Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
It’s on again, the annual Logan & Albert Fish Management Association’s Wyaralong Dam Carp and Tilapia Eradication Competition will be held Saturday October 19, 2024.
This is a one-day family oriented fun fishing event aimed at catching pest fish.
By entering this competition, you will help remove some of the noxious carp and tilapia from the dam, as well as help LAFMA raise funds to supplement money received from the Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme.
This is also a major fundraiser for the stocking of the Logan and Albert rivers system because no annual funds are allocated from the Queensland Government for this purpose.
There are heaps of prizes and giveaways, plus one lucky entrant could go home with a kayak.
You don’t even have to catch a fish to be in the running for this ripper of a prize.
Fishing can be done from the bank, kayak or canoe, even your boat – as long as you don’t start the motor.
This is an electric only impoundment – motors can be left on but must not be started.
We are now 26 years down the track from where it all started.
The ‘carp out, natives in’ concept was started by a small group of concerned anglers in the Rathdowney Beaudesert area to get introduced noxious carp out of the Logan and Albert rivers system and replaced with native fish.
Wyaralong Dam, 14km northwest of Beaudesert, was completed in 2011 and filled almost on completion.
LAFMA decided to take on Wyaralong Dam as a project for our fish stocking program in 2012.
As the Logan and Albert rivers system was already infested with carp and tilapia, we knew it wouldn’t be long before these pests took over the dam.
Ranked in the top 100 invasive species worldwide, tilapia have a wide range of environmental impacts in Australia and internationally.
From spreading diseases and parasites to damaging the banks and bottoms of rivers, carp and tilapia can make waterways unliveable for our native species and less enjoyable for recreational swimming, boating, and fishing.
Tilapia and carp fishing can be a challenging and enjoyable experience, and is encouraged to help control populations, though what should you do with them once they’re caught?
It’s important to remember that tilapia and carp must not be kept or released.
Instead, humanely dispose of them as soon as possible, either in a bin or buried above the high-water mark.
Even dead tilapia can spread their young as females carry eggs and babies in their mouths.
We all have a biosecurity responsibility to help protect our waterways from further introductions of tilapia and other invasive species.
In 2013, we re-invented the Carpbuster competitions of old, though concentrated on Wyaralong Dam only.
All net profit from these competitions will be spent on Australian bass and Mary River cod fingerlings to stock in both the dam and the Logan and Albert rivers system.
LAFMA, in conjunction with Fisheries Queensland, decided to make Wyaralong Dam a trophy Mary River cod fishery, stocking mainly this species with a back-up of Australian bass.
Since 2014, almost 100,000 Mary River cod fingerlings and 240,000 bass fingerlings have been released into the dam.
As the dam has only been on the Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme for a few years, these competitions and other fundraising activities have allowed us to supplement the SIPS grants and provide funding for re-stocking the Logan and Albert rivers system with bass and endangered Mary River cod.
For the 2023 competition, 298 competitors removed 198 carp and 1237 tilapia from this dam, nearly filling two bins.
Their total weight was estimated at around two tonnes, with the heaviest carp weighing in at 4.48kg and the heaviest tilapia at 2.405kg.
So, if you’re free on October 19, come out to Wyaralong Dam, bring the kids, throw a line in and help eradicate some of these pest fish.
For more information, entry forms and further details, go to our website – lafma.org
For those 18 years and over, note that a Stocked Impoundment Permit is required to fish Wyaralong Dam.
Ian Fraser
LAFMA Secretary
0412 736 495
