krill

So, recreational bag limit of sand flatties goes from 20 -> 10. Meanwhile, in commercial land: http://www.setfia.org.au/fish-stocks/item/plenty-of-fish-in-the-sea-again.html "Plenty of fish in the sea. (Again).Quotas for the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery's (SESSF) 2014/15 fishing year commencing on May 1 have been announced. Quotas increased between 2013/14 and 2014/15 by 816 tonnes or 4%. TACs are set through an exhaustive process that starts with CSIRO completing stock assessments on each stock. These assessments the pass through the Resource Assessment Group (RAG), the management advisory committee (MAC), the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) before finally reaching the Commonwealth Fisheries Commission where this advice is considered and a final decision is made. Six stocks have increased year on year; blue grenadier, flathead, pink ling, ribaldo, royal red prawns and saw shark." By and large reccos must be the biggest suckers on the planet. The science says flathead stocks are rising, the commercial quota is increased, and the rec bag limit is reduced.

If you have to ask, then it's probably not wise. Think about it.

Yep - the villification campaign against recreational fishers is alive and well. The greens and animal libbers have us firmly in their sights. And the media is in their pocket. Look at this News Corp Murdoch Daily Tele dribble: These media propanganda pushers won't be getting any of my money. I'll be spending it on going fishing instead.

Yeah, guess the costs of wild fish breeding in the ocean have risen.

Gawd come on are you for real? What relevance does a 20 year old paper about just two coastal rivers have to do with a wide ranging range set of measures covering benthic, pelagic and offshore fisheries across the whole state? The option was open for the Government to include scientific studies in the discussion paper. There are none. It's not about science, it is about what people "FEEL". Apparently that is how we are now going to manage fisheries, by checking what people FEEL? Unless, of course, you are a commercial fisher, in which case we will set policy by what you WANT.

"Rules are rules". This is profound and entirely meaningless. I am pointing out to other country/holiday fishos how the rules which are misleading described as "bag limits" instead of honestly being described as "possession limits" will hit them. If those country fishos are then motivated to give the government their opinion that is a good thing. What is their to get? Anyway, I have got my point across, made reasoned arguments outlining the flaws in the proposed changes. I get it that a lot of coastal fishos think they own their water they had no part whatsoever in creating and don't want to share. It's a natural human reaction. Doesn't make it right though. Tight lines.

Here's the problem. You don't know that. The discussion paper contains NO SCIENCE. You have no guarantees that the commercial take will decrease and all indications from this government are that they want to INCREASE commercial exploitation. They have expanded, for instance, salmon netting and are succesfully being lobbied by the commercials who want to export large quantities of salmon and yellowtail to CHINA. How do you know you aren't bidding against yourself or that fish won't get bigger or more numerous because someone in China is going to have eaten it way before it reaches your hook? How come when there real physical evidence of fish in plague proportions, like inshore/offshore leatherjackets there is never a review suggesting higher bag limits? Up to date scientific investigation is needed as to who is doing what to fish stocks. This whole survey process is a pointless from a fisheries management perspective, and may well be a con which many fishos fall for thinking that ticking a few boxes is going to make them into a better fisho.

You're missing the point. If you live on the coast you can catch 2 kings every day of the year. But if you come from an inland area and have to travel to the coast on holiday, you can't concentrate your fishing into a shorter period and catch anywhere near the same amount. The person from the country is being discriminated against. If I lived on the coast I could nip out each weekend and easily grab a bag of flatties and whiting, year around. My total annual catch will be big (hundreds). "Freezer" filled well and truly under current rules. If I live 500km from the coast I can go down for a couple of weeks, fish every day and am only allowed to bring home one pathetic bag of fish good for a couple of meals. Get it? These rules disproportionately hit holiday and country fishos. The exact demographic who are meant to be represented by the NATIONALS who have the fisheries ministry. As for the king fishery specifically - have you seen the commercial boats of Eden and Bermi which will work the schools of kings relentlessly for cash. Reckon' the new bag limit applies to them? If recreationals agree to restrictions while the commercial take is relaxed, somebody is getting conned.

