The fishing media is currently awash with articles about ‘carpageddon‘ and wild claims from all sides. In this post, we want to answer a few of the questions that have been raised about the release of the virus and the potential habitat and ecosystems benefits that may occur, but also some of the risks of the release. What is it? …
Tag: native fish
Catch and release is great but… its means nothing if we don’t have habitat
It is truly great to see large portions of the recreational fishing community really getting behind catch and release… From the early days of Rex Hunt kissing fish and letting them go while chanting yibbida-yibbida to the continued support of the movement by fishing personalities since, guys like Steve Starling, Bushy, Rod Paxevanous and the like, the catch and release…
The Natural Trout Stream Paradox
The paragraph below appeared in my email inbox recently, advertising a fishing film festival. “Gin-Clear Media’s Backcountry: South Island is the feature film of the festival. The South Island [of New Zealand] has vast tracts of some of the most intact, undisturbed natural areas left on our planet—these last truly wild places deliver beauty and isolation in spades but it…
Native fish stockings: successes, failures and the future
A little while ago I looked at the effectiveness of trout stockings. One of the things that the research makes clear in the case of trout, is that in many circumstances, stockings are not effective. In fact, under some conditions, they can actually be counterproductive. Rather than helping grow fish stocks, they can significantly hurt stocks, leading to fisheries that…
Carp in Australia- past, present and future
I was recently interviewed about my carp fishing habits by some researchers at the University of Wollongong. It was an interesting interview and forced me to think a little harder about my relationship to carp. To put it bluntly, the relationship I have with carp is a little quixotic. On the one hand, I think they are one of the…
‘Codtroversy’: catching a monster cod during closed season
After nearly 20 years of serious fishing, I’ve finally caught a ‘trophy’ fish. I went out to my local lake on Sunday to chase redfin on soft plastics. The plan was to suss out whether the reddies were active, and if I got lucky, bring a few home for the table. I was also keen to get another look at…