Central Moreton Bay Fishing status: “It’s stuffed!”

[ThePinkPanther]

Yep, it really is!

I’ve got over 60 years fishing this area around Green Is down south to Peel Is and all areas across to Straddy and it’s becoming nigh on impossible to get a decent feed these days!

I know, I know, now and then you get a reasonable haul but it’s usually the exception rather than the rule!

Flatties disappeared many years ago, tailor rarely seen anymore, good sized and plentiful whiting a thing of the past, mackerel very patchy and hard work getting much on the bay reefs! We stopped amongst some 40 boats on the Harry Atkinson Reef and never saw a fish landed around us .......

I was out out today at sparrow fart with a mate, magic day on the water ....... worms, squid, pillies....... rigged for bear and along with another hundred boats, I don’t thing one fish worth keeping was caught!

In SIX HOURS going to every spot I have marked, we got one 3” whiting, not even bites! Boats were charging everywhere (part of the problem) all looking for the elusive fish!

As a retired guy I get out mid week when there are only a few boats on the water but pretty similar even then! Mid season maybe? Possibly, but I’ve got over 20 normally good whiting spots around the Rous Ch and totally dead on them all!

The multitude of (Poorly marked) Marine No Fish Zones makes this area very difficult to fish and we counted at least FIFTY BOATS all in these no fish areas! Fortunately B & F Guys never appeared!

Not catching fish is part of fishing, I know that, but as a long (long) time user of the Bay I can most definitely see a huge decline in fish wanting to be caught! 🤪

I’m dun! Gunna go clean my boat! Go get ‘em!

[FINICKY]

Too many boats, not enough fish.
The Bay is only a small Eco system and it gets hammered every day and night because of its close proximity to a large population.
It is sad but what can you do? Ban fishing?
In the 90's you could keep 30 snapper over 30cm and now you are flat out catching your bag of 4.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Noelm]

I guess it's the same everywhere, you go back a few decades and there was (say) 50 boats catching 10 fish each (500 fish) now there is 500 boats catching 1 fish each! those figures are not based on science, just my personal example to portray how increasing population alone influences catch rates, add to that, this extra population has to live somewhere, so the environment gets changed too.

[ozscott]

It's part of the reason I sold my Vagabond and got a 4.5m tinny. I can easily drag it to more remote locations and get into tight areas that are not hit so hard. Such a shame the way the bay has gone. You do get good fish at times but have to work hard and be out there a lot. Cheers

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[blairv70]

There are still fish around out there - I guess we just need to be thankful that not everyone can work out how to get them. Targeting the right combination of time/tides/moon phases etc will produce a feed.

[TheRealPoMo]

You should all thank me for feeding them....and catching bugger all.
Just doing my bit.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[ozscott]

You can certainly get good fish (good sounder and leccy helps) but it isn't like it used to be. When my kids were young it was a doddle to get them hooked on fishing with a good bag each outing and a nice feed for dinner. They caught the fish and helped prepare it so understood the food chain too. Cheers

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[ThePinkPanther]

Seems we are all of the same opinion, the good old days are gone!

I’ve got a nice new Surtees 4.95 Tinny and will also have to start looking for spots away from the heavily fished areas!

But a day on the water chucking hooks around is still enjoyable all the same!

[Noelm]

What it amounts to is, eventually even "secret" getaway locations get popular, and they become fished out, so a new remote spot gets hammered, and so it goes, as a general rule, a good thinking person, who knows how to fish will get a feed, even in city hard fished areas, the person who goes out late, uses heavy gear with rubbish bait, hoping to catch anything that swims by will be sadly disappointed, even in fish rich locations.

[catshark]

its the same everywhere now , unfortunate but reality, the cost in fuel, maitinance etc in order to run a large boat arent worth the return you get trying to catch fish which arent there, its also why i downgraded to a smaller boat, to concentrate on a wider envelope of waterways for better success. its hard work trying to bag out these days. why? well just go for a walk down the side streets of Cabramatta and see the TONS of undersize snapper and other species that are sitting out in the open air to cater for a high consumption from our ethnic friends, this is one suburb only... the day i saw that knowing how much wastage of undersize fish must happen daily made me shocked, while we must adhere to bag limits and marine sanctuarys, the other half turns a blind eye.

