Slaughter of flathead

[Archer]

Nice fish mate, Thats a good bank for Flatties there got a few nice ones off there last summer.

[onerabbit]

Hey Maxwellson,

It was great to meet you the other morning ( it was a bit dark),

& REALLY not trying to be a thorn in anyone's side...............

I respect the fact that you SP guys release most of your fish.

I struggle with the thought that you think an "old age" fish still is capable of fullfilling it's natural cycle, even though they roe up.
A bit like asking an "older woman" (had to be diplomatic there) to still expect to be fertile & reproduce?????????

I understand that it's possible...................

I'll just move back to the side line now & wait for the flak,

Muzz

[eatmybait]

Interesting debate...here's my 2 cents.

About 23 years ago as a teenager I used to fish Westernport Bay near Melbourne. Flathead were prolific, like plague proportions, and your bait would be engulfed as soon as it hit the bottom. We'd drift in the bay, so we weren't targeting large ones in the estuary.

Last year I bought a boat. I now fish Port Phillip Bay to target Snapper. Well the flathead are still just as prolific as they were all those years ago. In the bays there are heaps of small flatties.

I think the seals, sharks and other predators are taking far more big flatties than fishermen. These predators are the reason you don't see too many giants. The ratio of small flatties - which is annoying when targeting snapper - to big flatties is just too great.

[hooknose]

Hey OneRabbit'
Not dumping on you mate but got an 82cm Lizard up at the Pimpama about 6 weeks ago on a live mullet. I was spewing because when it came up I could see it was a really fat fish obviously fully roed up. When I was getting it off the hooks(prior to release) it threw up 2 small flathead( 14 cm approx and a mullet) it also started pissing out what looked to me to be heaps of eggs even though I was gentle with it.

Now i'm no scientist but I would say that this big flathead was definately feeding up for a successful finish to its breeding process and those eggs that were coming from the fish looked perfectly formed and healthy( she was probably liberating them when she took my live poddy). The only other fish eggs I had ever seen in the past were Barra eggs "milked" from a big female they caught in a supervised net) by researchers at our local creek in C.Q., let me tell you these eggs looked exactly the same and probably were " good as gold"

Why would a fish be feeding up etc if it was barren and dumping dead and useless eggs ?- It just doesn't make sense.

Like I said I was spewing ( I stressed it out for sure) that I even hooked it and I know in my mind that these fish surely are fertile and need to be released for sure.

ps- I got it straight back in the water and didnt even take a photo although I usually do.
Cheers !!!

[onerabbit]

Hey guys,

most of my fishing is done out at sea, I normally fish in the estuary about once a month.

My point in the debate wasn't about whether a fish should be eaten or released, more about it's ability to reproduce.

Hooknose, I have also seen large fish brimming with roe.
I have also seen very small fish fully roed as well, for the opposite reason, I doubt whether these small fish also would have produced a great deal of viable eggs either.

I may be way off track, but to me, it makes sense that the younger, more active, more horny fish, would be the mainstay of the breeding stock more than just the old pluggers (ie, 5kg+).

Just my opinion,

Muzz

[roz]

Hey guys,

most of my fishing is done out at sea, I normally fish in the estuary about once a month.

My point in the debate wasn't about whether a fish should be eaten or released, more about it's ability to reproduce.

Hooknose, I have also seen large fish brimming with roe.
I have also seen very small fish fully roed as well, for the opposite reason, I doubt whether these small fish also would have produced a great deal of viable eggs either.

I may be way off track, but to me, it makes sense that the younger, more active, more horny fish, would be the mainstay of the breeding stock more than just the old pluggers (ie, 5kg+).

Just my opinion,

Muzz

Muzz,

IMHO, I don't think it's a good idea to compar the breeding cycle of fish to those of mammals.

Another thing to consider is that larger fish eg. a 5kg flathead, has possibly reached that size because of superior genes and a strong constitution, nature would want those genes passed on to another generation of fish.

So I think a fish like the 5kg flathead, would be 'in roe' for a very good reason.

Just my thoughts.

r.

[maxwellson]

yet it happens again...

apart from this fish, this weeks winner in the stupid comp weighed in at 6.760 kgs....it took the lead.....WHO CARES !!!....
contiual removing of the large breeders will do nothing but decline the species in this system......and all systems....

just looked at fishing monthly report and found this.....

have a look at last weeks report ........also.......

http://reports.fishingmonthly.com.au...pic.php?t=1458

we need some proactive action here....... in nsw......

there are some guys weighing live here and they should be commended.


regards Paul

[robyoung1]

I don't wanna stir anyone up at all (and that might be hard); but I find it amazing how much things have changed since I was a kid. In so much as attitude toward flathead as a species I mean. They were the scourge of the rivers in Bruns. when I was a kid. Some people said they liked eatin them, but they were mainly ever considered worthy to nail up on a tree somewhere, to show off against the previous one crusified there aswell.. and so on...
I remeber one season when a real good run of horse bream were being caught in the river, some blokes pondered if a poison could be developed to clear away the flathead, so they wouldn't get in the way of the real fishing.

Please don't shoot me, I'm just remembering how it was.

cheers
rob

[Squiggle]

The other side of the coin was seeing someone catch around 15 of these and alot of these were smaller than some of the bream we had been throwing back.