Barwon Banks Trawler Park

[browndog]

Headed out early saturday morning on board Sempre.The further we proceeded the lights out wide increased,as we came up on our mark we counted 13 trawlers both anchored and trawling,all within a few kilometres of us.Question? what were they doing on wire weed bottom in 60m of water?

Fishing was average but we managed to catch a feed of pearlies and snapper,moved out wider later and added a couple more.We also caught a 13 kg dolphin fish and a 4.5 kg tailor,Unbelivable for 60 metres of water in the middle of summer.

Just one more thing to say on the trawler issue,we saw hundreds of small reef fish floating past us while we were fishing,obviously their unwanted by catch.They dumped more fish in one day then we catch in a year,what a joke.Who are the reel abusers of our waterways.??????

Cheers Browndog

[browndog]

13 kg dolphin fish

[browndog]

Catch

[TheDeepSix]

Browndog,

A great catch, did you get any pics of the dead fish. Could be forwarded on to Dept. Fisheries..

Tiga

[620sf]

Hey browndog, we could see all the trawlers in the afternoon as we worked our way down from the north. That would be the most we've ever seen out there for a weekend. Looks like you got yourselfs a good feed out there.

Luke

[outsiderskip]

hi brown dog
conditions were great never seen so many trawlers
at least some good fish were caught

we had a good trip to will post tomorrow
too tired



cheers pete

[jeffo]

we were out there too.... i think you would find those trawlers were just anchored up on the reef for the day. we didnt see any of them with lines in. they trawl that 100m area east of the banks...out on the mud

[dan099]

dont forget where all our x mass prawns come from . as long as the obay the law !

[masterdusky]

nice catch..and that tailor...just the lone one ??

[damons33]

fair chop browndog! and a good catch you have there, i have caught tailor out there and really you can catch almost any fish out there on the barwons.
no trawler would put a net over hard ground thats for sure, the drift net fishing over the shallow reefs and longlining inside of 200nm is the biggest shame to our fishery. and the more we see pro's doing line fishing like dfox the better as it a discriminate form of fishing with unwanted fish released to fatten up to marketable sizes.
even prawners can manage their drags to have the lest possible by-catch results, its all in the attitude and thought put into the decision to "drop her down here".
tight lines
damon

[browndog]

Masterdusky only the one tailor,but also caught the biggest catfish we had ever seen,it played like a snapper.It was released,unbelievable what u can catch out their. cheers browndog

[sempre]

As sure as my ass points to ground these blokes had their nets down , ask Big Cods , he was with us . Been fishing that area for years never seen the rapists there , why did they suddenly appear . You should have seen the by-catch , terrible.

As for the catch , pretty average , i'll try to find the biggers ones for the boys next time.

To Jeffo , please dont take this the wrong way , but i fish The Mud quite often and it starts about 24km to about 28km pretty much north of the banks.

[sempre]

By the way Browndog said the trawlers were within a few kms of us , it was more like a few meters!!!!

[sempre]

Oops somebody has played with my post , should i say a## points to the ground next time.

[SeaSaw]

Nice catch again guys

That Perch you have (beside the tailor) or more correctly it is a member of the genus Caprodon. I know some guys from the Australian and New Zealand Museums that were doing research on this species and were after information on catches and even specimins if you are willing to send them the fish. They are considered rare although they show up from time to time on the deep grounds.

I can PM you their details if you want to pass on some info.

Cheers,

Mark

Here is a picture of one up close.