Fishing future looks bright
Hundreds of thousands of wriggling, juvenile Murray cod are set to enhance the region’s reputation as a national angling stronghold during the next few years.
Fish stocking in the region’s biggest water body Rocklands Reservoir at the weekend took the number of cod that have gone into the lake in 2020 past the 400,000 mark.
The size of the overall release means that if a high percentage of the hatchery-bred fish survive to adulthood, the reservoir will become a significant regional tourist magnet.
Horsham senior fisheries officer Jason Peters said a concerted effort to heavily stock the impoundment with freshwater natives would significantly expand target species in a recreational fishing catch.
“On average, Murray cod take five years to get to legal catching size,” he said.
“The lake started being stocked with cod in late 2017, so that means they should be getting in catchable range by 2022.
“There has also been a lot of golden perch, which take three years from fingerling to size, going in and we’re already seeing these fish around the 25-centimetre mark.
“There are also trout in and earmarked for the lake and populations of bass and exotic redfin and carp are well established.
“I can see Rocklands, 80 percent accessible to campers, becoming the Lake Eildon of the west if it all comes to fruition.
“There will be significant socio-economic benefits to local communities, which will be fantastic.
“An added bonus is that Rocklands is a renowned redfin fishery and predatory cod is likely to hit stunted juveniles and encourage larger fish to dominate and find their niche in the environment.”
Blue-ribbon lake
Mr Peters said Rocklands, the primary back-up reservoir for the Wimmera-mallee water-supply system, was likely to represent the blue-ribbon fishing destination in a region loaded with promising fishing lakes.
“In the Wimmera we’ve done and do exceptionally well, with more stockings to come,” he said.
“Taylors Lake is now producing great golden perch and cod, Toolondo is a traditional trout fishery and Lake Bellfield at Halls Gap is now a mixed fishery with cod going in for the first time this year and golden perch last year.
“Lakes Wartook, Fyans and Wallace are targets for trout stocking, lakes Charlegrark and Bringalbert are native fisheries and the Wimmera River between Glenorchy and Jeparit does exceptionally well in terms of stocking with an average of 80,000 golden perch and also silver perch going in every year.”
Lake Bolac, south of Ararat, is also a popular trout water that receives stockings of trout and school-holiday programs involve the release of mature immediate-catch rainbow trout into small impoundments across the region.
Mr Peters said trout releases in waters across the region would occur between August and October and native-fish stockings, apart from extra cod going into Rocklands, would occur in warmer months.
“Communities such as Balmoral are really involved and supportive, which is great,” he said.
Wimmera Development Association executive director Chris Sounness said enhancing angling opportunities could only improve the reputation of the region as a holiday destination.
“Fishing is great for holiday-makers and locals alike who enjoy wetting a line,” he said.
Money generated from recreational fishing licences helps fund Victorian stocking regimes.