Two fish hatcheries that provide fingerlings for increasingly popular stream and impoundment fishing in the north of the State, will benefit from grants from the NSW Freshwater Recreational Fishing Trust Fund in the coming year, NSW Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, said today.

"The Dutton Trout Hatcherys existing cool water recirculating system has proven so effective that another will be installed at a cost of $38,250 to provide even further protection against hot weather fish loss," Minister Macdonald said.

"And a grant of $10,000 to the Manilla Native Fish hatchery for golden perch will help bring it up to Hatchery Quality Assurance standards.

"This is great news for these important fish rearing facilities."

Industry & Investment NSW hatchery manager Peter Selby said the second Dutton hatchery system will use the existing six 2500 litre tanks as part of the infrastructure to increase the chilled water used for fish stocking.

"The fish have shown through improved growth rates and minimal loss that the temperature controlled environment is working," Mr Selby said.

"These two temperature control systems should provide almost total protection against high temperature fish loss and the second recirculation system will provide the means to grow and produce more rainbow and brown trout fingerlings and brown trout broodstock for the enhancement of the New England and Central tablelands trout fisheries.

"This in turn would help to ensure a regular supply of trout fry and fingerlings for stocking programs and protect a proportion of broodstock held at the hatchery from any future extreme climatic event."

Manilla Fishing Club president Ian Thomas said the grant to the Manilla hatchery would help with the stocking of golden perch into Lake Keepit between Tamworth and Gunnedah and Split Rock Dam between Barraba and Manilla.

"The hatchery needs to be upgraded to meet new Industry & Investment NSW hatchery quality assurance requirements," Mr Thomas said.

"The club and the hatchery have released around 2,000,000 golden perch into these dams since 1991, all on a voluntary basis, for the general good of the recreational angling community."

Industry & Investment NSW Senior Inland Fisheries Manager Cameron Westaway said the hatchery projects were a good example of recreational fisher fees at work.

"All money raised by the NSW recreational fishing fee is placed into saltwater and freshwater trusts overseen by fishers representatives and used to improve recreational fishing," Mr Westaway said.

Further reading

Licence fees at work

Media contact: Sarah McGregor 0427 075 167