barnzey

Day's Fishin, it's a Blue/Grey/Rubberlip morwong. Jackass have that black collar behind the head. Nice mowie.

You might have more luck outside the bay, there's been some mixed reports depending on the day/currents running. Here's a video I shot a few weeks back outside the heads, some days you might be lucky, some days not so... School of Kings

Launched Sunday morning at Callala bay and headed out to point perp. Looks like the range is open with plenty of people fishing the rocks off the tubes, didn't see any action from them. Plenty of trevally action when burleyed a little. Most were caught on unweighted half pillies drifted down the burley trail, with a few taking cunjie. Nothing with the soft plastics. No yakkas seen although there were a few garfish milling on the surface. No kings raised, didn't see anyone else hook up either. Caught about 20 trevally in total over a few hours, most being around 35-40cm in length. Kept one and threw the rest back. Mates were diving in the same area, only saw one small school of rats in 6 hours of diving. They commented there's plenty of trevally about but that's about it!

Sargent baker are like a cross between red rock cod and a flathead both in the way they look and the texture/taste of their flesh. Fine white flesh, relatively firm and non-oily. Well worth eating, easy to take the fillets off due to small backbone vertebrae and low profile ribs. People mention that they're boney, this is due to a second lateral line containing relatively fine pin bones. These are easy to remove, just trace out with your fingers before cutting out carefully. The flesh is a good substitute for flathead and latchet in recipes. The frames do make good soups and are well worth keeping. I would not say the flesh is at all similar to tailor. Tailor is not as white, firm, has a greater oil content and is more 'fishy'/strongly flavoured than the baker. It is well worth keeping the larger specimens, much easier to fillet and remove the pin bones. One of the most underrated fish in the sea in my opinion.

I've tried the slow retrieves with the only success being the occasional (one every 4 sessions) small flathead about the size of the plastic. I haven't tried many scents, only the s-factor a few times. Those plastics you mentioned earlier MM, have you had much success fishing beaches and rocks with them?

A lot of hardbodies have a higher snag potential, it would become an expensive exercise losing a few $20 rattlers... I think I'll give up on soft plastics and head back to cunjevoi for bream and fillets for flathead. At least I would catch something every now and then...

For those that have replied, are these nominations for river/lake or have you had success from the beach and rocks with your chosen plastic. Also are you located on the north, central or south coast. I'm located in the Illawarra and have caught squat on soft plastics besides the occasional pike or sargent baker when fishing over a bit of reef. The last 5 trips were at beaches, rockwalls and harbours for one 15cm flathead. Have tried the 80mm wriggler, 120mm wriggler, 65 black gold fish, 100 silver fox, 3inch minnow grub, riptide 4inch mullet, 13cm kokoda fingerbait etc. A good example of a typical soft plastics session for me is fishing for 3 hours for zilch. I then wonder if there's any fish down there at all so I wander back to the car, put on boardies and a mask and jump in to see flathead and bream who are obviously not interested in tasting a soft plastic with a hook in it. So I am wondering, is it me or is it because I'm fishing ocean side... Also tasksta, what weights are you using for the wrigglers? (Fyi: Have been fishing with 4lb fireline with 6lb leader)

It looks like a Selenotoca multifasciata to me. It's in the Scatophagidae family what ever it is...

There are fish about. I went for a 30min snorkel yesterday afternoon, spooked a good flathead ~50cm and came across 3 good schools of bream just off north beach. Also went out on the boat just between the PK islands on Sunday to find big schools of fish busting up everywhere with a lot of bird action. Jumped in with the camera to find it was horse salmon hitting small 5mm white/clear baitfish. Although they were spooked easily. Wish I took the rod out instead of the camera, it would have been great fun on light gear. With the usual spots not producing at the moment it might be worth looking at some of the more unusual spots. On calm days I look for areas that have a bit of whitewash remaining. These usually produce a bream, although they're pretty timid so you need to coax them into biting with fresh bait like cungie, fresh worms etc.

The 100-500t rec catch quoted would not be a guess. It would be an estimate produced by the scientists based on data. The large range given is due uncertainty from estimations based on limited data, most likely obtained from infield fishing surveys and boat ramp catch inspections. Commercial catches do not have this error as they have to by law have a record of their catch rates so there is a greater degree of certainty in the total amount of jewfish caught. Recreational catches have greater uncertainty as only a very small percentage of catch is able to be recorded. The difference in recreational catch to commercial catch is significant in that their estimated data ranges do not overlap. It is certain that the recreational harvest of jewfish is greater than the commercial catch (at least 2 times greater, at most 9 times greater). I believe these studies are jointly funded by the recreational fishing trust and the NSW government (correct me if I'm wrong) http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/fees/research Billfisher has also raised an important point, as individuals the impact on stock is negligible however the impact of the collective is significant.

