What a waste

[Awoonga]

l expect this Thread to start Vigorous debate ...But thats what forums are for..So lets begin...What l saw at Lake Lenthall on Sunday sickened and sadened me... Barra dead and dying ...Mostly small fish...Why ? The first real cold winter that we have had for at least five years ... maybe more and l expect more Barra to die in the cold winter mornings to follow...Other dams with stocked Barra have met with the same fate.. At .Awoonga, Monduran...no problems that l can see....Why...??? Well this is my opinion...Water depth...Shallow water.. The fish cant get to a depth that isnt affected by the sudden change in temperature...So what do we do about it ?? At Lake Lenthall stop the barra stocking program...Even with the raising of the water level the fish will never be able to reach a safe depth that is not affected by Temperature change ..This dam is to far south and to shallow to sustain a barra population..So what about.Callide.?.The water level has reached a level where we have the same senario....Three options here...Stop the stocking of barra or wait untill the dam fills before it stocked again or stock it with bass Whatever happens there its going to be a long road to recovery with the amount of fish lost..............................Let the debate begin......Trevor

[Lucky_Phill]

Good to hear from you Trev.

Shame about all this. As a non-freshie I have no real opinions, but will listen to those that do fish the fresh.

Who has control of stocking dams such as Awonga and Monduran and are those people inclinded to listen to the local legends, such as yourself ?

Cheers Phill, ps, may see you in Oct

[Awoonga]

Well the late mail is Sunwater and DPI are now involved...

[oscar64]

OK!

No one else is having a go , so I will.

Trevor,

You pretty much answer your own question in the first few lines of your post, when you mention it being the worst winter in 5 years.
Was -1 here in HB this am, just to give you an idea.

so what about all the hours and years of enjoyment that EVERYONE who fishes Lenthalls and the other dams, and all the hard work of the local fish stoicking associations, who also are very dissapointed and upset with the deaths of the barra.

NO one has control over nature.

You mention that the stocking down here should stop. From the start of any stocking DPI and all the relevant bodies are consulted, and stocking would not occur if they didnt think it would work.

Without getting really wound up and going off on one, I'll just say this.

Plenty of people are more than happy to go to these dams and catch the fish , when its warm and all the conditions are right , but as soon as something like this happens, something which NONE of us has any control over, every one gets that KNEE JERK happening and wants the stocking to stop.

As a member of the local fish stocking assoc, FCFSA, I am one of those who is very dissapointed, but to even suggest barra stocking should be stopped is more than a joke it's ABSURD.

Unless some of these so called 'gurus' can work out how to control mother nature?

Just my 2 bobs worth.

How about the fact that if there wasn't a tournament at the dam on Sunday , pretty much no one would have known. let alone seen the kill at Lenthalls.
Just l;iek plenty havent seen the kills at the other dams.

Pete

[Lucky_Phill]

Trev, surely the people that ' breed ' the fingerlings know what will happen and are in the know on water temps required etc. They would therefore advise the stocking groups of this.

Just wondering if the dams mentioned are too far south, of course we have had abnormal warm weather over the last few years and so this problem has not reared it's head until now.

Water temp must be down to 3 - 5 degrees, so that does not suit a Tropical Barra......... just my opinion, and again, not a freshie , but non-the-less concerned.

cheers Phill

[Awoonga]

Pete...knee jerk reaction...Well time will tell on that one... Global warming might help your cause....Phil yes had a chat to the guy that breeds them.... very unhappy camper... Dont want to quote him....But lets just say we agree on some of the points that l have made in my first post

[gladbream]

we must not forget aout the hard work these hatchery staff and especially the stocking groups put into these fisheries. dpi have authorised these impoundments to be stocked with barramundi and have revised the stocking management plan within the past 2 weeks. these incidents must be taken into account, not just lenthals but all barra stocked impoundments south of mackay. all of these stocking groups place their spare time into these fisheries as passionate aafiliations that they have with their specific fishery. the guy from lenthals are gentlemen, and i have close affiliations with their supply of barramundi. the results of the cold snap will obviously be held in the hands of the gods, and stressfull to a person in my position. fingers crossed and hope that the mortalities receed.

many efforts go into these fisheries and in the hope that the name of these world class fisheries do not get soiled from this ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE. these registered low temperatures are abnormal for lengths of time experienced.

cheers
grubby

[Big_Ren]

This is more of an observation than a solution.

Water temps of 3-5 degrees are a sure fire killer, but alas the reality and indeed the bad news for barra is that it does not even need to drop anywhere near that level. 13 deg (the unlucky number....in this case for the poor barra) is the oft quoted mortality threshhold.

From the DPI's own website:

"Barramundi are a tropical species requiring water temperatures between 20oC and 30oC. Commercial growth rates require temperatures above 25oC........."

It goes on: "Seasonal variations in temperature cause growth rates of outdoor fish to decrease rapidly over the winter months, even in north Queensland. In southern Queensland, the lower year round water temperatures makes these methods (commercial grow outs) uneconomical. Death is reported to occur when water temperatures drop below 13oC, although stress related mortalities and disease outbreaks become increasingly frequent as the water temperature drops below 20oC."

I almost lost my own pet barra last week to the sudden winter chill and it does not take long...within hours he had developed a frost like appearance due to a chronic case of temperature and stress-related white spot. Without meaning to divert from the real debate here, the point I'm making is that in these southern climes, I expect that it would not take long for mortality rates to dramatically increase given the seasonally below-average temperatures we are experiencing.

Even at Tinaroo in far north Queensland, there are reports of bone-chilling air temperatures, which does not auger well for the health of the resident barra. I'm sure Theo (Tinaroo Triumph) would have some thoughts on this.

I am taking my wife to the barra farm at Tin Can Bay next weekend....I am dreading to see how many barra they have lost already .

