new south wales Impact of flooding on estuaries and harbours

[BinaryFart]

Hey All - Hope all of you affected by the eastern coast floods are safe, and haven't had too much damage. For those of you that have, I hope you're ok and it hasn't been too devastating! Hopefully we'll be able to help somehow soon, either directly or by donations or something. Stay safe!

Not to be too quick to change the topic to fishing, but as well as the human impact of the floods, how do you all reckon it'll impact this season's fishing? Obviously while the floods are actually happening, fishing is likely to be blown out (and probably unsafe anyway), but after the floods recede, what will be the the longer-term impacts?

Bass and EPs are starting their spawn migration downstream (or have been for some time is some places) - I imagine their spawn will be buggered up. How about estuary & harbour species like Mulloway, Kingfish Flatties, Bream etc? The Mullet run would normally kick off soon as well... If the reproductive cycles of these fish are interrupted, when will those effects become apparent?

I am a relatively inexperienced angler - only a few years fishing and I'm not very knowledgeable on the spawning or behaviour cycles of these species. I'm Interested to hear everyone's opinions!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey BinaryFart

Generally, it’ll make the river really dirty. Maybe flush out a lot of the rubbish and more saline fish species. 
I’m not 100% on big floods though, but I’d imagine just stronger affects.

Cheers Hamish

[Brodie_S]

3 hours ago, BinaryFart said:

Hey All - Hope all of you affected by the eastern coast floods are safe, and haven't had too much damage. For those of you that have, I hope you're ok and it hasn't been too devastating! Hopefully we'll be able to help somehow soon, either directly or by donations or something. Stay safe!

Not to be too quick to change the topic to fishing, but as well as the human impact of the floods, how do you all reckon it'll impact this season's fishing? Obviously while the floods are actually happening, fishing is likely to be blown out (and probably unsafe anyway), but after the floods recede, what will be the the longer-term impacts?

Bass and EPs are starting their spawn migration downstream (or have been for some time is some places) - I imagine their spawn will be buggered up. How about estuary & harbour species like Mulloway, Kingfish Flatties, Bream etc? The Mullet run would normally kick off soon as well... If the reproductive cycles of these fish are interrupted, when will those effects become apparent?

I am a relatively inexperienced angler - only a few years fishing and I'm not very knowledgeable on the spawning or behaviour cycles of these species. I'm Interested to hear everyone's opinions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well my estuary system has been dirty for a few months now because of rain we have been getting so I haven’t been fishing for quite a few months the river was slowly getting better and I was looking forward to be able to go fishing then in the last 5 days this massive flood came and I’m not gonna be fishing my estuary system until summer or spring by the looks of it my whole town was basically underwater I went down to my local spot today to have a look and the river was up by like 20m I couldn’t even walk there because the water was so high no sign of the jettie or the whole fishing spot at all the whole area was underwater by heaps .heaps of trees had fallen there was destroyed cars and broken bits of road and mess was everywhere . It was tragic to see 

[BinaryFart]

 

1 hour ago, Breaming with bro said:

Well my estuary system has been dirty for a few months now because of rain we have been getting so I haven’t been fishing for quite a few months the river was slowly getting better and I was looking forward to be able to go fishing then in the last 5 days this massive flood came and I’m not gonna be fishing my estuary system until summer or spring by the looks of it my whole town was basically underwater I went down to my local spot today to have a look and the river was up by like 20m I couldn’t even walk there because the water was so high no sign of the jettie or the whole fishing spot at all the whole area was underwater by heaps .heaps of trees had fallen there was destroyed cars and broken bits of road and mess was everywhere . It was tragic to see 

Ah **** dude - sorry to hear that...  Any homes or businesses underwater? Hope you're all ok....

[ellicat]

I have not experienced it, but have learnt from others that mulloway will hunt the edge of the dirty water in times like this.

I'm not sure on the effects on spawning, but floods are natural and have been happening for longer than man has existed so I would think that the effect would not be disastrous. I can't see how fish that can do salt, fresh and everything in between would be affected. Maybe a delay ??

 

 

 

[Brodie_S]

4 hours ago, BinaryFart said:

 

Ah **** dude - sorry to hear that...  Any homes or businesses underwater? Hope you're all ok....

(Any homes or businesses underwater) .. yeah there has been heaps it’s the biggest flood my area has received in the last 80-90 years or so it’s been crazy many house and businesses wore lost and destroyed because of the flood a lot of live stock died and some wore rescued to . Look up Taree/mid north coast floods 

[jon]

I have found that the snapper season after a flood year tends to be really good. Not sure why but probably something to do with all the bait getting flushed and nutrients etc. this is after the water has cleared up and salinity is back to normal though. I remember specifically 2012 the threadies and snapper were thick as I’d ever seen them back when I used to fish the port of Brisbane 

[ellicat]

Yippee !