Annual harvesting of eggs from spawning wild brown trout has begun already
By Sarah Graham, IFS | As the weather cools and water temperatures begin to drop, the activities of Inland Fisheries hatchery staff are hotting up! Hatchery work of fish feeding and grading has increased over recent weeks, along with fish transfers to allocated waters, and the job of harvesting eggs from spawning wild brown trout in the Central Plateau, has come earlier than in recent years.
A first batch of approximately 720,000 wild brown trout ova was collected from Liawenee Canal, Great Lake in April.
About 560,000 of these eggs are now being incubated at the New Norfolk hatchery while a smaller number of 160,000 are being incubated at the Salmon Ponds as added security against loss at the main hatchery.
Adult transfers of wild brown trout have also commenced in association with ova collection from fish captured in the Liawenee trap. Approximately 2,100 of these wild brown trout spawners were transferred from Great Lake into Bradys Lake in late April.
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Oatland’s Lake Dulverton is finally transformed — flooded for the first time since 1990 — and teeming with more than 6300 brook and rainbow trout.
And, each afternoon, the local schoolchildren try and haul them in. For the majority it is has been their first opportunity to fish.
Organised by local angler Kerry Mancey, below, the lake has been stocked with 6000 yearling rainbows (about 200mm) released by the Inland Fisheries Service and supplied by Springfield Hatcheries in north-east Tasmania, who had them surplus to their needs.
And on October 20-21 two more lots of adult fish, mainly brooks, were released by the Australian Maritime College. The 300-odd fish were also surplus to their research needs.
The Inland Fisheries Service has been busy adding stock to a number of trout waters.
Here’s a summary of activity in recent months:
Atlantic salmon were stocked into Meadowbank Lake, Bradys Lake, Brushy Lagoon and Lake Barrington during the last week of November 2008.
According to Inland Fisheries, surplus stock from Saltas were released into the waters, with Meadowbank getting 180, Bradys 80, Brushy 160 and Lake Barrington 100. These fish averaged 3 kg and are in superb condition.
Bradys also got 100 large rainbow trout that had been held at the Salmon Ponds, these fish averaged 4 kg.
