Prospect reservoir access for fishing

[XD351]

This showed up on my socials and I have heard a few murmurings about this , I know there has been a few that have been trying to get this open for fishing for many years . Thought I would post it for any raiders that may feel inclined to do the survey .

https://water.dpie.nsw.gov.au/plans-and-programs/prospect-reservoir

[JimT]

aded my 5 cents worth

[Green Hornet]

They’ve recently opened Porters Creek Dam (just west of Lake Conjola), which is part of the Shoalhaven’s water supply system, as a new bass fishery. So it appears there’s a little more of an open mind regarding such waterways now.

If you don’t ask, you don’t get.

[XD351]

I wouldn’t mind having to apply and pay for  a special annual permit or the like to gain access , would keep the riff raff out but they must keep it kids under say 12 are free 12-16 a small fee and adults a full fee . If you have to sign in and out it would allow them to single out anyone doing the wrong thing = loss of access . Dunno if I want a couple of hundred people swimming in there though - not if I’m drinking it as it is a small reservoir - I don’t want to turn it into a sewer! There is also Penrith lakes , some days you can fish there others you can’t and what really annoys me is our council rates are being used for the upkeep and we can’t use the dammed thing 😡😡😡

I have seen a few comments on FB where they wanted a small boat sailing club on prospect ! If it were for kids I would be all for it . After doing the survey I fear that all they want is to open it up for joggers/ walkers / cyclists and revamp the BBQ areas and amenities all with no access to the water - sort of a sneaky way for Sydney water to get a grant from the Government to “improve  the location for the public”.  There is zero structure in there and I don’t know how the reservoir would sustain a fish population in regards to a natural food source for the fish so it would have to be constantly stocked . 

[Green Hornet]

Down this way there’s a handful of reservoirs and water supply lakes open to fishing. They all have a restriction of no petrol motors allowed, so its either kayaks or electric motors and that seems to keep the bogans away.

Fitzroy Reservoir up on the southern highlands has a small sailing club and land based fishing only that seems to work quite well. The joggers, cyclists and picnickers must stay on designated paths and restricted grounds with nearby amenities that works as well without being detrimental to the water quality.

For the record, a hell of a lot of water was pumped from Tallowa Dam, up to Fitzroy and on to Warragamba during the last drought.

[wazatherfisherman]

I worked at the reservoir when the new filtering station was being built and can attest to it being full of both fish and eels. We were on site and painting everything colour coded. As it was a revolutionary concept (the water filtering) the French company building the filtration were constantly changing the mechanics of how it all worked and we would 'paint-to-order' on site, often having to repaint fixtures several times after changes had been made.

While painting pipes over the inlet flow, we had the the environmental ranger sneaking around spying on us to make sure we weren't having a fish or putting a set line in. When I questioned him about what he was doing (he wasn't in any type of uniform) he explained that several of the construction companies employees had been caught putting set lines in and as we were in an ideal spot that was pretty well hidden from the rest of the site, it was 'likely' we might do the same.

After a couple of weeks the ranger became a little more friendly and asked me if I'd like to see the 'fish wheels' put in place across the inflow channel a few hundred meters away, which I was really interested to see. There were 2 large mesh wheels that sat across the concrete canal and they picked up all the fish and eels moving towards the mechanical side of the filter and dropped them into 2 giant sized plastic bins. The ranger would then go the bins every hour and collect the fish and eels to return them to the reservoir. 

Didn't see many fish the few times I got to look in the wheels/bins (I was foreman of painters and had to 'check' the wheel area weekly after that) but saw masses of eels and a few Trout. They did get a Trout about 12lb when they were blasting and it didn't get returned as it was near dead, so there's some good ones in there, so it'd definitely be worth fishing if they actually open it up.

[PaddyT]

Open it up-most other countries -and a few other states -have no issue with fishing in water supplies-its just the ridiculous Australian "lock it up" attitude-anyway did the survey and put as strong a pro fishing spin on it as was possible.

