New bag and size limits as of today

[Noelm]

Rec fisherman decided to increase the commercial quota for Coral trout...?...yeah right..!..

I don't know how many of the boffins have been sitting on a reef system when a live trout boat sets up camp next to them and dispatch's all their little dories to smash every bommie in the general area...you might as well up anchor and go home...

With major new rec boating infrastructure and ramps going in around Cairns and Mission beach that had been planned for ages I just don't get it...

The effect of a robust rec fishing sector on the economy via spend from fisho's, reef charter and tourism has to be manyfold more than just relatively few jobs on the trout boats with all the fish heading offshore and any dead fish commanding $50 a kg or more and overpriced for local non fisho's...

I don't get how they work out their number for quota anyway...for most of us its not so much the total number but more so the numbers on a particular set of reefs or the fishing pressure in your local area.

For example, after camping a couple to several times a years In Missionary bay for years now..we dont even bother taking crab traps any more...and we talk to many other guys down there, some who plan ahead and come from interstate to fish that magnificent area for up to a week at a time and very few can actually catch a legal crab..and all just because of a local pro crabber or 2 who just dont smash the area on a daily basis but also go zipping up every single little creek in the area every single day buzzing any basking croc into the water and upsetting quiet lure casters who are trying to sneak around with their trolling motor...

I know the boffins dont take into account these sort of external factors that are not wholly based on fish science/numbers but are crucial to the livelihoods of many businesses in many small towns along the GBR coastline...

I don't quite understand why when a pro boat, with dories, line fishing, would make you pack up and go home, they are fishing the same as you, and as such, have just as much chance as you at catching something, that logic doesn't make a lot of sense to me, just as why a crabber would continue to "smash" an area daily when you say there's no crabs left there, wouldn't the pros move on?

[NAGG]

I don't quite understand why when a pro boat, with dories, line fishing, would make you pack up and go home, they are fishing the same as you, and as such, have just as much chance as you at catching something, that logic doesn't make a lot of sense to me, just as why a crabber would continue to "smash" an area daily when you say there's no crabs left there, wouldn't the pros move on?

I would have thought that a commercial boat sitting on a reef for days on end - operating several dories would have a considerable impact on an area . These blokes do it for a living and their effort would be much higher than the average rec fisher . They will be out there working on days that would keep the rec angler in port . I certainly don't know of too many people that carry a bathyscope to aid with their fishing (probably should for trout).

Chris

[chris69]

Any trout or line boat would not stay at a reef for more than a day or 2 as the reef shuts down with the boat activity so its not that all the fish are caught there just smarter than the guys trying to catch them.

[Volvo]

Any trout or line boat would not stay at a reef for more than a day or 2 as the reef shuts down with the boat activity so its not that all the fish are caught there just smarter than the guys trying to catch them.

Where your wrong buddy , some stay out the for two or three weeks till they are full up.
Pay for deckies wages profit n expenses.
Wouldnt do that in two days.
1700 or so fizh per trip for some. But thats their living .

[Volvo]

I have some good friends who do it for a living ( And Nice Folk too ) and dont begrudge them their living , they work hard and cant say there isnt any risk involved when they are out there so long. What annoys me is when regs are brought in as if the Rec Fisho is doing damage to the Fishery..
Something to think about is for when someone from the Country travels to the Coast few times a year to enjoy the passtime and try catch a feed to take home at the same time.
Their input into the economy per each time they may travel including Fuel for Boat and Car , accomodation , bait , Ice , tackle etc can run quite costly, whilst say for me for example who lives on the Coast and if the weather permits can run out to the reef for a day trip and if not can run up a creek somewhere for a feed of Bream , Whiting or whatever ??>
Now who would you say has more input into the economy and who is most dissadavataged ??..
And i still dont believe we should be trying to feed the rest of the World with our Product !!!!!!...
Also Believe the nursery grounds where fish rely to grow , spawn etc should be no go for Commercial activeties ..
My Two Bobs worth mindyou and i am not a Scientist ..

