DAM CLUES

Fishing in man-made freshwater dams requires an entirely different mindset to that required to fish in rivers and estuaries. For anglers new to dam fishing it can be very confusing as to how to approach a huge body of water that seems to hold few clues as to times, places and methods likely to produce fish. The following article is about some of the environmental influences that can greatly affect how various fish behave in freshwater impoundments.

It is important to always realise that these dams are artificial, and the fish that live in them tend to behave very differently than they do in wild fisheries. These fish populations also generally have little or no capacity to breed in these impoundments, so the populations require constant stocking. In many of these dams there is an abundant food source, such as the ubiquitous bony bream. The maximal sizes of bass, yellowbelly, Murray cod and barramundi in dams is often far bigger than those fish found in rivers. Because there is no current, plenty of food and little if any predation of adult fish the fish populations in established dams are often skewed towards bigger fish.