The Proper Way To Measure Fish

[dogsbody]

For starters can you get rid of the capitol letter on every word it makes it harder to read.

Nose to tip for me.

Dave.

[vb4me]

I always go bigger than the legal limit as well. Not enough meat on "just legal fish". Wont keep a bream unless it is over 27cm whiting the same and flatties at least 40-45 cm. I also measured my fish from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail where the meat ends.

[Tassie JR]

came in from a days fishing september last year with a few school mackeral, fisheries were at the ramp measured my fish from nose to fork they said you only have to measure makeral to the fork but when ever i catch makeral i still measure from nose to tail to be on the safe side. You never if the rules change.

cheers tassie JR

[SeaSaw]

The correct way to measure a fish is from the nose to the tail. If the fish has a fork tail then the correct method is to draw a line between the two tips of the fork when the tail is in a natural position. Where that line intersects the ruler is the correct length.

Pushing the tail down along the ruler is an incorrect method, although many fisheries officers do it this way to be lenient. I checked this with a fisheries officer one day and he confirmed that this was the correct legal way to measure the fish even though most of them let you get away with pushing the tail down. Better to be safe than sorry as it changes the length of many species by a couple of centimeters.

Cheers,

Mark

[the gecko]

Its nose to tail, from the dpis website
"Fish are measured from the tip of their mouth to the end of their tail"
see http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/xc...1_ENA_HTML.htm
for an illustration on how to lay the fish on the mat.

I think you are getting mixed up with bream comps, where they measure to the fork for comp purposes. dpi measure to the tail.

Yes, I agree, sweeties are smaller this year. I keep getting em 30-35 and throw them back. Last year they were avge 40-42 and worth filleting.

I dont keep amy fish unless its 5-7cm over legal, cos I couldnt be bothered filleting small fish. I know what you mean about having a mate on board who doesnt fish often tho. Gotta give em something to take home.

I thought sweetlip were legal at 35cm, but I looked it up today and its 25cm!! I do keep a dpi handbook on board the boat just in case I get something I wanna keep. its not a bad idea. better than getting a fine.

cheers
Andrew

[doublexl]

hi andrew,grass sweetlip are 30cm in qld,thanks for your reply

[84mick]

G'day

I believe it is from nose to tip of tail,

If it was to the fork, what happens to those fish with a convex tail like cod?

Dave

You get ripped off! lol

Mick.

[BilgeBoy]

Ummm, I will have to agree & disagree with this "throw it back" statement.

Sure, a filleted 35cm Squire ain't gunna put a lot of food on the plate but other species may. Flathead is one that comes to mind. And don't forget that some species have an upper limit as well.

Having said all that, yeah I agree with you, chuck it back for next time. I only ever keep a lower limit fish if I am getting desperate....and these usually go in the smoker anyway!!! So you get more!

BilgeBoy

[Dignity]

Synful

THANKFULLY, these guys were just surveying!! I joked at the time that they were just wearing Fisheries shirts to find out where all the good spots were...they also wanted to know where I caught my feed. I LIED!!!!

I asked what would have been the ruling if they had different caps on that day...and they said that it was a borderline one...would have depended on the mood of the bloke on the day. He did say that technically....IT WAS UNDER!!

That's one close call too many for me. So my stickers are a bit like the Brag mat I guess....it's just a guide. He did say that he would recommend me buying an accurate measure with a flat at one end. This way you can be sure the fish is hard up against the zero!! I do notice that a lot of brag mats have this so I guess the word to highlight here is accurate.

Anyway, like I said, I now add at least 2 CM to be on the safe side!! Good for the stock levels anyway.

BilgeBoy

had a couple of them stickers around. One of them was from the courier mail and the other was given to me when I bought somrthing at springwood marine. Now they lay around for about 6 months when i thought I would stick them on my bait board. Put the one one from SM and it didn't match up with the marks I had measured onto my baitboard, it was 5mm short at the 35 cm mark. The CM one was pretty close. Not blaming the dealer as the thing probably shrunk while sitting around.

I have since sanded back the bait board (home made out of marine ply) and reapplied my measures. Unknown to all who fish with me but there is an extra 10mm added that they don't know about because if they have to measure their fish to keep them they are still too small and I would rather have no issues with the DPI. We actually got pulled up once and when my mate said how we measued the fish he took one look and called his mate over with the official steel ruler to measure our fish. I chuckled all the way home until I had to fess up to my mate that he didn't have a worry in the world.

Too many fishos do try and lay the tail back as far as possible to get the measure in so I guess the fork of the tail would make more sense. In the case of cod you would make it the furtherest extremity after all we are only talking a couple of centimeters.

[Jono_SS]

Tassie JR, what ramp was it that you were using when your schoolies were measured?

Seasaw sounds like he is on the money!

DPI&F boating patrol measure total length of fish, as this length matches with fisheries legislation.

DPI&F scientists doing surveys of fish at ramps measure fork length of most species, as these are generally regarded as more accurate. of course some species like flathead still have total length measured, as they don't have a fork in the tail.

[samson]

Tip of fishes mouth closed to tip of tail is the correct way if you measure while fish has its mouth open you end up with a couple of extra cm's in some species because their mouths protrude but get a rude shock later when rigamortis sets in and you think your fish has shrunk so if its close remember to close its mouth or risk a fine.

[Siminikish]

If in doubt cut the neck and you should get another cm out of it.

[Dignity]

not worth the effort if you have to resort to those means

[the gecko]

doublexl,
thanks for the tip on 30cm, but now Im really confused.

from dpi;
http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/xc...2_ENA_HTML.htm
Size, take and possession limits - tidal waters
All sweetlips
(excluding red throat sweetlip) 25 min 5 per species

Not trying to be picky mate, maybe I made a mistake. I did get this wrong once before.

So is tidal waters what we should be looking at?
Is it 25 or 30cm?
Did it change recently?

cheers
Andrew

[samson]

Andrew the 25cm slot size only applies to a broad list of small reef sweetlip varieties that come under the coral reef fin fish list, the grassy sweetlip i presume you are talking about does not fall into this category and has its own 30cm size limit, the red throat emperor and the spangled emperor are the main two that have their own size of 38cm and 45cm.

Off the top of my head i think they classed the grassy as a tidal waters fish and not a reef fish thus not falling into reef fin fish rules which means no fin clipping.

The rules for coral reef fin fish did change about 3 or 4 years ago but the 30cm size for grassys has been that way for quite some time.

Cheers samson