History

[dogsbody]

Yes a lot of fish were caught back in the ole days. It would be interesting to know how many fish per angler was caught compared to today with more and more people fishing.

Also there seems a lot of "The Pro's" brought up firstly in a debate of fish numbers. I like to take a wider view of what's going on. We have more roads than ever with all the oil and worn tyres and cigarette butts,exhaust emissions polluting the creeks how much does this effect the survival rate of young? Will we ever know? Or is this a case of out of sight out of mind.

To fix the problem we must take the whole picture into account. But i suspect the cost of such a task will never allow it to see the light of day.


Dave.

[tunaticer]

I think that more than the total banning of nets for the pros, a rotational green zone should be established right along our coastline right around Australia. I believe that pro fishermen should not be given access to estuarine environments unless they are dedicated bait collectors. Every 4th river or creek that enters the sea should have a 12 month green zone allocated to it and once that 12 month period ticks over the next river / creek in a clockwise direction has its 12 month green zone initiated. Unless we protect the breeding environments from over-use and over-fishing we will not have a chance to pass onto our great grandchildren fishing as a viable past-time.
The current thoughts of our country's governing forces are to impose eternal greenzones and I see these as wasted potential as very few areas along our coastline actually fall into a green zone. It would be much better to give everywhere a 1 in 4 chance of sustainability.

Jack.

[MitchCalcutt]

Yes a lot of fish were caught back in the ole days. It would be interesting to know how many fish per angler was caught compared to today with more and more people fishing.

Also there seems a lot of "The Pro's" brought up firstly in a debate of fish numbers. I like to take a wider view of what's going on. We have more roads than ever with all the oil and worn tyres and cigarette butts,exhaust emissions polluting the creeks how much does this effect the survival rate of young? Will we ever know? Or is this a case of out of sight out of mind.

To fix the problem we must take the whole picture into account. But i suspect the cost of such a task will never allow it to see the light of day.


Dave.

Hi Dave, Without a doubt the pollution will have some sort of affect on the cycle of thing. Unfortunately the noticeable reduction of our fish stocks was mentioned as long ago as the mid seventies. The Southern Blue fin Tuna fisheries was almost wiped out in only ten years once ring netting showed its ugly head. The Orange Ruffy population took only a few years to decimate, and as they take up to twenty years to grow to full size it will take another 50 years to repopulate unless their wiped out in the mean time.
It’s a great debate to have but unfortunately for every reason we can come up with for fish population drop, the bone can be pointed in the general direction of a Polly.
I don’t have anything against Pro fisherman, just nets.
Mitch

[dogsbody]

Yeah to true Mitch, I got nothing against a pro either they service a need in the community.

We will never get back to the way it was. With the population of the world ever increasing and the need to feed people we can only try a few sustainability methods and see how things pan out.

Dave.

[Matt_Campbell]

Mitch
Do you believe rec fishers contribute to reductions in fish stock size?

[Matt_Campbell]

Hi Matt.
Thanks for your question, in reply to which, no I do not think the poor state of the river mouth stops mulloway entering the river, however I would agree it may make the river less attractive to them as a habitat, and as such may indeed lead to lesser numbers of mulloway being present within the system.
The mouth of the river has been badly silted for many years, and is only cleared after a substantial flood. Even then it closes up again over the next few months.
However this has not stopped good catches of mulloway being taken during previous years, the fish will manage to enter/exit the river as they presumably always have.
My contention is that if a large proportion of those mulloway exiting the river during the 'mullet run' are taken by beach haulers, then this event will have an impact on number of mulloway caught from the adjacent beaches/rocks during the proceding months.
I would further contend that allowing beach hauling at the mouth of a declared Rec Fishing Haven is counter-productive to the interests of Rec Licence holders, whose fees pay for the establishment of RFHs and the subsequent buy outs of commercial fishers operating within the Haven areas.
Cheers.

The netting of mulloway has occurred at the motuh of the Bellinger for years - there were mullet netters on the north side of the entrance 25 years ago. From the italicised section above you have said that good catches have occurred historically even when pro netters fished the entrance. I contend that more jewies are caught by rec fishers inside and outside the river mouth than by pro's. Matt

[DR]

Yes a lot of fish were caught back in the ole days. It would be interesting to know how many fish per angler was caught compared to today with more and more people fishing.

Dave.

one article from the 70s that sticks in my mind was 'Breakwall Bonanza' it was from somewhere around Ballina ( I think, was a long time ago but never forgot the article) 2 fishers in a single session caught something like 15 -20 Jewies all around 40-60lb & the photo of them all laying in a heap was the front cover shot.... i think it was in the Australian Angler..

[Horse]

one article from the 70s that sticks in my mind was 'Breakwall Bonanza' it was from somewhere around Ballina ( I think, was a long time ago but never forgot the article) 2 fishers in a single session caught something like 15 -20 Jewies all around 40-60lb & the photo of them all laying in a heap was the front cover shot.... i think it was in the Australian Angler..

I remember that shot . I think it was revisited in recent years.
I doubt that that sort of feat could be duplicated today and would be frowned upon but in the early 70's thats what made you a gun fisho
Now most of us can appreciate that it does not take wholesale slaughter to make a successful trip.

