Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

If you find a good supply, I'll buy them off you erro.

Eildon Trout farm has them in their ponds and you can catch them for a price.
Not sure if they breed them or if they are just there cos they breed twice as fast as rabbits and take over eveything they swim in.
Could be worth a call.
I also know of a couple of rivers where they can be reliably caught during summer, getting them back to Melb. might be a bit of work though, and I don't think I would like to be caught transporting them too far.

SMF do ya reckon Melbourne to Perth is too far?

I know lake leshanaultia in Chidlow was stock 50 years ago or longer but don't know if you can fish there i think people fish for trout there i'll find out. Other wise i know of a spot 2 hours south that my mate pulled some out of. let you know in due course.

Hay Erro, I have been catching Redfin for over 20 years now and love eating them, they have nice white ferm flesh and beacause they eat lots of little fresh water crays and shrimp they tast great. I have kept them many times over the years because I think they are prety and I thought it was cool to have a pond with almost 1 kg sized redies that I could hand feed, they would take the food from my fingers and they will eat allmost anything you offer, worms, white bate and peices of filet from Tailer or hering not to mention joogies and yabbies.
They spawned once in the tank/pond but a big down poor recked that.
like you I would like to get some more, prety looking fish, good to eat, servive our climet year round and there is a good chance they will breed in a tank.

I wish you good luck with them.

Thanks Grunta all those reasons is why i always planned to keep them. I have a 400m2 dam i plan to stock from the AP tanks to get them really big. Grunta are you in Perth? where can i catch them close to Perth? Have you tried Lake Leshanaultia?

Hay Erro, I am in Perth, near Kulamunda, I haven't fished lake leshanaultia, but I have fished Drakesbrook dam/weir and lake Navareno (if thats how you spell it) and Dwellingup, late summer to autom is the best time to catch large numbers as the water level gets very low some years. I have been told about a dam in Jarrahdale that has a few in it as well but I am yet to check it out.
I have cought thousands over the years and some well over the kg mark and i have seen some monsters down at Pemberton.
I am hopeing to get out and catch a few in the next few weeks and if I have any luck I will let you know.

Cheers.

Hey Grunta, what do you catch them on and with?

bait or lure can youi post a pic of lure used?

Hay Erro, I have caught them on pieces of fish and yabbie tail to whole yabbies and worms and live gambusi, allmost any small lure will catch them from soft tail jigs, celtas and hard bodied mino type lures,

I will try to post a pic tonight.

Lures would be the best way to catch them.
Most lure caught fish only get the hooks through the edge of the jaw, bait caught fish tend to swallow the bait and hook and do not survive usually.
In my experience and reading many a fishing magazine, a lure caught fish has a far higher chance of survival than a bait caught one. The fight can also be shortened and survival rate increased if you use slightly heavier line than you otherwise might.
Not as much fun, but less stress on the fish.
I wouldn't worry about heavier lines scaring off reddies either, they attack anything that moves. I have caught 6 inch fish on 6 inch lures, so they aren't afraid of anything.

Hay Erro, sorry it took me so long to post a pic but here is just a hand full of lures that work some of these work on bream to.
I have found that some day lures wont work but worms will.
with the little trout and redfin patterns you can't go wrong.

hope the pic came out ok, I've not tried this before.

Erro I hope it worked this time?

sorry it doubled the pic and I couldn't work out how to delete one of them.

Awesome thanks Grunta

Erro, I wouldnt put Redfin in that dam of yours as the end result will be a dam full of stunted fish that are of no use to anybody. Redfin breed so prolifically and the masses of small fish will quickly eat out the available food source. This has happened to many dams across australia including the ones that Grunta mentions around Waroona/Harvey. Decent sized fish are rarities in those waters where as small stunted Redfin abound. They are also almost impossible to get rid of once they are in a dam. A few years back when Waroona Dam was drained to repair the wall fisheries Dynamited the remaining puddles in an effort to kill all the Redfin, in Tasmaina their fisheries dept used Rotenone in an effort to rid Brushy Lagoon of Redfin, both attempts failed!!
I dont know how successful they will be in Tanks either. I have tried a few small wild caught ones here and I couldnt get them to eat peletts. I had to continually feed them tadpoles to keep em alive.

I hear what your saying troutman, and had given this some thought, the only answer i came up with is to determine the sex of the fish and only stock the dam with males, since they generall grow larger. But sexing a fish sounds hard. although many years ago i visited the blue marron farm down demark walpole way and they only sold males so one would assume it can be done...I know marron and fish are different.

If your objective is to stock the dam to grow fish to maturity... for food consumption and/or breeding...

Why not just stock a species that will take a pellet feed... or survive on natural food... grows relatively fast and taste good...

Like Silver Perch....???