Recent rain has provided a necessary flushing of local rivers and waterways but don’t expect the flow of fresh will result in increased populations of river prawns and crabs in the short term.
Operations manager at Grunske’s by the River, Sian McDowell, said the recent rain has provided the elements to see the regeneration of prawn, fish and crab stocks.
“Obviously the extended dry we experienced in 2019 played a role in the breeding cycle of these marine creatures,” she said.
“Although we have had decent rainfall it will take a while before the results of that become evident in catches of river prawns.”
Great quality barra in Bundy
Sian said that currently barra was in good supply at Grunske’s with the quality among the best she had seen.
“They are not too big or too small – just perfect. It takes a lot to beat wild caught barramundi; the fish is extremely popular with locals.”
“Barramundi is very versatile. It has a good fat content which provides it with great flavour.
“It can be cooked in many ways including crumbed, battered and grilled. Barramundi is very popular on the barbecue and even in curries, fish pies or baked in a parcel in the oven,” said Sian.
The current spell of wet weather has come at the perfect time according to Tim Mulhall, Sales Manager at Tackle World.
“The closed season on barramundi ended on February 1 and hopefully fingerlings are now making their way into the freshwater areas to grow out.”
While fishermen have to be among the most optimistic souls strolling the Earth, Tim is confident prospects ahead will have local fishermen absolutely drooling with anticipation.
“The results of this rain and the impact it has had on marine life in the rivers and estuaries will not be evident for some time yet, but it has set in motion a great breeding season.”
Tim said there was an old saying that ‘a drought on the land is also a drought in the ocean’.
“It’s not to say that people have not been catching fish. Good fishermen will find a way to catch a fish,” he said.
“Currently there are some nice barra around and some decent mackerel are also being caught.”
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