North Pine Tagging report tonight

[Feral]

Th scientist who organised the tagging on the North Pine Dam a few months ago came along to the stocking group meeting tonight and told us a few interesting things about Bass in general, and the statistics of our catch on the day.

First up - Ferg caught the biggest fish on the day, 52cm.

Second we caught around 1650 bass, with the highest total from one angler being 106.

The fish we caught this time around were about 1/2 the weight of the same length fish caught 2 years ago when the Dam was at 50%. This is due to the loss of the weed beds for the smaller end of the food chain reducing the available food for the bass. This put the bass still slightly heavier for length than all other dams. (yes - In 2005 the bass in North Pine were at least twice as heavy for their length as any bass caught in any other dam Australia wide)

A few interesting things we heard tonight

A 50cm Bass is probably between 10 and 14 years old.

The PRFMA have stocked 1.2million bass into North Pine dam.

Once a bass is 3 years old, its growth rate is around 10mm a year in good conditions.

The oldest bass ever caught was just a couple of weeks ago, someone caught a bass in somerset dam that had been tagged as an adult 18 years ago.

The scientist had caught a yellowbelly that was 23 years old (They can age them from parts of the skeleton, it has growth rings like a tree).

No one knows for sure how old bass live to. (although obviously more than 18 years!)

Overstocking bass in an impoundment will cause stunting.

The Scientists research is pointing towards stocking being done only in good seasons with good food supplies in the dam (IE weed beds etc) to get good survival rates and best result for available funds.. Also targeting the amount of stocking to determine the type of fishery. IE low stocking rates for a trophy fish dam, high stocking rates for a harvesting dam.

[Cowfish13]

That's interesting stuff Feral, cheers for the info

Didn't realise how old Bass can get:blink:

[ellicat]

Good stuff Feral. Very interesting read.

Did they mention anything about limiting access for Dino ? :laugh:

[Feral]

They already did that. You dont want to know how many he used to catch when they let him have his boat on the dam!

[STU]

Thanks for the info on np feral always knew about there age thats why I like to release the bigguns because I know how long it takes for them to get to that size

[Dinodadog]

Ahhhh those were the days

Thanks for the info, we never stop learning.

[Stinger]

Thanks Feral thats great read.

[EMP]

Cheers, Feral.

The info you shared saved me hours of internet search.

Thanks.

Funny comment on Dino, guys. :laugh:

EMP

[Rocket75]

I wonder if there is a fish equivilant of "dog years".

Thanks Feral.

Rocket

[Angus]

Cheers Feral!

Well that could answer the question about Baroon and yellows we were pondering...

Angus

[Plastic Fantastic]

Wow, thats some great info Feral, cheers!

By the way, I caught two tagged bass last tuesday at NPD, I took down the numbers on the tags, who do I contact to report the captures and lengths?

[rayke1938]

Ring 1800 077 001 they will ask you for the numbers and length and place caught,shpuld be able to rwll you on the spot when and where they were tagged. They will also send you a certificate with the known history of the fish.

Just as an aside of the initial 1000 plus fish tagged last year only 7 were recaptured in this years exercise in which 1800 fish were tagged.

David Roberts the scientist who managed the programme says this explicates into a huge fish population in the dam.

He is also going to come along to a meeting of the stocking assn in the future to show us how to extract the ear bone from a fishes skull . This will be recorded with the length of the fish and when the bone is examined under a microscope they can count the growth rings and establish the age of the fish.

If there is ever another fish kill there the stocking assn will commence a programme of collecting the ( Recently dead only) fish so that David can continue his work on the fishery.

Cheers

Ray.

[Dec]

Intresting information there didnt know how old bass actualy were I knew they got old but not that old. Me and George have got a few tagged bass out of NPD including 2 fish that we caught one after the other with consecitve numbers intresting that those 2 fish had stayed together.

[rayke1938]

Interesting that the tagged fish are moving around from where they were tagged so early on the season. Normally they stay in the same area intill winter. Where did you get them?

Cheers

Ray

[Dec]

That was last year when we got our tagged fish