Bunyip River Yellowbelly

[Whiskers]

I'm curious to know if anyone has caught, or even sighted, Yellowbelly in the Bunyip River.

For some time now I've heard the occasional rumour of their existence and until this morning was inclined to dismiss the stories.

I'm always searching out new waters, very often in unsuspected places, and this sometimes involves a lot of time talking to land owners.

One search search led me to a series of farm dams on private property. It turns out that the land is leased to a farmer for occasional grazing, the actual owner of the land who is quite elderly now being in a nursing home.

I managed to spend an hour or so with this chap this morning (the actual landowner) at his nursing home and an interesting story unfolded.

In short, in 1998 he stocked his largest dam with yellowbelly and they thrived. However, in the drought of 2009 his dams dried up to muddy puddles. Big yellowbelly were flopping about in the mud in what little water was left.

Rather than see the fish die, with the help of his family, the surviving fish were netted and transported in large drums and taken to a spot on the Bunyip River, where they were released.

For obvious reasons I will not reveal the locations of the dams, nor the release point, but it does lend weight to the odd rumour of yellowbelly in the Bunyip River system.

The original dam is of course full again and it may just be that a few yellowbelly survived. Whether or not they have bred is another story but I do have permission to fish it.

I'm not sure of the lifespan of yellowbelly and if any of the original stockings have survived it now makes them 19 years old. If they have it could be that there's some whoppers in the system.

I'm interested to know if anyone can shed any more light on the yellowbellys' existence in the Bunyip.
:water:

[bilby]

It sounds like sightings of Yellowbelly in the river might be as rare as bunyip sightings! Seriously, though - these are very long-lived fish - it could easily be the case that some have survived - particularly if there are some decent snags in the system?

[Truedogz]

Whiskers

When I first read the title of the thread I thought there might have been a bit of local confusion - the old timers in parts of Gippsland used to call blackfish 'yellowbellies'.

From your information it sounds like some golden perch were put into the Bunyip. They most probably would survive but not breed. From tagging studies golden perch 20 years of age have been documented but most don't live that long. But it is possible that one or two still survive in the Bunyip though I haven't heard of anyone catching one.

Best Wishes

Truedogz