North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

mako wrote: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.

What ifyou fish of the wharf??:)
There's plenty of people who fish on a small budget
It's more the sports fisherman that spend the money and have the best expensive gear !!
I know my last 5 salt water barra trips I have been on would be under $30 per trip and brought home enough fish to make it worth while
Don't get me wrong I sports fish flat out but I also table fish any time I can.
Bringing in lesser limits only makes it less viable to fish for food !!
Can some one tell me how lesser limits will help with fish stocks if there string pulled from the depth there dead anyway so we are expected to throw them back cos that's the law ?? It ain't going to help the situation one bit you can claim to shallow water fish as much as you won't but your kidding ya self I think with that theory working !!

On barra trauma I see on all the fishing shows they claim that they release fish and they survive after you can clearly see they are suffering barratrauma
And they big snapper they catch they had a segment on some fisheries mob tagging an releasing snapper down south that were suffering from barratrauma is there different types of barra trauma or what's te go with it how come they can release fish down there??
Some of the west Aussie shows are the worst for it
They just use the big lead release weight and sink them to the bottom !

If you fish of the warf you still have to put in the time, so if you go to work instead you will earn more than enough to buy more than one barra.

If you know how to spike a fish properly(behind the pectoral fin) they will survive.

Seasonal closures to protect spawning aggregations would also be of benefit.

You cant work 24/7 !!

mako wrote: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.

I know I couldn't afford to buy the fish i catch .
As I would have to service and register my car any way even without going fishing I don't see how that comes into the equation
I'm being honest ,I fish for food
I've been through the sports fishing scene ,Clubs ,trophies,championships and all the cr.p that goes with it
Like my grandfather (Who was a pro barra fisherman) use to say There are fishermen and there are men who like to fish
You would fall into the second category I would imagine

double post

2rods wrote: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.

Err arent fisheries the scientists in
question. If I recall I met a very
knowledgable young one giving a midnight
lecture down at the Daly round of
the first round of the
original barra s e r i e s c o m p .

Wow.
Seriously lads I respect your views but its hard to get the logic. The equation is simple...reduce the take or go the way of every other state and fish barren waters.. Regardless of how important fishing for food is to you if we don't reduce the numbers being taken.......there isn't going to be any!! It's like listening to one of those old guys complaining that there are no fish anymore "what the hell? Where have all the fish gone? In my day we'd come out here n get a hundred in a day! Now they're all gone! What the hell happened to em?"

Mud wrote:Wow.
Seriously lads I respect your views but its hard to get the logic. The equation is simple...reduce the take or go the way of every other state and fish barren waters.. Regardless of how important fishing for food is to you if we don't reduce the numbers being taken.......there isn't going to be any!! It's like listening to one of those old guys complaining that there are no fish anymore "what the hell? Where have all the fish gone? In my day we'd come out here n get a hundred in a day! Now they're all gone! What the hell happened to em?"

My point is Mud that the recreational angler has already bent over backwards,been reamed up the rear ,chewed up and spat out on being limited to what fish he takes to rectify the problem
The government on the other hand has bought back a few pro barra licenses and closed some close in waters to pro barra fishermen
That's one species
The damage is being done by trawler and trap boats and long lines that are decimating the species that are in question,damaging the poop out of the outer reefs,wiping out entire populations of fish on those reefs.
Very little of the fish from these boats gets to the Northern Territory local market,I don't know the actual percentage but I doubt very much that it would make double figures
Like I keep trying to get through to you and the others,why keep shooting yourself in the foot for something the government is not rectifying at the level where it needs to be EXPORT OF FISH
No the government would like to let super trawlers in to to decimate other species to the point where you will have to put up with lower bag limits on those and you and the mob will accept those bag limits because you are good people with concerns for the continuation of your chosen pastime/sport and you will probably self impose even more restrictions on yourselves
I on the other hand wont be pushed around and forced to have to buy fish and game because of a government that wont reign in the export trade on seafood but would rather impose limitations on it's own people
No conspiracy here for the one who said I had one in mind ,just the cold hard truth
Your good people there is no doubt about that and it is the Australian way to sacrifice ones own needs and wants when a problem presents itself and needs to be fixed but we the Australian people are so gullible and tend to believe everything that is put in front of us
DO ANY OF YOU BELIEVE IF THE EXPORT TRADE WAS STOPPED YOU WOULD HAVE THE NEED FOR BAG LIMITS ?Maybe there should be a poll on that
I believe there would be no need and as long as the government did what they are there to do and kept illegal fishing boats out of our waters after that, the reefs would return to all their former glory in no time flat
What I'm trying to say is stop shooting ourselves in the foot about our pastime/hunter gatherer needs and really start putting some pressure on the powers to be to sort out the mess they have let get out of control
They are but spokesperson for the people OR THEY SUPPOSE TO BE
This is a democracy isn't it?

