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Thread: Wrong Wrong Wrong

  1. #91

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by Da-Jew-Man View Post
    Hmmm Gruntahunta

    I wonder if you would have a problem if your fishing area was netted out. We might see a different attitude.
    Unless of course you are a pro-fisherman or affiliated with one.
    Or is this a stupid post!!!!!!!!!!
    LOL
    Question - upon arriving at a stretch of beach how does one determine that Mullet is "netted out?" Do you go in and have a look? Or is it a deduction one comes to directly as a result of an inability to catch fish known to prey on Mullet as a natural food source?? Nothing to do with recent heavy rains in the area at the time or known declining water quality as a result.... Bingo, the loaded gun had to be pointed in some direction to blame a single reason for a sudden decline in fish numbers in the area. All I am saying is to be careful to point the finger in any one direction, netters or other. There are many ingredients to why you can or cannot catch fish at any particular point in time.

    Scalem

  2. #92

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Quote Originally Posted by samson View Post
    Commercial guys contribute a compulsory $600 for conservation and research of the fishery onto of their usual licence fees in nsw, they don't get a choice if you don't you don't fish it makes the $25 rec fee pale in comparison.
    $600 is nothing in comparison to what they make in a year and how many fish they took. If we worked out how many fish we take and divide it by the fishing licence fee we would be paying a lot more per fish than the pros would.

    I havent asked him but i bet my mates timber mill would spend more than that a year on forget regeneration.

  3. #93

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    A fair chunk of the $600 research levy in NSW is probably going towards improving gear and vessel technology so that more fish can be caught - says the cynic in me.

    Part of the problem we have is that there is no incentive for commercial fishers to have a sense of stewardship for their local area. Even if they wanted to be more proactive in maintaining stocks for their own and children's future fishing prosperity by selectively harvesting, they'd be doing so at significant personal expense. The structure of our fisheries is such that the greatest incentive that exists, is for fishers is to catch the fish before someone else, local or from another region, gets to them first. They're not going to drive past a school of snubbies, for example, cause the chances are another pro will net them an hour later for the $5 per kg they get for them so they may as well take what they can get when it presents. Known as 'the race to fish', such a structure that our commercial fleet operates under is well known to cause unexpected fishery collapses due to the reschooling nature of fishes and hyperstability. Licences need to be zonal and competition within zones reduced before a sense of stewardship has any chance of being enacted upon.

    I've spoken to quite a few of the K8 and N1 fishers from Caloundra to Cooloola and they are in the main very concerned about the quite obvious lack of fish in this region and do want to see a reduction in fishing pressure. According to these guys there are quite a number of commercial guys who desperately want out, but have no avenue out and therefore have to keep netting as many fish as possible from a depleting fishery to pay the bills and to enhance their licence's value if there is a buy out at any stage.
    They're not bad people because they need to pay the bills and secure their future. For most of them there is no other way for them to earn a crust - fishing is all they know.
    While many of us may not like what they do, we need to be mindful that when most of them started fishing decades ago, none of us thought that we'd see stocks plummet the way they have over the last decade. Especially when we have the best managed fisheries in the world and the comfort of knowing that if a problem should surface with fish pops, that something will be done about it.

    Or perhaps not as it turns out to the disgust of all concerned.

    Zero reduction in fishing pressure in this region and insufficient reduction state wide despite the fact that basic fishery management states that effort reduction must occur within a fishery due to effort creep and the increased fishing pressure that obviously comes with that. Increased recreational pressure is also a very significant factor but bag and size limits for surf species are way too generous given that there has probably been a 2000% increase in angler numbers on the Sunshine Coast since 1980. Allowing the tailor slaughter to increase in volume at Fraser each year as more and more people went to bring back their 200 tailor each that they freeze to mush, I think is appalling. Now Fraser goers are lucky if they get to the 20 bag at all and the size of the fish is half what they were before the bag limit was introduced. So many things contributing to the decline in our fisheries - is it any wonder we're struggling for a feed these days?

  4. #94

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    It goes to many things including fish breeding the reason they now know how to breed mulloway so the recs can take full advantage with the restocking program off the back of pro donated fee's, this fee is for line and net fisherman alike and a lot of line caught species the average yearly catch of recs ecliples the pro take significantly, yet recs will always have the blinders on nothing new there, if there is something wrong in the fishery it must always be the pro's it can't be the shoulder to shoulder tailor fisherman on beaches 30 Plus years ago that stretched for kilometer upon kilometer and had no limits nah it wouldn't be that would it or the goat tracks leading to every land based position up and down the coast or the power lines sagging from line and sinkers at every bridge on the east coast of australia nah it wouldn't be that would it.
    The mullet beach netters and river netters are two entirely different beasts I agree rivers are no place for nets but sea run mullet are there seasonally and are all but safe most other times of year and is probably the most sustainable fishery of it's kind in the world recs included.
    If you want to talk sea birds go talk to the the guys that pull hooks out of them daily up rivers they aren't swallowing nets every day it's the line and hook fisherman that take out the majority of sea life.

  5. #95

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    I haven't seen a post on this thread that says i'm not going fishing tomorrow because I already have fish in the freezer to eat.
    it's too easy to blame the pro's for the decline in fish stocks because they are easily identified.
    i'm going fishing at daylight in the morning but if I don't get anything ive got a feed in the freezer for Monday night.

  6. #96

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Who catches their bag limit? Who practices catch and release?

