North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

This video is well worth a look and contains some great scientific research findings on Macrobrachium spinipes, or cherabin from the Daly River by PhD candidate Peter Novak

more information can be found at http://www.nerpnorthern.edu.au/news/201 ... n-survival
http://www.nerpnorthern.edu.au/news/video

lUmmm.....Rocket Science......lol I think not!

So why do you see so many beried females down in the salt around the mouths of the rivers during the wet?

Thx Craig.

Placards can be useful but scientific research is a better tool for stopping bad decisions, like dams. Generally.

Great video, clearly the cherabin are a major food source for fish long before they get to any size

Very interesting

Great video. Was listening to the Tinny last week with the Woolianna owner Adrian talking about the cherabin numbers on the Daly. He said the cherabin in the dry season pretty much dry up due to so many caught (10,000's per week) in the 30km stretch from the crossing down to Elizabeth area. Especially the last few years with the increase in numbers of the Grey Nomads who love to livebait. Makes you wonder if the lack of cherabin in that part of the river has had an affect on the barramundi numbers (on top of the last couple of average wet seasons).

Yes Maxpower listened to Adrian's comments with interest. From memory I think he stated around 20K harvested / week for 5 months! So potentially 400K+ in that stretch from April to the end of August. Of course this is Adrian's anecdotal calculation but you could easily believe it when you see the number of pots. I have no doubt that it has an effect on Barra numbers in that stretch. Research tells us that crustaceans make up a significant even the majority of a Barras diet.

Maybe that's why the 60-80's are absent in that stretch? Poor wets sure, but they are also too small to eat rat Barra and rely on Cherabin as their primary food source. Maybe they are particularly transient in this stretch? They duck through the drive-through rather than hang out in the restaurant?

NBN wrote:Yes Maxpower listened to Adrian's comments with interest. From memory I think he stated around 20K harvested / week for 5 months! So potentially 400K+ in that stretch from April to the end of August. Of course this is Adrian's anecdotal calculation but you could easily believe it when you see the number of pots. I have no doubt that it has an effect on Barra numbers in that stretch. Research tells us that crustaceans make up a significant even the majority of a Barras diet.

Maybe that's why the 60-80's are absent in that stretch? Poor wets sure, but they are also too small to eat rat Barra and rely on Cherabin as their primary food source. Maybe they are particularly transient in this stretch? They duck through the drive-through rather than hang out in the restaurant?

Its not only in the Daly that the middle class fish are missing IMHO. They are absent from most rivers and from the entirety of the Daly not only that stretch of river. I fish most sections of the Daly and the fish just haven't turned up in any numbers. Even the coastal creek numbers are way down on medium size fish. I have caught probably only 100 barra this year and out of that only 15 would be between mid 60's and mid 80's. All the rest smaller or bigger.

The cherabin supposedly replenish in the river after the wet but the 60-80cm fish didn't really turn up even then. Seems these size fish are missing maybe netted last year, or year before out the front?

I've found there were plenty of 60-75cm fish at shady this year. Caught a few at the South and Roper too. Daly seems to be the main one for me missing these fish.

Thx Cuddlescooper. I was speaking to a guy who has fished a bit in the upper reaches (mostly inaccessible) of the Daly this year and he reckons there are reasonable numbers of the mid size fish up that way. Have you fished above the crossing at all this year?

Were too many barra liberated from the billabongs in the massive wet of 2011 and the problem exacerbated by the average wet of 2012 and then the poor wet of 2013? Who knows. Would love the see a tracking survey undertaken on some Daly billabongs as per Kakadu. Commence it just prior to the wet. Funding a bit scarce up that way at the moment though....

Maxpower, the Cherabin certainly do replenish going from the research; 1million /night for 30 nights - need a steady supply of XXXX Gold to take on the graveyard survey shift!!

One things for sure, there were (are?) plenty more fish in the river than last year but you certainly wouldn't call it well stocked. Maybe a dynamic system of harvest is the go: poor wet season = reduced commercial harvest + reduced Cherabin allowance?

The more biomass left in the system the better for recovery post poor wets.

maxpower wrote:Great video. Was listening to the Tinny last week with the Woolianna owner Adrian talking about the cherabin numbers on the Daly. He said the cherabin in the dry season pretty much dry up due to so many caught (10,000's per week) in the 30km stretch from the crossing down to Elizabeth area. Especially the last few years with the increase in numbers of the Grey Nomads who love to livebait. Makes you wonder if the lack of cherabin in that part of the river has had an affect on the barramundi numbers (on top of the last couple of average wet seasons).

