queensland Amazing Find in Brissy River!!

[Plastic Fantastic]

hey everybody! just wanted to share with you all an awesome find myself and fishing_cherry found tonight.

fishing_cherry and i were fishing approx 400m downstream of the Mt. Crosby wier around 7pm. no bites had us having a bit of an explore trying to spotlight lungfish and the like. anyways, we were walking along the bank when i spotted a large 55-65cm dead fish floating in the shallows amoungst some weed. we wanderred over thinking it was one hell of a big mullet but upon closer inspection we found it to be a relatively fresh dead BARRAMUNDI!!!!

now I know all you guys out there aint believe us at all but we took millions of pictures and we are just as amazed at this find as you probably are! cant believe it! at first we thought it to be a river perch thingo but the fish had large gill rakers just like a barra does. its eyes and gill n fins had been chewed down but it was still evident it was a barra!

we think it was either released as a fingerling from a bored aquariumist coz i dont think they occur naturally this far down?

anywho here are the photos! enjoy!

Admin Note: Please don't use Capitals in post title

Post edited by: webmaster, at: 2007/08/03 21:51

[Plastic Fantastic]

here's fishing_cherry holding up the dead barra. apologies on the condition of the fish haha [img size=159]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Dead_Barra__5__2.jpg

[Plastic Fantastic]

god it smelt! but we dragged it out of the water for a better pic [img size=200]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Dead_Barra__9__2.jpg

[pinkey]

Woah..................! .. got anymore pics and

what did u do with him?

[Plastic Fantastic]

did nothing with him... umm just slid him back into the water, and yea got a few more pics [img size=200]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Dead_Barra_2.jpg this is how we found him

[Plastic Fantastic]

we thought he might of been a big river perch or somthing coz a barra this south is just crazy but i checked his gill rakers and sure enuf there present! sharp as!

[img size=200]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Dead_Barra__10__2.jpg

[mackmauler]

very unusual, great find mate, what an experience it would of been to line fish it from there.

[Plastic Fantastic]

[img size=200]http://www.australianfishing.com.au/media/kunena/attachments/legacy/images/Dead_Barra__8__2.jpg

[Tim a]

Thats mad! But I have been waiting to find one here, It was probaly another victim of the cold. Good find guys.

[Plastic Fantastic]

yeah thats what we where thinking...but hows that! a barramundi up in the freshwater of the brisbane river! get outta here aye!

[chippee]

there was a report, how serious or not i dont know, but there was apparently some divers up at the noosa river , reckon that that saw a school of big barra, if so they would have to definatly be wild ones as for the one you found chances are it got flooded out of someones dam or something

[Feral]

Bad luck, still 99 to go!

[STU]

Who would think barra at mt crosby sweet

[MichaelJ]

feral 99 what to go?

and in my opinion it doesn't look like a barramundi but i dono mayby estuary perch have gill rackers too.

[Feral]

I have it on good authority that themidnight stocking group a couple of years put 100 barra fingerlings in to the Brissy River.

Post edited by: Feral, at: 2007/08/05 09:52

[MichaelJ]

lol and i rekon it doesnt look like barra cause all the ones ive caught have more scoped head and just look differant im probly rong tho

changed from capitals - Feral.

Post edited by: Feral, at: 2007/08/05 09:56

[Brian D]

Feral, How fast do farm Barra grow once they are released into open water ways? The colour looks like it's been there a while.

Would they get from 6cm to 55 cm in 1 1/2 years?

[MichaelJ]

barramundi grow 1kg a year i think

[Nastymind]

Could be worth reporting to fisheries. This may be more important than you`d expect.

I don`t know for sure, but we should let the experts research it.

It may benefit the river in the long run.

[Gazza]

At least it will give the researchers something to research lol :silly:

Gaz

[Brian D]

Nastymind wrote:

Could be worth reporting to fisheries. This may be more important than you`d expect.

I don`t know for sure, but we should let the experts research it.

It may benefit the river in the long run.

NO don't do that, let's wait and see if more Barra appear first. Next thing you know they DNA test and find where the fish came from.

If there's someone out there helping mother nature lets leave em too it. If it's mother nature on her own then the authorities will only stuff it up.

