WILD ABOUT
BASS
Photo by Scott Amon
Finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers St a rlo s ha re s a l ifet i m e o f ex p e r ie n c e s a n d d i s c ov e r ie s a c c u mu la te d w hile pu r s u i n g “ w ild ” Au st ra l ia n b a s s i n ou r c o a st a l r i v e r s : a l l t he w a y f ro m V i c t o r ia t o Q u e e n s la n d . L e a r n a b ou t t he s e u n iq u e n a t i v e f i s h ( a n d t he i r k i s s i n g c ou s i n s , t he e st u a ry p e rc h ) , a s w el l a s w he re t o f i n d t he m a n d how t o re g u la rly c a t c h t he m o n l u re s a n d f l ie s .
WILD ABOUT
BASS By Steve ‘Starlo’ Starling
I
caught my first Australian bass in the mid-1970s, at the age of 15. It ate a bunch of wriggling garden worms that I’d skewered onto a hook and cast into the shadow of a busy highway bridge on the south coast of New South Wales.
That fish was perhaps a foot long, at most. It came flapping and kicking out of the water and almost immediately it deeply cut the palm of my hand with its sharp gill cover spikes as I eagerly grabbed it. Despite the pain, I marvelled at this bronze-hued jewel of a fish with its alert, dark eyes and its uniquely earthy odour that spoke to me of snaggy creek bends and shaded, secret places buried deep beneath drooping casuarina fronds. 2
Photo by Scott Amon
WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
Thus began my half century love affair with a species that still fascinates, excites and very often frustrates me. I was totally intrigued by that fish… and also besotted. Thus began my half century love affair with a species that still fascinates, excites and very often frustrates me. I’m passionate about our wild, river-dwelling Australian bass, and I know that a lot of other anglers are, too. Hopefully, this publication will help you to better understand these wonderfully enigmatic fish, not to mention finding and catching a few more of them in the process!
Australian bass are amazing fish, and wonderfully adapted to life on our harsh continent. RIGHT No wonder they pull so hard when hooked… that’s quite a propellor! ABOVE
WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
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A TRULY REMARKABLE FISH!
quite difficult at times to separate the two species without resorting to genetic analysis. These genetic waters are further muddied by at least some hybridisation or crossbreeding between the two species. However, as a general rule, estuary perch tend to spend the majority of their lives in the tidal reaches of our estuaries or just above them, while Aussie bass will happily range much further upriver, until finally halted by the system’s first impassable barrier.
To those of us who love them, Australian bass are very special fish. They’re also uniquely adapted to life in our part of the world. It’s likely that their ancestors migrated into the estuaries and coastal rivers of our ancient continent from the surrounding seas many millions of years ago, making use of these watery highways to travel further and further inland, escaping predators and seeking out new sources of food as they went. But those wandering fish never lost their ancestral links to the ocean, and remained forever tied to it, thanks to their biological need to seek out brackish, partlysalty water in order to successful reproduce. Somewhere along the way, the family tree of those ancient ancestors of today’s bass diverged into two very similar but distinct branches. Today, Australian bass (Macquaria novemaculeata) remain closely related to their near-identicalcousins, the estuary perch (M. colonorum), and it can be 4
Before European settlement of our continent, that first barrier to upstream migration typically consisted of a towering waterfall or high cascade of impassable rapids, which may have been many, many kilometres upriver from the coast and hundreds of metres above sea level. It’s truly remarkable just how far inland Australian bass once freely ranged. Anyone who’s gazed in awe at the swift rapids and numerous low waterfalls of the mighty Clarence Gorge in far northern NSW will shake their heads in wonder at the fact that bass still regularly traverse this significant natural obstacle — in both directions — especially at times of high water and flooding. Further south, bass also once ranged well up the Hawkesbury/Nepean system into the Cox’s River, far into the foothills of the Blue Mountains and what’s today regarded as “trout water”, as well as hundreds of kilometres inland along other major catchments such as the Shoalhaven and Snowy Rivers.
WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
Bass occupy some of the most beautifully wild corners of south eastern Australia. LEFT
Aussie bass will happily range much further upriver, until finally halted by the system’s first impassable barrier. WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
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MAN-MADE BARRIERS Sadly, most of these impressive incursions by wild bass into the higher reaches of our coastal systems came to shuddering halt decades ago, thanks to the construction of multiple dams, weirs, barrages, flood mitigation gates, culverts, road crossings and other man-made barriers. Today, the natural range of the Australian bass is a pale shadow of its former expansive glory. In typical human fashion, we’ve tried our best to make up for the environmental damage we’ve wrought via the artificial propagation and stocking of hatchery-reared bass in waters above these man-made barriers, but our best efforts can only ever be short-term, band-aid solutions without a practical way for bass of all sizes — juveniles and adults — to freely move up and down these waterways. Attempts have been made to address this critical need with various forms of “fish-ways” or fish passages, but sadly, most of them are of limited effectiveness. 6
Today, the natural range of the Australian bass is a pale shadow of its former expansive glory.
WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
A gorgeous, wild river bass in all its dark-hued glory. RIGHT Stocked fish in dams are great, but can never replace our wild bass. LEFT
Late afternoon in bass country… the witching hour! WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
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All that said, many wonderful “put-and-take” fisheries for stocked bass have now been established in dams and lakes stretching all the way from western Victoria to central Queensland. Make no mistake: these are vibrant, exciting man-made fisheries that attract a huge following amongst recreational anglers, injecting millions of dollars into local economies, dramatically boosting the tackle industry and hastening the evolution of innovative new fishing methods in the process (not to mention reducing pressure on wild bass stocks).
A perfect little jewel of a bass from skinny water. BELOW LEFT Bass range far inland, high into cascading headwaters. ABOVE
Those wild populations are priceless, and deserve to be treated with the utmost respect. These impoundment bass fisheries represent an extremely positive addition to the Aussie fishing scene. But we need to remember that they can never replace the remnant populations of “wild” bass that still roam in parts of our coastal rivers. Those wild populations are priceless, and deserve to be treated with the utmost respect. It’s these “wild”, river-dwelling fish that this publication celebrates and is devoted to although, of course, many of the techniques and strategies outlined here are also readily applicable to bass living in dams.
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WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
All about the bass
During the 1970s, the scientific boffins made a decision to move Australian bass and estuary perch into the genus Macquaria. This is one of a number of Australian genera in the family Percichthyidae, which also includes two species of native perch from the Murray/Darling Basin: the golden perch or yellowbelly (M. ambigua) and the endangered Macquarie perch (M. australasica). Prior to this taxonomic change, Australian bass and estuary perch had been listed in the genus Percalates.
Bass have no obvious teeth and can be safely thumb-gripped… but watch out for those gill cover spikes! WILD ABOUT BASS — finding & catching Aussie bass in rivers
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