TWENTY five years ago, fish scientist Dr. John Harris conceived the idea of bi-annual fishing events to be held on the Hawkesbury Nepean River system. He engaged the members of Bass Sydney Fishing Club to hold a weekend event in October and in February each Bass fishing season.
The plan was that each angler would record their effort and catch which would be entered into a database to give scientists an indication of fish numbers, recruitment of recently spawned fish per reach and more.
That information has been paramount in the decision making process of managing the resources of the system. The most notable recent example of this is the fishway program that has either removed unwanted weirs or had proper functioning fish passage devices installed on nearly all the dams and weirs on the Nepean.
Bass Sydney celebrated this milestone on the 2nd of March with a barbecue lunch. They contacted as many of the original anglers they could find who fished that very first event so long ago. Unfortunately some people were un-contactable but the club was able to get eight of the “originals” to come to the lunch where they were presented with commemorative shirts.
At the last minute due to the inclement weather, Dr. Harris was unfortunately flooded in and unable to make it on the day. 36 Bass Sydney members and partners attended the day along with eight children. It was a great way to celebrate 25 years of Bass Catch.
The “originals” and current DPI Fisheries Staff – Trevor Mills, Tony Knight, Ken Fell, Peter Skanes, Lesley Muller, Ludwig Muller, (DPI Staff Danielle Ghosn- Scientific Officer, Project Coordinator & Geoff Barrett- Fisheries Technician, Basscatch Coordinator. Absent: Neil Sheppard.