[scottar]

Population pressure, boat affordability, massive advances in electronics and tackle, fishing media and the internet have all had huge impacts on fish stocks. Fish can still be caught but it is nowhere as easy as it used to be.

[Noelm]

Yep, fully agree with that, it doesn't matter where you are, if you live in suburbia, you are going to have to think to catch fish, blind faith will just not work anymore. Just yesterday I was snooping around the ramp and the "old salts" were coming in with bag limits of Flathead, a couple of local bottom fishermen had a decent catch of Snapper around 2-4KG, but, the newcomers in the brand new boats, with a dozen rods and reels with big sinkers still attached, and the double dropper rig still baited and sitting in the rod holders had a couple of rubbish Pike and Red Rock Cod and some tiny Nannygai, all lamenting how this place is fished out, it's the same all over.

[Alchemy]

You guys need to read Spero’s reports. I was seriously depressed coming back to SEQ after 8 years in paradise (NQ), and while the bay doesn’t compare to NQ it is far from fished out.

http://reports.fishingmonthly.com.au/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10190&sid=f4fa4e19405f2584fd7c0682afac102a

[Alchemy]

"...................

[catshark]

same scenerio everyweek .head out with the goal of catching reds, pelagics , reality sets in and head back into the beach to catch the ever reliable flathead, to save grace from getting a roasting... no need to defrost the meat today love, were gonna nail it today.
todays fishing world perfectly summed up in post #11.

As a boy i used to read about the great tailor run on fraser island, pictures of men shoulder to shoulder fishing the surf were the pictures i used to see, being a southerner it was a different world from the trout fishing i used to do , anyone care to comment if the tailor are still there? never been there, but its on my bucket list.

[Out-Station]

Agree its pretty hard going, particularly for those more residential bottom type species. I've given up chasing those species all together in the hard hit areas like the Goldy, I guess I find it hard to hammer a resource that I know is stuffed and me hammering it harder will only stuff it more. I've pretty much shifted 100% to game fishing in those areas purely on the basis of it being worthwhile and people actually put the fish back (to some degree). Understand that this form of fishing isn't within the reach of every fisho and not everyone's thing but its the only answer that I have been able to come up with for me. If i'm not on the shelf I chase pelagics (moving populations), if I'm not doing either of those its swimming and snorkelling. I can catch a feed of snapper on the goldy if I want but I think the poor bastards can do without me hammering them as well. Happy to target a modest feed of snaps or pearlies in less fished areas though.
Scott

[alleycat]

Around 12 years ago when plastics were braining the snapper in the bay you could sometimes bag out by 6 am around mud or Green island but my last 5 trips to Mud have returned not 1 fish, that includes undersized snapper as well.

[copie]

Well my 2 cents worth...….. I have lived in Brisbane all my life 58 years and have fished it from a child as well as hundreds of trips to Hervey Bay. I do agree with bag limits at present and as said above for many fisherman it is never or rarely reached. Qld government has introduced green zones, go slow zones etc and yes there are soo many more people fishing these days with better equipment. what needs to occur in my opinion is the immediate stop to commercial fishing in the bay and the Brisbane river by this I mean trawling and netting. Many years ago this type of fishing was stopped at Hervey bay and within about five years fisho's could again catch a mackeral and other species without having to travel to o far. Have a look in the Brisbane river on a week day at the trawlers and the mud slick they leave behind. I don't have all the answers but smashing the bay and the river heavily 5 days a week need to stop.

Mangrove protection green zones and more artificial structures are all needed but it appears we are too slow with acting on these so add these and stop that and maybe just maybe good fishing might return to Moreton Bay. Just imagine if most recreational fisherman could not catch fish on most outings what would happen to the supporting industries boats, tackle, bait, trailers, repairs to all mentioned.

