North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I think if there's a judge in this country willing to put me in jail for catching fish to eat at my house he needs to be stripped of everything he has gained while being a judge.
Like I have said before and will say again
If I can catch enough fish to put in my freezer to feed my family for 3 months in one outing then I bl..dy well should be allowed to do so as to me that is cost effective and I would not need to go fishing for another 3 months
If you want to spend hundreds of dollars every time you go fishing and bring one or two fish home and then go fishing again next week,well good on you
You have more money than brains and need to be relieved of some of it
I take it a lot of you must be on good money,I am not
There is always two sides to the coin and all must be taken into consideration
I was imposing bag limits on myself when a lot of you blokes were still in nappies or a twinkle in your old mans eye
That was when I could afford to go out fishing three and four times a week,these days it's more like once every couple of months so I need to make the most of it
If someone is taking more than they can use and it gets wasted then sure have ago at them
Tell me ,what is the difference between some one going to the shop and buying 4 jewies or some one catching them?
I'll tell you. NOTHING. It is still the same amount of fish stock taken except the person who has done his homework and learnt, can catch them cheaper than buying them
A lot of you will become just like me in time,mark my words

If it were not for Australia feeding the overseas market we could all live like kings from our own catch without the need to worry about bag limits
You want to do something for your children and grandchildren
Start lobbying the government to get rid of the overseas seafood trade instead of punnishing ourselves for something that they(the government ) can fix

My primary motivation is the actual fishing...I could happily fish a zero bag limit but I know that would imply almost zero fish. I think the issues are the same for people who fish for food Doug.....they dont want to see it disappear either and at some point we have to make a painful choice. It gets down to personal responsibility given what we know about the fish in question. Many fishos have live wells that they could use to chose a fish.....and as fish fanatic pointed out...most places you have a choice to fish under or over ten meters deep. There are also other options for food fish although if we persist with the philosophy that we have had, those fish will also no doubt decline until we are having this same discussion about them.

The chambers bay increase was not as a result of rising fish stocks, but as a result of lowering the limit at the Daly.....it got messy having different bag limits everywhere so they made it universal.

so your more concerned for the sport of fishing than fishing being a way of feeding yourself ??
theres alot of people who fish for food out there !!

i dont know to many areas you can catch quality snapper around darwin in shallow water maybe 80km either side of darwin
and the whole thought of releaseing fish may make the angler feel better about them selves but achieves nothing to keeping fish stocks healthy IMO

Trier wrote:I blame Jeffish and Olfart for the reduction in Golden Snapper stocks! Should also bring in limits on lemon sharks.

Yep!! but still only ever take a couple home. one is generally enough for my little tribe, and there are a some trips where we don't put anything in th esky.
I go out to get a feed, but sometimes that doesn't happen, that's fishin.
As me old man used to say ' If ya caught a fish every time you wet a line.. it'd be called catchin not fishin'.
The two fish in the News, would have gone back.
I'm not that desperate, and I simply can't be fcucked messin with tiddlers.

How about just don't catch Jew? They are cr.p eating and you get the same fight from a lemon shark.

Goldies on the other hand are their own worst enemy, tasty little buggers. Maybe the boffins could breed them to tast cr.p, like a Jew.

But seriously, I never catch enough to make a dent in the population.

Well all valid coments here,but I do go out to put a feed on the table and just got back from shopping which cost me an extra $80
because I have no fish in the freezer at the moment.Yet that dosnt mean I,m gonna go out and catch 30 fish because I get to go at least once a fortnight so 6 to 10 will do me.
I use the live well on small snapper even when pulled up from 10mt plus I know its a small fish and bring em up slow,after 30mins in the well they swim away strong 90% of the time other wise in the eskie.
I have seen the pro netters throwing away by-catch and its a hell of alot so DOUG is very right in saying this needs to be looked at.
Log books on charters might also be a good thing with limits on how many times they can rape a certain spot,,,but very hard to enforce,,,

Fish Tank you need cooking lessons

Jew? They are cr.p eating and you get the same fight from a lemon shark

Good idea.more for the rest of us that recognise a fine eating fish

jeffish wrote:Well all valid coments here,but I do go out to put a feed on the table and just got back from shopping which cost me an extra $80
because I have no fish in the freezer at the moment.Yet that dosnt mean I,m gonna go out and catch 30 fish because I get to go at least once a fortnight so 6 to 10 will do me.
I use the live well on small snapper even when pulled up from 10mt plus I know its a small fish and bring em up slow,after 30mins in the well they swim away strong 90% of the time other wise in the eskie.
I have seen the pro netters throwing away by-catch and its a hell of alot so DOUG is very right in saying this needs to be looked at.
Log books on charters might also be a good thing with limits on how many times they can rape a certain spot,,,but very hard to enforce,,,

Fish Tank you need cooking lessons

If I need lessons to make a fish taste good then they must taste cr.p to begin with.

