King carp catcher

By Gus Underwood

Aug 18, 2022

King of carp: Keith Bell has been responsible for removing fish from Green’s Lake at Corop, a 40-day project that has seen — among others — 46 large cod removed from the lake.

Professional carp catcher Keith Bell is back removing more native fish from doomed Green’s Lake at Corop.

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In about 40 days of dragging the lake so far, Mr Bell has relocated 46 large cod and 450 yellowbelly up to 6.5kg in weight.

Mr Bell said the largest cod measured 1.11m and most of them were more than 1m long.

Strangely redfin had not been plentiful in the project.

Most of the cod had been transferred to the Arcadia fish hatchery or the Goulburn River while the captured yellowbelly had been released into the Waranga Basin.

The Campaspe River at Elmore was also expected to be one of the release sites for cod in the latest operation.

Mr Bell has also pulled 36,000kg of European carp from the lake.

He was completing the relocation in conjunction with Goulburn-Murray Water and said there had been some difficulties in netting the fish because of some submerged fence lines left when irrigation water was originally released into the former G-MW holding, which has been decommissioned.

Mr Bell said it was vital native fish still in the waterway be caught and relocated in the cooler weather to prevent a fish kill in the approaching warmer months.

He expected to spend this month at the lake as well.

By Gus Underwood

Sports reporter