Who fishes out from Cairns

[Nicko_Cairns]

anyone go offshore? was it worth it?

[Richard]

anyone go offshore? was it worth it?

Andre and Mats went on a charter - didn't catch squat apparently.. not sure of any of the details though

[Nicko_Cairns]

bugger, he's going to think fishing here is shit, they went on one before your housewarming too and didn't get much apparently.. will take him out when the macks are back in numbers.

Andre and Mats went on a charter - didn't catch squat apparently.. not sure of any of the details though

[Snapperscott]

The whole place is shut down and fishing is pointless atm. No idea why maybe water too warm but its damn hard to catch anything.

[scuttlebutt]

Yeah I'm leavin' the Reef Boat under the house at the moment. Barra and Jacks are on the chew tho

[odes20]

Nice. looks like the Mulgrave, any of them keepers Scuttlebutt? Went out Friday morn, and caught a big Moses perch and a stripy, a spangled Emp., and assorted but no trout , was only fishing for 2 hrs to catch a feed for lunch. mate on board dived one bommy we were fishing which came up to 10 metres, and saw some really nice trout but had no gun

had an interesting chat with fisheries over the 2 fish I had just cut up to eat. read my next post

[odes20]

Went to the reef this morning with a view of having a bit of a fish, and catch a couple to cook and eat for lunch with a salad, as was wife's birthday.
I've cooked fish heaps of times at the reef, especially on day trips while taking friends out for an enjoyable day, fishing, snorkelling etc.

So I am anchored about 1 km from the reef face, and I decided to fillet two legal size fish and toss the frames overboard there, and head over to the reef and cook lunch.
Along comes a Fisheries/water Police boat, friendly and all, checked all safety gear, etc. then asked what fish we had and showed them the only two keepers we had,and told them I had just filleted two other fish to eat. I had them skinned, and sliced up ready for the pan. Well he pipes up and says what I have done is not permitted in the regulations, and that I can't really cut the fillet up and prob should keep to cook fillet whole! On top of that I reminded him that the law says you can't fillet a fish at sea to bring home, unless the fillet is 40cm long. Askes to see my cooker in the boat, which I showed him.
So according to the law it not really legal to eat fish at sea, unless it remains at least 40 cm in the pan as you cook it, so if until it enters your mouth, it's still recognised as a legal size fillet, if Fisheries arrive. What a load of croc!

Who wrote this legislation? This fisheries officer said I should have kept the fillet intact to cook it to be legal, but I said it would still Be illegal , as the fish it self did not need to be 40cm long to be in my possession, and therefore the fillet is illegal.
Now fortunately he wasn't stupid enough to try and book me for breaking this law but emphasised I was breaking the law!
So in real terms by the regulation, you can't cook a fillet at sea less than 40 cm long. And you can't cut it up into portions in preparation. Can you believe that!!
Here's the regulation this rubbish is based on.


In relation to coral reef fin fish, a recreational fisher:

must not possess, on board a boat, a fish other than in any of the following forms - whole, gilled, gutted or filleted
may possess, on board a boat, a fillet of a fish other than a blue spotted coral trout (Chinese footballer) as long as the length of the fillet is at least 40 cm, and the skin and scales of the fillet are attached to the fillet
must not return fish to a boat that have been taken ashore from a boat and filleted, unless the length of the fillet is at least 40 cm and skin of the fillet is attached to the fillet. back home I ring Fisheries and get the guy at Port who tells me that they can use discretion and evaluate on a case by case situation.
this reg has you on shaky ground if some inspector is a nut case, or you happen to annoy him, and he decides to throw the book at you. If I was booked for something as stupid as this I would fight it in court tooth and nail, but no one who catches legal size fish should have to defend themselves against such pathetic laws.

Thoughts?

[Daintreeboy]

Good to see common sense prevailed. Agree with other parts of your post though and it would not be hard to add a clause in to allow for a couple of fish to be filleted for "immediate consumption". There is also the issue of cutting up a few fish for bait. Same story really.

[scuttlebutt]

any of them keepers Scuttlebutt?

Caught 5, 2 were just legal, but all released. I don't keep Barra generally.

cheers,

Steve

[Richard]

Looks like from the Regs, you maybe shouldn't have cut it into smaller bits until just before you were ready to consume it - i.e. not cut it up then move to the reef to eat..

From the regs:

170 Person possessing fish in regulated form for consumption on boat
A person may possess a fish in a regulated form if—
(a)the person takes and possesses the fish on a boat for consumption on the boat; and
(b)the fish remains on the boat at all times until it is consumed; and
(c)the fish is consumed immediately after it is modified to its regulated form.

I guess it comes down to what you consider immediately after..

[Richard]

I fished the Barron Saturday arvo/night and hooked 5 barra just flicking lures. Only landed one though and all were rats around the 50cm mark.. bycatch included a nice flatty, fingermark, jacks, grunter, archer fish and trevally.

[Nicko_Cairns]

It's a shame us 99% folks that are honest can't keep an undersized fish that will surely die when you release it huh? that's the biggest shame when fishing I think. I understand why the rules are there though..

I make some nummus and put some fish flesh into a wasabi and soy mixture sometimes (stripies are actually great for this, as are garfish), so I guess I modify it then quickly consume it.. but the nummus takes 30 minutes minimum to cook in the lemon/lime juice, so wonder if I'm safe doing that? oh well I'll still keep doing it anyway and see what happens.

[odes20]

Thanks Richard for finding this info. In regard to the matter of immediate consumption, I had the fish cut up ready to eat where i was, and it was me telling him we were going over to the reef face, to have lunch and a snorkel. Also what about Yachties who troll u up fish and eat it on the journey? do they have to eat it all in one go? the reason I ask is that points a, and b, are
almost a contradiction, as a seems to allow the fillet of fish to remain on the boat for several meals? but b seems to state it all must be immediately consumed??

Beats me!

Looks like from the Regs, you maybe shouldn't have cut it into smaller bits until just before you were ready to consume it - i.e. not cut it up then move to the reef to eat..

From the regs:

170 Person possessing fish in regulated form for consumption on boat
A person may possess a fish in a regulated form if—
(a)the person takes and possesses the fish on a boat for consumption on the boat; and
(b)the fish remains on the boat at all times until it is consumed; and
(c)the fish is consumed immediately after it is modified to its regulated form.

I guess it comes down to what you consider immediately after..

[Nicko_Cairns]

Richard has just headed off to Bundy with work, so you might be waiting a while for a response Odes.

Cheers.

Thanks Richard for finding this info. In regard to the matter of immediate consumption, I had the fish cut up ready to eat where i was, and it was me telling him we were going over to the reef face, to have lunch and a snorkel. Also what about Yachties who troll u up fish and eat it on the journey? do they have to eat it all in one go? the reason I ask is that points a, and b, are
almost a contradiction, as a seems to allow the fillet of fish to remain on the boat for several meals? but b seems to state it all must be immediately consumed??

Beats me!

[Snapperscott]

The boys did well last weekend in 80m. Looks like the fish might be back on the bite.