We are starting to get a few suggestions perculating through now at least.
From my point of veiw I can only comment about how it will affect me. Changing the goldy limit wont worry me to much as I rarely catch em at the moment but where do you go from 5, there isnt much room to move. OK lets say 3 or even 2. Same with Jew there is only 2 now OK lets say 1. In both cases a max boat limit multiplier of 3 could apply.
In the case of the combined limit I dont really think this is the issue that people make itI have hit the 30 each limit 4 times now, and the truth is it is the target every time the boat gets wet. I religiously write down the numbers of managed and other spiecies to ensure compliance, so no guesses are neccesary. My point is, I am a pretty fair fisherman have good gear and try very hard and spend a lot of money at it yet I have managed to hit that bag limit around 5-7% of trips. How many times do you really think people are going out and getting their thirty fish each, and if poeple who release most fish started to keep count a bit more acuratly I would think that it might just be realised how long and how much work is involved to reach that combined limit of decent fish say 40cm plus. It just dosent happen that easily. That said, if it makes the proposed changes read better on paper and helps peoples feelings lets drop it to 20 each, reality is that 99% of fishos wont be affected at all and I will go from bagging out 5% to more like 50% of trips, and wont catch that many less fish but if people feel better do it. If I end up needing more fish to eat I would likely still go far just a little more ofen and do full day trip more often then over nighters.
I still havent gotten onto the jist of Shaggs conspiracy theory, but I do agree with he and Doug regards fishing for food and that is why I go. I would eat fish 5 times a week on average and yes I do give a bit away to friends and relos on occasions, all of which I dont see a problem with. If fish cost everybody what it costs me per kg then there would be no need for a commercial catch it would all be farmed, but for that to work the cheap imports would have to be stopped.
The other thing that could be looked at is to slash the combined limit to say 10 and change it change the possision limit to a daily limit. For people that go on long trips on occasions to areas away from population centers were we are trying to minimise current level of fishing effort level. Allow them to buy a permit for a 2 or 3 day limit, non refundable if they want to back themselves to catch and intend bring more fish that the new 10 combined limit for each person. The problem you create if there is no mechanism for extended trips to remote areas for people who do them (and that is where a good wack of fish come from), is that they just wont go and spend big dollars on infrequent trips to areas that have good fish stocks. Instead they will go every possible weekend or multiple trips per weekends on the very same close grounds that we are currently seeing the big problem on with stock levels, making the situation worse. This needs to be thought out carefully and a multi faceted approach taken that can be easily enforced.
I think all the self imposed bag limits etc that people have put up and impose on themselves are very noble and it is good to see that people can get that bigger kick out of going , (usually locally from the sounds of it), catching, but not keeping to eat. Nothing wrong with it if they want to do it that way, it just doesnt do it for me. I have said before when Mud and I have disscussed this point on the forum. Would I still go if the limit was none?, no I would not would be the answer I would just do somthing else for a hobby and save 25 or 30 K a year and immeadiatly pay of my house with the proceeds of the boat sale.
The other two points that have been raised that need urgent attention is the commercial and charter catch with the other issue being more coast to access to spread the pressure, sadley the last point seems to be getting worse not better.

1 jewfish 1 Goldie 3 trickies ...... AFTER. Closing reefs in trouble for the next 1-2 years.

YES it is that bad... If it was up to me there would be no reef fishing from the moil river to the east... And around the tiwis for the next 3 years until the reef fish start looking like recovering.

2rods wrote:1 jewfish 1 Goldie 3 trickies ...... AFTER. Closing reefs in trouble for the next 1-2 years.

YES it is that bad... If it was up to me there would be no reef fishing from the moil river to the east... And around the tiwis for the next 3 years until the reef fish start looking like recovering.

Unless the science so far has been
increadibly botched they cant really
expect people to accept the next move is
that.

Anyone who thinks they go fishing to put food on the table and that its cheaper to go out and catch it must be kidding themselves. Amateurs spend disproportionate amounts of money for the amount of fish they take home. Registration for car and boat, fuel for both, servicing costs, fishing tackle, bait, ice, the list goes on. That is not taking into account the time spent fishing. If they worked a regular job and used the money earned at the end of the day to buy fish they would be far in front. Lets be honest, we go fishing because we like the sport. Nothing wrong with going out and bringing back a few fish, but we have to do it responsibly or lose the lifestyle we now enjoy, and if it means further restrictions on both amateur and pro fisherman, so be it.

Yes it has been.. Fisheries were aware of the problem 2-3 years ago BUT the labor government refused to act on it...

AM wrote:

2rods wrote:1 jewfish 1 Goldie 3 ...... AFTER. Closing reefs in trouble for the next 1-2 years.

YES it is that bad... If it was up to me there would be no reef fishing from the moil river to the east... And around the tiwis for the next 3 years until the reef fish start looking like recovering.

Unless the science so far has been
increadibly botched they cant really
expect people to accept the next move is
that.