Fingerling Release Ewan Maddock

[rayke1938]

[attachment]Dam fish release is no small fry _ Sunshine Coast News _ Local News in Sunshine Coast _ Sunshine Coast Daily.htm[/attachment]

From todays sunshine coast daily.

Cheers

Ray

GREAT HELP: Melanie Matthies, 8, helps release some of the 26,000 fish fingerlings into the Ewen Maddock Dam.

Warren Lynamslwfish

EWEN Maddock Dam is luring keen fishermen to its waters with the release of more than 50,000 fingerlings.

Last week Ewen Maddock Fish Management Inc released 15 saratoga fingerlings into the dam for the first time since 2001.

They also released about 3000 Australian bass fingerlings.

The company's president David Brace said the saratoga would grow to more than a metre.

"The main reason to stock saratoga is it's one of the very few freshwater species that will breed in a land-locked environment," he said.

"Bass need to go over the wall to breed.

"With saratoga, you put them in there to breed among themselves."

In February last year, the company put 29,000 bass, silver perch and gold perch fingerlings into the dam. Mary river cod and saratoga fingerlings weren't available.

The release was the first since 2001 and largest into the Ewen Maddock Dam since it was built in 1973.

The annual releases are part of EMFM Inc's five-year management plan to replenish stock of Australian bass, silver perch, golden perch, mary river cod and saratoga in the dam.

Mr Brace said while some of the fish were being caught, most were too small to legally catch as they would be about 10cm long, short of the 30cm legal size.

"A golden perch was caught recently. It was 20cm long, which would indicate it could be from our stocking last year," he said.

"But bass are extremely slow-growing fish. It might take 15-20 years for them to get to 45-50cm."

He said 25 Australian bass also were caught recently, the biggest measuring 54cm, proving they were from the last stocking group's release more than a decade ago.

Mr Brace said the purpose of the annual restocking was to lure recreational fishermen back to the dam.

"It gives fishermen somewhere to go, other than saltwater, and adds diversity. It gets people outside and enjoying the great outdoors," he said.

EMFM Inc has also taken responsibility for restocking the Baroon Pocket Dam, after the former stocking group ceased operation in about 2000.

The dam has not been stocked since.

The group is permitted to annually restock only Australian bass and mary river cod.

EMFM is preparing to release about 40,000 bass fingerlings into the dams in coming weeks.

[Terry H]

Cheers Ray.

Potentially a silly question, but was there any study done or idea on the maximum number of bass to release into the dam? one good aspect of Ewen was that there were (prior to it going over a few years ago) a healthy number of large solid bass, which many assumed was due to lower numbers than other dams, and high food levels for them.

Just wondering if overstocking would then limit the sizes...

Good to hear about the Toga, there are certainly a few monsters in there, but there can certainly be a few more I think!

[regulated]

Mates used to stock a lot of barra in tinaroo and we never used to have too much of a problem. Used to catch them at 10cm near the release sites.

I don't know how aggressive bass are but if they are like barra they may self regulate ie eat the bubs if too many are around.

Mmmm Maybe a overstocked dam could mean no closed season

[rayke1938]

Overstocking can certainly impact on the size but I cannot envisage this happening at either Ewan Maddock or Baroon Pocket simply because the stocking group does not have the funding to stock at anywhere near the levels that their stocking permit allows.

Deedi currently regulate3 the number of fingerlings allowed to be stocked.

The extra toga were introduced to provide some extra genetic diversity to the existing gene pool.

Cheers

Ray

[fishingnut]

PRFMA certainly gave a helping hand in delivering the toga and the donated bass from bill proctor, good to see the dams getting some well desweved bass again