Aggregation – the formation of a number of things into a cluster

After the mild, settled weather in late March, a radio transmitter ‘tracker’ carp was found in a rocky backwater of Lake Sorell. We found it using the large aerial built into our boat, then pinpointed it on foot using a handheld aerial.

Trammel gillnets where used to block off the area. Extra gillnets were zig-zagged through the backwater and around the tracker carp. Backpack electro-shockers were then used to push this fish into a gillnet. The whole area was shocked several times and the gillnets regularly checked and emptied of carp. Three carp were backpack shocked directly without the help of gillnets.

In total 14 carp were captured over three days.

This late season aggregation shows the importance of our radio transmitter carp. The tracker carp was returned to the water. It is hoped he, and the other trackers in the lake, will help us find the remaining, small population, of carp in Lake Sorell.