Fishing Havens

[Grantm]

I was reading the 2004-2005 Salt water fishing guide and noticed that there is 30 'fishing havens' situated on the NSW Coast.

These fishing havens are 'out of bounds' for any type of commercial fishing, and have been in place now for a year or two I think.

Two around here are Lake Macquarie and Botany Bay.

Heres a few questions for you guys -

Has anyone who fishes these areas noticed an increase in fishing quality since the Havens were introduced ?

Are these havens really left alone by pro's ?

Will we ever see the mighty Hawkesbury classified as a fishing haven ?

Cheers

[Grantm]

Thanks for the responses Iain. Pity about the Hawkesbury although it is a big ask I suppose.

Although it would be nice if they left it alone during certain times of the year to give it a chance to recover.

I think Lake Macquarie will become a hot spot for reco's over the next few years, sounds promising.

Cheers

[Guest Jocool]

No. I have a letter from the Fisheries Minister (in response to this exact question re the Hawkesbury) clearly stating there will be no more RFH's.

19932[/snapback]

And I have the same result straight from the donkeys mouth! Very dissapointing to have that attitude to say the least. Especially in the face of the current crop of studies that show the rec fishos putting more money back into the economy than any pro could ever put back!

[The Iceman]

I fish St Georges Basin a fair bit and the fishing has certainly improved there as well

[allen glover]

The shadow Minister would not answer directly (funny a politician not answering a question!!) but went on with waffle about 'resource sharing' and 'supporting both professionals and amateurs' and 'sustainability' etc etc etc. So no.

19932[/snapback]

read:- The Nats/Coalition is fully and publically committed to dismantling the RFA and license system to let the exisitng pros back into waters they were banned from.

[Mick]

Thanks for the responses Iain.  Pity about the Hawkesbury although it is a big ask I suppose.

Although it would be nice if they left it alone during certain times of the year to give it a chance to recover.

I think Lake Macquarie will become a hot spot for reco's over the next few years, sounds promising.

Cheers

19937[/snapback]

We had our chances to get the Hawkesbury and Sydney Harbour when the rfa submissions were requested a few years back but as always most fisho's do a lot of talking and not much responding. Considering Sydney harbour is the most fished water way in Australia and the hakesbury would be right up there to, with 100's of thousands of anglers using these water ways yearly I thought we would have walked this one in.

But to those who dont know guess how many submission were received by fisheries from all these fisho's and there friends and family.

50'000 maybe, but wait a minute, what about all the people who visit Sydney for a fish on their holiday, their votes should have kicked the number up to about 100'000. Well if you were guessing some thing close to these numbers you were a little out.

Fishing has the biggest population of participants in any sport and I'm sure that if we were able to calculate the number who have wet a line, the numbers would be astronomical.

But here's the part that cracks me up, of all these people, only a total of 443 submissions were received supporting a full or partial pro closure of Region 6 which was Sydney Harbour and the Hawkesbury. and my family put in 6. The pro's won the vote with 898 votes supporting commercial fishing in these areas.

All people had to do was to ask for a submission form fill it in and post it back.

The pro's obviously wanted it more then the fisho's and they got it. All I can say is good on them.

[Grantm]

This is a holiday haven where the value of the tourist trade dwarfs the meagre revenue of a few pro boats. There is a river where families and kids can fish and yet the pro's are allowed to net the channel.

They will want to keep an eye on that one, I spend a lot of time in Forster with relo's who live there, and one of the things that makes tourism so good is because you can always catch a fish there for the kids !

If it got severely punished by the pro's this would have to detract from its appeal you would think.

On another note I noticed the Prawn Trawlers in the Hawkesbury tried to have thier weekend ban altered some time ago. It got knocked on the head by the committee though . The bloke in charge, Hillary I think (this cracked me up ) said it was originally the trawlers idea to have a ban imposed on themselves on the weekend because they were concerned for the safety of water skiers and now they are suffering financial hardships.gimme a break Shoulda never said it was your idea Hillary.

The committe said they were not convinced with Mr Hillary's resons and evidence for amending the ban. Funny stuff.

[Ken A]

I have heard they tried resting the Hawkesbury once.

Ken A?

There was a closure in the Hawkesbury many years ago. It would have been late 80's I think. It was intended to last for 2 months but after 2 weeks or so the commercial fisherman had it lifted by kissing the right arses in the NSW Government.

The difference it made was huge. I had been fishing offshore almost exclusively due to catches falling off inside but after only a few days of the closure I fished Juno & Gunyah & did well on Bream ,Flatties ,Flounder plus a few decent 15 + kg Jews. We made 6 trips during the 2 week closure & went well each time. Within a week of trawling commencing again catches were back to the low levels they were beforehand & I went back to offshore fishing.

If the Hawkesbury was left alone to recover it would regain popularity again & pull in a lot of dollars for the local communities. A lot more than they get currently from commercial fisherman.

I'd rather not have them referred to as professional fisherman. It makes it sound like there is some skill attached to dragging a net & that they are skilled fishos.