[Dirtyfuzz]

Coral trout no's are very robust on the GBR. Ie even with the small increase in the quota the fishing pressure is very light.

I call bullshit, coral trout fishery gets hit hard from the commercial and charter sector, swains reef is a shadow of its former self!


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[chris69]

Where your wrong buddy , some stay out the for two or three weeks till they are full up.
Pay for deckies wages profit n expenses.
Wouldnt do that in two days.
1700 or so fizh per trip for some. But thats their living .

Well your wrong they stay out for weeks....... yes..... just not on the same reef have you ever been to the swains there's more than a couple of reefs you might want to read what I wrote before you have a go they don't stay on
a reef .

[bluefin59]

There is no evidence that coral trout no's are anything but robust on the GBR. Also the spending you describe is consumer discretionary If it wasn't spent on fishing then why wouldn't it be spent on some other recreation?

Tell that to the people of Cooktown and see what they say , quite a nomber of pros have moved up the coast to Cooktown from cairns and are taking the local reefs by storm decemating the fishing areas that the loo calls have been using for years . And that’s from the horses mouth as in the local rec anglers up there . Matt

[billfisher]

I call bullshit, coral trout fishery gets hit hard from the commercial and charter sector, swains reef is a shadow of its former self!


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Well the latest stock assessment says otherwise:

http://era.daf.qld.gov.au/id/eprint/...nal%202019.pdf

"Over the last five years, 2013-14 to 2017-18, the Queensland total harvest averaged 983 tonnes (t) per year. Sectoral shares were 82% commercial (806 t) and 18% recreational (177 t). Note that commercial harvest is based on logbook reporting, whereas recreational harvest is estimated and subject to greater uncertainty.
The previous stock assessment estimated that in July 2012 the stock was at 60% of unfished biomass (i.e. before fishing began) over the areas commonly fished by commercial fishers. This stock assessment updates the existing model to cover the full extent of the GBR in Queensland waters and includes harvest information from the recreational sector.
This stock assessment used a spatial age-structured model with a yearly time step based on financial years. The model considered twelve spatial sub-populations (“strata”) of fish based primarily on differences in coral reef habitat.
The model incorporated data spanning the period from 1961-62 to 2017-18 (including commercial harvest (1988-89 to 2017-18); historical commercial (1961-62 to 1981-82); recreational harvest (199697 to 2013-14); age monitoring (1994-95 to 2004-05); and underwater visual surveys (1982-83 to 2017-18)).
Model analyses suggested that biomass declined between 1951-52 and 2003-04 to 55% unfished biomass. In 2017-18, the stock level was estimated to be 68% unfished total biomass.
Maximum sustainable yield (MSY) was estimated at 1740 t per year, and the yield consistent with a biomass ratio of 68% (a proxy for maximum economic yield in this fishery) was estimated at 1398 t (all sectors, excluding Torres Strait)".

[Volvo]

Well your wrong they stay out for weeks....... yes..... just not on the same reef have you ever been to the swains there's more than a couple of reefs you might want to read what I wrote before you have a go they don't stay on
a reef .

Where did i say they stay on the same Reef ??...

[disorderly]

I don't quite understand why when a pro boat, with dories, line fishing, would make you pack up and go home, they are fishing the same as you, and as such, have just as much chance as you at catching something, that logic doesn't make a lot of sense to me, just as why a crabber would continue to "smash" an area daily when you say there's no crabs left there, wouldn't the pros move on?

A couple of the guys above have partly answered your questions and its a hard thing to explain if you haven't fished up this way before.....

they are better and more clued in then the average fisho and certainly me and they use the bathyscope and they are fit, fast guys in little manoeuvrable dories that don't even have to anchor which makes it easy to just stop at every pressure point and drop a line straight onto the trouts head basically....and as also mentioned they just anchor on each system till its been done over and then just move on to the next and repeat until the tanks are full and then just meet up with a truck and offload and keep moving...most of the reef is 40-100km's out so there are also just so many days and weeks when its very difficult for a rec guy to get out with sometimes many months of 15-20 knot tradewinds blowing....