Strange how the owner of Woolianna on the Daly strongly APPOSED the cherabin and barra bag limit regulations introduced in the river catchment in 2012.

He also failed to mention that a large proportion of that estimated cherabin catch was conducted from his business.

Somewhat hypocritical in my view.

Im not sure the poor wet is the whole reason. After a good wet lots of fish turn up???? The problem here is that most of those fish are all 2 years or more old. Its not like they are all rats so they have obviously bred in poorer years. This says the fish are out there somewhere normally.

This year on the Daly there are hundreds of juvinile fish to 40cm. This to me means that the poor wet didnt effect the breeding cycles of big fish and it certainly didnt stop the eggs from hatching and developing into juvinile fish.

Perhaps the big wet and abundance of food at the river mouths congregated the schools of fish and made them easier targets for the pro's????
Perhaps those years had bad black water fish kills as from memory they did?????
Perhaps all the fish this year ran up the river because the water allowed them to do it when in the previous couple it hasnt??????? I know the billabongs have a lot more fish than last year(all be it lots of smaller ones).

My drama is that during the comps on the Daly in 2011 and 2012 hundreds of fish in the 50cm and 60cm range were caught. Those fish should have reached the 70cm and 80cm range over the last 2 years. Where did they disappear to?????

NBN wrote:Thx Cuddlescooper. I was speaking to a guy who has fished a bit in the upper reaches (mostly inaccessible) of the Daly this year and he reckons there are reasonable numbers of the mid size fish up that way. Have you fished above the crossing at all this year?

Were too many barra liberated from the billabongs in the massive wet of 2011 and the problem exacerbated by the average wet of 2012 and then the poor wet of 2013? Who knows. Would love the see a tracking survey undertaken on some Daly billabongs as per Kakadu. Commence it just prior to the wet. Funding a bit scarce up that way at the moment though....

As for fishing above the crossing this year I did once. We got a few fish but still only a couple of fish in the 70cm range. Lots of the 60cm size that seem to be every where. I guess I couldnt really give that accurate a reflection on the upper section as we only did the one run this year as you say lots of the upper section is inaccesable unless you get permission from land owners which I don't.

cheers Peter

Not many cherabin pots on the Daly at the moment (coincidently not many nomads this year ..... ), went for a hoon down there on the weekend and probably the quietest I've ever seen it. FWIW we only caught rats, awesome to see bull sharks cruising the shallows of the woolianna sandbar though.
Still heaps of mullet and caṭfish moving around the system so no shortage of bait especially on the first push.

cuddlescooper wrote:Im not sure the poor wet is the whole reason. After a good wet lots of fish turn up???? The problem here is that most of those fish are all 2 years or more old. Its not like they are all rats so they have obviously bred in poorer years. This says the fish are out there somewhere normally.

This year on the Daly there are hundreds of juvinile fish to 40cm. This to me means that the poor wet didnt effect the breeding cycles of big fish and it certainly didnt stop the eggs from hatching and developing into juvinile fish.

Perhaps the big wet and abundance of food at the river mouths congregated the schools of fish and made them easier targets for the pro's????
Perhaps those years had bad black water fish kills as from memory they did?????
Perhaps all the fish this year ran up the river because the water allowed them to do it when in the previous couple it hasnt??????? I know the billabongs have a lot more fish than last year(all be it lots of smaller ones).

My drama is that during the comps on the Daly in 2011 and 2012 hundreds of fish in the 50cm and 60cm range were caught. Those fish should have reached the 70cm and 80cm range over the last 2 years. Where did they disappear to?????

NBN wrote:Thx Cuddlescooper. I was speaking to a guy who has fished a bit in the upper reaches (mostly inaccessible) of the Daly this year and he reckons there are reasonable numbers of the mid size fish up that way. Have you fished above the crossing at all this year?

Were too many barra liberated from the billabongs in the massive wet of 2011 and the problem exacerbated by the average wet of 2012 and then the poor wet of 2013? Who knows. Would love the see a tracking survey undertaken on some Daly billabongs as per Kakadu. Commence it just prior to the wet. Funding a bit scarce up that way at the moment though....

As for fishing above the crossing this year I did once. We got a few fish but still only a couple of fish in the 70cm range. Lots of the 60cm size that seem to be every where. I guess I couldnt really give that accurate a reflection on the upper section as we only did the one run this year as you say lots of the upper section is inaccesable unless you get permission from land owners which I don't.

cheers Peter

Thx Peter.

Matt might need to get some stickers made up; "I joined the 70 - 90's club on the Daly".

I assume this has happened in the last decade or two, where a couple of year classes (noticeably) go MIA?