Laredo

I don't see what the problem is at all. In other states raising size limits has increased average sizes. whiting in SA for example. In terms of yakkas and slimeys, I hardly see one person wanting more than 50. Despite the fact that they are bait fish doesn't make them any less important in the ecosystem Groper havn't been doing too well and its certainly not unreasonable to put a cap on them. They are territorial and theres never many in one spot to indicate how vulnerable they are too over fishing. as for the jackets, while there is definately no shortage of them, 20 per person is a fair few by any standard. I dont think a limit on red rock cod is going to annoy anyone either also, I can't speak for others but I never bother keeping trevs unless they are over 40cm because there isnt much meat on them at all. On a whole min sizes, are only going to increase average sizes so I really wouldn't worry about them and try to think in the long term

Alot of poeple in this thread mentioned that there were plagues of just under size kings and dollies around Sydney this year. Why do you think the most common were just under legal? Its not a coincidence - alot get taken when around the size limit minimum. These new rules deserve applause and will gradually increase average size. If you think in terms of only your next fishing trip and complain about changes like these there might not be any fish for you kids to catch

bump

Good story and great photos. Tell us the story of the 100 knot storm at Pt Stephens! the worst storm I ever went through was also off port stephens. We were on our way there from Port macquarie and were in a very solid 34ft boat. and it took us about 5 hours to travel the last 15NMs to port Stephens waves were up to 3metres+ and the intervals were very short; only around 5 seconds. all the waves were breaking. each good wave put hundred of liters through the cockpit screen and clears. There was zero visibility. There was a foot of water in the deck constantly The whole time i was thinking that if we were in a smaller boat, we would be dead

Wow, has anyone else seen these massive offshore squid? does anyone know what species they would be?

that is a truly amazing capture. beautiful fish. all that's left if for you to catch one like that in a river

colour is a bad feature to go by when identifying fish species, as with many other animals. in many species it can be greatly different from specimen to specimen

sounds like you might be letting you're kingies have a bit too much drag there mate

Billfisher, you clearly know your facts, which is great to see. We are all in general agreement re: maintaining our future marine environments earlier when i said 'inshore', I did mean estuary - wrong terminology by me, my fault One of the mains probs as i see it is that immense difficulty of doing valid studies. In these cases i would think it be best to err on the side of caution cheers fellas

I disagree. Lack of fish is a problem. You need only read Ross Hunter's memoirs from the 70's to or look at old black and white photos of guys with 50 big jewies in a 3.5 metre tinny. Or trawl livies all day for not a touch at once thriving reefs to know that Sydney stocks are down. People just lower their standards to match declinging stocks and forget that areas are sub healthly. international and local profishing is currently excessive. And for me your arguement that overfishing isn't a problem because once stocks get really low commerical fishing ceases to be eonomically viable and stops allowing the species to crawl their way back is highly depressing. It is not acceptible to overfish a species until it stops being commericial viable. Thats not a natural or healthy cycle. It would also bung up the food chain. Environmental grounds for banning estuary pros: They destory the habitat, food chain and stocks. Estuary profishing isn't sustainable and is terrible for the environment. What more do you want? I'm no expert, but they mustn't make any good money for all the damage they cause, either. moral grounds:buy backs are fairly generous considering they are all just scraping by at the moment due to the lack of sustainability. economic: They don't generate much economic activity. Compared to the surges in rec fishing industry that would no doubt follow such bannings. What wrong with buying back estuary pro fishing licences? I'd go for it no hesitation Yes. Alot of the time it comes from countries with no environmental sanctions and theirstocks are already pillaged. Eating Nile Perch our like species is basically exploiting the third world. The local populations there can only afford to buy the frame of the fish - yes the same part we throw back. Its disgusting There should never be any compromises about (or apologies made for) over fishing. Cheers

Dont get me wrong I agree completely that the impact of recreational fishing is inconsequential compared to commercial. Clearly pro fishing is the greatest threat to stocks. For one there shouldn't be any profishing is any estuaries. Its common sense that that is a bad idea. Thank god they banned the pros in Sydney Harbour because i think I've be physically sick to watch them work these days. Though I've agreed that rec fishing in practically incomparable to pro in terms of impact I think everyone who eats or kills a fish should be aware of the need for conservation. In fact, I'd support halving rec bag limtits and making maximum keep sizes I find it disturbing to know that our estuaries and offshore grounds are greatly inferior to what they once were and I find news of longliners being halved in number very encouraging.

gotta smell bad

cool fish.. I'd never seen or heard of them thanks foir sharing

as opposed to 24kg ??

the top and bottom of it is that diving does not kill fish The biggest threat to the ocean and our hobby of rec fishing is commercial fishing. btw Labour didn't endorse marine parks sole to 'brown nose' the greens. The greens have always given preference to labour and will continue to do so. Sure, marine parks were the product of an ongoing relationship between the two but to dismiss the parks as nothing more then a brown nose is to sell yourselves short. Essentially, the marine parks are an effort to preserve the environment. I am not disputing that they are definitely far from perfect, but those things are worthing debating nonetheless. Jewhunter: I'm not a diver, have never dived, and do not represent diving, I was simply debating an issue. argument is healthy and often productive so I don't know why you would were care if I was a diver. Communication is what the internet is about

Great work on the cod. those photos are awesome. It's great to see such a catch and release minded angler, especially when it's murray cod we're talking about.

landbased?

Ross, You sound more like Germaine Greer than I do Nicole Kidman dive photography doesn't appear to stress fish and even if it did, its hardly going to harm them physically so lets concentrate on the real issues here, and abandon the 'if i can't have them, no one can' mentality that won't get us anywhere.

beautiful fish and good work on releasing a very pressured species now you just need to start dynamiting carp and they'll let you into fishing heaven!

I wasn't referring to taste so much as the cleaning of them and skinning all that membrane I never keep a big one for bait because you'll never use it all and because squid are much easier to find By the way just noticed the little photo of the squid.. They are good sizes

Yeah, I remember seeing a photo on here of someone's squid jig damn near bitten in half by one of them

Shit, that must have been an experience. Where you aware they didn't have radio/flares etc when you set out that day ?

Yup, they were biting through the assist hooks lanyards on my jigs no worries at all

yeah, that's what i figured.

is there some secret to keep the bastards off your jigs ?? seriously? What does everyone do? increase jigging speed? just move spots after you lose a jig or what ?