    I used to fish the solitary islands here in Coffs Harbour a few years ago. I was told by a local that kingfish were at the islands, I caught about 30 in a year keeping maximum 10. I only kept what I would eat in a week because I knew I'd get ore fish next weekend. (Not just kingfish) I had some cracker sessions but I turned up one day and two long line boats were hauling into the esky all sizes of kingfish. After that day I had not caught a kingfish in 5 trips before I got a couple of undersized fish. I haven't been back for two years now. By all accounts a few have been hooked off the islands this year.

    How much would they have got at market vs how much would i or anyone else would have spent on fuel, ice, food, jigs, bait, line, reels or rods during the years I didn't fish for them? $7 on ice, $20 on fuel, $20 on lures, bait, leader and that's just me not the deckie.

    How is it sustainable when it takes over two years or population recover?

    That's my limited experience.

  7. #97

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Longline boats? Kingfish? I think you might need spec savers.

  8. #98

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    They were pulling in massive lines with multiple hooks and kingfish on the hooks, unhooking throwing them into big tubs. I assumed they were long liners

    Edit:
    I know they were kingfish cause we were working the same school before they moved in. When I saw moved I mean drove straight over surface chopping kingfish sending them down deep.

  9. #99

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Yeah those guys down that way chase bonito on those rigs with six hooks around the islands I think you were mistaken I know one of those guys, but I guess they wiped out the kings too because they were pro's right gotta love it.

  10. #100

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    They weren't pulling in bonito that day the boat was close enough I could see the kingfish. There was two boats doing it also.

  11. #101

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Hi Scalem,
    Agree with you that there are many conditions that can cause a decline in catch numbers.
    However I have been lucky (or unlucky) enough to experience fishing before and after netting under exactly the same conditions.
    I found that the beach became a "desert".
    Slider has stated in posts some time ago that the "desert" extended for some distance either side of the netting area. I agree with this and found that the distance was about 2 klms and the further you went the fishing slowly got better.
    The actual gutter where the mullet was netted was empty of all fish.
    I have verified this. Now if the netters have been on the beach I put away the gear.

    Let me state again that my beef is that mullet are the bottom of the food chain for Tailor,Bream,Jewies and Mackerel. If we continue to attack the bottom of the food chain then the above will be affected. Look at the Tailor and Jew seasons over the last couple of years in Northern NSW.( Forget about the soapies which most certainly came form restocking.)
    If the mullet are allowed to spawn and then netted then isn't this sustainability. But we all know the netters are there for the rowe for overseas.
    This is wrong.

    Samson - Don't forget that recfishers pay an annual license fee also which goes to restocking.

    Also just to add how many recfishers go out today and bring home "bag"catches of fish. Most are happy to get a couple.
    I myself just love "sand between the toes" and catching some fish. Most I let go, ocassionally I will keep 1 or 2 That's about it.
    Historian/Collector of Old Sidecast Fishing Reels

  12. #102

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Is there a way to find out where the nets have been shot? This would save me alot of time,money and dissapointment. I dont live near the beach and to go to the trouble of organising a trip , finding suitable water (can take the best part of a day) only to then find that it has just happened sucks. Purely selfish question, but? Ben

  13. #103

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Not possible Ben unfortunately. Over the years I've tried to fish as far away from any netting activity as possible but have continually come unstuck as there isn't really anywhere along our inshore coastline during the mullet season that isn't netted and when nets are shot unpredictable. I reckon about 80% of my trips to Sandy Cape over the last 10 - 15 years have been net affected. Is not very amusing to drive all the way to there and find that ol mate is already there. Happened again in April. Rum disappears real fast on those trips. I recall one trip in April 2004 when a mate and I were there the week leading up to Anzac Day long weekend - was gt, queenies and goldens in good numbers and we were having a ball. Net turned up on the Thursday and instantaneous shut down. Campers turned up on the Friday and 2 toadfish was the total caught by dozens of anglers over the weekend. See it time and time again.

    As to whether netting is causing depletions or other factors such as water quality are responsible, is a fair point, but one that I don't believe holds any substance. If water quality issue were predominantly to blame, then why is it that in locations where netting has been banned, but angling allowed, the fish come back bigger and in greater numbers within the first few years of the ban?
    With stricter controls on industrial and urban runoff and bans on harmful ecosystem destroying chemicals etc having been in place for decades in Australia, we should be seeing significant improvements in fisheries everywhere whether netted or not, but this hasn't happened and the reverse is true in the main. And even if water quality issues are responsible, we're not going to be able to rectify the situation in a time frame sufficient to recover depleted stocks.
    High rainfall and floods are known to boost mullet and other species' recruitment and yields and drought known to adversely affect recruitment and yeilds. So it's a bit scary that yields in this region for all species have hit the floor in 2011/12 when they should be going through the roof. Doesn't bide well for the forthcoming drought.

  14. #104

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Hi Blooey,
    Very hard unless you are fishing the same beach over extended time, or you know someone who either lives in the area or walks the beach.
    On beaches where 4wd are not permitted if I see tracks then I am worried however this can be other than netters.
    When the mullet start to run you usually see their 4wd's in the area either on the beaches or associated roads.
    I have noticed here that fellow Ausfishers have posted when netters have been active and I think this would be great if they could notify as soon as they see them.
    Will certainly save a lot of time and disappointment.
    Historian/Collector of Old Sidecast Fishing Reels

  15. #105

    Re: Wrong Wrong Wrong

    Good idea for a thread Da-Jew-Man......

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