North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Caught by a Daly River local too. Half their luck, sounds like the Million Dollar fish stays safe......with on a few weeks left.

Heard a very interesting story, though I can't authenticate it. Lady I work with was fishing at Buff Creek a couple of weeks ago. She caught a couple of stingrays & gave them to the local mob camped there to cook up. A bloke came over & told her he'd seen the local crew cooking a barra on the coals the previous week that had a red tag in it.
If true, & I can't see why it couldn't happen, an expensive cook up.
Possibly another caught that didn't make the media.

Well I am surprised at how many have been caught. If you include the Corroborrie one before the competition that makes 8 out of 76. Approximately 10%. Which makes you think.....

There have been 76 barra released into widely fished areas and over a brief 4 month period we have managed a 10% recapture rate. Other than the tag there is nothing special nor unique about these fish and they should reflect the general populous of the wild fish. So if this is representative of the general catch rate we are catching approximately 10% of barramundi fish stocks in a given 4 month period.

Good post dannett, dunno if your maths is right or wrong but definitely food for thought.

And only a portion of the total number went in Darwin Harbour, Corroboree, and the Daly ... might be 8 out of only 50 or so!

Based upon Dannett's theory of a 10% catch rate every 4 months; 12 years and you'll have very little to catch

My brother and I have caught the same fish twice.
Both of them were tagged, so we know they were the same fish.
The first was caught Below Elliott Creek, and caught 6 Weeks later at No Fish Creek.
The second only a couple of months ago, was caught at Elizabeth Creek, and caught the same location 2 Weeks later.
The 10 % theory does not work, when you take the unfishable or less fished locations into calculations.
I too am surprised 8 Fish have been caught.
I have my name on the 104 cm Down the Daly, just have to catch it in the next couple of weeks.

The maths of catching 8 of 76 fish released months ago over hundreds of km is astonishing. I thought these fish were wild caught and tagged, but I'm starting to think they were farmed and not real streetwise. I also noticed a fishing writer comment in the paper that the Daly is full of cheribin a foot long.

jpb15 wrote:My brother and I have caught the same fish twice.
Both of them were tagged, so we know they were the same fish.
The first was caught Below Elliott Creek, and caught 6 Weeks later at No Fish Creek.
The second only a couple of months ago, was caught at Elizabeth Creek, and caught the same location 2 Weeks later.
The 10 % theory does not work, when you take the unfishable or less fished locations into calculations.
I too am surprised 8 Fish have been caught.
I have my name on the 104 cm Down the Daly, just have to catch it in the next couple of weeks.

Absolutely. The 10% theory only covers the heavily fished areas where in these fish have been released and this is a gross simplification at best. There is a hell of a lot of water out there that we don't have access to fish and there probably aren't (m)any red tagged barra in these systems.

Did you tag the barra or did it get caught 3 times?

Burrum Heads wrote:Based upon Dannett's theory of a 10% catch rate every 4 months; 12 years and you'll have very little to catch

Well we don't know the mortality rate as many fishermen release them. Also we are only talking about fish above the legal 55cm size and presumably less than 1m. Also fish breed and there is a lot of water out there that we don't fish as heavily. But I think the catch rate has surprised a few people.

Dan

I'm pretty sure there was one caught by a PGFC member in cooboree before the comp started

Matt Flynn wrote:Good post dannett, dunno if your maths is right or wrong but definitely food for thought.

And only a portion of the total number went in Darwin Harbour, Corroboree, and the Daly ... might be 8 out of only 50 or so!

Given we don't know the distribution its only an average of the data. You are right, maybe the expectation was catching one was so low that stacking the harbour with a large portion would provide the best chance at giving away at least one winning fish which would provide the required publicity.

How many have been caught in Darwin Harbour?

Dan.

I think after the comp, the exact locations of all the fish tagged should be released. A lot of data and estimations of fishing pressure could come from this.

It would be interesting to know the release spot of the last Daly tagged fish that was caught. Between its release last year and time of capture the Daly has been in flood to 15 meters. I wonder if the fish was caught near where it was released. Do fish hold their ground in a big flood or move and come back? Or is it a random thing?

Did you tag the barra or did it get caught 3 times?[/quote]
They both got caught 3 times.
The first one, caught 24/05/14 - Didn't say where, Daly River Classic, 590 mm
Caught 22/03/15, Look Back Creek, 610 mm
Caught 25/04/15, No fish Creek, 620 mm

Next 1
Caught 15/05/15 - Elizabeth Creek, 490 mm
Caught 26/10/15 - Elizabeth Creek, 490 mm
Caught 08/11/15 - Elizabeth Creek, 490 mm It was actually 51 cm, but we must have measured poorly 2 Weeks before, and I didn't want to explain a 2 cm growth in 10 days.

Others we have are -
17/05/12 - 410 mm - 21/04/14 - 570 mm

12/05/08 - 700 mm - 05/07/09 - 800 mm

20/05/09 - 690 mm - 05/07/09 - 700 mm

14/05/08 - 530 mm - 01/04/09 - 630 mm

29/04/00 - 480 mm - 01/12/03 - 760 mm