Cheers
Paul

[Awoonga]

Yes Kurt the guys and girls in the stocking groups are passionate about what the do.... Without them freshwater fishing would not be as good as it is..Hatchery staff are going through a stressfull time at the moment... When they put so much time into breeding the fish...Hang in there mate

[Lovey80]

Sorry I cant really add to the thread but I have a question. Do impoundment Barra that have been stocked actually breed? I have heard that stocked Bass do not breed at all is this the same with Barra?

Cheers Chris

[Big_Ren]

Sorry I cant really add to the thread but I have a question. Do impoundment Barra that have been stocked actually breed? I have heard that stocked Bass do not breed at all is this the same with Barra?

Cheers Chris

You're absolutely right Chris. They need saltwater to spawn.

Cheers
Paul

[TinarooTriumph]

G'day Paul,

I commented on the freezing temperatures we are recording here at the moment in another thread, but I probably could of said things better... sorry for those that might have mis-interpreted things. Tinaroo would no doubt be receiving 0's, -1's, -2's... perhaps even colder. I have not ventured out onto the Lake in a few weeks and I am actually scared at what I might see... hence why I havnt posted any reports of late. This is THE worst Winter we have had here on the Tablelands in a decade and more... its been rediculous! Where I am based (Wondecla... close to Herberton) we have had nights of up to -10... I am NOT pulling your legs! We are a good 1500/2000ft higher then Tinaroo, whats why things are so much colder here. A Spud farmer about 30km South of us near Ravenshoe recorded -12 a few nights back... again, I am NOT pulling your legs! This spud farm is actually on the highest Road in QLD so theres some proof. He said he was walking around that night (shit for brains) and he could not move his Arms as his Jacket was shielded with Ice! Think we are over the worst... Im unsure. Looking like a bad Fire season here... everything is brown!

Last year we had a very 'kind' winter, however there were alot of casualities on the Lake. As I said, I am scared to go out and look! When I hear of places like Callide, Moondarra, Lenthalls etc losing great numbers of fish it saddens me to no end. These Barra are special, special fish... to think that they are dieing for reasons out of their control almost brings a tear to the eye.

Anyway... Lenthalls... dont get me started! I don't know much about the place but it sounds like that place is going to go up and down like a YoYo crowd wise with the Speed limit/Motor size debacle. I certainly wont be fishing there if those stupid rules exist in the future! Plenty of other place to fish. When I first heard that Barra existed in an Impoundment so far South I was actually shaking my head... ''That can't be right... they'll freeze to death!'' was my reaction. As I said, this winter has been a 'freak' of a thing... but with the way the weather is chopping and changing year by year (GW), who knows? - Maybe next year could be worse?

Good thread Trev! Lets see where it goes!

Cheers guys

Theo.

[davez104]

It might be a bit of a setback and sad to see, but I doubt that a significant proportion of the barra will die unless dam levels are extremely low. I think the stocking groups should continue the great work they do and keep putting fish in. You can't abandon decades of work because of one minor hiccup.

Out of interest, does anyone know what sort of temperatures Eungella dam gets down to during winter, I've heard it gets pretty cool because of the altitude. Maybe it doesn't cool as rapidly as has been happening over the last few weeks. Generally its the sudden swing in temp that will kill fish, they can usually handle the low temps so long as it is a gradual decrease.

Dave.

[Fitzy]

I agree that it is a shame. I also agree that deeper lakes are better at holding more constant temps than shallower lakes. However it is the same deeper lakes that can become stratified & then roll over.
Roll overs can & do cause a lot of fish kills. For emample, we currently have a lot of Bony Bream dying off at Lake Somerset. I'm not for one moment going to worry about it much. The pelicans need food too. I'm also awaiting news of a nice Tilapia kill that is normally associated with colder winters. Here's hoping...

As a member of several fish stocking groups in Qld, I know we work within quidelines set down by DPI&F. While ever groups are working within these guidelines every one who wets a line in the fisheries they create, manage & maintain should whole heartedly support their great efforts.

I would be hesitant to agree with, or support any move to roll back any of the work done by any stocking group. If the decision is to be made, it should be the members of that particular group.

I understand that Barra have recently died off in Wuruma, Callide, Maraboon and Lenthalls (I'm told around 60). I stand on that many fish at any given release so in context, 60 fish is nothing.
It aint just barra BTW folks, Bass have died in Lenthalls this week as well.

IMHO its all part of the risk we take in fish stocking. Lakes, Dams, Weirs & rivers all dry up at times. The accepted practice is to resume what we do when conditions are better. We take the good with the bad, just like the weather when we go out to catch these fish.
Then when we get floods or large inflows, again we get fish kills. I once witnesses tens of thousands of dead silver perch at Cania. The result of an inflow. Again, let the pelicans have a feast & we get on with it next season. I wouldnt for a moment consider lobbying for the stopping of stocking silvers in there for a moment.

In the wild I've seen alot of fish kills. Barra in NT & FNQ. Bass & mullet in local rivers. While it is a shame, it happens.

I feel if, from angler pressure, we were to see any removal of fish stocking programs, species etc we are surely shooting outselves right in the foot. It could well pave the way to the do-gooders, animal libbers, w*nkers & wowsers that like to complain just for the fun of it all.

If we want to show the critics a clean set of heels, I for one would rather see our efforts go into better fish handling, treatment & release efforts. You want to see dead fish?? Go to any bass or barra lake 2 or 3 days after a "Catch & Release" tournament. I've seen noted tournament anglers simply toss a sick bass over the side of their boat in fear of loosing points & to allow room for yet another victim. Now that's a shame........


Cheers,

Fitzy..

[davez104]

Bloody hell Fitzy, I reckon you've hit the nail right on the head. Agree 100%

Dave.