Marron 2020
Opening night at Harvey Dam
Decided to trek down to Harvey Dam last night after work to a spot we got incredible numbers at last year. Safe to say I will never be going back there on opening day again. First of all it was packed, drove around the whole south side of the dam that was accessible via 4x4 and apart from a few little 50m spots basically the whole dam was pegged out. Talking to a few blokes from Bunbury we knew down there they go there Tuesday night and it there were already quite a few people there then. Apart from that with the large number of people bought in the trash with people cutting up in their 4x4s in the mud right close to the dam.
The dam this year was extremely low. The water level was a good 30-40m below where it was last year and there was a lot more mud around the edges this year than previous, and to make things worse the wind was in a totally different direction as what it was saying on "Windy" The wind eased at around 8:00pm which was good however the moon was that bright when we were walking we were casting pretty big / dark shadows which didn't help.
Anyway went to the spot we have been going to over previous seasons (Not on opening night) and the whole bank was taken, luckily we packed kayaks and as the laws have eased we were able to kayak over the other side of the dam where it is not accessible with a car and we had a pretty big stretch of the bank to our selves. A few other people had the same idea we did. Marron started appearing around 8:30pm but there were about an 8th the amount of marron that we have been seeing over previous seasons and there were no real massive ones around, the ones that we did catch were only just the 90mm. We ended up with 7 marron between the 2 of us and I decided to call it quits at around 10:00pm. Talking to a few others in the area that seem like regulars they were very surprised with the lack of numbers as was I.
All in all was a good night to get out, however I wont be going back on opening night again. I will try head down before the season closes to see if it was just the moon and see how I go.
Cheers
I go boating not fishing
Mark_M
Posts: 178
Date Joined: 10/04/15
Poachers
Been a few busted before the season started, makes you wonder how many are NOT caught?
https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2019/12/Illegal-marron-fishers-face-potential-fines-of-almost-44,000-each.aspx
tadpole
Posts: 387
Date Joined: 28/01/13
I've been to 3 different
I've been to 3 different spots this week and found an illegal net sitting on the bank at each place. Rang fisheries for the first one, which they collected, second was crushed before I found it, third was turfed into the bush. There'll be no marron left soon
Piggy
Posts: 549
Date Joined: 24/08/12
Maybe
Maybe…. Saw that but didn't want to blame over fishing haha
I go boating not fishing
Wes F
Posts: 1067
Date Joined: 07/01/12
Have found that when the full moon is out
marron are very timid. Might come a time when fisheries limit the amount of people at each dam. Poaching happens all year round but sad to see the amount just before season opens.
Old fishermen never die they just smell that way.
sonerson
Posts: 26
Date Joined: 08/05/11
That's why I don't bother
That's why I don't bother going.
backlash
Posts: 335
Date Joined: 12/10/10
Waroona
We were camped at Waroona Dam for the season start and recent weekend.
there were a lot of people using either nets or scoops, as opposed to the only legal self closing snare.
it was busy but not like Harvey dam from the sound of it.
i put some chook pellets out, but as mentioned above was muddy and the wind was still blowing making spotting almost impossible. The only ones coming were nowhere near legal size.
i need to do some more research but considering how much a licence costs, the patrols are minimal.
I understand that patrolling is very difficult, and some spots the guys were at required siginificant 4wding or a long bypass.
maybe next year....
Piggy
Posts: 549
Date Joined: 24/08/12
Fisheries
Fisheries must only work 9-5 haha. The family next to us said that they had been around 4 times before midday to make sure no one had started fishing before 12:00 then after 12:00 they came around once. We got there around 3pm and saw them driving out of the dam, didn't see them again for the rest of the night.
I have some awesome spots down south as I grew up in Bunbury, its just the fact living in Perth now makes it harder to get down that way. Harvey is only an hour and a half and usually pretty easy to get a good feed, not this year haha
I go boating not fishing