WHILE it may sound like an April fool’s Joke it certainly wasn’t.
During a trip to the back waters of Ben Chifley Dam on the afternoon of Monday 1st of April I witnessed a sight that I have not seen for many years. Currently the dam is suffering from blue-green algae but it does get a bit clearer the further one travels up the back waters.
It was while I was slow trolling some XOS cod lures I noticed the water was full of jellyfish.
The jellyfish weren’t large, only ranging in size from a five-cent piece to a 20-cent piece but what they lacked in size they made up for in numbers.
I had seen jellyfish before in Ben Chifley dam many years ago as well as Wyangala Dam. Interstingly, these jellyfish always appear after substantial outbreaks of blue-green algae
(http://aquaticlife.angfaqld.org.au/Jellyfish.htm)
Definitely a strange event to be trolling in a freshwater impoundment with jellyfish so thick!
Editor’s note: Fishing World’s fish biologist Dr Ben Diggles who is quite familiar with freshwater jellyfish says they feed on plankton.
