Yellowbelly from the Barcoo River

[Fishbait]

Fishing at Blackall today on a property outside town caught 6 yellowbelly and 3 black bream. Tried a heap of different spinners and hard body lures throughout the day. Good day out with my boy and 2 mates. Will be back again next Easter holidays. Very warm here still and hasn't rained for a while so fish aren't too active at the moment here.
Darren

[gunna]

Good effort that.

[Shagga]

Darren, here is a coincidence i couldnt help notice. I have a brother who lives in Blackall. He moved there from Bribie.

Nice yellas by the way.

[Goodoo haven]

Nice looking yellas. well done.

[funpaddle]

Hi Fishbait,

You mentioned black bream. Are they known by another name? I'm not familiar with a freshwater fish known by that name. Can you provide a pic?

[ShaneC]

Good going Dazz.

[phantomphisher]

black bream is another name for sooty grunter from what I gather.

[Fishbait]

black bream is another name for sooty grunter from what I gather.

That's right. Jet black as. Even have a fillet the same as our sea bream. Good sizes in them too. Got a few bobbing a float under some snaggie logs.

[Goodoo haven]

Down this way some fishos call the Silver Perch, "Black Bream"

[Big_Bass_Fisherman]

Well Done on the yellas.

There shouldn't be any sooties in the Barcoo, its more likely that they are Barcoo Grunter or Welches Grunter. Both are very similar to Silver Perch. If they are Sooties you should notify the authorities, it would be a disaster if they made it into the Lake Eyre Basin.

Little Barcoo Grunter. The Welches dont have spots.
http://imageshack.us/a/img833/3261/scortumbarcoo.jpg

[Haji-Baba]

We always called "SilverPerch" "Black Bream" years ago and then, when fish hatcheries and commercial ponds became common, the name changed to Silver Perch.
More a marketing tool then anything else I think.

"Sootie Grunter" "Black Bream" are generally confined to coastal fresh waters rivers on the east of the range or Gulf Water rivers.

There is another northern Perch locally called a "Kaki-Bream" very similar to a Sootie but nowhere in the same eating class.

And about fish being caught in unusual places, an Eel was caught in Nudley Creek 40 km. N.E. of Chinchilla some yeras ago. Probably brought in from over the range and released.

Have fun Haji-Baba

[Haji-Baba]

If we are talking about fish out of their normal range, how about "Murray Cod" in the lake eyre system. Introduced in 1972 from my information. Anybody want to check????

That includes the Barcoo, Diamantina, Georgina and Thompson river systems.

They are linked and Cod definately exist in "The Thompson"

Have a look at how the "Red Claw" have expanded in our southern water ways, plague proportions in some areas.

Trout in Q.L.D. true.

Nothing surprises me now anything anywhere.

Have fun Haji-Baba

[odes20]

Hey Haji! Went out over those rivers, going out the Plenty highway from Boulia to Alice a few weeks ago. Didn't wet a line. A girl who is a friend of ours keeps putting up pics of nice big yellas on facebook though from Longreach. Lotta great poems and songs written about the Channel country.
Thanks also to everyone on the clarification on the black bream. I live in the tropics now and have enjoyed catching the inland breams and now the sooties.

Great thread!

[Haji-Baba]

Hi John,

Bit busy lately, looking after a property for a friend who has gone over seas. Cows, dogs, dingoes, pigs, having a ball.

I was given to understand that there are four distinct species of Yellowbelly in our rivers.

The traditional Murray Darling group, Lake Eyre species, Dawson River group and Issacs river species. All may be different in some manner, I have caught Yellowbelly from the Barcoo and they appear to me to be rounder in the body and have a different head.

Have a look at the photo in the first post and you may notice the difference.
Or, maybe I am getting old and my imagination is in fast mode.

There is some big water in those rivers out west and worth dropping a cray or shrimp in some where.

Good to hear from you.

Have fun Haji-Baba