Hello

Some images from CQ.

Went to Port Alma on opening day of east coast barra season (noon on 1 Feb).

Opening also includes the netters.

Had a good day. (Well, no we didn't really).

Met up with some pro netters at Port Alma ramp who told us about all the barra boofing in Raglan Ck where their bigger boat was. See google earth map of area. Not like pro to be so helpful so we took the info with a grain of salt.

We went up to the rockbar at Reidy's Ck and passed the bl..dy pro boat up there! Stopped to talk and ask about his navigation problems and we all had a bit of a laugh.

Got some taggable esuary fish at Reidy's (bream, grunter, goldspot cod) but no barra. Some big shapes went under boat but no idea what they were. Maybe big cod.

At noon, in went pro nets. After 2 hours of incoming tide, we went over to watch them run nets. No barra.

Up Inkerman Ck was another pro boat with nets.

Back towards boat ramp were 2 more nets (unattended and unmarked). We ran over one in driving rain 'cos we couldn't see the bl..dy thing. Didn't have to cut our way out.

8 nets in all.

The 2 pro boats were obeying the rules which are basically:

. must attend nets at all times (no more than a few hundred metres away),
. must not completely block off waterway;
. nets must be marked in a certain manner;
. nets must be certain size (length, drop and mesh);
. must be more than a certain distance apart.

The 2 pro boats were ok but the fella who had the unattended nets would (and should) have gone for a row. We had no hesitation about cutting our way off that net if necessary and any howls about interfering with nets would have fallen on deaf ears. From us anyway.

However, media down here is so far in bed with the Labor Govt and Govt departments that the story would have been twisted into "rec fishermen destroy pro nets in barra war".

The fisheries enforcement people who harass rec fishermen about bag and size limits were nowhere to be seen on barra opening day! Never are!

Whilst not being allowed to completely block off waterway, the pros resort to setting nets in such a way that a barra really has no chance of getting past the net configuration.

See attached diagram of how the nets are set. The red lines are nets and the green line is the path a fish must take to get through. Boats as well.

Got some muddies. Got a wet bum. Dropped a couple of barra. Explored some run-off creeks off Inkerman. Shitloads of runoff but it was only rain run-off not floodwater.

Going today in town reach with live perch to get a feed.

River is pretty clear at the moment even with barrage gates open but that won't last with heaps of muddy floodwater due to arrive in 3-4 days from upstream.

Thanks for the report mate. Not much has changed over the years pro fishing wise. Thats eaxctly the way the pro's used to work back in the 70's in the NT. I think the rivers that can still be netted get the same treatment.

Interesting report, was going to mention the amount of net boats we saw in your Narrows post but thought I wouldn't bring up that hoary ol' subject lest I be seen as Qld bashing

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A mate sent me a cuple of pic's of barra caught from the Fitzroy River that runs through the centre of Rocky he got 5 and lost scores of others. The river there is apparently the best it has been for many years.

Lots of small barra in river system. But no spawnings from 12 months ago have been seen. There'ls a hole in the size categories. Remember coming across that same thing in a Roper a couple of years ago. Plenty of fish but none in the 90cm - 1 metre range. That hole has been filled by now.

Went into town reach today.

Another pro netter had Gavial Ck 3/4 blocked. Gavial is creek on downstream CBD reach. He got a few barra that we could see.

He wasn't doing anything wrong. I have no problem with pros sticking by the rules even if the rules are made up by some bureaucrat. If we're silly enough to accept that then that's our fault not the pros.

I get p...ed off about anybody (pro or recreation) flaunting the law. If fisheries enforcement was visibly active it wouldn't be so bad. But they're not so others then copy.

Don't think much of fisheries policies, strategies or tactics.

Got no barra today but a few cold beers on a windy but fine day was easy to take.

Thanks for the report Ronje, I agree that it is not the pros fault, but jees I would feel like a rapist if I was doing the same kind of fishing.