G'day Codseeker's,

After fishing for Reddie’s more this year than all other years put together and with the large increase in numbers due to the rains of the past 12 months I have been thinking about how small fish are thrown back.

I know in NSW Redfin are classed as a noxious pest not to be returned to the water but in Vic this isn’t the case and I know many of us, myself included just throw our small reddies back to live another day.

With the mass breeding of Reddies atm I wonder if the catch and release of reddies is a good idea as i know that lakes like Eppalock in the past have had massive numbers of stunted reddies apparently due to over population.

Now most of us like to take a feed of reddies home and want to see good numbers available to come i just wonder what the greater good is when dealing with small reddies.

What's your practise and thoughts??

-Boob's

Boobs, I was taslking to jamin Forbes about this & it appears that with throwing them back it causes overpopulation of the schools, this then causes the avaragesize to be stunted.

So throwing them back isnt whaty yu really want to encourage, keep em all & then kill the smalller ones without throwing em back dispose of em somewhere on lind.

That way the school will be smaller & that avarage size larger ....what everyone who fishes for em wants.!!

The other school of thought could be.. How many little reddys would you catch in a day(s) How many little reddys would get eaten by other predators in the same time.. I doubt that chucking back the dozen or so that you catch would increase their survival rate too much.

I'm a bit like Mazza on this, I don't reckon the few you chuck back will make much difference, a bit like the old carp argument about taking a couple a hundred of 'em out of a situation doesn't even put a dent in 'em, well I reckon in places like Eppalock/Lonsdale where the reddies are prolific, keeping them or taking them probably doesn't make a lot of diference to the population in the long run, especially when you catch them at the rate I do. (or don't)

I agree with all your replies and have heard both these views before.

At the CVLCSS comp at Eppalock yesterday there was 100 competitors and 206 redfin weighed in.
I know myself and Puss Nuts got around 12 reddies and we just threw them all back and didnt weigh them in or record them as a catch, I dont know how many others done the same.
Given that the comp was only over 5 hours if we had fished all day and or targeted reddies like many others not fishing the comp did over the weekend it would be pretty safe to say over 1000 small reddies would have been caught and possibly released back due to been to small.

When you look at lakes like Lonsdale there would be hundreds of good size reddies kept so letting the smaller ones go maybe a good idea to let them grow to keep up with the constant pressure on the larger fish. places like Eppalock however seem to haev always had much higher numbers of small fish rather then keeper size reddies.

Throwing 1000 small reddies back over a weekend may not make a big diffrance either way but if there was a chance to stock 1000 Cod or Yella's into a lake would you bother?

-Boob's

Good to catch up with ya Boobs.
I dont think takeing little reddies makes much difference to the overall scene.If theres that many to contend with in the first place,stunting/malformed is already set in the genepool?
I love a feed of reddies & will fillet em up down to a tiddly 4" .the family sure dont complain at tea time! Not many of mine make it back.
On another note,the 30 odd from Eppalock on Saturday,ALL had a guts full of 1" baby redfin! , & the female ones were full of eggs!(again?? )-posing another Q...how often do they spawn in ideal conditians as we have ATM ?

Hodgy

Hey I just bring em home to replace the ones in the fishtank, they are constantly recycled. The 'old' ones go into the worm farm. There's organic gardening for ya !!!

I've got 1 in an outside water feature/ pot type thingy, he's been there since the very first CVLCSS round at Eppalock 2 years ago when he "travelled" home in the live well. The poor bastard only gets fed when I think of him & I don't reckon he's grown a mm in 2 years, has probably survived on an average of 2 worms a week in lean times but is "trained" to take 'em from my fingers now so has been getting looked after a bit better in the last few months. Gave him a monster scrubbie this morning which he fought with for a fair while

yep, bring em all home doesnt matter how small....good for the garden

G,Day all. my son had the idea cutting the head and sharp bits off plus gutting then putting in a meat mincer and making redfin patties not sure how good they would taste but interesting idea

cheers dangerous dave

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