The gone fishin’ edition.
There are a few state parks within a couple of hours from us including Lake Burrinjuck, Grabine, Wyangala Dam and Lake Burrendong. Yesterday Wyangala Dam was hosting a Junior Carp Fishing Competition with entry a mere gold coin donation. We decided it was the perfect excuse to pack up for the day and go fishin’… though the early morning start was much grumbled about by teens and moi!
Driving over the top of the dam wall – At around 6% of it’s capacity, Wyangala Dam is currently a pitiful shadow of it’s full self though 6% is a great improvement on the 3% it was before Christmas. Some of the towns relying on this dam to feed the Lachlan River for their water supply have had their supply cut off - without significant rainfall soon, more towns are screwed. (read the article, I’m not exaggerating)
Don’t let the greenery fool you into thinking that the area can’t be that badly in drought. All of this in the foreground is underwater when the dam is full. You can see that what trees are here are all quite young.
You can see the spillway in the far distance. The water is nowhere near it. You can see the regular waterline where the trees cover the hillside.
The kids took to wading out a bit in order to cast their lines beyond the weeds growing along the waters edge.
But that was dicey in spots where the weeds were thicker.
I’ve been fishing at Wyangala since I was knee high to a grasshopper and I’ve never fished from behind the old dam wall before. The old (darker section of) wall was completed in 1935 but is usually covered except for the tops of the water towers when the dam is at capacity. The new wall was completed in 1971 giving the dam a capacity 2 1/2 times greater than Sydney Harbour… when there is water.
The aim of the competition was to catch as many carp as you could in order to remove the unwanted invader from the local river systems. Carp are considered an invasive pest here. Most people do not eat them, but everyone does dispose of them if they catch them. They aren’t returned to the water. All of the carp caught today are bound for the fertiliser factory to be turned into something useful. Our carp was 47cms long and weighed in at 1.587 kgs. The biggest ones weighed in at 3.7 kgs.
We did return the little Silver Perch to the dam though. Was a bit too small for the dinner table though caused as much excitement as the other fish.
No major prizes for us today – though CJ did have her name drawn out for a t-shirt – but it was raining by the time presentations were finished at the local club, a win for everyone in this dry part of the state.
And one of my favourite parts of the day? There is no mobile phone reception at all at Wyangala Dam. Not even within 20 km’s of the dam. That means no phone, no internet, no nothing. We didn’t even have to declare an electronics free day because the electronices were useless to everyone anyway! lol
Oh and the kids are all starting to feel comfortable baiting their own damn hooks without squealing, dropping the bait or complaining about worm guts on their fingers meaning less work for mum and dad, and more fun for them!
