Mud Island 15/02/07

[Sea-Captain]

great stuff gazz - and well said alleycat - plastics are doing the work now.......and we need to show conservation in our attitude when we have sussed out how to consistently catch squire/snapper in the bay. well done with the 77cm snapper gazz!!

[dogsbody]

Thats a beauty mate congrats. there is still hope for me yet.

Dave.

[ChuckBacker]

Terrific fish there. Hope there are still a few around next week. I must be due a day off work..

[charleville]

Great fish, Mate!

Great story!

Well done!

[gaz066]

Alleycat, couldn't agree more and I throw back probably 75% of all the fish I catch
(Including legal ones)

Conservation is the key but at the end of the day it comes down to personal choice and I'm not going to preach to anyone

Now that I've got that out of the way and Big Ren has let the cat out of the bag I better tell the keystone cops story.

Here goes.....

Big fish on and after 10 minutes I get a look at him
Shit too big for the net better go the gaff (haven’t used it for a couple of years)

First crack bounces off............Doh I must be rusty
Fish takes off again and takes 30 metres of braid

Second shot bounces off ............not rusty just a blunt gaff
Fish takes off only takes 10 metres this time (he’s buggered)

Third shot (and I give it some) gaff bites and handle (little red plastic bit) comes off in my hand
At the same time I slip arse over head in the boat and hit my hip on the seat in the tinny ( big bruise today) and crack the underside of my chin on the side of the boat forcing my Mako sunnies to go flying into the drink

Situation......
Rod and fish with partially inserted gaff in one hand
A little red bit of plastic in the other hand
A bleeding chin
I'm on my knees like a whore
Sunnies are disappearing into the briney

What do I do next ?


Laugh at myself first and hope no one else saw this
Throw the little red plastic bit to the shithouse
Remove the partially inserted gaff from the fish whilst he was still in the water
‘Swam’ the fish into the net and got him in the boat
Donated the sunnies (yep they lost out in the decision making process)

Re rig but I‘ve snapped the tip off one of my rods during the ‘episode’.

Only one thing left to do …….

Started the motor and headed for home sore (still bleeding), broke (sunnies cost $180) but stoked! (still laughing at myself)

[T1]

Funny stuff GAZ!!! I think we've all had episodes where we can look back and laugh our heads off at ourselves...

Nice fish too! Just my 2 cents worth re ALLEY's comments. While I strongly agree that we need to remain conscious of conserving, the flipside is that we eat a lot of fish regularly. So the choice for me is to either catch our feed (to my bag limit of Snapp's), or pay over $30/kg for 'old and re/re/refrozen' Snapper... It's not a tough choice seeing i'm out there trying to catch them regularly... I think the bag limit of 5 and size limit of 35cm has done its job superbly! We must have caught hundreds of squire in the 34-35cm range in the past 6 months!

Anyway, I hope this doesn't draw criticism as i'm as passionate as the next fisher about ensuring stocks for the future - but I also love my food and we all need this to survive too...

Take Care T

[Silent]

Interesting note from ALLEY and I don't want be jugde about set up limits.

I wondered what does trawlers catch around Mud island, prawns and what???
Hate to know if squires are a part of bycatch on trawlers. Please let me know if I'm wrong Thanks

[Big_Ren]

Shit Gaz...that's an even funnier story when you put it in writing Especially being on ya knees like a whore Maybe I need to pack a helmet when I come bay fishing with ya. I'm still laughin.

Ren

[snapperm8]

nice 1 there mate for mud

cheers dave

[Roo]

Good story gaz and a nice fish to boot.

I agree with T1, No point paying good money for old fish when you can LEGALLY catch it yourself. The Bay has been producing well since the rules changed so perhaps it is working well. Nothing wrong about taking a Legal catch of squire to eat.

That said, Nothing wrong with putting them all back If you are so inclined. Each to their own.
Cheers, roo.

[Searaider 2]

Gedat gazo66
Gary
Nick your occasional deckie says geday .

[gaz066]

G'day searaider 2 , I'm guessing you work with Nick he's told me a bit about you , all good I might add. By the way no computer geek here either. Just lucky I have a national role with the company I work for and can sneak a fish ( or 2 ) in mid week.

Looks like this thread has turned into a bit of a moral dilema and wasn't really meant to.


For those that have had thier 2 cents worth my opinion is....it's not a question who's wrong or right just each to thier own when it comes to keeping a couple of fish.

Brownie's got it right when he says

"Don't destroy what you came to enjoy"

Off to Mud again in the morning for a few hours and for those of you who happen to get out and see a 420 Wide Body Dory with blue Ausfish stickers come say hello if you feel like it.

[Steven78]

Well done What SP?
Been meaning to get to mud for a while.


WELL DONE

[Scalem]

What a comic of errors, I am not sure if I would laugh that much..... at first......

RE the moral dilemma, I think a very healthy respect of our fishery is on display here, whether you take some home for the table or not. There's no question Snapper can't help themselves when finding a well presented plastic, but it's like a new age of fishing where we are learning smarter ways of catching them, but also becoming more environmentally conscious at the same time. I am sure that the majority of people here would welcome a reduced bag limit down to 2 fish, if the results of environmental impact studies demanded it.

It's also important to pass this attitude to as many others as possible, and it is happening I am sure.

Scalem

[mickstar001]

Beautiful fish mate well done!