well seems like you just invited a lot more to the red hot fishing up your way, best to keep your mouth shut, ironic huh
well seems like you just invited a lot more to the red hot fishing up your way, best to keep your mouth shut, ironic huh
The old 'pro' vs 'rec' fisherman in the long standing arguement of who is killing the breeding stocks and who is to blame. This has always been on the table.
You dont need a degree in marine biology to know why places where we used to catch good fish are now dead. It is just a case of so many people with some many lines and nets taking so many fish that they cannot breed quick enough to recover, plain and simple.
I disagree with Skipper07 with his comment on 'sites like this are to blame'. Ausfish is not to blame for killing the ocean. Prior to internet the same information spead throughout the community, just a lot slower. Tell your mates down the pub, at work, where ever and they told their mates and family ect ect.
Shoot me down in flames if you want, but the best thing the Government ever done to try and preserve fish stocks was to introduce Green Zones. They arrived a little late for SEQ so it will be a long battle for the ecology to start to recover, but it will, to some degree.
We have had green zones on the Great Barrier Reef now for 5 years and in my business I speak on occasion to GBRMPA about the zones. In the early days it was rumoured that it 10 years time they would change the green zones to other reefs and open up previous closed reef. This will be tabled in another 5 years or so but the greater opinion is that they will not change a thing.
The studies on current Green Zones have beyond doubt proven that fish stocks have recovered in all areas that are fished around the green zones including other reefs nearby.
I also agree on some of the arguement Skipper07 tabled to the forum.
If I had to live further south than Gladstone I would sell the boat and not bother. As much as I love being on the water I could not handle the masses of other boats and crowded ramps and parking areas, looking at pollution in the water, and putting up with idiots in other boats screaming around you.
As for 'giving away secrets' , what a croc, what secrets?, there are fish in the ocean and if you find a good spot, is this your great secret? Someone else will find it and fish it eventually.
I can do a 170 km round trip to the reef and not see another boat other than maybe one or two trailers at the ramp and I know that what I do has no measurable impact on fish stocks.
On the other hand, when I am down at the beach and look out and see a pro in a prawn trawler north of Hinchenbrook Island working with nets, scrapping the bottom and destroying any creature and habitat that they beed in, I know that there is a measureable impact to the enviournment and by-catch will be thrown back into the ocean.
However, I am quite happy to buy prawns or fish from my local shop to eat or sell.
Skipper07, good point though in your comments about "Talk more about technique, bait ,tide, moon phase. " Information travels so quickly nowadays that it would crowd a particular area unnecessarily on the next weekend.
I have no problem talking to people and telling them where I fish and I give away a lot of marks to people that do not know where or how. It really bugs me when I speak to people that have a good catch and I ask them where they went, that they reply with a dumb look, somelike "out in the ocean"
Taking away the internet and sites like this are not going to help anyone catch more fish, but it will educate and inform people about not reaping, raping, and destroying what you are fishing in.
If we all want the oceans to recover, no one go fishing, pro or rec, and all eat more beef.
my 10c worth
Not much we can do about people pressure. That is the root cause of your whinge. Successive governments, our weather etc. have been successful in attracting southerners here along with Australia's general population growth through immigration etc. and now we are seeing the result of this in fishing pressure, water shortages, roads not coping etc. etc. Not much we can do about it as Joe Public. The old saying is "the only thing constant in life is change" and that is just how things have gone.
Throw in more reliable and economical outboards and better GPS and there are three things that are having an impact. I started fishing offshore with line-ups sketched out in the back of exercise books and stuff in about '93. My first trip to the banks was in about '95 in a 5.5 Seafarer and with a 130 litre fuel tank and a 2 stroke outboard it was a big expedition and fuel management was critical if it got rough. Now it seems every man with a 4.3m tiller steer or better hits up the banks and 5m+ jobs hit up the Hards. We had heard about the Hards back then from guys who talked to pros but there was no way we would attempt it and marks were secret and hard to get. With electronic charts you can pretty much follow the contours anywhere now and work things out.