If fisheries want to do something how about they stock the river with Jew, whitting, squire, flatties, bream, tailor, some kingies would be nice and maybe some spotties and threadies.

I know this - Barra like eating catfish.

Post edited by: Brian D, at: 2007/08/06 00:11

[Bullrout]

Feral wrote:

I have it on good authority that themidnight stocking group a couple of years put 100 barra fingerlings in to the Brissy River

Yep, a few years a go a wise old journo in the know told me the same thing.. if ones survived for a little while hopefully a few others did too! what a hoot that'd be!

[Nastymind]

Brian,

If these ecologists don't recommend stocking the river with a particular species, they would have logical reasons.

Unfortunately, fishing isn't a priority for environmenmtal management. I don't want to sound like i think i know everything, because i don't and i'm always open to new opinions, but i beleive we need to look at the bigger picture. If barra in the river is an environmental problem, then this should be researched by experts, not judged by fishermen. If it isn't, i'm sure there would be some sort of stocking program in the midst.

Just my opinion!

[Nastymind]

Sorry, also i didn't know that about barra eating catties. That's interesting. Is that saltwater or freshwater barra? We have catties in the tank at my work with the barra and they are going fine at the moment.

[Feral]

Plenty of reports of Barra being in the river naturally from the early 1800's. Polution and fishing just killed them out.

[Nastymind]

Feral wrote:

Plenty of reports of Barra being in the river naturally from the early 1800's. Polution and fishing just killed them out.

Really. That's a shame.

My girlfreind will be interested to hear that. She studies environmental science and management and wants to branch out into marine.

[werewolf]

thanks for sharing that plastic. Its suprising what is getting discovered in the river these days. I reckon the cold though over recent months is likey cause of death for it, and a reason why I doubt there would be any significant population of barra able to surive in the river. True there could be a few that are more tolerant to cold then others. As for wild or released pet I would say it's someones pet. For fish to be breeding there would have to be a significant population (surely?). As someone pointed out fishing pressure would be hard on a fish such as barra in the Brisbane, I just don't think there would be another to breed. Just my two bobs worth:silly:

[chippee]

I remember catching that about three weeks ago, we threw it back because it is the right thing to do, but it must have got hurt from the lure hooks, it couldnt seem to swim properly, sorry guys

[pcsolutionman]

chippee there are dozens of barramundi caught in the noosa river system every year. it is the most southern confirmed breeding population

Lee

[fishtales]

I am not surprised by this find at all. I listen to the fishing show on the radio on sat and sun mornings between 5-7 am and barra are caught in the Logan River, although very infrequently.

Chris

[fishtales]

I am not surprised by this find at all. I listen to the fishing show on the radio on sat and sun mornings between 5-7 am and barra are caught in the Logan River, although very infrequently.

Chris

[Angus]

Nice one.

I would say without question (due the location) that it would be a released pet.

Still very cool.

That section of river is suffering bad. Those shallow pools must get caught. Id say thats what killed it.

Only opinion though.

Angus

[Nastymind]

Could have also been a pet that died before getting dumped in the river.

[Brian D]

fishtales wrote:

I am not surprised by this find at all. I listen to the fishing show on the radio on sat and sun mornings between 5-7 am and barra are caught in the Logan River, although very infrequently.

Chris

Mate there are Barra breeding ponds on both the Albert and the Logan.

[Schultzy]

The barramundi that are caught in the Logan River and those in the Mooloolah River are escapees from commercial grow out ponds.

The fish in the Noosa are naturally occurring, the pros net them regularly there between the two lakes.

I'd guess that the Brissie River fish is someone's pet that outgrew the aquarium. I know a fellow who dropped one of about 3kg into the river at Colleges a few years ago.

[Oceandonkey]

Couldnt he just eat it? i bet there is 10 million reasons why you cant eat a pet barra (one not being attachment), as much as it hurt homer he still did the right thing and ate pinchy.

[Liquor Box]

Angus wrote:

Nice one.

I would say without question (due the location) that it would be a released pet.

Still very cool.

That section of river is suffering bad. Those shallow pools must get caught. Id say thats what killed it.

Only opinion though.

Angus

I think it was probably chased up stream by a big cobia:P getting chased by a 1.9m cobia probably scared it to death:cheer: