If you want to know anything about the Australian bass you’d do well to ask young Jack Batty and Zane Kilpatrick.
“Bass start spawning at six years of age and they’re fully grown at about 25 years,” Swifts Creek year seven student, Jack Batty, said.
“They can produce 500,000 eggs a year, and their average life span is about 40 years but they can live up to 45.
“They also spawn in the saltwater estuaries.”
The facts are rattled off like he’s known them for longer than his 13 years.
Last Thursday morning, Jack and fellow student Zane Kilpatrick, helped Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA), Will Ingram and East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (CMA) water team leader, Nicole Thompson, release 5000 bass fingerlings into the Tambo River at the area known as Bark Sheds, near the Collins Road Bridge.
It was part of the VFA’s broadscale release of over 130,000 Australian bass into 11 lakes and rivers across Gippsland to further improve freshwater fishing opportunities.
Year seven student, Jack, 13, and year six student, Zane, 12, both say they started fishing at about the tender age of two, and that their local river had too many carp.
“We wanted to help the ecosystem in the river grow and bass actually eat carp,” Zane said.
“We wanted to help lower the carp population.”
The link between fishing, the environment and the students’ learning is not lost on Swifts Creek P12 principal, Robert Boucher.
His enthusiasm for the project, which came about due to the school’s Dare2Dream project for year five, six and seven students, is palpable.
“What a great dream to have and how good is it to be able to use that as a vehicle as part of education,” Mr Boucher said.
“The CMA is doing a great job looking after our rivers and now the boys know how our rivers are stocked.
“There are people who care about the environment and these smart young boys are getting involved and showing they care about the future.
“How cool is that?”
VFA chief executive officer, Travis Dowling, said Australian bass were a highly regarded sportfish, native to Gippsland and Australia’ s east coast, and had thrived since the annual stocking program for the species was ramped up.
Among last week’s releases were 39,000 fingerlings into the Mitchell River, 5000 in the Avon, 1000 in Valencia Creek and 25,000 into Lake Glenmaggie with a whopping 45,000 released into Blue Rock Lake.
For the boys, it’s mostly just about the fishing.
“It’s fun, it gets your mind off stuff,” Jack said.
“You just concentrate on fishing.”
To date, the biggest fish Jack has caught is a four-pound brown trout with a grasshopper as bait, while Zane’ s best memory is reeling in a snapper at Lakes Entrance a couple of weeks ago.
PICTURED: Victorian Fisheries Authority’s Will Ingram, Swifts Creek P-12 students, Jack Batty (13), Zane Kilpatrick (12), and East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority water team leader, Nicole Thompson, released bass fingerlings into the Tambo River on Thursday. (PHOTO: Jessica Shapiro)
