Naggs, I just don't think you get this.
We're not talking about Spit Bridge or DeeWhy reef or the Peak, all of which I've fished heaps of times growing up in Sydney. Consider the following:
1) This is somewhere you just can't get to very often. Did you read my posts? Last trip there was in late June, and the next will be in late January. That's um....about 6 months apart. Don't think I'm going to be plundering the resources at that rate.
2) This year, we have not seen another boat, not a single one, droplining anywhere near us. Again, no rape & pillage happening here.
3) It's tough!! Very few people can handle this. Most guys who come with me are green before the sinker hits the bottom. This is the land of the rolling kings, the everpresent swell, very rarely below 2 metres, often 3 or 4. Beyond that we don't worry. Incidentally, those crew who are green before the sinker's down are having a near-death experience by the time it's back in the boat. I've only got one regular who can hack it.....
4) To me, it would be a shocking waste of petrol to go all that way by road, then do the whole boat thing, for two fish.
5) It takes, in all, about 90 mins - 2 hours to set and retrieve these 15 hooks, so we'll call that a hook/minute ratio of 1:8 (15/120). Lets compare that to your average reef fisho in 60 metres. Most use 2 hooks and in 2 hours would drop and retrieve, well, let's say once every 10 minutes. I don't think anyone would think that was excessive.Probably conservative but it'll do. So in 2 hours, you're "setting" 24 hooks =24/120, or a hook/minute ratio of 1:5. Which of the two is fishing harder?
6) <And if your methods are common practice is Tasmania...>
Think it's clear that it's not common practice, and is unlikely to be, for the reasons above.
7) By the way, there are bag limits on these things down here, which may have been exceeded once
when the last drop may have yielded a couple more than the Gov might have liked us to have. No point putting them back, they'd be seal and seagull tucker.
Anyway, I'm not telling you or anyone else how to fish. Suit yourself, have fun. I always do.
Cheers,
Jigs