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Thread: Where have the Pearlies gone?

  1. #1

    Where have the Pearlies gone?

    Going back to 2011 I noticed that in the shallower (<50m) rocky reef areas there were plagues of small Pearl Perch around. I remember wondering at that time where the plagues of Sweetlip had gone from the previous years. Back in 2011 all those Pearlies I was catching were around 32-34cm bracket and often I would have to move because it was pointless staying and losing bait to Pearlies, one after the other, that were undersize.

    It was a good sign of things to come in the years following and I remember putting the huge numbers down to previous years Fisheries management regulations finally paying off. I'm a firm believer that the Snapper regulations prior to the recent RRFF review debacle have improved the snapper fishery and I expected to be seeing a lot more larger Pearlies around in the last couple of years.

    so I guess the questions are:

    1. Are the large recruitment numbers out there and it's just me that hasn't managed to get onto them and aren't fishing the right areas where they move to as they get larger?

    2. Have those smaller fish numbers not made it through into the fishery for some reason?

    3. I remember catching some large Pearlies in deep water (120m+) do large numbers of them move deep once they get above that 35cm size?

    interested to hear your thoughts.
    Democracy: Simply a system that allows the 51% to steal from the other 49%.

  2. #2

    Re: Where have the Pearlies gone?

    To be honest lovey we are catching more pearlies outside Moreton now then we ever have but we are also fishing deeper lately 120m+, so your theory may be correct of them moving deeper out?

    Keen to here other people's thoughts/experiences though.


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  3. #3

    Re: Where have the Pearlies gone?

    I haven't fished offshore for 6 - 7 years, but prior to that, I also regularly got onto large numbers of almost size pearlies. I was more pessimistic than Lovey and assumed the the smaller average size was a result of over fishing.

  4. #4

    Re: Where have the Pearlies gone?

    Depends where you are fishing like its common to get pearlies off double island only 3mile off the coast and found them off 1770 in 80+m

    Sent from my SM-G930F using Ausfish mobile app

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