When was the last time you were stopped by a Fisheries officer in QLD?

[Linedropper]

Just interested in how prevalent Fisheries officers are because I have never seen one in my 13 months fishing in QLD.

[Zippidy]

I would only fish once a month or so, but was stopped twice in my in Moreton Bay and once in my mates boat on one of the Dams.

Was also stopped in the ramp carpark before I got the boat anywhere near the water to check rego and safety gear etc.

All times everything was under compliance and no fine received.

[charleville]

Don't get complacent; they are around but they have traditionally visited the same areas repeatedly.

I suspect that they don't venture too far from their home base. With both a male and female officer on the same centre console RIB, I cannot help feeling that they could not go too far from public toilets.


.

[gruntahunta]

3 times in the last 3 weeks at Fishermans Rd ramp on Eudlo creek

[marto78]

I would have to say never in the last 5 years but have been pulled over by the water police a couple of times for safety checks.

[WalrusLike]

Not once in the year I've had the boat. Most weekends boating and fishing.


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[WalrusLike]

I forgot the 5 weeks of nearly solid boating over Xmas.


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[Crunchy]

In past 4 years twice on the water and once at the ramp

[tropicrows]

Never in the last 8 years with my old boat , only once in a friends boat.

[Centurix]

Pinged outside their office in Noosa for doing 9 knots in a 6 knot zone. No fine, avoiding the ferry at the time.

[wayno60]

3 times in the last 3 weeks at Fishermans Rd ramp on Eudlo creek
what does that tell you?? you fish to much!!

[tunaticer]

About 8 months ago in the Pine river I had the guys come along for a chat, would have been almost exactly 12 months earlier in the exact same spot again the same pair pulled in for a chat. Seems to always be in that one location in the same month each year they look at the Pine.

[netmaker]

6.30 am 02/01/2012 - about 700 boating hours ago.

[kind_cir]

What a freakin joke the lot of them are.

Well ok that's horrendously harsh. But I really feel they are way under gunned and have not got enough resources at hand to potrol these vast waterways. The water police are in the same boat ( no pun ) and you rarely see them.

What I am realy pissed at is the day I made a complaint directly to the water police about the boats and jet jerks speeding in a 6 knot zone close to my anchored boat. There reply was there was nothing they could do as people see the cops and slow down. They could of sat further away and spotted people speeding, but they were just lazy, and sped off.

[Moffy]

Couple of years ago way way up the Embley River at Weipa - middle of the week at that.

Only other boat we'd seen on the water that morning.......hooked/landed a barra while they were pulled up to us too.

[BigE]

Hmmmm 3 out of 10 in the last 6 mths ........ more than I thought, when you consider the area thats a fair effort.

BigE

[youngy]

They were checking Surnames on Crab Pots in the Coomera 2 days last week, cheers wayne

[Schulzy]

They have a lot of ground to cover and limited resources and they have had a lot of budget cuts since Newman is trying to pay back Queenslands huuuuggggeee debt they also target areas they know are problems

[The Woo]

I've seen one once in the last few years.

It just happened to be the first time I'd ever strayed from my "home" port and towed my tinnie to a different area. Unbeknowns to me I was found to be drifting 50, yes, FIFTY metres into a green zone. They came racing over in their 30ft Kevlacat at 40 knots and took pics of me, then came to ask if I knew I was in said green zone. I honestly didn't and was honestly shocked when they said "here's ya free guide to green zones, and here's ya $500 fine".
To ad insult to injury i couldn't lose a bait there if I tried. What ever happened to giving a guy a break? In hindsight I reckon he was "showing off" to the cute young female officer he had on board...... She rolled her eyes when he said I was getting the fine. I was nice as pie, and was dead-set unaware I'd strayed.

A Fkn prick is a fkn Prick I guess.

[waterbaby]

last time was in noosa 10 years ago it was early morning was hooked up to a good flathead they watched the fight saw the fish had a chat what was biteing then left havent been checked since.fish down gold coast never seen them in tally creek where they could fine heaps for speeding in the 6 knot zone or kids doing the wrong thing

[Scott Ashe]

The only time I have ever been stopped by fisheries was at Potts point at Macleay Island in the middle of middle winter during the week about 2008. We were catching and releasing under size Snapper. They just asked to have a look in my esky, and they could see that I had my life jackets on board. I was wearing mine too.

Cheers

[Clint06]

Never in 10 years of regular offshore fishing. Mostly launch from Mooloolaba and Scarborough.

