 300 millimeters long if i remember right) at the end of the boat ramp that several big barra (over a meter long) were choping into the released fish.
There is an unknown amount of predation of all fingerlings stocked into impoundments or other areas, it's only natural.

Our group were releasing some Mary River Cod at NPD a few years ago when one of the members burst out laughing, he had just tipped a bucket full of little cod into the lake, they all quickly zoom to the bottom to take cover when a gambusia swum over the top of the little cod (25 mill long) when one little cod shot up and scoffed down the gambusia, a good start one would say.
And when stocking you are always putting small fish in with bigger ones, so the worry is not only predation by larger fish but also from birds.

Lake Monduran is stocked with both bass and barra and both species are often caught.

Cheers,
John.

[Cammy]

Yer i no a bit of how the stocking goes, but i was refering to the size comparison and growth rates of these 2 fish.

This is the average growth rate for a wild barra according to

http://www.nativefish.asn.au/barramundi.html

Year Length range (mm)

1 310-330
2 430-500
3 529-610
4 610-690
5 730-770
6 810+

Now compare that with bream, they stand no chance in my mind of surviving in a dam full of barra. Barras double and triple in size if they have enough food source and im sure there alot in the dams, therefore they shoot like rockets.

Say they stocked the dam with 2.5 - 7.5mm bream, in one year a barra could easily eat the bream, as the bream would have only grown a couple of cm's. Not to mention the barra that are already in the dam. If the bream lived to an old age, possibly one of the big brutes might clean them up, thats if they live to that age.

Mabye consider stocking them with bass and yellas and other smaller natives, i think bass and bream would go well together as they have similar growth rates (slow). Yes there is still the threat of birds and other wild life, but atleast they wont have big barra and jacks chasing after them.

Yes bass and barra can live together, bass and bream behave differently, and bream are a shiny silver, resembling herring or bait fish, where as most bass are dark mottled colour.

Otherwise i find it pointless.

And thnx for the added info there Obi_Wan;) , I do get where your coming from.

I hope i didnt offend anyone or sound arrogant or anything, im just pointing out my point:).


Cammo

[loophole]

If the stated Figures for stcoking NPD with Bass, Cod, Yellas And silvers is correct then where are these fish i know of ppl that spend many hours up there searching for a bass and never seem to find one.

As for intoducing Barra into NPD why hasnt a trial of say 100 been done ?
What's the lowest temp that the Damn reaches in winter?
Just think of all the Tilapia and Gambousia that the Barra's would clean up.

[tunaticer]

Loophole, Getting permission from EPA and the waterboard for release of any fish into NPD is a huge ordeal. They have been trying fopr permission for jacks for a long time and not a speck of hope yet from what I hear. Barras will be further down the list of possibilities not being a local fish to the environment.

Jack.

[BR65]

If the stated Figures for stcoking NPD with Bass, Cod, Yellas And silvers is correct then where are these fish i know of ppl that spend many hours up there searching for a bass and never seem to find one.

As for intoducing Barra into NPD why hasnt a trial of say 100 been done ?
What's the lowest temp that the Damn reaches in winter?
Just think of all the Tilapia and Gambousia that the Barra's would clean up.


got cold enuf for a nasty little fish kill last winter, fortunately the majority of dead fish were tillapia, but I saw a number of big, up to 50, bass bank side as well
cheers
brian

[Cammy]

yer mate i walked around the bank also and counted 15 bass ranging from 40cm to round 60cm as i measured with my 2 feet, i walked from forgans to bullocky, tonnes of dead tillies 2 turtles and some herring but magority tillies.

Was a sad site seeing monster fish that have only been dead for a couple of hours.

Cammo

[Little grey men]

Even standing in the water this weekend I don't think a barra would like it much.
It was c c c cold. But I'm sure some could possibly survive, there is a lot of shallow bays at North Pine where they could sun themselves.Then I could get Jason Wilhelm in his Skeeter and we could work the shallows with slick rigs YEEEHAAAAA;D
Last years kill was savage ....saw alsorts of dead fish. even boney bream, which I thought handled the cold pretty well.

[Mike Delisser]

Boney Bream are often the first to go, it's just that they usualy all get eaten by birds unless it's a very big kill.
Mike

[shayned]

Hey BR no "if" on the numbers of fish that Obi supplied for us. That is what has gone in. You have to allow for predation, natural losses, take by anglers and over flow events to arrive at surviving numbers.

