Skimming through last 4 weeks 3 facebook groups

[Muzza]

Gazza,
Every one will be different for sure, but if you can get away feeding 3 teenage boys one fillet, good luck to you!
2 fish to the parents = 4 fish. The missus' parents and your parents, leaves 6 fish, which is 12 fillets before you feed your own tribe. Don't get too specific mate or we'll be doing maths all day. And we haven't even started on elderly neighbours and friends getting the odd feed, grandparents etc.
So let's leave it at that eh? It's legal , some will get one feed, some may live alone and keep em all themselves and get a lot of feeds. No one is breaking the law and the price of meat I will never blame anyone.
Muz
PS I'm over 6'3 and over 115 kilo so 3-4 fillets for me :-)

[Noelm]

Bit of a funny one Flathead, if you fillet, skin and debone, there's bugger all left, even off a decent Flathead, I fish for Sand Flathead (Blue Spot) now and then, and catching my bag of 10 is pretty easy, but when prepared, I would eat 3-4 fillets myself (2 fish) my wife maybe 2 fillets, kids a couple each, then add the grandkids (we usually have a "fish night") it doesn't take long for 10 Flatties to disappear, I usually only keep the bigger ones and between us, we get 20 fish, that leaves only a few fillets for the fridge or freezer. Kingfish are a different story, you get a fair return of flesh when filleted, boned, skinned and all the blood meat cut off, but, it still takes a decent one, or a couple of "just legal" for our family fish meal. Size and bag limits have been debated, digested, spat out and argued about countless times, and there is no clear winner, the average Joe who fishes once a month and might catch a few fish, V the "full time" fishers (like most of us) who fish regularly all have a very different view on sizes and bag/boat limits.

[gunna]

Size and bag limits have been debated, digested, spat out and argued about countless times, and there is no clear winner, the average Joe who fishes once a month and might catch a few fish, V the "full time" fishers (like most of us) who fish regularly all have a very different view on sizes and bag/boat limits.

Thats it in a nutshell. People see a photo and jump on the size of the capture. They don’t know how many fishermen in the boat. They don’t know how many are in a persons family. They don’t know if the person won’t fish again for another 6 months. Fishery departments generally understand the different fish stocks and set limits accordingly. In any event, 90% of fishoes never get near bag limits anyway.

[Barry Ehsman]

I am one of the one's who head north ( an 8 hr trip) to get our bag of Winter Whiting. Between the 2 of us we can keep 100 fish that equals 200 fillets, 10 bags of 20 ( a nice feed ). by the time the rellie's get a feed they are all gone in no time.

[Lovey80]

Hey Digs we use to have the 20 limit on a lot of our fish range but fisheries has lowered that number now im a bit happier seeing the bag limit today but not stoked intirely i still think theres room for improvement like 1 jew fish but 5 king fish?

Who’s seriously taking 5 kingies anyway? Outside of a fresh feed/sashimi that night, they’d have to be in the second/third tier of table fish. Unless fishing is really tough, kingies and amberjack/Samson fish get released by most up this way.

if you’re looking to freeze fillets from your once every 3 month fishing trip I can think of probably 30 species of fish I’d keep before kingfish. I’ve actually moved off wrecks because they were a pest at me getting g to target species.

[Muzza]

Good call Lovey80,
People who actually go fishing and catch fish and eat fish know what can be eaten fresh and what can be kept and frozen and what cannot or in some cases should not.
Some just have boats
Cheers
Muz

[Noelm]

I always have a few fillets in the freezer, just for "emergencies" like if I feel like fish, but haven't been out, mainly Snapper or Bream, but that's about it, maybe 2-3 medium fillets, now and then I might freeze something else, but, living right on the beach, I can usually get a feed of something if I'm desperate. I think it depends on the species whether to freeze or not, I have had some reef fish from my visits up North and they freeze OK.

[Lucky_Phill]

In Qld we have several rules governing recreational fishing. These rules are determined by our Government with input from the department ( Fisheries Queensland ).

Significant research is done to attain a bio-mass of a species and then work out a sustainable catch of that species.

The rules change very regularly depending on the end result of specific research.

Stakeholders have input to the research and each stakeholder wants a different outcome.

Just because there is a bag limit on a species, does not mean a recreational fisher will achieve that limit, in fact the data shows very few do.

An issue is there is no parity between stakeholders. Also, most recreational fishers don't know or understand the rules, even some Fisheries Officers have been found wanting when put to the test.