Read the FAQ report Sniper, it explains why the scientists who have performed the research recommended the quota. I trust that they are in a better position to make a well informed decision on proposed size and bag limits. Their reasoning appears to be sound. The bag and size limits are temporary until stock status recovers, the length of time for this depends on the recovery option you choose. It could be 3 years (eg a Moritorium on Jewies), it could be 20 years or more (eg continuing on the path we're on). Already most novice fisherman don't catch any jewies because the stock status is low. Raising the size limit might mean that some day in the future they might be able to hook up to one (or at least increase their chances). It's better than going out and not getting any bites at all. At least they can go back and tell their mates about the monster that got away. Increasing the stock just increases the chance of hooking one up and landing it. Like mentioned earlier, the size limits are not set in stone and are subject to change depending on stock status. Despite Australia having a strong fishing community the majority of Australians don't catch their own fish and require to purchase it from the local fish market. These fish must come from somewhere. 500kg sounds like a lot but ocean haul requires the right conditions to make the shot on a school so it isn't a technique which you can repeat day after day. 9 tonnes is the total ocean haul commercial catch per year, seems quite small when you're comparing it to a recreational catch of between 100-500 tonnes/year. Since recreational fishermen make up the majority of the jewfish catch (between 2-9 times greater than the commercial catch) the most important ingredient in the jewfish recovery will be changes to the recreational bag and size limits. The answer to your 45cm rule is also answered in the FAQ section; they're bycatch in a set net, they are dead anyway you might as well use them instead of wasting the meat. These proposed changes are NOT superfluous as you think, it is the NSW fisheries trying to do their job and manage a fish stock so that novice fisherman 'johnny little' can have a chance to catch a jewy in the near future. This has nothing to do with supertrawlers, that is to do with the AFMA. So in summary it is important to read the FAQ section so you can make an informed decision on which jewfish recovery plans would be best for the jewfish stock and future fishing opportunity.

Read the FAQs before filling out the form it may change your views on why bag/size limits are set as the are and the potential impact of changing them. I've place my preferred option as 1 fish and minimum length of 70cm. Quicker stock recovery and once the fish get to 70cm that's enough to feed a family of 6 for two nights. I like their proposed changes for commercial fishing as well.

No use enacting more marine parks if they can't police it. Who is it that will be patrolling these borders? Without enforcement these marine parks mean little more than writing on paper.

Yep, if the quota was set too high, you would expect a fall in stock status. Although it is difficult to assess fish stocks with catch rates, if there's a significant fall in catch rates then I'm sure they will put the quota on a stock management plan. I was under the impression that they would be only fishing in commonwealth waters, so not exactly tasmanian local waters. I don't think the cost of fuel is going to inhibit the ships movements, especially if it has travelled from Europe and South Africa. I was wrong about the loss of jobs, it looks like they're employing tasmanians on the ship.

Just ask yourself where do all those pillies and other bait fish appear from when you're cubing blocks you bought from the servo for tuna. There no magic as to where they appear from. There will always be a decline in fish stocks if you're harvesting from a population, the question should be is it sustainable? If they've been catching this quota for the last 10 years and there hasn't been a change in stock status then it would seem so. (Although I haven't checked the quota of baitfish caught or the length of time it's been changed) It is a small blow for aussie jobs though...

Anyone know the life span of pipis? Spawning rates etc?

Thanks for that Dan, it really goes to show that recreational fishing has a real impact on fish stocks. I hope everyone reads this as it shows a lot of research has gone into assessing jewfish stocks and that there is a lot of evidence supporting changes in bag and size limits. I've just heard that the proposed changes in bag and size limits was knocked back yesterday...

So what do you say about the nsw fisheries 2011 stock status report that catergorises jewfish as 'overfished'? Some key phrases from the report: -Mulloway is also a very significant species in the recreational fishery, and catches by this sector are much larger than commercial landings -Spawning potential ratio for mulloway is well below the recommended threshold of 25% -In NSW size for 50% maturity for males was estimated at 51cm, and for females at 68cm. I think raising the minimum length to 65cm and decreasing the bag limit to 3 fish would help stocks recover to the status 'fully fished'. I think all fish should have the chance to breed at least once before hitting the dinner plate so I've set my own min size limit at 65-70cm. In the future the 5 bag limit could be reinstated once number of jewies out there increases.

So gudgeons are ptereleotridae? Or are we saying Blennies (BLENNIIDAE) are called gudgeons?

They could be baby flatties but the way the fish sit with the tail curled is typical of blennies. Of all the baby flatties I've seen underwater almost all sat with their tails straight. As for the comparison photo, it's of a sand flathead sitting half covered. To make it harder for you I'll put up the uncropped version from when I spotted him As for gudgeons what family are they in? A quick google search only turns up freshwater fish?

It's a bit hard to tell since the photos are a bit blurred but from the outlines they look like a type of blenny which are very common in rock pools. They don't grow very big. On the second photo the head does not look flat enough and the fins are too high on the body. Here's a comparison photo that I took of a flathead that's 2cm long. When looking from above such as looking down into a rock pool they look similar but side on quite different Flathead Blenny

Haha

Mate fiddler rays are harmless and tasty. Although most people throw them back because they aren't fish they're targeting they taste great, the same taste and texture as flake. Just grab them on the back and don't put your hand in their mouth. Skip to 3:15 on the following link on how to grab them.

Mate looks like a top day, I would have loved to have joined you but it's a bit hard to pull away from work during the week.

Striped scat? Not too common in sydney