getting caught under sized fish..outcome

[spears]

This question was bought up with mixed answers,so I thought I’d put it up to see what the out come would be

Your fishing and have fisheries check you and you have an undersized fish with out knowing it.
They tell you…. you shouldn’t have it ..and you throw it back in the water still alive and it swims of.
Do you still get charged for having that illegal fish.

[struktcha_man]

sounds like you would be very unlucky if you did get fined and very lucky if it still could swim away

cheers

[Noelm]

what will happen is you will probably get fined for something else along the lines of disposing of evidence, how would you have undersized Fish and not know it?? if a Fisheries guy/girl approaches and you have them in your possession, I doubt any amount of smooth talking will get you off, and throwing away the undersized ones in front of them will not be such a big hit, trust me on that one!

[Spaniard_King]

In Posession is the term that fisheries use. Depends on the officer involved to wethere you get finned or not

My last brush with fisheries they didn't even know what creek they were in nor were they up to date with current life jacket regulations

[84mick]

They would probably say the same if your live bait was under size, if you didn't know and am able to let it go alive you should only get a warning....... But then there are not so nice people too.

Mick.

[laugag]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is an offence to even collect poddy mullet (such as in a castnet) as they have to be a certain size.

[Eagle]

I can't remember the exact size limit for poddy mullet but you can't keep them if they are undersize. A length of 30cm seems to jog the brain cells a bit. There was some info published somewhere about a bloke who got caught with undersize poddies and the fisheries fellas got a bit excited about it. I have never caught more than about 10 in my life so I dont target them but I go after the greenback herring instead.
Eagle

[BOMBER]

In possesion is the term and it means exactly that if you have them on board your boat and get caught by fisheries with fish undersize you will be fined make no mistake, and ignorance of size limits is no excuse, plenty of info out there in regards to legal size limits.


The Bomber

[Nico.d.R]

poddies are ok 30cm limit on sea mullet thats what fisheries told me , they got excited to when i said nah only caught a few mullet for bait so far . i thought poddy mullet were just small mullet .

cheers nico

[spears]

We seem to be getting of the point.


I’ll try explaining it this way.
Your sitting on the edge of the sand and u catch a fish,the fish is placed in a bucket full of water and the fish is in that bucket for 5 minutes.
Fisheries come along and ask you have you caught something and you say yes it’s in the bucket.
He says it’s under sized so you pick it up with the tail flapping and infront of the fisheries guy you put it in the water infront of him and it swims away.Any penalty..

Down to the nitty gritty,do you know the exact answer for this test case.

[walugi]

I reckon they'd technically be able to fine you, but it depends on the guy. Otherwise people could catch 10 fish that were undersized but kept them alive till they left.

How undersized they are is probably a factor as well i.e. 2cm off or 10cm off

[NAGG]

Spears ..... I think the In Possession is the key .... They will say that once you identify that the fish is undersized you must release it unharmed immediately ...... Its the same for having a qty of fish over your bag limit in a live well .

So if you are lucky .... you could get a warning - But , If you were fined ...... well you broke the law!

Chris

[webby]

For a start if your fishing with out knowing the reg's and you have illegal fish on board, i have no pity for anyone in this situation.
If you or whoever got of scott free, you can thank your lucky stars.
If you dont no the requirements and not sure of a legal size, throw it back until you do no what is legal and whats not wether its in the live bait tank or esky.

[Jeremy]

I reckon you bloody well SHOULD be fined. IN POSSESSION and NO EXCUSES.

Jeremy

[spears]

So it’s possession word being used.

Ok you are in possession then you were not with no dead fish being released only live one.
Which then means I had them or one but the size was wrong so I let it go unharmed.

I see a dead fish as no chance of any one getting off.
I can’t see what charges can get laid when it can be sorted out and no harm done.
Yes the law got broken then rectified.

Just one case not that long ago:
Their was a case where a fisheries officer caught a guy,they went to court.
The guy won the case as he himself was a layer.How come..?
As he stated in his defense that the sea is there for all to use by god and no human had rights as dictating terms and conditions over it..He won.