Submissions close on 31 July in relation to the proposed severe tightening of many POSSESSION limits for fish in NSW. In NSW, "bag limits" are defined as "possession limits" so apply to your home fridge/freezer or anywhere else, not just the "bag" you make bring home from a day's fishing. The upcoming review of possession limits is at: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/info/review I would emplore all holiday or country saltwater fishos to visit the site and provide their opinions on the unviably low proposed possession limits. For instance, it will be illegal to have: * More than 2 kingfish in possession * More than 5 snapper in possession * More than 5 mowies in possession * More than 5 duskies in possession * More than 10 sand/tiger flathead in possession *More than 20 of any type of fish in possession, including species which only grow to small sizes, like school whiting While many coastal fishos look at these numbers and think "why would anybody need more than 5 snapper a day" they fail to see that most fishos who like to catch and eat their own fish and can only make it to the coast once or twice a year would not bother with the major expense of boats, tow vehicles, fuel, accommodation and tackle if they can only bring home 5 snapper for a whole trip. Who has more impact on a stock? A person who goes fishing every two weeks and catches 3 snapper an outing (75 snapper per year) or a fisho who can only make it to the coast once a year for a couple of weeks and brings home 10 frozen snapper under the existing rules? In states like Victoria, bag limits are defined as fish in possession "on or near water". This IS NOT the case in NSW. Possession applies anywhere. Yet the discussion document continues to use misleading terms like "daily bag limit" to dupe fishos into agreeing with the changes. The existing rules already discriminate against holiday or country fishos. The proposed changes will increase the discrimination to the point where going fishing to eat the fish you catch will be a complete waste of time. Many on this site will be aware that simultaneously with announcing this review, the NSW fisheries minister moved to allow commercial fishos to net UNLIMITED QUANTITIES of flathead and other species such as mowies. Rec fishos were ropable and the stink caused a backflip, for now. The general proposed limit of 20 fish total (there is no such limit at the moment) is another kick in the teeth for holiday fishos. It also makes no ecological/environmental sense either. Specific limits should apply to specific stocks based on scientific management. If a 20 fish total possession limit is in place, it will be impossible to go on holiday and have a family feed of small delicacy fish such as: * Eastern school whiting (which we export frozen by the boxload to Japan) * Garfish Who is going to take home 20 school whiting or garfish (which would only be one meal for a family) if it is then illegal to possess a single other fish! These fish are PROLIFIC and sustainable to eat. It will be illegal to take 20 school whiting and 2 flathead home frozen for a feed, in circumstances where both species are readily caught, but if you have a big enough boat to get to the shelf it will be legal to catch 2 x 15kg blue eye and still catch another 18 fish of other species. So what's the management message? Target rarer blue eye rather than sustainable bread and butter fish. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. If species need management, manage the species scientifically. Arbitrary combined limits do not achieve any sensible conservation outcome, and as demonstrated, may have the opposite effect and make people target bigger more important breeding fish. Generally, fisheries management should be on the basis of SCIENCE and not survey. For instance, what is the point in surveying a land based fisho about the possession limit on leatherjackets found in inshore and offshore waters. These fish are in plague proportions, but you would only know that if you had a boat, so what relevance would a non-boat fishos opinion be of the fishery? Indeed, how many members of PETA will be visiting the survey site and pretending to be fishos? Anyway, rant over. If, like me, you find these proposals offensive and just another big hit on top of all the blows rec fishos are copping like marine parks and supertrawlers get to the review site in the next few days and let them know what (and why) these changes mean to you. But spare a thought for those of us who do not have the luxury of living 10 minutes away from a boat ramp and want to eat fish we catch ourselves as rec fishos have been doing sustainably for the past couple of hundred years. It's our culture under attack.

Bonzle has bathymetry (depth info) for the whole of oz. Try here: Link But, the most important tool for finding snapper is your sounder. No chart is ever going to show you fine grain structure. Learn to recognise the different returns you get from hard versus soft bottom. Individual snapper also have quite a distinctive echo return at times. My tip would be to pick a prominent land feature like a headland or island and drive around it with your eye on the sounder. Your aim is to map out how the feature on land continues on out to sea. If you motor around on the 20m contour line you should have no probs locating structure. The fishing for reds around Batemans is quite good atm like on most of the south coast so keep hunting and you should have no probs bagging a few.

Hi Elmer, While most marlin have moved on, there are yellowfin tuna about in southern NSW atm. A classic land based game spot is Green Cape. The cape is a major land feature which projects east towards the shelf. Many substantial yellowfin have been landed from the stones there and there are several famous platforms which can be fished (eg, city rocks / pulpit). Like any rock fishing it is a dangerous game though - take care. Where are you located? Other fishraiders may be able to give you spots closer to home.

My condolences to the family and friends of the deceased. I am pretty paranoid when it comes to marine safety. I often think about the nightmare situation of being overboard far offshore. I think I will consider investing in some of the new personal 406MHz GPS fix EPIRBS on the market. Strapping one of these to your body when conditions deteriorate means that in theory you can immediately notify authorities of the emergency and relay your exact position to them. The other big prob is of course hypothermia. In 20 deg waters (calm / no wind!!!) the average person may be dead in 2 hours. In 15 deg water it is hard to last more than an hour. That is a scary thought when it could take an hour or more for a rescue vessel just to motor out of port to the shelf. I have seen the military using "Mustang suits" which can amplify your safe immersion time by a factor of 10 or more. While these may be uncomfortable to wear full time I would like the option of climbing into something like this if conditions rapidly deteriorate. Has anybody used such a suit and how hot is it to wear in winter air temps of 15-20 degs?

Even if your budget is limited, the good thing about trailer boats is that they are on a trailer. Tow a boat to somewhere like Bermi and you can get onto real big pelagics only 12 miles out, and sometimes closer.

Yep - see my post under the stainless hooks thread. I must be nostro-friggin-damus.

The people who catch the most fish are the pros, and on their bridges you will find all the goodies, furunos and simrads, huge plotters, searchlight sonar. They do not have this gear because it does not work or they could get by without it. I would guess that rec catch rates are well up with the advent of GPS and more powerful fishfinders. To be able to position a vessel (esp in an offshore context) in a repeatable fashion is crucial if fishing structures. How many could get to Browns or Heatons via landmarks? GPS also lets you fish longer, making night time navigation a lot less of a headache. I am also astounded at the clarity of the quality sounders on the market. In my experience it is typical to mark individual fish of 50cm length down to 150m of water. This definition means it is possible to avoid a lot of fishless water. Marking fish is no guarantee of success, but my observation is the areas which do not show any fish on the sounder are normally pretty lifeless (excluding mud and sand dwellers which are hard to distinguish from the bottom).