LAFMA 2019 Carp/Tilapia Eradication Comp

February 7, 2019

IT’S on again, the annual Logan & Albert Fish Management Association’s Wyaralong Dam Carp & Tilapia Eradication Competition.

On Saturday, March 23, 2019 this one-day, family orientated, fun fishing event aims to catch and remove these noxious fish from the dam while helping LAFMA raise funds to supplement the Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme. Heaps of prizes and giveaways are on offer and one lucky entrant will go home with a kayak. You don’t even have to catch a fish to be in the running for this beauty.

Fishing can be from the bank, kayak or canoe, or even your boat as long as you don’t start the motor as this is an electric-only impoundment. Normal outboard motors can be left fitted but must not be started. We are now 20 years down the track from when 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 River systems and replaced with native fish.

LAFMA, formerly known as ‘Carpbusters’, ran seven successful Easter carp eradication competitions from 1998 to 2004, removing more than 10 tonnes of carp from the rivers and raising about $65,000 to buy fingerlings for the native fish stocking program. 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 its fish stocking program in 2012.

Because the Logan and Albert systems were already infested with carp and tilapia, we knew it would not be long before these pests took over the dam. In 2013 LAFMA decided to reinvent the carp competitions of old but this time concentrate on Wyaralong Dam and invest any net profit from the comps into Australian bass and Mary River cod fingerlings. But this time the group decided to make Wyaralong a Mary River cod fishery, stocking mainly the cod with a backup of Australian bass.

Previous carp/tilapia eradication competitions have yielded the following results:

2013: 180 carp (largest 4kg); zero tilapia; 134 competitors.
2014: 273 carp (largest 4.8kg); 75 tilapia; 140 competitors.
2015: 109 carp (largest 6.28kg); 803 tilapia (largest 2.06kg); 255 competitors.
2016: 62 carp (largest 6.89kg); 1189 tilapia (largest 1.8kg); 251 competitors.
2017: 28 carp (largest 6.9kg); 1611 tilapia (largest 2.53kg); 160 competitors.
2018: 81 carp (largest 2.48kg); 2109 tilapia (largest 2.26kg); 228 competitors.

As you can see from the above statistics, the tilapia population has exploded in Wyaralong Dam. Let’s hope stocking the dam with an apex predator such as Mary River cod will once again restore the balance.

For more information and entry forms, visit lafma.org

Please remember adults require a Stocked Impoundment Permit to fish Wyaralong Dam.