Bass Fingerling Prices

[Peter_J]

Guys,

I'm curious to know what price the Qldr's are paying for Bass fingerlings this year. Down here in NSW we have been looking at around $0.34 ea for fingerlings around 25mm for the last four years and this year it looks like it will be about the same cost. Whilst our hard won dollars are matched dollar for dollar by NSW Fisheries it's still a very expensive exercise.

There are a limited number of suppliers that are permitted to supply fingerlings for NSW Fiseries approval which doesn't give us much bargaining power.

Our Club alone has introduced over 120,000 fingerlings into the local river over the last three years at a cost of around $32,000 but I'm curious if what we are paying is similar to you guys up there ??

Peter

[Fitzy]

Hi Peter, Most stocking groups up here would be paying anywhere from $0.16 to $0.25/25mm fingerling. Think the lowest we payed was $0.12 a couple of years ago when there was an oversupply.
The trend up here nowadays is to stock them at a larger size. Around 50mm is the average I would think.
Dont know if most groups will openly tell you what they're paying. Hatcheries try to play us off & tell us we're getting the "best price going, but dont tell anyone you payed this price". Its more likely that we play them off for a better deal.

You also need to consider that some groups up here are ordering in the area of tens of thousands of $$ worth at a time on occasion. Certainly helps when bargaining for prices.

Was talking to a NSW Fisheries guy at at workshop up here on the weekend. There's some stringent rules in place if taking ova/fingerlings/fry across the border. But by all means try to source your fish in Qld if the price is better.

Cheers,

Fitzy..