Neil

[MitchCalcutt]

Mitch
Do you believe rec fishers contribute to reductions in fish stock size?

I’d love for there to be a yes or no answer to that question, HOWEVER; I believe the current bag limits are in most cases unreachable by current stock availability. If the stocks ever increase the limits should not increase with them for a healthier echo system. There are so many variables to stock management, especially when they are so low to manage.

Mitch

[MitchCalcutt]

one article from the 70s that sticks in my mind was 'Breakwall Bonanza' it was from somewhere around Ballina ( I think, was a long time ago but never forgot the article) 2 fishers in a single session caught something like 15 -20 Jewies all around 40-60lb & the photo of them all laying in a heap was the front cover shot.... i think it was in the Australian Angler..

I’m going to buy a lotto ticket in the morning, I had to drop off a battery to Dave greens house tonight, while I was there he gave me some more old Australian angler mag’s. one of those mags May 1974, main cover Breakwall Bonanza, written by Alex Julius. That is the type of feature that inspired my to write History in the first place.
Plus I don’t want to see that many fisherman all together wearing Budge smugglers ever again.

Mitch

[jman2016]

When my father emigrated to Australia after the World War 2, he used to tell me stories of how the creeks, estuarys and bays used to teem with fish and mudcrabs. How you could just about walk across the backs of the mullet, gar, herring, king salmon etc. How the banks of a creek would be lined with mudcrabs or sandcrabs would be that thick you could pick them up by hand.

Photo's of unbelieveably huge fish used to grace my grandfathers shed. Murray cod, barra, groper, estuary cod etc.

As a old pro once told me -'we used to fish until we ran out of bait or ran out of fish to catch' - go home and the start again in the morning.

He also said that he knew then what he knows now then yes he would do things differently.

I have noticed the decline in fish stocks in my 20+ years of fishing to the point of not even getting a nibble in areas that used to supply a feed.

Mitch, I'll always remember a story of how your father used to keep his boat immaculate and his friends would wind him up my being messy, dropping sinkers , swivels etc. just to a bite if the fishing was slow!. Can't remember the publication but it always made me smile

[nigelr]

Hi Matt.
I would have to disagree with your contention.
Approx 2 tonne of mulloway were taken by a single mob of travelling Qld based beach haulers in 2004.
This equated to approxiamately a couple of hundred mulloway, some of which were in excess of 20 kg.
Prime news aired video footage of part of this catch, local rec fishos were eye witness to it, the issue was represented in the local papers.
As a local resident at North Beach I can assure you annual rec catches of mulloway come absolutely no where near this figure.
As you appear to be aware, mullet netting occured historically on the southern and northern sides of the mouth, although the southern beach has been closed for quite a few years.
You would also be aware of the friction between the travelling pros and locals, due in no small part to the cavalier behaviour of the pros, camping in prohibited areas etc.
You would also be aware of the efforts of the local fishing club, which was instrumental in having the Bellinger river made a rec fishing haven, and was also involved in bringing about the closure of the southern beach to beach hauling.
Rec angling brings a lot of money into the local community, as it does to many other similar towns around the country.
As other commentators have noted, fish numbers have dropped very substantially in the last 30 years. It is rare to see ANY sea mullet hereabouts these days, as compared with 30 years ago. Likewise the large rec catches of mulloway taken on local beaches rarely if ever occur.
The ability of beach haulers to operate legally at the confluence of Rec Fishing Havens such as the Bellinger, Hastings, Macleay to name a few, is an issue I find difficult to understand.
Hopefully in years to come the laws that allow this to happen will be changed, to the benefit of rec anglers whose licence fees pay for these schemes.
Apologies Mitch for taking up space on this issue within your post, some things never change it seems, the debate between pro and rec fishing priorities is still alive and kicking.
Cheers.

[Matt_Campbell]

Approx 2 tonne of mulloway were taken by a single mob of travelling Qld based beach haulers in 2004.

So this is a one-off event? Do you have any more instances of this occurring.

[Matt_Campbell]

As a local resident at North Beach I can assure you annual rec catches of mulloway come absolutely no where near this figure.

I was a local resident there for 15 years Nigel and there were years when the groups of blokes I fished with caught that many mulloway. If you know anything about jewfishing, you'd know how secretive the blokes are. Dont be surprised if there are still a few being caught.

[bugman]

Mitch,

While it is nice to look back with longing ... I guess we all do, I just wonder what is the point.

Do old photos and old stories prove the fishery was at it's best then?? The fishery would have been at it's best about 250 years ago before white man got here. Or maybe it was worse then than what it was 1 million years ago when our land mass was a bit higher and the water a bit warmer?

I guess the point I'm making is what is the point of having more fish in the water?

Is it just for us to feel better that there's more fish in the water
Is it for us rec anglers to catch more fish
Is it for pro anglers to increase there quota and the domestic or export consumption increase.

With all the pressure on fish stocks from physical and environmental threats I guess there's a population level of sustainability that enables everyone to harvest something and for the fish to re-populate.

There are some well known species that the brakes have been put on to help out the stocks but do we know that our bread and butter species are in the same boat.

Brett