Just want to state 3 things
First of all I acknowledge that bass are here to stay and I myself have had fun catching them. But I do believe that better management is required as they have done and are currently doing damage in various systems (I advise you not to let me start listing venues where they have had a negative influence
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Secondly I am firmly against the belief that a system will balance itself out naturally. This belief encourages anglers look away while indigenous fish are dying out. We as humans placed bass and other fish in the systems where they did not occur without researching the impact, the least we can do is try to minimize their impact.
Thirdly the Cape Piscotorial Society, Yellowfish Working Group and most ecologists are no fans of bass in the Cape systems...especially Smallmouth bass. Smallmouth bass has had a huge influence on most redvins, cape kurper and clan yellows, sandfish and sawvin. Most of these venues have healthy waters so pollution can not be blamed. Also the argument that a system will recover by it self implies that fish will adapt to survive in any situation...if this is true why can these fish not adapt to dams being built in the river? The two principles contradict one another.
I have always been fascinated with Clan yellows, its my dream to one day catch one. Yet I have asked the Cape Piscotorial Society, which is actively involved in the conservation of clan yellows, how their numbers are looking and was answered that their numbers are declining at a rapid rate and they themselves are worried about these fishes numbers. Very sad to hear that a yellow that can reach up to 14kg and is the most beautiful in my opinion of all yellows might be lost.
Lastly I believe that fish that are only found in a specific area should receive priority ito conservation eg clan yellow which is only found in SA in a few rivers in few numbers. Also the yellow is named the CLanwilliam Yellowfish, its logical that Clan dam and Clan river is suppose to have healthy populations of them. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that here is something wrong here.
Most indigenous fish have already been threatend or endangered even before barbel was introduced (Read Bycatch's pdf). The fish that will feel the impact of barbel the most is bass as was clearly shown at Misverstand dam.
Answer to all of this is to allocate dams to both species, and please don't give the smallest stream to the indigenous fish and all the big dams and rivers to bass, carp etc (cause this in just wrong). If this can be implemented our local fish will strive and bass anglers can enjoy their fish.
