Fishing and Swimming in The Channel

I am told... The standard Australian Fresh Water, River Fish. I am not familiar with much of the irrigation channel system, in regards to depths and widths, but as big and wide as this section was, it was only about a meter deep, and because they come from assorted rivers, all the river fish are in them. I did get a few bites, from one or two fish that would have been perhaps 30 - 40 cm long, BUT I was using fresh raw chicken as bait, and that disappeared off the hooks VERY quickly, and I noticed that when I was swimming, and I stopped and stood on the bottom, on my knees, if I did it for any longer than 10 - 20 seconds, I started to get swarmed, not by leeches, but by small flesh eating swimming things.... No teeth marks or anything, but in part, it may explain why the meat disappeared off the hooks so quickly. AND I think it would be a great place to put down yabby nets, with the meat in fine mesh sieves. I also think that putting in baited fish traps might be better too.

Since my ignorance is in abundance, the fish types seem to be very location specific. I would refer to this at least as a starting guide, ---- https://vfa.vic.gov.au/recreat....ional-fishing/fishin ----- https://www.vewh.vic.gov.au/ne....ws-and-publications/ -------- https://www.vewh.vic.gov.au/rivers-and-wetlands -------