mako wrote:If you fish of the warf you still have to put in the time, so if you go to work instead you will earn more than enough to buy more than one barra.

If you know how to spike a fish properly(behind the pectoral fin) they will survive.

Seasonal closures to protect spawning aggregations would also be of benefit.

Seasonal closers would be good as long as they were imposed on the pros as well

That's what the talk was about on the Tinny last weekend. It was not about further restrictions on bag & size limits,it was hinting at closure of areas that are heavily targetted. I would imagine that this would be Charles, Lorna etc. Fisheries are coming on (Tales From....)this morning to discuss their thoughts/findings. I would assume that their figures on stock depletion would have to come from the pros, as I don't know where else the figures would come from.

Correction..........Fisheries looking at 30% reduction in snapper & 15% in Jewies catches for both pros & recreational. Stating that recreational are responsible for 80% of snapper catch.

How do they arrive at those figures (80%)
Who on here has been approached by fisheries as to how many snapper they get?
A minority of people would have been approached would be my guess and if you put that into the total number of rec fishermen in the territory that percentage would be minsicule and would not reflect the true figures
As I said in a previous post, if fisheries put a man at every boat ramp for two week during prime tides and moon phases counting the numbers of fish off each boat it would be money well spent on a decent survey that would reflect a truer picture of what the situation is and more factual ont the comparisons of fish caught between amatures and pro's
At the moment it would be nothing more than wild guesses and pulling figures out of the air IMO

Good to see they will be hitting the pros but I wonder how they will police that
It's a start ,and that is a step in the right direction
Would be easy for pro to right them off as mixed reef fish
Just another question that should be asked and answered I guess

This is why I love this forum.
A wide variety of views all with seemingly valid points of view. (many that i havent even taken into account

Personally, I would have thought that reducing a bag limit on rec fishers would help but when you look at the pros and charters, they outnumber our take by multiples. then theres the export system

I've never been asked about the number of fish I take except for Tassie trout, but they are like underwater rats, they are everywhere. But they manage the numbers very well

It would be interesting to get real numbers taken by all fishers.

There is no doubt that numbers are dropping and dropping fast and something must be done sooner rather than later.

I wonder if the fisheries could take a leaf out of their tassie brothers book and get into restocking programs. They do it for barra so why not jewies and snapper.
nah, that will never happen, it takes foresight and costs $$ and Millsy is broke.

trout fishing in tassie brings millions to the state and keeps the fishery viable.

Fisheries were at Nightcliff boat ramp for ages last year (a couple of weeks at least), measuring and inspecting everyone's catch as boats returned throughout the day. I don't remember what time of year but we had a few tuna measured and documented. They were also asking in what zone we fished using a map of the area with square sections you could just point at.

So, they have definitely done at least some research.

It can't just be us or them (pro or rec), everyone has a part to play. But I do agree that export and charters can make a bigger impact then us.

I like the idea of buying a 3 day licence so the guys who really do only fish couple of months to feed their family can do so. Limited to 1 extended licence per period of time. But more bureaucracy equals more badness. Hrm. Argh.

Once it's happened though, it's all too late. So I hope some smarter people then me are working on this now and come up with a good plan, I'll be happy to do whatever they say, I doubt I'll have to change anything since I limit myself to southern limits out of habit anyway.