The dam is still fishing pretty well with guys who are good at what they do still catching and releasing good numbers.

[Little grey men]

Hey BR no "if" on the numbers of fish that Obi supplied for us. That is what has gone in. You have to allow for predation, natural losses, take by anglers and over flow events to arrive at surviving numbers.

The dam is still fishing pretty well with guys who are good at what they do still catching and releasing good numbers.

agreed, that place is very healthy indeed.

[Obi _ Wan]

Cammy,
No offence taken mate, everyone has a right to voice their opinion.
IMHO i would not be keen on stocking yellow fin bream, can't see the need. On fish colours, no doubt you would be aware that fish have the ability to change their colouration to suit their environment and enhance their ability to survive ie; yellowfin bream that live in places like deepwater bend/ dohles rocks have that silvery colour you mentioned in a previous post, the same species of fish caught on the beach can be almost as white and shinny as a mirror and the same species caught right up in brackish water can be almost black and bream caught off the oceans rocks quite offten display a bronze colour. I have seen barra in impoundments, silvery underneath with an olive/green back to a gold colour and fish that i have seen referred to as swamp dogs can be almost black.

loophole,
Yeah mate, those figures are the official PRFMA records.
As for numbers, there are still many thousands of fish in NPD even allowing for the fact that the last time the dam filled and went over and many thousands of fish went on a trip, they were catching yellowbelly at Woody Point Jetty. What also did was create a good bass fishery in both the Nth & Sth Pine rivers
Also many of our little friends take a lot more than the legal bag limits, i have called fisheries several times.
Recently a catch, tag,record and release weekend was undertaken for SEQ Water & Griffith Uni as part of a scientific study. Approx 1,000 bass were tagged, recorded, released and i think there was only one fish that was caught that already had a tag from a tagging undertaken several years ago. I will include a picture of a school of bass that was taken in March 2008.

I for one would like to see barra introduced but at the present time it is not permissable as the belief is that we are South of the barra's natural range.

Cheers,
John

[Little grey men]

I for one would like to see barra introduced but at the present time it is not permissable as the belief is that we are South of the barra's natural range.


That would be something wouldn't it, but it would be a shame to see our precious bass getting chased around the dam by these silver beasts...Hey I've got it....let's stock Kurwongbah with barra and keep North Pine for bass. Now thats a plan.:) The barra could clean up the Kurwongbah tilapia and, oh hang on....the 100 000 Kurwongbah bass fingerlings are getting fat and healthy as we speak..hmmmm. Looks like we'll have to keep heading up north for a while to get a barra fix.

[loophole]

[quote=. Looks like we'll have to keep heading up north for a while to get a barra fix.[/quote]

ahhh damn :'(

[BR65]

[quote=shayned;820792]Hey BR no "if" on the numbers of fish that Obi supplied for us. That is what has gone in. You have to allow for predation, natural losses, take by anglers and over flow events to arrive at surviving numbers.

quote]

whattha???
think ya got the wrong bloke mate;)
cheers
brian

[Mike Delisser]

Check this out.... I had a little fish Early Monday morning ( sorry Bloody Grinner if your reading this, we could have had a fish afterall. I was given leave after good behaviour all weekend to go for a quick flick ) anyway, it was very peaceful out there, started fishing about 6.00am. A few people will know where the island is at the dam. I was fishing about three hundred metres away from the island, just flicking away when I heard what I would describe as a very big "KERSPLASH" right near said island...far too big to be described as a " SPLASH"...definitely a "KERSPLASH"....All of the pelicans and seagulls took off that were sitting on the island. Made me move out of the water a bit too. Curse this overactive imagination.
Lots of fish hit the surface at that time of the morning but this was far too big to be a bass smacking the surface.
Was anyone else out there at that time ? I'm sure if you were fishing at Forgans you would have also heard it, it was LOUD.........weird.

I saw this flying over the dam recently, notice something missing. :o


/http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/3488/0040mh6.th.jpg (http://img151.imageshack.us/my.php?image=0040mh6.jpg)

[Little grey men]

HA HA nice one M62;D
A few seconds earlier