below minor flooding at laurel bank above the weir from what i can see gaz. maybe around port alma would be ok for a fish
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ive seen one hydrowave in operation dont know whether they attract bigger fish but gee they do so with bait ,was sitting talking with this guy and under both our sounders was pretty featureless with no bait .he turned it on and in around 10 minutes there was bait everywhere under us from boney,s to those small gar and tiny feeder fish.
Thanks Al. I guess it depends on what sounds are played. As I understand it, sounds can vary from bait gathering to fish feeding. In your example it appears to attract bait rather than simply simulate bait moving around. Actual live bait near the boat would be better than "fake" bait, I guess.
Couple of people I've spoken to here seemed a bit sheepish in confessing to owning and using one. Don't know why. Its all experimentation. Ya never-never learn if ya never-never experiment.
I'll have a look at them when I've finished the effects off colours and light underwater.
Present state of Fitzroy.
Minor flooding upstream.
All gates open. River flowing.
Clarity of water in town reach very poor. See attached photo of a sample from this morning. Dirty water strategy. (concentrate on lateral line + lots of lure action + noise).
Has a measured turbidity of 410 NTUs which translates to sunlight penetration of about 40mm.
Barra will be in town reach with gates open.
20- 30 knt winds and drizzle will make it extremely uncomfortable.
Conditions downstream only marginally better
First installment.
These are simply my thoughts about the subject in an effort to understand better if there are any practical reasons behind observations arrived at by people such as Johnny Mitchell and Ryan Moody through years of experience.
If there are and somebody can find them, then through sharing of knowledge, others can arrive at their own ways of utilising any shortcuts found.
Happy to receive to considered input.
I think there is other data to be considered.
Take a look at some underwater videos on youtube.
Even in fairly murky waters down 20 metres, there is light, colours are drained out, but the outlines and shadings are still very visible.
We know that colours are removed the deeper you go however I think that once a fish's eyes have adjusted to the light available at a level their perception of visibility increases. Similar to how our eyes adjust to darker environments.
If a fish descends to a bait it would be harder to see the bait as their eyes will take time to adapt, however I think it would be opposite for a fish rising to a bait.....
For me, colours on any lure going deeper than 6m is to catch the shopper.
I find I have greater success with natural bait colours, stark white or black lures, or translucent lures these days.
Typical example is Squidgies wild prawns in cracked pepper.......would nearly be invisible down 10 feet in the rivers i fish. Similarly Berkley has a colour called casper clear, just the slightest hint of yellow and very fine glitter flecks.....yet they work well for me as far down as 20 metres in not so clear water.
Tony !!!!!
From Bill Sawynok
Barramundi recruitment in the Fitzroy this year is certainly very interesting. In a year when the environmental conditions don’t support strong recruitment that is what we are seeing in the 12 Mile. At this stage the fish there are from at least 5 different spawning events and more likely 6 (see arrows on graph) ranging from Sep-Jan. This is the strongest recruitment there since 2010. I will need to get more data to see if that is reflected in the river but recruits elsewhere have been low in numbers (more in line with environmental conditions).
This is likely the result of a significant increase in the numbers of spawners and it looks like spawning has occurred over a longer period. Conditions were good for an extended spawning period. The increase in spawners is largely the result of the introduction of the NFZ along with a high level of release of large fish by recreational fishers.
Also for the first time we are doing targeted recruitment surveys for King Threadfin in the Port Alma area with some interesting results. Based on anecdotal information it appears that Threadfin recruitment is also strong but we won’t know where that sits on the scale for a number of years. For the first time we are getting recruits in the Gladstone area and these are likely to be migrants from the Fitzroy.
Understanding recruitment is important in forecasting where stocks are headed in the future so that the river can be managed to provide the best return to the community.
Bill
https://webmail.optusnet.com.au/inde...6cf19c9f2ebf11
Instalment 2
Remember that this exercise is about barramundi and dirty water.
Even in fairly murky waters down 20 metres, there is light, colours are drained out, but the outlines and shadings are still very visible.
I guess it depends on what you mean by fairly murky waters. If you can see light (no matter how little) at 20m (or even 5 or 10 metres) then you are not in murky waters.
In the examples I showed about dirty waters with turbidity levels ranging from 30 to 410 NTUs, there is NO light 20m down.
In the clearest water mentioned above (30 NTU), the colours are gone by 50cm and ALL light is gone by 1 metre. In the twilight zone from .5m to 1m, the amount of light is steadily reducing to none at 1m.
In the flood waters I measured here the other day at 410 NTU, light penetration was all over rover at 40mm. Yet a 1.5m barra was caught in the same water in the town reach. Good eyesight?
Barramundi eye cells change from a mixture of cones (colour nerves in eye) and rods (monochrome nerves in eye) and the colours are replaced by shades of grey that fade to black at 1m as the fish changes from cones to rods. The ratio of rods to cones is higher for barramundi eyes than it is for human eyes.
Barramundi have the trick eyes (tapedum lucidum or “old red/pink eye” as they’re known) which reflect what dim light they manage to get back through the retina to give a second image. Its passed via the optic nerve to the nerve and superimposed on the first image. The effect is a bit more light but the resultant image is slightly blurred.
We know that colours are removed the deeper you go however I think that once a fish's eyes have adjusted to the light available at a level their perception of visibility increases. Similar to how our eyes adjust to darker environments.
Agree totally BUT only in the twilight zone as far as any light manages to penetrate. In this case only up to 1 metre. After 1 metre in water of 30 NTU turbidity, there is no light. Everything is black.
For me, colours on any lure going deeper than 6m is to catch the shopper.
They also catch anglers with very shallow divers.
Agree with that to a certain extent.In the case of barramundi in poor visibility estuary waters its true. If water is much clearer, then barramundi will still see in monochrome (shades of grey) to a greater depth.
THAT’S when contrast between whatever the colours translate to in grey (different colours end up different shades of grey). There’s also what contrast occurs between the lure’s resultant greys and the water colour.
Typical example is Squidgies wild prawns in cracked pepper.......would nearly be invisible down 10 feet in the rivers i fish. Similarly Berkley has a colour called casper clear, just the slightest hint of yellow and very fine glitter flecks.....yet they work well for me as far down as 20 metres in not so clear water.
Don’t think that barramundi only use 1 food detection system to the exclusion of others. They are the complete package and use all senses at the same time. To them, its either get a feed or starve. They’ll be using lateral lines and hearing as well simultaneously.
If you want to get a better handle on what you are grappling with in respect of fishing and how light and turbidity work together, get yourself a turbidity tube. $60 - $80 and you then know exactly what you are dealing with.
No more guessing or vague references to “not so clear water” or “fairly murky water”. You’ll also see for yourself very quickly how the underwater colour world works.
Water of 30 NTU turbidity where I fish will be exactly the same as 30 NTU water where you fish. Apples with apples.
I spent many trips to collect different samples, painting up washers into quadrants with the 7 colours of the wheel, measuring turbidity, measuring depth at which those painted washers disappeared. Different measurements were obtained from all the different turbidity readings.
Then repeated the whole lot again for fluorescent coloured washers. Again with different results to those washers with normal paint and yet again with different turbidity readings.
By now you would have the latest instalment which would have covered some of those things. What is coming in the next instalment is fluorescence and that’s when underwater colour interpretation goes to a new level.
The key points to take away so far is turbidity and barramundi's special "grey light" eyes.