Best Practice Barramundi Management

MASA has created the Lake Monduran fishery for families and tourists who have average angling skills and enjoy being able to catch this icon species.

Lake Monduran is a freshwater PUT and TAKE BARRAMUNDI FISHERY that relies on a very different management strategy than the Catch and Release practices taught to many marine anglers.

Large barramundi (over 90 cm) do not breed in freshwater dams and do not replenish wild populations unlike their cousins who live and reproduce in marine habitats.

MASA stock over 100,00 barramundi and 150,000 Australian bass fingerlings every year and out of the thousands that reach maturity, only a low percentage are caught and taken out of the fishery.

MASA encourages anglers to take home their legal size (58 cm) barramundi (remembering bag limits) or alternatively anglers can donate their unwanted live barramundi back to MASA by placing them in a permanently anchored holding cage located directly across from the concrete boat ramp.

MASA empty the holding cage regularly and transport these live fish to the purging system. After purging, these barramundi are transported live to Meal on Wheels Bundaberg, where they are made into delicious meals for their 300 elderly and disabled clients.

Release of large mature barramundi into the lower Kolan River –

MASA has secured a Dept. of Primary Industries and Fisheries Permit to stock six adult barramundi into the freshwater areas of the lower Kolan River.

These fish will have the ability to migrate to estuarine areas via a working fish ladder at Avondale and thus contribute to the local barramundi breeding population.

MASA is trying to add a new dimension to recreational freshwater fishing via –

• Raising awareness of Native Fish Species.
• Anglers donations benefiting disadvantaged members of the community.
• Best practice sustainable barramundi management.