Your ideas and views on bag limits for Qld

[zedjack33]

Amen [smiley=wut.gif] [smiley=wut.gif] [smiley=wut.gif] [smiley=wut.gif] [smiley=wut.gif]

[DaneCross]

Just on policing, we arrived back at the boat ramp on Sunday just as two fisheries officers pulled up. They casually asked my mate (the only licenced driver on our boat) if he had a licence. My mates reply was, "yes, but not on me." With no follow up, they then asked if we had caught anything. My mates reply was, "Yeh we got one little one" referring to the 55cm flathead in the esky. Then without even checking the size of this 'little one' we were told to "have a nice day" and off we went. I couldn't believe it, for once we finally see one of these so called inspectors then we get this half-arsed approach and didn't even have to show our catch >
As for bag limits, I would agree to a limit on bream and whiting as well as an increase in their size limit. I would also agree to a bag limit on Jacks. The limits in place at the moment have never prevented me from taking home enough for a feed, I think they are suffice and in some species could be limited further.
Dane

[basserman]

i (comeing from NSW) would like slot sizes on most of our popular fish i'm still stuffed what you could do with a 10kg snapper or a 20kg jew!
i would also like to see size limits up for the resons tony has stated and anyway what type of fillet do you get from a (23cm qld-25cm nsw) bream or even a 27cm whitting??? and i also thing the NSW bag limits need drastic attation as we are allowed 20 balckfish 20 bream 10 flathead 20 whitting! and it goes on! a combined bag limit is a good idea

[lordy]

I think bream would be a good fish for slot limit. I tend to think slow growing fish are the best suited by slot limits. Some of those bream are well over 20 years old, and at that age and size are worth keeping as breeders.

[Mad_Barry]

Always cautious of recommending a reduction for rec fisho's, as there is more overall sustainability issues to look at as well.

Though at a glance, the current level of 5 barra is way too generous, so is max size of 120cm.

2 (maybe 1??), & max of say 1m would be good to see.

[banshee]

I think the bag limits for reef fish in QLD works well for areas that have a wide variety of species that can be caught,people can always go chase something else not to far away,where it falls down and becomes counter productive is in places where few species are caught and the bag limits for these fish is low.An example of this can be seen here(NSW),you can keep 5 Pearlies,5 Trag and by christmass 5 Snapper in your possesion,I have been on boats where the people have "upgraded" their bags resulting in the smaller fish being discarded,I have also been approached at sea by other boats wanting to get rid of fish,when the offer is declined the come back is always the same,"I'm only going to chuck 'm if no one wants em." Man is a greedy animal on the whole,I don't see an answer to this problem.With regards to legal lengths,I think they should be set after a fishes third or fourth breeding cycle,not only would it diversify the gene pool,but I have always wondered if fish like humans have individuals that grow more rapidly than the norm,if so we could be starving the gene pool once again by taking fish that although legal,may not have bred.

[budgie]

"You cant please everyone all the time!" The regs cover a huge amount of water and I wouldnt like the job of choosing what is in or out. Different habitats and regions, difficult to be right every time. I think the regulators are doing their best with the resources available. Agree with more policing. Hey Banshee, how do you tell how old a fish is or how active its sex life has been??? Cheers budgie

[Gazza]

Always a lot of suggestions to impose "restrictions" ???
IF a specie is deemed sustainable why impose a limit that doesn't fit?

Think about it, most of you guys have basically said , you'd "choose" to take a larger bream ,regardless of legal minsize, Bugman suggest it could "theoretically" be even lower .....so why adjust it up ???
Because you can ??? , as a feel-good ??? or because you should to "save it"

I think "un-necessary feelgood " sizelimits ,w-e-a-k-e-n-s legitimate bag/size/closures as then possibly being seen as being unfair ,when they are needed (sometimes > )

p.s. what's the min.sizelimit of Marlin, smaller or greater than bream.......hmmmmmm.....hmmmmm [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

If it's not broke ,don't "fix" it.
Interstate(nsw) regs ,spitting distance down the road ,have a whole different 'concept' for snapper and flatties and Jennies and etc.....go figure !!
oh yeah ,NO min. limit for MJ's either >

Just another angle
Regards
Gazza

[banshee]

A fishes age is detirmened by the rings on the otoliths,as for when and how often fish become sexualy active I wouldn't have a clue,but legal lengths are detirmined by the average length a species is after it has bred once.

[basserman]

marlin min size is 90cm in NSW thats for bule black and stripe
so i have offten wondered why isn't the fisherys controled by say a fedraly run group that could look after our fish the same and bring the size limtations and bags into line in each state ??? wouldn't that make it easyer???

[Gazza]

marlin min size is 90cm in NSW thats for bule black and stripe

Drop it to zero ,and you'll have a fishery like Cairns

[trout3030]

I mainly fish the reefs out of 1770 and think the current size and bag limits are not too bad. I do however think that hussar could have an individual bag limit and not be counted in the 20 combined limit. Some days and especially nights they are as thick as hair on a cats back and finding other species is tough. As for the reds I think it is a case of wait and see how it goes. Seemed to catch more reds when they were increased to 45cm and already finding the odd one over 55cm. Could be a good thing in the future. In the esturies I agree the mangrove jack need a bag limit. Also think bream could go to around 28cm. Summer/sand whiting should go to 27-28cm also. Winter whiting could have a size limit to at least stop people taking fish that won't even feed the cat that alone a person. Say 25cm. And realising that these are a seasonal, schooling fish I think a bag lmit of around 30-40 would be ok.

[NeilD]

A mixed bag limit for esturies of 30 fish would take some pressure off bread and butter species. I also like the Snapper size related bag limits used down south. Five Snapper over 5kg is a lot of fish for personal use.

neil

[megafish71]

Hey Dicko, ever wondered why the NT don't have a max size on barra? The reason is that once a female barra reaches a size of around 120cm they eat more young barra each breeding season than they produce. I have caught many barra over 120cm, most were released, but some have made their way to my table. Sometimes these big fish just won't revive, and I will not continue to try and revive these fish when the crocs take an interest in what I am doing. I rather eat the fish and keep my arm attached to my body than feed a fish like that to the crocs. Have lost enough big fish to crocs over the years of fishing in the NT. I think again Fisheries have introduced a size limit with out looking at all the facts.

Ron

[bugman]

Thanks for all the replies so far - keep them coming.

For those that have asked about how sizes are set and maturity sizes and breeding cycles - you have to realise that the minimum sizes affect professional fisherman as well.

Scenario - size limit of bream goes up to 28. Netter shoots a set net or tunnel net or even seine net and gets a haul. A lot of the bream will be under 28cms and will be dead. He must throw them away - wasted resource for both him and the fishery.

I know people are going to say - get rid of pros - but that just isn't ever gunna happen - there's always going to be professional fisherman who use nets.

As for slot sizes the same scenario applies for pros who are actually wasting a bigger resource with a bigger dead fish. The fallout on the flathead size continues. The draft policy went to Govt saying pros were meant to be exempt from the max size but Govt overturned it. - And who says Govt doesn't do anything for rec fishos

Budgie - got it right "you can't please everyone all of the time"

Brett