Big splash at North Pine Dam

[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 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?
jas

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

[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

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.