Page 3435 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 17 September 2019
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Vanitys Crossing Road is closed. This effectively excludes fishers from the only open section of the Cotter River. The reason given at the time was to protect Canberra’s water supply. However, much of Canberra’s water comes from the Googong Dam where anglers can fish and boat under New South Wales permits to their heart’s content.
The 873 square kilometres of the Googong catchment is also home to hundreds of people and kilometres of roads and tracks. Fishing is only allowed in the Murrumbidgee River downstream from the junction with the Gudgenby River and upstream from the concrete crossing at angle crossing to the ACT border and the Molonglo River downstream of its junction with the Queanbeyan River and urban lakes and ponds.
Trout fishing is virtually non-existent in the ACT due to the decision to cease stocking local waters—mainly Lake Burley Griffin—with trout, as is done in other states. Trout anglers, including fly-fishers, are forced to travel long distances, for example, to the Snowy Mountains waters, to enjoy reasonable trout fishing experiences. A considerable environmental aspect is involved with that long distance to New South Wales destinations and there is also leakage of economic benefits with significant expenditure taking place outside of the ACT.
Four of the naturally occurring fish species in the ACT are totally protected. The two native fish that can be fished—the Murray cod and golden perch—are, of course, subject to strict bag limits between one and five fish per day, closed seasons and size limits. Fishers are also restricted in their daily fishing effort. They can have only two attended fishing rods or lines with no more than two hooks on each line, and the lines must be within 10 metres of the fishers at all times. Fish caught cannot be sold. Fishers are not allowed to fillet fish while next to a lake, river or stream. Fishing on lakes is not permitted from motorboats but is permitted from electric boats.
I am not saying I disagree with these provisions. I am not saying these are bad measures; they are there to protect our fish stocks, especially our native fish. What I am saying is that we should be looking at how to support and expand recreational fishing. We could be much more proactive in reducing or eliminating pest fish species.
As a few suggestions, we could implement commercial carp and red fin fishing methods. That might include netting or electrofishing with catches processed for pet food or fertilizer. We could consider the merits of totally banning the return to the water of both these pest species if caught. We could be more active in eliminating other pest fish species, including goldfish and aquarium species. Under fisheries resource management we could consider the resumption of stocking of rainbow trout, because this species survives in dams and small water areas. We could consider the interaction of catch and release rules in some areas to assist with maintaining sustainable fish populations.
Fishers in the ACT say we need better access to prime fish streams. We should reverse the closure of some of these areas to allow fly and lure fishing only, consistent with some New South Wales waters. We could open more ACT waters for fly and
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