I see that you have not recieved a thanks for your post but some of the other postees have. Doesn't look like it is going down too well. I don't think it has got that bad that you have to stop fishing weekends and only fish mid-week.
The ramp at Mooloolaba is a funny one to work out. Sometimes mid-week it can get pretty full after a bout of poor weather as fishos are keen to head out no matter what and throw sickies or take an RDO. More often they will pick the first good day if it was say a Thursday then surprisingly if the Friday is also good it will be nearly empty as they all went at the first opportunity. The way people work as also changed too with more people on shift work or out at the mines etc. working so many days on so many days off type rosters so if the weather is good there are always trailers at the ramp.
Signing off it is a bloody big fish bowl out there and the buggas can be anywhere in it. When you do then find them they then have to bite for you. By Anthony (Spot 82) saying he caught fish off 1770 or Greg (Reefmaster) saying he caught fish off Wide Bay Bar for example it is a long string to draw that fishing reports on this site are contributing to the demise of the fisheries off these sorts of places.
Skipper i dont think you really need to worry i no of alot of guy's that are amateur's that come back with very little for there efforts, i think that if you where to sit at the ramp on those busy weekends and ask the guy's coming in how they went you would be surprised at actually how many catch fish because a fair old amount of them just can't fish, they don't study the areas and work out when it fishes best alot of them leave to late come back to early dont work with the moons ect all resulting in poor results. So yeah one thing i do agree with you is probably not the best idea to post every time big catches ect on the areas that are firing but alot of people do like to post and really i dont think anything you say is going to stop that any way just my 2 cents worth.
I think Skipper07 comments have been taken slightly out of context by some, and in alot of ways i agree with him. Remember when Foggy and Aquarius started fishing Mud with plastics , with in 6 months it got very very popular. Look at all the guys chasing Threadies in the river 5 years ago very few were doing it, now it's very very popular , articals in bush&beach , modern fishing and on here must have an effect on the fishery. Foxy used to post alot on here and so did Greg ( reefmaster) i'm not sure but maybe they realized the articals were having an effect on the number of fisho's hitting the area's they talked about! I know after reading there post it incouraged me to try those areas!
I reakon that Smithy is spot on about improved motors, and gps are having an effect but i dont think it's a very long bow at all to say that a few good reports from an area will draw fisho to that area ! And as mentioned the hards is a prime example it was really only about 4 years ago that the average joe started hitting that area and as more good catches were posted the more it became popular.
I still think you should post reports but i also think you would be nieve to assume that people will not notice and want to try these areas themselves! It is after all a free world but i do get what skipper 07 was trying to say!
Ian
PS.
How have the MUDS been fishing lately!!:cool: :cool:
Alcohol doesn't agree with me, but i sure do enjoy the argument!!!
I fish off shore Cruise craft boat Cruise craft employs 35 at the factory in BrisbaneOriginally Posted by skipper07
Buy gear from Wilsons They employ 26
Buy other gear from tackle whare house they employ local 7
Buy fuel from servo they employ 8 plus refinery
Pay nearly 300 Dollars rego for the boat
Pay 180 for the trailer
Subscribe to 3 VMR's despite the affiliations because its a donation and a good cause
Motor Service local employs 1
Electronic installer GPS and Sounder employs 5
To support my addiction I have to earn a shitload of money pay a bucket load of tax just to be out there.
The thing I always ask myself and my crew “Gee we had a good day I wish we could give something back” maybe take some juveniles out and drop them in the ground to replenish what we took.
Some trips we don’t get anything worth mentioning, others we have a good catch I can tell you now that the good trips are somewhat lower than the bad ones.
In terms of 1770 and the hards its a 6 hour and 2 hour road trip not done lightly and all of the people who go there don’t catch a lot of fish, logistically its expensive and difficult.
In terms of commercial fishing I would compare it to Logging new growth forest it’s all take, take, take. Without management “it is an extraction industry” pretty much like hunting to the point of extinction” which we have nearly done with the minkie whales and mutton birds. A few will bleat about how they manage things but in reality its only legislation and policing that stops them from depleting the resource to extinction.
