Disparity in legal fish sizes

[GAFYM]

Have just spent two weeks on the Tweed River mostly fishing.
The difference in legal fish sizes from basicly one side of the river to the other is quite significant.
The humble whiting 27cm in N.S.W. for instance. Managed to catch 4 legal fish in 2 weeks. Many in the 23 to 25cm length. Never got a Flattie over 10cm. (Heaps of undersized) (Bream the same)
Everyone blames the lack of fish on the netters. Never seen any myself. (From Tumbulgum down to the mouth)
Mud crabs....got sick of them.....Jennies, legal provided not in roe. We were getting up to a dozen a day. And that in only 2 pots. You are only allowed 1 pot per person or 5 dillies.
Only kept the Bucks anyway.
Legal sizes much smaller than in QLD and measured differently, from front to back , not sideways.
Why cant they standardise the more common ones???

Bet there are a lot more than this.

[Chezzy13]

And just imagine if your in Tweed, fishing, but you LIVE in Queensland, say Goldcoast, got some Jennys not in roe, kept them ( Not that I would ) Came home, got pulled over with an esky full Of jennys, then what do you say??????????? You would be up the Tweed without a paddle.
They should make the laws uniform across the states.

[straddie]

Heya GAFYM

The legal limits in most states are (sorta kinda) fixed to allow 1 or 2 breeding seasons before they reach the legal take size. Water temperature amoung other things can effect growth rates of fish and also maturity.

NSW has a huge coastline as does Queensland and the temperature variations in even each state are huge so they are kinda working to averages for each. Throw in the much colder conditions in Vic waters and you can see that national limits wouldn't work.

[onerabbit]

Yeah , have to agree with GAFYM, there should be more standardized rules............... Like bream sizes, 23cms, you must be joking ( nsw length 25 & still too small ), or how about your whiting rules, I've seen guys here boasting a catch of 200 (20 in nsw ) & still legal............................................. ................

Now that I have your attention,


If we trust our government agencies (coff) & the millions of $ that they spend reasearching our respective rules, should we not try to stay within them???

Just a thought ,

Muzz

[GAFYM]

Good point ....would u b charged if u brought them into Qld..
Can understand Straddies point of view re temperature, but another case which happened to me. Fishing in W.A. caught some very nice King George whiting and then crossed the Nullabor and caught some more very nice King George whiting in S.A. and had a very rude awakening in the caravan park cleaning tables when a guy asked us if they were legal. Of course we replied...measured every one.
response...You have just come from W.A. haven't you.
5cm size difference between W.A. and S.A. ..... Had 20 undersized fish.

We were lucky fisheries didnt catch us. If we knew, this wouldn,t have happened and i dont think there is much difference in temperature between W.A. and S.A.