Following the cessation of convict transportation, the site became Hobart Gaol for more than 100 years. Tench are closely related to carp, part of the same family of fish known as Cyprinids. Background. There are no published accounts of the food of freshwater eels in Australia, The Tench, as it was known by its inhabitants, was the convict prisoners’ barracks for Hobart Town. In fact, tench were introduced some years before brown trout, brought here from England via Tasmania and established south of Oamaru through Christchurch and Hokitika. It was introduced across the United States in the late 19 th century for use as a food and sport fish. It originally spanned over two acres and some 40,000 male convicts passed through the complex. Oamaru is known to hold the largest stocks in its abundance of small streams with many of these fish growing to over 10lb. Other family members such as gold fish and redfin perch are also often mistaken for carp. Being European, we targeted species that would normally be considered as pests, such as redfin perch and tench. Sounds crazy I know, but prepared the correct way, tench … i found the tench in deep creek easier to catch and have had fish up to 10 pound, like the previous post ,if you take the time to stalk these creeks the rewards are well worth it . Tench is an invasive fish native to Europe and western Asia. Tench, (Tinca tinca), widely distributed Eurasian aquarium and game fish of the carp family Cyprinidae (order Cypriniformes), noted for its ability to survive low oxygen conditions. In Tasmania the food of tench T'inea tinea (Linnaeus) has been studied by Weatherley (1962) and the food of a few specimens of the Tasmanian b lackfish (G. marmoratus) has been recorded by Knott (1973). i have fished both the jackson and deep creeks for over 30 yrs. However tench are widespread in Tasmania, and are not regarded to be as destructive to native species and the environment, as carp. The tench is a stout, small-scaled fish with a barbel at each corner of its mouth and a thick, slimy skin. Tench were brought illegally to a Quebec fish farm in 1986 and escaped into the Richelieu River; a tributary of the St. Lawrence River. She’s observed tench in other nonnative habitats, such as South Africa, and traced the species’ global journeys back to the 1500s, when fishmongers began carting the fish around Europe. especially the areas around Monageeta where there are some huge reddies and good quality trout as well.. Of the past 12 sightings of ‘carp’ around the state, five were goldfish and seven tench. Gold fish can look a lot like carp. A globally invasive fish, Eurasian tench (Tinca tinca) is spreading through the St. Lawrence River and poses an imminent invasion threat to the Great Lakes.Following its illegal release into a tributary of the St. Lawrence River in 1991, tench has spread throughout the river’s main stem over the past decade, and its abundance in commercial fishing bycatch in the river has grown exponentially. It was close to Launceston and had very good access to a small side-water that branched off the main river. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/t/tench-facts