Sure there is pressure on the fishing resource offshore and we are seeing it every time we go out. But don’t whinge about the recreational fishers speak to the trawlers, long liners, commercial and charter operators (not all) that flog a particular piece of ground and have juvenile by catch that destroys the future of the fishery.
And when they all say “we care” ask them if they stop because they feel that the ground can’t handle any more extraction.
"light gear big fish big fun"
Swano might be speaking like an amatuer fisho, but YOUR comment skipper, are the most hypocritical.
The Pro fisho must be the most hardly done by person in the world with the ammount of whinging they/you do.
Yes you have loads of regs to follow, and why not? every other profession has, whether it be OHS, manufacturin standards etc, so stop bitching about yours.
Let me remind you that also, Pro's have NO TAC on any species and NO limits as to where they can use their gear and licence.
You argue that you see droves of amatuers travelling for hours to fish all these places? Well EVERY year I see the pro;s do the same thing and destroy my fishery. Every time the barra season opens see to pro's flock to hinchinbrook to take their fill, never mind that the tourism and Amatuer fishing dollar is worth more to the region. Every year when the crabs are running, pros from far and wide flock you our water to rape and pillage anything with legs and a shell, again, only to take their catch, and the dollars gained back to where they came from, the local community sees nothing of the dollars made, not even any local jobs, temp as they maybe come out of the great pro migration.
I agree with Swano, it is time to pull your head in as it is YOUR industry that has left many fisheries in the dire straits we now see, and so far every measure any level of govt has made has hurt more amatuer fisho's, and more people that depend on the business of amatuer fisho's than all of the pro sector put together.
We get slammed with more and tighter size and possession limits and it is the pros who get to use more gear to help them catch more fish which does nothing to help the fishery.
Next time you want to bitch about how amatuer bragging is ruining your livelihood, take a look through your own memories and rember the amount of fish you have caught, killed and wasted, and then when you look in the mirror, then you can see the major contributing factor to the decline of our fishery, and the decline of our support for the pro sector.
nuff said
By your theory, it must be devastating when I FISH (or any other fishing program) do a special on the sushine coast, the audience is far greater than ausfish....
I have known 4 professional fisherman, one of them is a relative....Where do you get the balls to lecture recs about sustainability....
You whinge about brizzy folk travelling to 1770 for a fish, but you have no issue with raping every last spotty via square hooks that would have been travelling to the bay..Families are actually catching spotties in the bay thanks to restricting the activities of the pros.....Explain to me how the netting practices at Mirrapool (its a green zone now - f$!ed it up for everyone) are sustainable?
As a professional fisherman, you have every right to make a living, however my experiences have left me with a very scinical view of your profession.
You might want to create a new ausfish account and start from scracth...you have no cred left.
your partially right skipper07 (are you related to kevin07??) i am a typical fisho and i am well aware of the hoops and barrels associated with pro fishing as i have been onboard a pro boat on several occasions and respect their commitment to remain above board and legal at all times.
as smithy says tecnology and reliability has put the once hard to reach and inacessable areas into the hands of the"TYPICAL AMATEUR FISHO " so the issue of telling everyone a general spot to launch their boat is irrelavant as i think and you know that i could give an exact GPS to a pinnacle and not everyone would know how to pull fish off it (see my latest post in offshore reports).
sorry if i came across a bit harsh in my first post but if it is getting to difficult for you to make a living then maybe you are in the wrong line of work , i am a chippy and do not whinge and whine about al the backyard blitz makeovers homeshows that are on the box robbing me of a living .....,,,,,NOT ,,,, as in post one , suck it up girl and think smarter than the others if you wanna come out in front. this is my final post on this thread and has reinforced my theory that 98% of ausfish is screwed up by the other 2%
cheers swano
I joined this site because I worked nearly every week-end for 5 years to save up to purchase a 6.3m tinny for offshore fishing. Until recently I have never been offshore fishing but with the help of a couple of members I now know a couple of general areas where to start and I can sound around from there. When I gain the knowledge I will be more then happy to help any new members that need it.