[XD351]

I was just on the FB page where I first saw this and it amazes how so many people have no idea of the good fishing can do for the environment- one person said it is full of carp so no swimming there - my reply was we can fix that ! Another was worried about petrol powered boats that we fishos use - never heard of a kayak or electric motor ? Some guy wanted dragon boat races on there - might need something a bit bigger than prospect for this - Penrith regatta possibly? One whinged that the road going in there was too busy now and they get stuck in traffic going to wet and wild so didn’t want prospect opened at all - some people make me worry about the future of the human race 🤣🤣

[frankS]

I for one would love to see fishing allowed in Prospect reservoir .

As a teenager back in the late 60's early seventy's I had a mate who was a security guard at the site and I would visit him sometimes at night.

I would walk around the walls of the lake and there were huge Cod swimming close to the walls . I never took a line into the area as this would have got my mate in big trouble IF I were court fishing the lake .

I would also like fishing to be allowed in the Warragamba catchement . Wow what a fishery that would be.

Frank

[noelm]

As with all these things, it needs Rangers to patrol the place, otherwise hoons and nit wits get in and leave rubbish everywhere and it gets closed off again. Places get abused by a minority, but it affects everyone long term.

[XD351]

53 minutes ago, noelm said:

As with all these things, it needs Rangers to patrol the place, otherwise hoons and nit wits get in and leave rubbish everywhere and it gets closed off again. Places get abused by a minority, but it affects everyone long term.

Yup and that is why I mentioned the annual permit - no permit no entry , keep the fishing separate to the bikes, runners and picnickers so we don’t get blamed for their problems .To have somewhere to flick a lure literally 5min from work would be awesome , i could go after work and spend a few hours walking and casting then drive 10 min to get home - I would definitely get good value for my money even if the permit was $100 or more a year as the fuel and parking fee savings would cover it . If they let swimmers in then there would need to be a specific area set aside for them , a bit like between  the flags on the beach where you can swim but not surf or fish , kayaks and boats get the middle areas of the reservoir which is out of casting range and well away from swimmers  . A lot of rules will need to be sorted to stop any  conflict but it can be done if everyone approaches this with an open mind and a level headed approach. 

[PaddyT]

17 minutes ago, XD351 said:

Yup and that is why I mentioned the annual permit - no permit no entry , keep the fishing separate to the bikes, runners and picnickers so we don’t get blamed for their problems .To have somewhere to flick a lure literally 5min from work would be awesome , i could go after work and spend a few hours walking and casting then drive 10 min to get home - I would definitely get good value for my money even if the permit was $100 or more a year as the fuel and parking fee savings would cover it . If they let swimmers in then there would need to be a specific area set aside for them , a bit like between  the flags on the beach where you can swim but not surf or fish , kayaks and boats get the middle areas of the reservoir which is out of casting range and well away from swimmers  . A lot of rules will need to be sorted to stop any  conflict but it can be done if everyone approaches this with an open mind and a level headed approach. 

I look at the other way around-and it starts from this- we have laws for everything in this country but only the easy ones get enforced- how about we just let people do what they want, when they want-as soon as they break a real law eg stealing , assault , littering , breaking fisheries rules , they get the book thrown at them. We need to go back to taking responsibility for our own actions. Prospect should be open to the public-so should every other bit of publicaly owned land in the country unless for genuine security or environmental reasons. Look at the prolific numbers of National Parks that have no visitors, no proper land management and cost the taxpayer 10's of millions. 

[XD351]

Unfortunately there are people that have to ruin it for the law abiding people , they don’t care about the laws or the punishment - they are malicious and will damage or destroy things just to spite everyone else , maybe they can’t stand that other people have a life and try to enjoy it ? Unfortunately  the ones  that want to lock us out of everything use this as a reason to do so , if we just let everyone do whatever they wanted , when ever they wanted we would be living in a world of bedlam and anarchy .

I agree fully that we should have access to all of Australia but we need something to filter out the riff raff . Take a look at Stockton beach , for years the National parks run it and it was a garbage tip , i have seen burned out caravans and entire camps with a full lounge set just abandoned because the mongrels that camped there couldn’t be bothered breaking camp . Now it is much more tightly controlled and as far as i know all that has stopped.

[frankS]

It works for Manly Dam and Prospect is 10 times the size so I can't see a problem with allowing fisher folk in there. I would think no outboard motors would be a good thing as with some areas in the A C T  . Have the outboard on the transom but always tilted up and not in use. Otherwise it's a real pain removing anything heavier than about a 25hp motor specially if it's forward controlled.

Frank