North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Yeah - quite happy to throw back anything over 85/90 so long as lower limit is brought down to say 48/50. There is a $hite load of fish in this range, and clearly not under any threat - and a 50cm produces 2 beautiful fillets for the table (or so I'm told .....)

Max limit should be 90, min limit should be 50. Seen so many big girls taken from grey gonads at daly it isn't funny. Most fisherman I know up here just put them back over around 90 as they realise their importance
Also we should all have a bull shark fishing day to bring down their numbers that are getting into all the river systems. Can't be good for releasing the big girls when they are tired just to get chomped by a shark. Most bull sharks I catch don't go back, there like carp in my opinion.

Scottie5.3 wrote:Max limit should be 90, min limit should be 50. Seen so many big girls taken from grey gonads at daly it isn't funny. Most fisherman I know up here just put them back over around 90 as they realise their importance
Also we should all have a bull shark fishing day to bring down their numbers that are getting into all the river systems. Can't be good for releasing the big girls when they are tired just to get chomped by a shark. Most bull sharks I catch don't go back, there like carp in my opinion.

People fish for fun, sport, food etc etc... The same pastime causes fish to be release knackered thereby
giving other predators an easy meal.... So the solution now a shark cull....??
Gotta be kidding me dont ya..?

Didn't say shark cull did I hemi. just reckon the numbers can be brought down a little as they are everywhere, keeping them in check wouldn't be a bad idea, that's all. I've had barra taken off my line by the pr..ks. Most rivers are full of them.
Not saying eliminate them, just saying a few less wouldn't hurt

Scottie5.3 wrote:Didn't say shark cull did I hemi. just reckon the numbers can be brought down a little as they are everywhere, keeping them in check wouldn't be a bad idea, that's all. I've had barra taken off my line by the pr..ks. Most rivers are full of them.
Not saying eliminate them, just saying a few less wouldn't hurt

...that is the exact meaning of cull

Yeah ok your probably right there, but didn't mean it like that. Just taking a few out not a all out cull on them.

Yep, i know what ya mean, just sh$t stiring...

Ive been known to not let the odd noah live...! i do always try and use the fish i catch that
dont live as bait, usually all ends up in my crab pots or my home made burley mixes..
A Pet hate of mine is wasting fish.

Somewhere around 80-85cms similar to WA would be good. I think in most cases people put them back anyway. An exception would be if its knackered and half dead, but then who would police it to say that it was or wasn't dead, bit of a Pandora's box.
Just my 2c worth

The Ord was the first location on oz where a slot limit was initiated - 55 to 80cm. It was done as part of an accord with commercial fishermen. We got the Ord commercial free and as a tradeoff we had a catch limit limit of one plus the slot limit. That happened about twenty years back (give or take a year).

As a result rec anglers did pretty well out of that, no nets, more fish but less to take home. The commercial boys did not do as well but were happy to put their name to the accord , being locals from Wyndham they considered the bigger picture and still had plenty of ground to fish.

Times move on and the whole state now has the slot limit with a possession limit of two fish. Metre fish are worth big bucks to the local economy, that's a certainty.

I'm happy with that 80cm upper limit, you get a good couple of fillets off a fish that size and still sweet to eat.

Happy to leave it as is, usually just keep the ones around 60-65, but with an upper limit what do you do with odd bigger one that goes guts up after trying to revive it , just leave it to the sharks or take it and feed the boys at work, most people up here are happy to see the 80,90 and metery's swim away. NT's rules and regs are fine as they are which show in catchrates, sizes and numbers, we dont want to go the way WA has as a mate came across a while ago with a brag mat from there, the entire mat was covered in rules,regs,numbers,zones and BS! Minimum size limit of barramundi in the NT = 55cm Too easy!!!

yer, maybe leave it as is and educate as many as is possible. Some signs at ramps ( ie the Daly resorts) may make some of the grey nomads think about it a bit and release a few more of the bigger fish that they neck. State some info about breeding cycles and sizes and educate every one.

At the end of the day the netters are all but removed from a lot of places now and the fish in my view are getting bigger. Struggled this year to get a small fish for a feed. I don't know if that has been due to a couple of poor to average wets.