[alleycat]

I used to work fri sat sun and fish midweek and thats when i was checked quite often, i asked them about it and the reply was that the govt wouldnt pay weekend rates if they could help it..

[oldjoe]

First time in five or six years was Brisbane River on a Saturday about 6 months ago, checking for life jacket stickers and offering freebies, since then the police at Nudgee boat ramp checking Boat/Trailer/Car Rego very early this year.
Otherwise that's it.

[Feral]

Probably 2009 last time I was looked at. But I got looked at several times that year everywhere from Texas to Gladstone.

[macka17]

Yea.

around 5 yrs ago. two sheila's sitting in a rubber duckie at entrance to Rosslyn Harbour.
Picking you at random.
Nice people.
But there needs to be a heck of a lot more of them doing it.

[Funchy]

I fish nearly every Saturday and Sunday and have never been approached in the passage in the last 2 years. You watch, now I will ;p

[Scalem]

If you want your average number of checks to increase by either water police or fisheries, make W/NW Mud island a regular fishing spot. You will be one of the 1st they see as they come out of the Brisbane river mouth. I've been checked .... it averaged about once a year by either water police or fisheries but hard to remember which it was on which stop, so fisheries probably twice in the last 5 or so years.... until I got a bigger boat so it has slowed down a bit. Then about 8 months ago as I was starting to approach the south passage bar just outside the breakers on the way back in, got stopped by the police for another check.

Scalem

[Pero]

a few years ago i was stopped 3 times in an hour.

[SWANY22]

they could pay for there weekends overtime with one fine gee they only got to go to woodypoint or cabbage tree creek and look at all the pots in the green zones

[Out2launch]

How many Fisheries Officers are there in QLD ??

[malby]

I have seen them at Twin Bridges in Fernvale and they were very helpful in helping us Freshwater novices understand a few rules and regs. No checking anything as we had not gone out yet. Apart from that I have seen either them or water police (not sure which) checking around the middle of Bribie Passage. Also have seen lots of small planes flying overhead around the passage which I'm told are connected to the Nat Parks/fisheries/waterpolice or some authority out there. Mates have said they have seen the planes fly by and then not long after a boat has come by and pinged people.

[malby]

I should add that I 'have' been properly checked whilst fishing at Iluka twice now. Once at the middle wall and once well up river at north arm. Both times they were very helpful and just doing their job which is great to see. I only go down to the Clarence once every year or maybe twice at best and 2 hits in the last 5 yrs whereas up in Brissy over the last 10 years only one actual encounter with fisheries as described above at Fernvale??!! Maybe their all down the southside and Goldy??

[Mr Squiggles]

Was at Moogerah not so long ago & they showed up & checked a lot of camps. There were some pretty annoyed wally's around with their unregistered boats, no PWC licence etc. Over the years I've been left alone for some strange reason although in the late 90's a young walloper at the Scarbie ramp did a check on my 6m Sportfish & was going to ping me for a broken oar (the blade had come away from the handle). I explained to him that trying to row a boat that size would be beyond my capability & luckily the old Sarg. with him agreed.

[randell]

A few figures, saw this in the Bundaberg News Mail this morning....
http://www.news-mail.com.au/news/two-new-fisheries-officers-be-based-bundaberg/1768660/

randell

[8astripey]

last month 3 times in the one day. once at the river heads boat ramp in the morning, second time on fraser coast third time cruising back from fraser and by the same crew that did me going over. dedicated would be the word.

[Out2launch]

11 new recruits sounds great for the government but it still all doesn't tell me how many Fishos are there in QLD total ??

[Mr Squiggles]

It also won't cover for officers who leave the Dept. whether retirement or otherwise.

[dluxv6]

well got checked twice in a halfhour on the Gold Coast Seawall today

New officers in Fishwatch Hilux doin the rounds,were paying particular attention to asian fisho's takin everything they catch.
Least he didn't have a issue with my trevally i caught (50cm) woohoo, christened my new rock rod
Cheers Drew

[aus2045]

I should add that I 'have' been properly checked whilst fishing at Iluka twice now. Once at the middle wall and once well up river at north arm. Both times they were very helpful and just doing their job which is great to see. I only go down to the Clarence once every year or maybe twice at best and 2 hits in the last 5 yrs whereas up in Brissy over the last 10 years only one actual encounter with fisheries as described above at Fernvale??!! Maybe their all down the southside and Goldy??

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the general fishery in NSW seems to be in a much better shape than that experienced in Qld waters.