My feeling is that it is a massive ocean out there enough for every one to get a feed if they are prepared to put in the effort. It is an expensive obsession and with work and family commitments, the weather and cricket I might get out 10times a year, I love the water and love fresh fish just as much but I am not out to fill the esky but to catch a few fish for a couple of meals.
I have learnt from this site that most people are very protective of there spots and just give general areas. This site has a gps marks forum for those who wish to share fishing marks but it states that you don't have to give exact co-ordinates just general areas.
When you spend $30k on a boat, and about $200 per trip, love fishing and rarely
get to do so it would be great to catch a few fish every trip. I bought a waterproof camera just before going to Darwin on holidays and I have just started putting up posts of my trips and experiences hoping that other people will learn from my mistakes or gain from my success.
I thought the idea of this site is to learn, to help and share experiences ?
Skip, why did you join this site ??
I always find it somewhat ironic when I hear a commercial fisher refer to himself as a 'Pro' and brand a rec fisher as an 'amature' for I see precious little that the commercial fisher does that is professional,in fact I would say that the majority of rec fishers are far more professional in their approach.
Skipper07.....get over yourself.
The amatuer who catches 10 against the pro who catches hundreds of kilos in 1 day..
Hrmmm, nothing annoys me more then a weekend of no fish on the usual spots cause theres 1000m of net around it.
I try do 1 trip a month to 1770 and most of the time we get a good bag of reds and other fish. Thats only 12 trips a year at best and with the current weather maybe 6 is a good run for the year. A pro could fish everyday in a week if there was 7 straight days of good weather. Its my lively hood to be able to go when i can and put some good fish in the esky. If by posting reports of fishing 1770 I increase the awareness of "tourists" to the great fishing in this area, then so be it. 1770 is a massive area with lots of areas that hold fish at different times of the year. We usually travel 350km a trip and some spots are up to 100km from the ramp. so much water out there and so many fish / spot still there.
Guys, I think you may have taken the post alittle the wrong way.
I'm more then happy to help anyone, and give ideas and what works best. All I'm saying is protect what you know alittle. I don't want an argument or I'm not trying to look after my own interest. We will always out fish the weekend guy purley due to doing more hours and km when ever the weather is good. What I saying is guys you should try and protect what you do as you guys are the last guys to eat (so to speak) offshore.
It's funny people think pro's take 100 of Kilo's in fish every trip. Even we have very lean trips. There are very tight rules, quoters in what we catch. We can't just fill the boat.
We fish everywhere from wide of the Cape morton up to off Fraser. We cover this area because the weather always seems to have aline from around Noosa that seperates better weather patterns.
At the end of the day the water (Reefs) is as much as yours as it is mine. You just have to rememebr it's more then the weekend fisho who reads these sites.
I like Smithy's little operation - doesn't go out and fill the boat. he teaches people technique, really everything. You take some large charter boats - 10 people + with 30ft and who also run a Pro licesense. these guys read reports as well. If your saw what some of these operations bring back over a week of good weather you would think there was no fish left out there.
the Gold Coast is a very good example of this.
Sorry to touch a few nerves, but it's worth a good thought.
Good to keep some info up your sleeve.
Let me remind you that also, Pro's have NO TAC on any species and NO limits as to where they can use their gear and licence.
Scott nthqld
interesting..
spotty mackeral tac 140 tonne to which the trigger point has not been reached yet.
coral reef fin. quota system in which you have to buy quota to catch that fish. thats a tac is it not. there is only so much quota available for each species.
then you have to have an rq symbol to do so which is divided into 3 . coral trout, other species and red troat. trying buying coral trout at around $50 kg for quota.
spanish mackeral quota system and sm symbol.
tac again.
then you have to have a licence to fish certain area's.
do a bit of research before posting hey..
just because i have yellow numbers on my boat doesn't make me a better fisherman, nor does it give me anymore right to be on the ocean but also does not make me a carpark for 100 other boats to come drop the pick on me.
there's quite a few on here that ring to find out what's happening and so forth, it's easy i'm on the water everyday and i am quite happy to share a bit of info.
we are all out there for the same reasons, to catch fish.
show me a bit of respect and i will do the same...
over and out
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