Cressbrook Dam fish attractors
Better habitat for better fishing
Fish attracting structures have been installed in Toowoomba’s Cressbrook Dam to improve habitat for fish and make the impoundment more appealing to recreational fishers.
The 615 fish attractors at Cressbrook Dam are part of a $1.3 million program to improve recreational angling in Queensland’s impoundments and promote regional tourism.
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries partnered with Toowoomba Regional Council and Toowoomba and District Fish Stocking Association for this Australian-first project, with funding support from the Fisheries Research Development Corporation.
Fish attractor locations
© Queensland Government
You can also view their coordinates or download the locations to an SD card for your boat GPS. You can look at their location using Google Earth or other GIS software.
- Lowrance - USR format (ZIP, 2KB)
- Humminbird - GPX format (GPX, 19KB)
- Garmin - GPX format (GPX, 19KB)
- Google earth - KMZ format (KMZ, 7KB)
- GIS software - Shapefiles (ZIP, 5KB)
If you are unsure which link to use, try one of the GPX files, which work in most GPS units.
Do the fish attractors work?
The Freshwater fish attracting structures final report (PDF, 11MB) shows Australian bass, golden perch and prey species numbers increased at sites where the structures were installed.
Timber, synthetic and suspended structures all succeeded in attracting fish, with the best results observed around timber and synthetic structures.
Anglers say they have caught more fish and enjoy fishing at Cressbrook Dam more since the structures were installed.
Best practice guidelines for installing fish attractors
The fish attracting structures used at Cressbrook Dam are relatively cheap and easy for community groups such as fishing and stocking clubs to construct and deploy.
More information is available the best-practice guidelines (PDF, 5.9MB) for installing fish attracting structures in Australian impoundments.