# Perch - Piscatorial Perfection!!



## AndyC (Feb 29, 2008)

Hi All,

Well, after our almost fishless outing to the Derwent on Saturday (one fish between about six of us for something like five hours fishing!), I felt the need to redeem myself. I tried to talk Baldy into a session at Craigbourne Dam, just down the hill from my place. As he observed, it is a long drive for him, to fish a puddle in a paddock! Poor Craigbourne is at less than 5% and I feel sure it will be completely drained as soon as the irrigation season starts up.

This morning my partner Jan and I went down to 'Craigy' to wet a few lines. Although I invariably fish from my kayak and Jan is shore bound, Craigbourne is so tiny now that I didn't even have a sense of having abandoned her. We could have kept up a conversation without shouting :-(










When we arrived, conditions were very calm, partly cloudy and just a bit on the cold side. The water surface temperature was 43 degrees F (6.1 degrees C) according to my sounder. Being civilised folks, it was about 11.00 am when we arrived.

The fish didn't seem very interested initially and Jan fished both lures and bait all day with no joy at all. I managed one smallish redfin that fell to a soft plastic wag-tailed minnow type-thing but it was a long time in coming. The first hour was very quiet and that one small Reddie was all we had to show.

Conditions continued to get cooler as the day wore on and we had a Westerly wind (well, more of a breeze) that came and went. The wind seemed to improve the fishing though and I did notice that things went noticeably quiet during the calm periods. After the first hour though, the bites improved and I finished the day with eleven Reddies for my efforts. The largest went 1.8 Kg and the smallest was 450 grams. Not a bad feed for a puddle in a paddock 










What I did notice though was that the fish are becoming much more difficult to find than they were two months ago. What is left of the dam has copped a real flogging from the shore-based anglers and I am grateful that it isn't very power boat friendly now. I didn't see a single sign of a trout for the entire day and neither did Jan. I think poor Craigy might be done for now and we will have to wait for better times, when it might fill again and be stocked afresh by our friends at IFS.

I couldn't help but wonder once again, at the absurd prejudice that many anglers have towards these great sportfish. They fight really well, pound for pound, they taste great and there are still a few nice ones to be had in my local water .......... even after most of the dim-wit trout have committed suicide on the barrage of SP's and harware that has been thrown in there in recent months.

I reckon the idea of Redfin being any more a pest fish than a trout is right up there along with 'The earth is flat', 'Man was never meant to fly' and 'The sun revolves around the earth'!!! But I don't mind the blind prejudice of my fellow anglers. It just leaves so much more sport and enjoyment for me.










Next time you hear some 'expert' waffling on about Reddies being a pest fish, ask him what his belief is based on. The one thing you won't get is scientifically based information. He is probably just echoing the mantra of the ignorant. And the notion that Reddies will invariably overpopulate a water and end up all stunted seems hard to credit .... when I look at my catch today. Not a tiddler in the bunch.

Cheers,

AndyC


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Nice bag of reddies Andy, and a great average size too!  Is Craigbourne that dam which had a reputation for producing enormous atlantics not so long ago?


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## paffoh (Aug 24, 2006)

Sure is Squidder, check out the stocking sheet :

http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/ifs/IFSDataba ... cking_view

Nice work on the Redfin Andy, once they get above about a kilo they can put up a spirited battle. I tend to agree ( Re : Views on Redfin ) and have had many in depth conversations with friends and foes alike. While they can pull all the scientific data out they want I still cant dismiss them as a reasonable fish to target, be that sport or table fare.

Cant wait to catch them on fly gear!


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

paffoh said:


> Sure is Squidder, check out the stocking sheet :
> 
> http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/ifs/IFSDataba ... cking_view


Cheers Paff, holy moly, they sure have stocked some BIG fish in there over the years (7000 gram atlantics :shock: )


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## AndyC (Feb 29, 2008)

Thanks Squidder ... and yes. Craigbourne had a brief period of glory because it was stocked with a number of adult salmon. Haven't seen one in quite a while now. But here is a pic of my partner Jan with one of them. May 2005, 16lb 4oz and I never have heard the end of it!! 










AndyC


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

AndyC said:


> May 2005, 16lb 4oz and I never have heard the end of it!!


 :shock: :shock: :shock:

If I caught a fish like that nobody would ever hear the end of it, what a cracker!  Cheers for posting the pic ;-)


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## Baldy (Oct 1, 2007)

Wowzers.....it is low!! :shock: At least its not surrounded by knee deep mud...

All we can hope is you get alot of this rain/snow this week, it might freeze over tomorrow night! :lol: Very good size to them they are pretty much double the size of the ones I catch, it will be such a shame if that place does empty.

Great report mate and sorry I wasnt able to join you.

Cheers
Baldy


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Nice bag Andy


AndyC said:


> I reckon the idea of Redfin being any more a pest fish than a trout is right up there along with 'The earth is flat', 'Man was never meant to fly' and 'The sun revolves around the earth'!!!


I agree. I can't for the life of me understand why we deliberately populate our waters with any feral fish


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## Cheeky (Jul 8, 2008)

My god Craigy is low at the moment. :shock: :shock:

Bring on the rain! Fingers crossed its doesn't get sucked dry as its a great place for a flick.

Great report Andy and a nice feed to go with ;-)

Cheers,
Cheeky


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## vertigrator (Jul 25, 2006)

I'm with Baldy - you seem to have the nack for finding big redfin. A lot of the places where reddies abound they seem to swim around in schools of 10cm to 15cm long fish. Although the only decent redfin I ever caught was an AKFF outing in Craigy where I scored one similar to the bigger ones in your pic. So Craigbourne must have prime conditions for redfin growth. Maybe they like the green algae. :lol: :lol:


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## AndyC (Feb 29, 2008)

Hi Vert,

The water that is left in Craigbourne (not much at all!) looks totally disgusting. Seems to be like pea soup. I will have to go further afield for some fishing now, I reckon. All of the local small streams have pretty much completely dried up. Its so sad to see streams that held a few nice little trout just a couple of years ago ..... now reduced to dry creek beds,

Even if this rotten drought does break sometime, the local fishing wont recover.

I believe the situation at Lake Leake and at Tooms is similar with hopelessly low levels and lots of algae. The highlands seems like the best remaining option for me.

Cheers,

AndyC


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## Scott (Aug 29, 2005)

Well mate you threatened you were going to do it on Saturday and you did. Nice feed of reddies, i can taste the fillets from here. Don't get me started on the low water levels some of my pet waterways have already gone along with all my mates I had C&R for years.

scott


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## Blaen (Jul 4, 2006)

Nice report Andy, good to see Craigy is still holding some fish.

Still not sure about Redfin though :twisted:

You might have to find a way to convince me.


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