Lake Sorell — Mike Stevens

LAKE SORELL

What is happening?

Typical Lake Sorell fish that you may catch.

Mike Stevens presents an overview of Lake Sorell - reopened after many years.

The temporary re-opening of Lake Sorell

In exciting news Lake Sorell will be re-opened for the remainder of the 2019-20 trout season. This temporary re-opening of Lake Sorell is part of the successful progression of the Carp Management Program. It is not the completion of the Program and further periods of closure will be required to finish the eradication. Over 42,400 carp have been removed from Lake Sorell and estimates now indicate that less than 10 remain. The intensive fishing pressure has removed the strong healthy carp. The remaining fish are the runts of the litter that either don’t have the urge to spawn, or have made themselves difficult to catch because of their small size. This has allowed the decision to be made to reopen the lake as the risk of transfer of carp from this water is now unlikely.

The Inland Fisheries Service (IFS) has applied the Lake Crescent carp eradication model to Lake Sorell. Lake Crescent was re-opened to the public in 2004. A lone female carp caught in Lake Crescent, in 2007, proved to be the last from this lake and it was declared carp free in 2009. The trout fishing in Lake Crescent has steadily improved and varies with water level. Some superb trophy trout have been caught in recent years.

Anglers need to be aware that the trout population in Lake Sorell has been heavily impacted by the intensive fishing pressure applied to catch carp. Being mid-summer the water level is falling, the water is dirty and there are lots of rocks and reefs across the lake. So boat operators need to take care.

The IFS will not restock Lake Sorell with trout but will allow the population to build naturally through spawning in the inflowing creeks over coming years. With time to recover, Lake Sorell will show a new generation of anglers what once made it the most popular trout water in Tasmania. And it will give some old-timers (like me!) a chance to relive their memories.

Lakes Sorell and Crescent

Lakes Sorell (5,300 ha) and Crescent (2,300 ha) are large, shallow, interconnecting freshwater lakes in the southeast corner of the Tasmanian Central Plateau. In addition to recreational fishing, these waters are used as a stock and domestic water supply for the downstream townships of Bothwell and Hamilton. They also supply irrigation water for farmers in these districts and support a small commercial fishery for short-finned eels.

The lakes contain a small-endangered native fish species golden galaxias (Galaxias auratus) and extensive wetlands of national and international significance.

Before it’s closure Lake Sorell regularly ranked within the top three recreational fisheries in Tasmania, being visited by around 10 000 anglers each year.

Lake Crescent was closed to the public on 18 February 1995.

On 6 March 1995, following extensive surveys small numbers of carp were caught by electrofishing in Lake Sorell.

Lake Sorell was closed to the public on 9 March 1995.

Lake Sorell was subsequently assessed as low risk due to the small carp population and re-opened in August 1995.

The Carp Management Program — and Carp in Tasmania

European carp were first detected in Tasmania in 1975 when they were found in more than 30 small farm dams on the northwest coast. Specific noxious fish legislation was enacted in response and an eradication campaign using the fish poison rotenone was initiated. The populations in these dams were eradicated.

On 28 January 1995, an angler found the remains of a fish that was being eaten by a sea eagle. This was handed to the IFS on 30 January.

Backpack electrofishing surveys on 1 February confirmed that carp were present in Lake Crescent. The outflow from Lake Crescent was closed and downstream surveys began immediately.

In 2010, Lake Sorell was again closed due to a significant carp spawning event stimulated by rising lake levels and warm conditions late in 2009. This dramatically increased the carp population despite targeted fishing effort that removed most of the adult population.

Eradication of the carp population has been by direct fish down and spawning sabotage by preventing carp access to spawning sites. A combination of wetland exclusion nets, fyke nets, seine nets, gillnets, traps and electrofishing (both backpack and boat) are used to target carp at vulnerable periods of their life. 7797 carp were removed from Lake Crescent from 1995 – 2007. 41 496 carp have been removed from Lake Sorell since 1995 with only five captured from July 2019 to 31 January 2020.

From information available the physical removal of a pest fish from a lake system as large as lakes Sorell and Crescent has not previously been recorded, either in Australia or internationally.

Lake Sorell and Table Top Mountain.

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