How do we justify a catch ? Person A fishers once a year and hits bag limit........... person B fishers 20 times a year and hits bag limit on 10 occasions..........

The rules are in place to provide the best possible outcome for the fishery, we need to accept that and work with it as it evolves.

I think it more important to identify specific marine areas that are under more fishing pressure than others and maybe apply rules pertaining to that area, rather than a broad state wide declaration. Very hard to do and won't happen. Implementation of Seasonal closures, bag limits, boat limits, slot limits and green zones are having an impact. Is this sufficient to offset the recreational fisher population expansion. ?

In the end, fish within the rules, take only what you need and be polite at boat ramps.

On a personal note, I hate the " tarp of death " photos. Only because, and IMO, they are not treating their catch with respect and best practice.

LP

[Noelm]

How about we look at another kind of catch rate, we get quite a few big Yellowfin Tuna down this way, and most are taken for the table, some are released, some are simply wasted for burley or dumped (but that's another issue altogether) now let's say I get a decent Tuna that I intend to eat, this Tuna is 50KG, properly prepared, there will be about 25KG of flesh, now let's be serious, even I am not going to eat 25KG of Tuna, so, I give some away, quite often to tourists at the ramp. To look at it in perspective, would I have been better off releasing that fish and keeping a smaller one? (It's still only one fish, whether big or small) is it any different to catching a bag limit of Flathead and giving most away? Flathead are way more common than Tuna! I don't profess to agree or disagree with bag limit catches, it's just a kind if obscure twisted example of how one rule/law doesn't fit everyone, just as Phil suggested that bag limits don't fit an entire state. Fishing is a very personal thing, and all kinds of people fish, there's the sports fisherman who takes nothing, there's the sports fisherman who only keeps "trophy" sized fish, there's the tourist who fishes once a year from a jetty with a hand line, there's straight out "meat" fishermen, who catch as many as they can, laws or no laws, it's just so hard to get realistic data on everyone, and introduce laws that suit, so, the authorities just have a "best guess" on what data is available.

[disorderly]

Very well said Phil...


and the point about "identifying specific marine areas" is a interesting one..

Its always going to be difficult if not impossible to achieve total perfection in a fishery like QLD with a coastline of 7000 kms and all the stakeholders involved are never going to be entirely happy...


And on the point about fishing photo's we often see the "Driveway of Death" red emperor and coral trout photo's from the areas around 1770/Fraser island as its a hotspot for a lot of SE QLD fisho's and the closest GBR fishing areas renowned for reef fish to Brisbane...whats not often mentioned is that due to the location and the distance needed to travel to get out wide and the weather on top of that and peoples busy lifestyle often those trips are carefully planned in advance and maybe just once a year or just often very infrequently...

It often looks like a lot of fish when a boat with 4 blokes that have spent big money on their yearly trip show a photo of 80 fish but average that out per week over a year and its really not that much and it doesnt happen that often that you do actually "bag out"..hence the photo's of that special trip if you ever do.....

A couple of other things to point out for the FNQ fisho's .

Often the distances needed to travel to reach decent reef fishing destinations can be vast...an average trip for us can be 60 km's out for regular fishing for Trout ,Red throat and Spanish while it may be 70-80 kms from land for Reds ands the larger pelagics out near the shelf.

For those that dont know or havent fished in FNQ we actually have to travel 40-50kms out just to get get to the reefs and also to find water deeper than 40m or so.

Taking all that into account , the fish are often quite shy to bite during the heat of summer and the wet season often intrudes on fishing time then we have the winter tradewind season that often lasts through to September/ October and can blow 15-25 knots for weeks at a time ,where we plan and hope that sometimes we may get a day or 2 break between the constant high pressure systems which are moving across the country during that period..often these scarce good days rarely fall on a weekend to enable the poor 9-5 working fisho's a chance to beat the 20 knot sou-easters and try and catch their 7 coral trout .

Rest assured that the catchs are much appreciated and with most even the "wings" and cheek meat is not wasted and the carcasses often used for crab bait, stock or in the garden..


And as mentioned by Phil..the fisheries are closely monitored and stocks regularly assessed and bag limits adjusted and closed seasons introduced if needed (Black Jew were recently no take for a period of time after the commercial quota was reached)..we also have several 5 day reef fishing closures during spawning periods each year.....

The QLD fisheries seem to be in pretty good hands IMO...

