confused mackrel rig

[bigal]

Upon returning to the tweed river after a mackrel trip(unsucesful i might ad) i was pulled over by the fisheries dept for the usual license inspection. upon pulling up beside the boat i handed him my license and he notised my mackrel trolling rigs hanging off my rod. the rig consited of a 10/0 circle front 6/0 big gun trailing hook (two hook rig) and a small trebble on a dangleing length of wire. this is a rig used for trolling for macks that i often see posted on ausfish. he pointed out that that rig could get me in a lotta trouble as the trebble hanging of it could be consued as being a device to jag fish. techniclay it is but he stated that jaging fish in nsw is illegal and trebles belong on lures not on trolling rigs. that seemed fair to me, being i did tell him what i was using it for( trolling live horseys and mack tuna) so all i did was took out my pliers and cut the trebble off. mad sense to me the way he said it.

[bigal]

on a different trip drifting round the mouth of the river higs speed jigging for big pelagics a different officer came over to our boat as he thought we were jaging. we lifted our ligs out of the water one being a 40grm raider one being a 90mm sp he said that i should be very careful as what we were doing could be viewed as trying to jag fish. this was a year or two though so we just kept on doing it.
i know all of the rules to do with fishing our river (tweed) so what they said seemed understandable. any comments will be apreciated. cheers al

[devocean]

I have also been told that I cant use trebles when fishing before. Bit crazy because youd have no chance jagging a spanish mac anyway

[Heath]

Got this from the Legislation in regards to Fisheries in NSW..



Fisheries Management (General) Regulation 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

76 Jagging or foul hooking of fish

(1) In this clause, jagging means the use of any device or instrument that is intended to hook fish otherwise than through the mouth.
(2) A person must not take or attempt to take fish by the method of jagging.

Maximum penalty: 25 penalty units.

(3) Nothing in this clause prevents the use of a gaff as an auxiliary to the taking of fish (other than trout) after the fish has been hooked.

So yes, your free swinging treble could be classed as a jagging device. However, if it were in the bait, then I doubt it could be.

[Jethro]

Many years ago when I was at school I did work experiance with Fisheries (NSW).

The guy I was working with told me that if you put a couple of feathers and some reflective tape on a large jag hook it is no longer a jag hook its a lure. And if that lure happens to acidently hook a few mullet while you are using it there is nothing they can do.

Not sure I would like to test it though.

Miught be worth adding a couple of feathers to the rig

[devocean]

What does 25 penalty units add up to? GRUMPA hasnt changed the currecy have they? Who knows what they will do next.

[Dug]

How often have you foul hooked a fish while casting lures into a school of feeding fish?

I have done this many times.

Should I hand myself in to the authorities?

[Sideshow_Cod]

simple really. it is a technicality, and now you know.
the reason behind the law is to stop people in other parts of the state NSW,abusing certain schooling populations. Like most fishing laws they have to make it state wide.

[nonibbles]

Devo,
A penalty unit is currently worth about $75. The legislation is written such that they only have to change the value of a penalty unit with inflation without having to rewrite the law.

[Jeremy]

Bigal,

don't let yourself get bullied. Trolling aint the same as jagging, regardless of your rig. Neither is high speed spinning. I used to jag mullet and it is pretty different to anything else.

Tell them to piss off unless they want to book you for jagging a fish, and they will have to catch you in the act DELIBERATELY trying to jag a fish to do that.

Jeremy

[bigal]

bugger em i just cut the trebbile of and go without it. i cant catch mackrel anyways.

[damons33]

nonibbles-pity they don't apply that same "unit" principle to income tax bracketing and peg it to the cpi. thats how we get "ghost" tax increases annually from the federal government
jeremy- it don't pay to aggrivate someone who can book you, a day in court is a day without pay. thats how our state governments and local governments steal from the people they work for instead of standing for the "purpose" the law was inacted for!

damon

[coral_critter]

Devocean,
We're the only poor buggers that have to put up with GBRMPA.

[mono]

Hi all, there is a good article written by Tye Porter in the current BushN Beach, page 10, re 'Jagging'. The article says it all.
As far as using trebles in a mackerel rig- tell them to get stuffed. There is no way they can 'legally' bust you for it unless you have no bait on the rig and you are caught 'in the act' of physically using the rig as a jag.
Cheers
Mono

[Fishinmishin]

Exactly Jeremy.
Seems they are on a bit of a power trip drown there. [smiley=policeman.gif] [smiley=rifle.gif] [smiley=stop.gif]
Jay