Yep, it is that time of the year! I will be attending along with AJ and another Sheppartonian...or two! The event is this Saturday so I will do a report soon after and I must say, my favorite fishing is done chasing natives so I will be attending as a 'double agent'! cheers https://vfa.vic.gov.au/recreational-fishing/talk-wild-trout-2017 Team Bender Trust no-one!
Been there...done that! AJ, myself and another mate made the trip to Mansfield today in 'Blue Thunder', the high powered VY Commodore! It was a hot day...and apparently the air-con industry has not reached Mansfield at this time! John Hayes, a New Zealand research scientist presented his findings from his research into his favourite fush! Apparently there is a lot of river degradation that occurs in NZ that is not publicised very much. As with other speakers this year and last...we have to improve the trout's habitat. Data provided by electro-fishing was presented in regards to the current 'health' of certain rivers. Basically, whether fish stocks were improving or decreasing. Some of the findings are as follows. Brown trout spawned in 6 of the 12 rivers being monitored. The Jamieson River had poor levels of spawning for the first time in 3 years. The Ovens River had no spawning that could be detected. Rainbow trout spawned in 4 of 7 priority rivers. No Rainbow trout spawning occurred in the Goulburn River tailrace. 'Scores' were applied to rivers surveyed taking into consideration aspects like fish numbers, size and 'multiple year classes'. One of the highest ranking ratings went to the Howqua River. The Goulburn below Eildon rated a 'moderate'. An alternative stocking method was discussed. This has been trialled with good results. It involves placing eggs in incubators then locating the incubators in appropriate locations. This has been successful so far and the hope is that this produces fish that are more resilient. As mentioned last year, stocking of trout in rivers appears to be a waste of time! Thoughts are that the fish produced in farms for stocking are domesticated to a point and can not survive. A data collection program, 'My Catch' was spoken about. This is hopefully going to be introduced to obtain catch data from fishing clubs. This would then give fisheries an idea if their strategies and stockings were working. Work has been done to ascertain if we are overfishing the trout. This was carried out in the upper Goulburn basin. Techniques utilised involved interviewing members of the public who were camping in the area. Fish were also tagged with different types of tags to determine the survival rates of the fish. Some fish had tags which, if caught and reported by anglers to fisheries, was worth $100 to the angler. FFS, if I had of known I would have went after them all! I am not sure if the tagged fish had to be alive or dead but it was a way of determine what percentage of fish were captured. Other fish were released with tracking devices to determine their fate. Compliance records from fisheries officers were also looked at and it appears as though the fisheries are not being pillaged! Most of us know that Eildon gets a gazillion fish stocked into it. Some of these include trout and research was done to see if any of these fish move up into the rivers. It appears that not many trout stocked into Eildon do move up into the rivers. Newer methods of marking stocked fish were discussed, rather than relying on fin clipping. New methods involve barium isotopes marking of newly hatched trout larvae in the hatchery. It was explained but from memory...the fish can be scanned. Perhaps the fish may glow in the dark! As for the the fish eggs reared in stream in the incubators, dna samples of the parents will be taken and these samples can be matched from dna samples taken from fish gathered during electro fishing sessions. The purpose of all this marking...after stockings, fisheries do their electro fishing surveys and they need to know what floats up to the top, is is stocked or wild! Anyway, at about this time I was ready to keel over in the heat and had had enough! And then came the final, and best presentation...Jon Clewlow, 'An expensive trout'! This was a talk about how he got hooked on fishing after catching his first trout as a youngster. The amount of money that then had to be spent on the hobby! Well, not really but yeah, some of us spend in excess! One of the funniest presentations I have ever heard and a great relief after being exposed to an overload of graphs and data for the day! In closing, he said it is all worth it for the calming effect that fishing has on us. Cheers Team Bender Patiently awaiting my invitation to talk at next years event!
Good report Jim. Just out of curiosity, is catch & release practised widely with trout fishing, or are most of the fish caught destined for the table? Jeff
Many fishos, especially fly fishos release their trout. Of course others keep them. I forgot an important point from the talks. The executive director was sidetracked and spoke about natives for a few minutes. They are going to have to create another fish breeding facility for natives, especially for yellas, in...wait for it...northern Vic! cheers Team Bender Currently busy writing a proposal to fisheries to locate said breeding farm in dam at work!
Excellent report, Jim. In reply to Jeff, mine end up on the plate, (when I catch one). Cheers, creekboy.
I found out today that this presentation caused fisheries some grief! They received multiple complaints ranging from the talk being degrading to women (there was some pics of women in bikinis in the PowerPoint presentation) to complaints that the presenter was flaunting his wealth! Honestly, some people are just whinging morons! Anyway, I had better start preparing my presentation for next year! I may be in with a chance now! Actually had a discussion with a staff member of a local tackle store this week about me giving a presentation in store! The subject matter...'Dealing with stress when not catching fish'! Perhaps a 'help line' could be set up with a series of advertisements! "Sick and tired of donuts? Feeling the pain? Don't worry, you are not alone! Call 13DONUT to talk to someone"! Cheers Team Bender Politically incorrect since 1966!
Doesn't surprise me people were complaining about things at all bender.It's the world we live in today If you don't get the "gig" at next years do with your "dealing with stress of not catching fish" presentation let me know.I could perhaps do a talk on "AWL's theory of catch & release of trout in streams north of the divide" That would be sure to get them talking. Team AWL can arrange own police escort out of mansfield