I cant speak for NSW but cant imagine they wouldnt be as well managed as our state..?

Just a shame that some ill-informed people cherry pick a few random photos to push an agenda of rape and pillage of marine resources without having much clue what they are actually talking about..or just spout off without having done any actual research and knowing any of the facts or dont actually do much fishing or are jealous that someone gets a win on their day off and gets a good catch.....it often seems that these clowns have the loudest voices on the internet and social media...

I'm not a big fan of the "Lawn of Death" photo's either but maybe the fact that they are actually there shows that its quite rare..if it were very commonplace they probably wouldnt bother lining them all up on the hot ground for a photo...

and just for the record most reef fish do indeed freeze very well if properly looked after from capture ..

and our fish are vacuum packed labelled and dated into different sized portions of skinned, boned and filleted goodness that still seems very good even 6 months after deep freezing..



A link to a recent Fisheries survey of Red Throat biomass numbers to show that fisheries are as serious as a heart attack when it comes to research into the health of our fisheries and how they might arrive at bag limits....click on the PDF for the 55 page report......

http://era.daf.qld.gov.au/id/eprint/...uH-vpvRe24QPjA

Happy fishing for those that fish and those that dont, really should...they might actually enjoy it ,learn something in the process and get themselves a decent feed as well.....

[Dignity]

Hey Muzz not sure how much fish u wanna eat but lets say 10 flatties at 45cm thats 20 fillets, family of 5 (2 adults 3 children) 2 fillets per adult a fillet a child still leaves 13 fillets

I donno how much fish people eat but for me 1x fillet from a 45cm flatty would be plenty with chips or squid

Gazza as you eat fast food several times a day you should release all your fish

[gazza2006au]

Sorry i rock the boat guys.. me personally i have never eatin a fish i have caught but yeah i have brought fish homefor family at most was 2 legal king fish but i release all kingys now due to having to much meat

99% of my fishing is catch and release i just cant bring my srlf to eat afish i have caught and killed

Happy to eat a tiny bit of fish from ocean master or the takeaway shop

Just keep seeing people take 20-30 fish ad thats just what is shown on the internet, im all about preserving our natural stocks for the future

[Noelm]

I doubt there is many on here who don't think about the future, but taking what you need and what's legal is quite different to just killing everything you catch (in my opinion) and there is nothing wrong with taking a feed of fish. The fish you buy at the local takeaway has to come from somewhere, more than likely some unregulated country that just takes what they like, processes it and sends it to us.

[tunaticer]

It's quite easy to do the math on bag limits if you do a trailer count at your local ramps.
For each trailer allow 2.5 ppl to average it out....
Pick a species and the bag limit for your area.
Multiply the supposed number of fishers by the bag limit of a species to get a gross catch at the best possible legal bag for everyone.

Ask your self if that number is sustainable in your area, every day of every week?
Do the same math for the different species in your area, not just the one species.

I know that different boats will be targeting different fish and a substantial number of fishers won't get their bag limit, but that is a safety buffer for the fish stocks.
Subtract from that the illegal catches by arseholes in todays society that don't obey or know size and possession limits

I would rather enjoy a day of catch and release and only taking a meal of fish a day than spending all day to catch a meal. We are currently fast approaching the latter.

Here is an example....9 litre bag limit of prawns...Pine River....100 boats over the 4 ramps in the system = 250 cast netters = 2,250 litres of prawns per day....
Now lets expand on that, 250 cast netters each throwing their nets roughly 100 times to get their 9 litres each = 25,000 casts of a 10' drop cast net.....now how much raping of the river with cast nets is sustainable?
Now ask yourself how much damage is done to the river by those cast nets 7 days per week and how much damage is done by the two licensed small beam trawlers in the river that take their quota 5 days a week with an average of 4 hours work a day? Remember the trawlers are limited to a far smaller area to work than the cast netters.

BTW I throw my cast net enough to get a feed for myself and some live bait for the day, nothing more....max of about 15 casts.

I would be happy for even further reduced bag limits if the minimum sizes were increased by about 30% for all fish except flathead and jewfish which I think the size limits are decent. Kill less numbers for the same amount of food.

[TheRealPoMo]

In the end, fish within the rules, take only what you need and be polite at boat ramps.

On a personal note, I hate the " tarp of death " photos. Only because, and IMO, they are not treating their catch with respect and best practice.

LP

This sums it up for me 100%.
Thanks Lucky_Phil.

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