[oldjoe]

Can't believe it, Sat am, most miserable day ever and we where the only car and trailer in the Power Boat club ramp carpark...saw 3 other boats all morning and had fisheries boat check us on the water down around Couchin Ck and again on the ramp when we got back....obviously nothing undersized or oversized, waaay tooo much fresh.
We nearly flattened the battery with the bilge pump getting rid of rainwater :-[

[Linedropper]

Thanks all for voting and responding. I was waiting for relatively large number of votes so the result could give us a pretty accurate idea of how bad things are. The result from the poll surprised me a bit.

After 150 votes almost 3/4 of us (74.66%) haven't been inspected by QLD Fisheries in over 12 months or we have never been inspected at all. Pretty poor coverage by Fisheries and obviously they are underfunded and/or under staffed badly.

Fisheries Qld keep putting up their stories on Ausfish every now and then saying how they have just prosecuted someone for doing something illegal. Seems to me they just get lucky every now and then and if they could spend more time out there at the coal face educating and writing up tickets then maybe we would all have half a chance of having a decent fishery here in the future. As it is now the mongrels flaunting the law will continue to do so as they have a very slim chance of getting caught.

[jackson4300]

Last friday fisheries pulled up beside me for a quick check on the brisbane river and then headed down the river away from the mouth, wouldnt have though there would be many people fishing down there?
About a month ago had them do a quick check at Somerset, pulled out boats out at the same time and they came over and had a chat.

[four_button_arnie]

I have never been stopped by Fisheries, ever, out of Gladstone, once in NSW fishing for Murray cod, Fisheries are always welcome on my boat ANYTIME! I would prefer to be constantly stopped, if this was the case others who are not doing the right thing would be getting pinged! It would also be beneficial to take any scientific evidence for current projects that where operating, I would support that 100%!
Pitty there is so few of them to do such as mammoth job.

I was stopped by our local water police whilst out on the reef for a safety gear check, our local guys are out quite a bit, ensuring green zone compliance, safety etc. In regards to zoning I believe all they do is take photos and GPS positions then hand the information over to fisheries, im pretty sure.

Josh

[netmaker]

it's about that time of year now when they start hitting nudgee ramp and the bay islands checking on prawners. reckon they love that work. they can check more than 50 boats and travel virtually nowhere to do it. a few years back i had the cops check me 2 days in a row. day 1 was all good but day 2 my lifejackets were too faded and i got a warning. must have been very full moon the night before::). now i have 2 extra jackets up front out of the sun. they won't save my skin but they will save my pocket. i get great delight now every time the cops pull me over because i can see they are already rubbing their hands together when they look at the faded ones i keep close at hand;);D.

[Back In Black]

Got checked in Noosa River on Sunday by Police. Wanted to check safety gear & our measly catch. Good blokes, very courteous & if I had a decent catch, would have slipped them a fish.

Tony

[Jakers 69]

Depends how offen you are on the water.

[CruiserV8100]

Been pulled up by water police once in the Pine River years ago, just a saftey check and quick look in the icebox, but I catch release river species. And once at the Bribie ramp but didnt do a major search they just wanted to see my catch of reefies and asked what I used to catch each species be it plastics or bait. They wanted to know the exact lure or bait. Measured the size of each fish and wrote it down with the lure name beside it. More of a survey they said. Not long after that the bag limit on snaps went down to 4..

[bazinga]

Never by fisheries in qld, pulled at ramp at 5am by transport lads to line me up make me miss sunrise and wait in the line up for 40 minutes to check my boat and trailer rego and car rego and pick me up on broken car brake light, who cares. But never fisheries in qld, however twice at fingal boat ramp, tweed to check out my catch and fishing licences. At least that was in the way in.

[Shawn 66]

This morning in the Pine . Couple of friendly officers , one male , one female . Had a good mag . Was quite happy to show them my 39 cm bream .
Shawn

[fish'n'chippy]

Cabbage Tree Pt yesterday afternoon
Very thorough and professional without being a$$holes
Checked every boat at the ramp, no exceptions
(including me with no gear on board, just out for some testing)

G

[seastorm]

I got pulled over by fisheries when I was 26km ENE of the Seaway not another boat in sight, after they where done with me (no problems) they went out to the 50"s. They must have pinged me on radar.

[WalrusLike]

They checked me and a bunch of other boats at Mud Island yesterday.

Professional and courteous. Looked like they got one boat for esky issues. Can't be sure but they spent a long while with him.


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[GAD]

Easter the last time but twice before this year , 1st at Thetford , second at Moore , though at Moore it was the Water Police , so they are out and about .