The reefs here are just made up of a lot of coral bommies and outcrops with just sand in between.....the trout often hang out on those bommies and are the dominant fish that if a bait is dropped in the right zone they will scoott out and grab it....when the live trout boats anchor up on a reef system they just send out the dories and they virtually hit every bommie possible...they miss some and more trout move in to replace those taken over time but they really do "smash" it hard.....I had a look through a live trout holding facility in cairns one day......I forget how many the guy told me were there but it was many thousands or tens of thousands at any given time....

as for the mudcrabs..I didnt say there were none left there...I am only allowed 4 pots and my strike rate over the last 5 years makes it not worthwhile... ..I'm not sure how many the pro guys can have ..but there are nine short creeks in the Missionary bay system and when they are checking all their pots it takes them quite a while buzzing up and down all the creeks...

[TheRealPoMo]

Without fail - every time the subject comes up about limiting recreational catch rates , closures , slot limits , marine reserves etc - there will always be fishoes that cry "foul" . they will cite "the science" or lack of - how it will destroy the boating & tackle industry / the cost of running my big boat etc ……. this thread is yet another example.

Just maybe - these changes imposed are in fact nothing more than a method of social engineering ….. a way of getting it out of our mind that fishing isn't a free for all way of harvesting protein. Because as night follows day many will ask themselves Is there a cost benefit or not........ I'm talking about the kill it & fillet it brigade - you know the type , those that carry the biggest ice box they can carry or go away with a freezer in tow.
I'll keep saying it - fishoes can be greedy buggers & if they can fill that esky …. they will & if regulations are put in place - many will flout them or try to find a way around them - talk of upgrades , or what other target species can we bag out on …… it's common to hear this.

There is an attitude that - there isn't a problem ….. because look at what I'm catching - except for the fact that they have probably towed their boat 100s of Kms from home & driven their boat 70 nm to some remote reef to make sure they get those fish.

I'm sorry if some of you feel offended by what I've written …… but from what I've seen , heard & experienced through my time on the water - I can totally understand how we have arrived at this point.

Chris

Well said Chris.
That ain't recreation.

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[Noelm]

Can't say that a bathyscope would be that expensive, or difficult to use, if you think that's how they smash the fish, just buy one, it's just another "tool" no different to your GPS, sounder, $700 reel or fancy boat, if you can't beat them, join them! Let's be perfectly clear here, I am not defending or hanging shit on anyone, I am just kind of pointing out that shit fights get nothing done, and we can't have it all our own way all the time.

[disorderly]

Can't say that a bathyscope would be that expensive, or difficult to use, if you think that's how they smash the fish, just buy one, it's just another "tool" no different to your GPS, sounder, $700 reel or fancy boat, if you can't beat them, join them! Let's be perfectly clear here, I am not defending or hanging shit on anyone, I am just kind of pointing out that shit fights get nothing done, and we can't have it all our own way all the time.

You really need to watch them work to appreciate how good they are at their craft....and I do have a bathyscope but its not much use on a regular fishing boat ..much better suited to a very low sided , centre console dory that catchs little wind and is much easier to lean over the side as well as fish out of......all very easy when you have a mothership anchored up in the lee of a reef system and you can just buzz back and forward rather then needing a 100-200km round trip to catch your 7 trout......

[Volvo]

You know at the end of the day each and every one of us will talk ourselves to death over this and other topics , fill in time and get nowhere except satisfy our own ego lol.
Which tends to be the norm with Forums . We all have a point and as long as we appreciate each others point of view all good .
Would like to think in fifteen ,twenty years from no i can get up and say "Toldya so" but that would mean i would get to live as long as my Mom or close there and somehow doubt it but if i do and Ausfish is still up n running i will get up n say " Toldya so "..