Cod Everywhere!

[B_E_N]

hey just thinking the other day that in the last couple of years the amount of cod has exploded in my creek (cabbage tree). growing up i was always on the water cast netting or fishing and never saw any until a couple of years ago. now we catch them all the time. i was also surprised when i went up the coast near the plaza in the canal at christmas time i caught cod every 5m for three days!
has anyone noticed a boom of cod recently or any other fish for that matter?

cheers ben

[Freeeedom]

Couldn't agree more Ben. When I was in high school in Rockhampton in the early sixties cod were a common catch on the coastal reef areas and offshore islands. I moved to Brisbane in 1963 and although I've fished SE Qld solidly ever since I've caught very few cod until about the last 5 years when they started to appear. Now I catch at least one almost every time I go out, although most are juveniles. I think it's probably more evidence of the effects of global warming with a number of formerly tropical species spreading further south as sea temperatures rise. As well as encountering cod more frequently you see Ausfish reports of threadfins, grunter, queenfish and mangrove jacks being caught in SE Qld every week. Also the variety of reef species caught in and outside the Bay is growing all the time, with coral trout, saddle tail sea perch and even red emperors turning up regularly. Any of these would have been an extremely rare catch in Moreton Bay in the sixties. Maybe there's a good side to global warming!
Cheers Freeeedom

[ffejsmada]

So who's complaining?
I like catching Cod!

[elprez]

Was speaking to another ausfisher the other day who has fished a lot in moreton bay and he relayed the same story but with squire.

[B_E_N]

yeh true, the squire though contradict the global warming theory tho, who knows evoultion is a strange thing, maybe as time goes on fish find the need to migrate in order to find their own hospitable niche. for example mangrove jack are aggresive territorial fish, so many can only populate and survive in the one location, therefore others need to move to find somewhere to live, once there breeding may occur and before long, a new species occupies and area, could cause a chain reaction??
althought its unknown if the fish where really here all the time in small numbers, some caught and kept secret maybe?? for years watching various shows on fishing they would talk about particular species and their boundaries, which were hundreds of kms away where i knew that species would populate, i.e a fish is only known to survive as far up as south NSW, but in moreton bay caught regulary.
another thought that has itched my mind is that the waterways are getting cleaner to some extent, more modern ways of sewage treatment now existing people arent dumping as much crap into the waterways so it could only get better, hopefully!

[kingtin]

And isn't it strange that if you step over the border, they're a no-take species

I can't see how they can do it any other way, other than zoning by shires or something, but the States are so big and vary so much in climate that although the cod may be rare and in need of protection in say, the South of NSW, are they really endangered in say, The Tweed, and if they are, wouldn't they also be endangered just over the border?

I've never caught a catty in NSW so shouldn't they be protected? I mean to say...........let's face it...........if I can't catch 'em, then they can't be there!

kev

[Houndslair]

I agree that there is a climate change of some type on...caught heaps of small salmon out the front of Nudgee beach last month cast netting for prawns

[straddie]

Heya Ben

Yup I agree there has been a big increase in the number of small estuary cod that have started to show up in the last few years. Same goes for squire/snapper.

[B_E_N]

well i certainly wont be complaining in a few years when they get to a good fighting size thats for sure, awesome fish IMO, good looking and great eating

[mbt]

Cod are a slow growing fish, with the reduction of netting these days they will/have come back stronger then ever, just slower then the Tailor and Macs have.