[ThePinkPanther]

"Well my 2 cents worth...….."

Yep, well said!

The Rous Channel in Moreton Bay is bordered by Marine No Fishing Zones left, right and centre!

What is left has been hammered to often by so many boats no self respecting fish would want to live there!

If you go down to Victoria Point or anywhere the pro-netters bring in their catch, you will break down and cry! Box after box of the species we are all after ……. big whiting, flattie, bream, you name it they catch it and in big quantities! I've seen them doing illegal night netting around the entrance of Eprapah Creek and they really clean up there!

Likewise Thompsons Beach at Vicky Point used to be a mecca for whiting, flattie, yabbies, bream, sandies, most everything! Then the Yellow Raincoats moved in en masse and not only wiped out all the fish, they also cleaned out the vast numbers of periwinkles and anything that was wet, moved or slithered!

Always annoys me that the B & F guys would prefer to chase Dad, Mum and the kids out trying to catch a feed rather than clean up the Asian fishing gang who go out in their boats and - being damn good fisherman - simply hammer a spot(s) until it is finished e.g. prawns at the Powerlines in lower Moreton Bay.

I'm off tomorrow, Wednesday, with Dave Palermo on "PRESTIGE" to the outer reefs of Moreton Is. as he catches top fish and at $230 for a full day's fishing with everything provided, you only have to bring home say 8-10 kgs of fish fillets to pay for the trip!

Like many other members, I'm lucky to have been around in the "good old days" when a chunk of mullet fillet on a hook would get you great fish anywhere in the Bay.

Gunna go pack my rod and stuff for a 5.00 am departure! :D

[Noelm]

All these threads come back to the same thing, we (recs) want all pro fishing banned in our neck of the woods, but we want less restrictions put on ourselves, can't have it both ways!

[TheRealPoMo]

So more imported fish, crabs and prawns for us casuals that usually have to buy our seafood ? That's not gone well.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

[ozscott]

All these threads come back to the same thing, we (recs) want all pro fishing banned in our neck of the woods, but we want less restrictions put on ourselves, can't have it both ways!I don't want less restrictions on rec fishers. Just remove more and more inshore/bay commercial areas and allow rec fishos to have a fair day out.

Cheers

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[BigE]

Don,t agree ...... I seem to do ok , but then again i use hand-lines a lot so it is pretty simple fishing style.

BigE

[Daryl McPhee]

I don't find it hard to get a feed with the kids and I only fish land based. I have over 25 years of fishing experience and have written a little bit about the Bay being the author of the Environmental History and Ecology of Moreton Bay (https://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7676/). I am happy to show anyone how to get a feed land based.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOLOXXLbzrM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfoyD-P9ZWg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHOLLUXzXBs

[drpete]

I've honestly found the exact opposite to be true. I'm 48 now but I grew up at Wello Point and had a boat since I was twelve. I could go out and get as many whiting as I wanted anytime, and still can. I can't remember the last time I struggled to catch fish in the bay. And not just whiting. Mackerel, snapper, squid, cuttlys...all the stuff I like to target are thicker now than I ever saw them! Since they stopped mackerel netting in the bay, you can't help but catch macks. And since the green zones, whiting are back as thick as I ever saw them. I'm more optimistic about the future of the bay every trip (and I fish most weekends).

[Dezzer]

I agree, takes some time and effort to find the marks but bait means fish nearly every time. Spano better than 20kg and some nice cod 2 weeks ago in the middle of the bay on a spot found during half a day of searching previously.


Sent from my [device_name] using Ausfish mobile app

[ThePinkPanther]

[QUOTE=Dezzer;1644540]I agree, takes some time and effort to find the marks but bait means fish nearly every time. Spano better than 20kg and some nice cod 2 weeks ago in the middle of the bay on a spot found during half a day of searching previously.


................... and the coordinates are???? :devilish::devilish::devilish::devilish: