Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

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cuddlescooper
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by cuddlescooper »

Your maths don't add up Mexican. You added the smaller fish up annually- fair enough. You didn't add up how many years after reaching 1m that a barra will produce 32m eggs! If it lives a further 5 years and produces 32m eggs annually that 160 million eggs in a short period. Add the big fish to the number of smaller fish that survive your number increases massively. Slot limit from 50cm to 85cm allow to keep for me IMHO. Allow smaller males to spawn at least once and protect the big number breeding meter plus fish.


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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by Mr RiverBabe »

I was talking with Ronald at Fishing and Outdoor world about this not too long ago. He was saying that 110cm+ fish start to lose fertility fast and in his eyes people most likely eat more baby barra then what they are producing and that the limit should be between 60-80 then anything over 110 should be necked.

Interesting theory really. There is weight to either side of the argument in my eyes.
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by theodosius »

45-75, the tasty range!
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by wally gator »

Mr RiverBabe wrote:I was talking with Ronald at Fishing and Outdoor world about this not too long ago. He was saying that 110cm+ fish start to lose fertility fast and in his eyes people most likely eat more baby barra then what they are producing and that the limit should be between 60-80 then anything over 110 should be necked.

Interesting theory really. There is weight to either side of the argument in my eyes.
Funny you should say that, I caught a 96cm in sandgroves a few years ago and it was taged, unfortunately we couldn't get her to revive so we took her, I sent the tag off to fisheries and a couple of weeks later received the tag details and bugga me it was released from the aqua culture barra breeding farm and it was let go at dyna beach boat ramp !! 3 months before, apparently once they get near the 1m marks they are not worth keeping for eggs as low production and poor quality eggs, so the big girls arnt the big egg producers we have been led to believe, and as far as taste goes I would never eat another and besides that I wouldn't have the hart to neck one anyway, id rather put it back and let some other angler have the chance to catch the magic metery themselves .. :)
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by Mr RiverBabe »

That's very interesting Wally. Seems Ron might have been on the money.
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by Wombles »

1 meter + fish, its like your grandma giving birth again..... :lol: :lol: :lol:
Life is like a box of lures...you never know which one to pick!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FuZTJol4K0
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by maxpower »

According the NT Gov website only 40% of barra 95cm long are female, 60% of 100cm barra are female and 80% of 105cm barra are female.

http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Content/File/p/Fishnote/FN27.pdf

Not too many barra under 95cm will be producing eggs if this is the case.
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by ponyplay »

maxpower wrote:According the NT Gov website only 40% of barra 95cm long are female, 60% of 100cm barra are female and 80% of 105cm barra are female.

http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Content/File/p/Fishnote/FN27.pdf

Not too many barra under 95cm will be producing eggs if this is the case.
well that put a spanner into the works , cant see any sense in necking big fish let alone 110 ones . The theory they eat more than they produce don't add up when you look at all the other predators in the systems that eat barra. Big barra would eat very small percentage when mixed in with sharks Powertail crocs birds etc etc. The more out swimming around alive the better. 50cm to 80cm
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by drifter »

ponyplay wrote:
maxpower wrote:According the NT Gov website only 40% of barra 95cm long are female, 60% of 100cm barra are female and 80% of 105cm barra are female.

http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Content/File/p/Fishnote/FN27.pdf

Not too many barra under 95cm will be producing eggs if this is the case.
well that put a spanner into the works , cant see any sense in necking big fish let alone 110 ones . The theory they eat more than they produce don't add up when you look at all the other predators in the systems that eat barra. Big barra would eat very small percentage when mixed in with sharks Powertail crocs birds etc etc. The more out swimming around alive the better. 50cm to 80cm
Pony, it’s not about the number of eggs a fish may lay, but the number of fish that may lay eggs.

Imagine if we didn’t take any Barra this year (pro & rec). That’s an extra couple of hundred thousand Barra left in the system. Then it’s like compound interest.

90% of eggs don’t get past fingerling.

So once they make it to 55cm, the only real predators would be crocs & sharks.
So it stands to reason that 200,000 Barra are more likely to get to breading size.

Look at how successful the NT has been with its crocs.

1971 – less than 3,000
2011 – more than 100,000.

It could be the same with that other NT icon – The Barramundi.
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by maxpower »

Drifter this might be possible if your numbers stack up. Where are you getting your info from?
Some facts;
Boys mature (first spawn) @ 55cms (year 2)
Females start breeding @ 80cms (year 3)
Females first breeding up to 2m eggs.
According the barramundi facts I listed http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Content/File/p/Fishnote/FN27.pdf only 5% of these 80 cm barras are ready to start breeding.
Females @ 1 meter (year 8) may drop 32m eggs. (On average that’s an increase of 8m eggs/yr)
She will drop 42m eggs by the time she gets to 1 meter.
40% of barra at 100cm haven't dropped a single egg yet. Still males.
Imaging how many breeding females we have just introduced.
How many definate females have been necked in the mean time?


I understand this whole topic is a bit of a pisstake, but it's at least made me look up a few things and I'd like to know where your stats are coming from to compare.
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by ponyplay »

drifter wrote:
ponyplay wrote:
maxpower wrote:According the NT Gov website only 40% of barra 95cm long are female, 60% of 100cm barra are female and 80% of 105cm barra are female.

http://www.nt.gov.au/d/Content/File/p/Fishnote/FN27.pdf

Not too many barra under 95cm will be producing eggs if this is the case.
well that put a spanner into the works , cant see any sense in necking big fish let alone 110 ones . The theory they eat more than they produce don't add up when you look at all the other predators in the systems that eat barra. Big barra would eat very small percentage when mixed in with sharks Powertail crocs birds etc etc. The more out swimming around alive the better. 50cm to 80cm
Pony, it’s not about the number of eggs a fish may lay, but the number of fish that may lay eggs.

Imagine if we didn’t take any Barra this year (pro & rec). That’s an extra couple of hundred thousand Barra left in the system. Then it’s like compound interest.

90% of eggs don’t get past fingerling.

So once they make it to 55cm, the only real predators would be crocs & sharks.
So it stands to reason that 200,000 Barra are more likely to get to breading size.

Look at how successful the NT has been with its crocs.

1971 – less than 3,000
2011 – more than 100,000.

It could be the same with that other NT icon – The Barramundi.
true drifter thats another way to look at it for sure
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by maxpower »

This theory may be tested this year at Shady. The fish have had over a year off from the Pro-Netters now and not too many fish were caught there by the recs this year due to the poor season. Might be some good fish around in 2014 with any luck.
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by drifter »

Max the info is from different sources. Size to age chart c/ Marks Heli-fishing website, others from NT & WA govt sites. The rest from google search.

There is not a lot of current data available on the net. The figures you quote are from a 1982 survey.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of current data available, and a lot is contradictory.

This from your same NT govt website;

“Typically, one year old barramundi are between 30-40 cm long, two year old are 50-60 cm long, three year old are 60-80 cm and 100 cm Barra are around eight years old. Interestingly at around 8 years of age barramundi turn into females as all are born as males. So any Barra that you catch that is over 95 cm in length is probably a female.”

From the same document;

“Tagging studies on reveal that recreational and commercial fishers take on average less than 5% of the total population of Barra in a river system per year (both sectors take approximately the same amount of Barra within this total harvest)”.

In 2011 the commercial catch was 701 tonnes. If the rec catch is the same, that’s a total catch of 1,400 tonnes. Divide that by 5kg/fish (average) that’s 2.8 mil fish per year. From a possible 56,000,000. That old adage that 10% of the fisherman catch 90% of the fish can’t be true.

All I can say is crocs and sharks are greedy bastards. They have 56 mil Barra to choose from.

And you tell me it’s hard to find a Barra!

And yes this post was to get people thinking,
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Re: Let's neck all the Big Barra (1 meter+) I say

Post by rumluck »

Not to mention the big girls dont release all too well.

I spent ages trying to get my 129cm going. idling along in the tinny it Bit down on my hand a few times, kicked and i let her go, only to find out someone found her belly up the next day. Was such a waste. I felt really bad. these days if something isnt going to release perfectly I keep it and release the lively ones. I only ever take enough to eat fresh anyway.
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