Australian bass Macquaria novemaculeata
Recreational species Mitchell River EGCMA
Key health indicators
| Survey year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Recent recruitment | YES | YES | YES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple size classes | YES | YES | YES |
| Mature fish present | YES | YES | YES |
Monitoring Results
| Monitoring year | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish per 1km of waterway | 25.52 | 39.50 | 72.78 |
| Largest fish by length (cm) | 36.3 | 32.9 | 39.2 |
| Largest fish by weight (g) | 803 | 558 | 1164 |
| % of the catch that is legal size | 10 | 5 | 11 |
Interpretation
Key Result: Although high abundances of Australian bass were caught each year, only a small percentage of these (5-11%) were of legal size. The high number of fish between 5 and 10cm recorded in 2018 and 2019 are likely to be stocked fish. Please note, the fish measured for length-frequency histograms were a representative sub-sample of the size structure observed during field data collection.
Stocking: In late 2016, 10,000 Australian bass were stocked; 150,000 in late 2017; and 30,000 in late 2018.