Gaden Trout Hatchery at Jindabyne NSW experienced the extremes of weather during January.
Air temperatures reportedly reached 38 degrees and water temperatures peaked at 27 degrees – a stressful time for fish stocks although no losses were attributed to heat stress. In contrast a cold change mid January bought snow to the mountains and the surrounding Monaro area, as well as frosts which bought water temperatures down to 14 degrees.
Maintenance work planned at Gaden in the near future includes replacement of some pond linings, additional shade covers for ponds, improvements to security system and security flood lights and sensors.
I&I NSW communications staff are working on a new promotional video and during February and March will be filming fingerling releases, Fisheries Officers on patrol and general angler activities in the lakes and streams.
Fin clipping of rainbow fingerlings for stocking lakes Jindabyne and Eucumbene started this week on February 1 – interested volunteers should contact the hatchery.
January has also been a busy month for fingerling releases, with a total of 50,000 brown fingerlings and 159,000 rainbow fingerlings have been released by Gaden staff, including:
Brown trout: 5,000 Jounama Pondage; 20,000 Blowering Dam; 5,000 Tumut Ponds; 5,000 Pejar Dam; 10,000 Ben Chifley; 5,000 Lake Lyell
Rainbow trout: 5,000 Tumut Ponds; 5,000 Tooma Dam; 5,000 Fitzroy Falls Res.; 5,000 Tallowa Dam; 10,000 Pejar Dam; 4,000 Redground Dam; 2,000 Todd Kill Park; 500 Phils Creek; 500 Bolong River; 500 Crookwell River; 500 Reedy Creek; 1,000 Wheo Creek; 10,000 Jounama Dam; 10,000 Blowering Dam; 20,000 Oberon Dam; 70,000 Lake Eucumbene; 10,000 Lake Jindabyne.
Fingerlings for Monaro streams will be released by Monaro Acclimatisation Society members during February/March.
