Big Flatheads!!!!

[Paddyinoz2006]

Hi guys hope you all had a good weekend fishing. Weather was a bit restricting. Had a good weekend personally catching some nice trevs and cod etc.
Was a bit of a low point of the weekend when i witnessed a really nice big flathead caught on a pilchard, gave the fisherman in question a really good fight and when the fisherman went to land the fish i was suprised to witness a gaff come out and straight through the monsterous flathead's gut. I was a bit taken aback when the fisherman left the big female dusky then beside the boot of his car. I went over to the action and explained to the man who had broken english that this fish had to be returned. Whille he looked at me and a few others who were there as if "its my fish im taking it home" the fish was strugling and near death. This flathead was i estimate 90 cm's and im not exagerating, maybe 4.5 kgs or more. The man explained that he did not know these fish had to be returned.
I left shortly after this affair thinking to myself what can I do? Its not my bloody fish, but i must say I felt very sorry for this fine fish who under law is protected.
The thing that really made me angry was that i heard the following day that the same fisherman mentioned had actually landed another large flathead actually larger than the previous one,which is very probable for this area cause I know this fishing spot holds monster flathead and put the second female in the boot of his car and went home with probably a big smile of his face!
Question what would you do in this situation? Just recon it is so sad that this happens. And just want to know what can the fisheries actually do. Maybe I am a bit over sensitive towards fish as I only fish for the fun and sport of it ocassionally taking one home for me and the missus. I think if theese people actually take photos and release the fish they have a good photo and catch the smaller fish and eat them which are plentyfull and a lot better eating. Conservation is very important for the future of fishing and our siblings.

[LizardLord]

i'd probably end up in fisty cuffs

[BAR UP]

Should have put a gaff through his guts. Seriously i would feel a bit emotional myself & it is hard to say what i would do, judging from my track record probably the wrong thing.

Either 1: Take the fish off him
2: Take pix & his rego & dob him in

What do you reckon?

[andy009]

i would dob him in for sure mate that is crap u told him that it was elligal to keep those fish

[manchild]

I would grab the fish and put it back in the water,at least its get a chance.As for the consequences of my action,i fish with my dog lately and nobody pushing a man around with a neo on his side.
George

[Squiggle]

We can keep 1 @ over 70cm I think in NSW.
We kept one a few weeks ago that was 95cm, it weighed 4.515kg cleaned and gutted. This fed my family of 7. And to be honest it tasted no different to what the smaller ones do, the flakes were bigger and that was all.

[Cloud_9]

i find that new australians and the likes are the biggest culpruits.
and the me no speaka da englase.
or as the faulty towers.
KA???
fishing knife through the tyre, opps DA wheel is flat. ya better fix that.
Cloud 9

[disorderly]

I dont fish for flathead.So what is the max legal size,please?

cheers scott

[rick k]

Nice to see the sentiments displayed.

But you need to keep a sense of proportion. He's broken the law and killed a protected animal, and nothing less, or more than that.

You told him where he went wrong, and he may or may not mend his ways.

But taking the fish and putting it back is pretty high risk (and with a gaff in its guts probably pointless).

Manchild, no one wants to see the flathead die, and your companion put down.

I reckon we just keep on plugging away. Those who care will get the message, and those who don't care, well, .....

[hooknose]

Should have rung the fisho's straight away and dobbed the pr%ck in, they gotta learn sometime !!!

[Squiggle]

Something I found quite amusing not so long ago was watching someone clean their big catch of flathead that were mostly undersize and I mean some were smaller than legal length for a bream thinking "I've seen that face before".
Sure enough it I come across their photo also pushing the catch and release of females.
So how many out there are like that pushing for one belief yet throwing it all to the wind with another belief. A bit like threating to slash someones tyres or sicking their dog onto you.
Nobody is a martar (spelling)

[blu]

I had sort of same prob once i to told the guy the fish was elligal and he to would not listen until my mate (who was half cut) started makeing a scene yelling and crying out untill EVERYBODY was looking and a few walked over he VERY quickly put da undersize fish back and packed up his stuff and left

[tigermullet]

I would grab the fish and put it back in the water,at least its get a chance.As for the consequences of my action,i fish with my dog lately and nobody pushing a man around with a neo on his side.
George

What is a neo??

[BrandonH]

It is a shame.... We had something similar the other weekend with a female mud crab. The bloke that caught it didn't even mesure it or check it!! I was fishing with my dad and we knew stright away it was a female (small claws for the size of the crab) and told him he should check it because he could get his car taken from him he said will check latter, will check latter and we kept pushing (no gafs involved ) ended up getting our light on the crab and showed him that it was a female and had to go back. It ended up back in the water and he left stright away!! pitty I see this same bloke every time i go down to deep water bend and he always has 4 pots out

Sometimes all you can do is let them know and hope that sooner or latter they will get the picture and start fishing within the law.

cheers N
Tight Lines

Brandon...

[Jeremy]

best shot is to get the camera out and take a photo of the person, their car or boat rego/licence plates and the fish with some sort of object to establish size. Send the photos to DPI&F with as much detail as possible ie time, location, etc. Hopefully they can do something.

At least you had the ' kahunas ' to say something.

Jeremy