Floating_Medic Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 It's funny how some people think just because there are a lot of a certain species of fish they are a pest and deserve to be treated as such. Leatheries aren't introduced and have been around our coasts for a long time. They have an important role to play in the environment, as does every endemic fish. If something did manage to magically wipe out the leatheries the consequences could only be bad. They would be the cleaners of the sea, eating every bit of decaying or dead fish. Fortunately I don't think anything will happen to them. If you don't like leatheries then don't go fishing, they have every right to be out there and if they're thick then fish somewhere else. As for the occy, well that's nature. If you can't handle that then you need to take a look at the real world. Only the fittest survive. Ahahahaha, i thought he was joking about wiping them out like the rabbits? Have you seen how many rabbits are in Aus these days?? LMAO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
herbmozo Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 Just my 2 cents worth............ It's a known fact that Yellowfin tuna eat baby jackets and green toads... these have been found in the gut of many yellowfin and marlin over the years....so much so, that it is known as a 'staple' food for these pelagics. What happened to all of our inshore Yellowfin that used to get caught at locations like the Peak, 12 mile, etc etc????.................they got decimated by the longline/commercial fleet.......................what has happened to leatherjacket stocks in the last say....10-15years???.....yep you guessed it, exploded in numbers. One theory is the decline of Yellowfin stocks has boosted the numbers of Jackets. It's only natural.....if nothing is eating you....your not threatened and you flourish. Wacko I caught a 40kg Yellowfin a few weeks back and it had tiny little leatherjackets in its gut, about 3cm long! I like Yellowfin even more now that they eat leatherjackets! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickb Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 All you raiders do the right thing and keep them bloody jackets in sydney,we are having a ball with the macks. Rick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keflapod Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 trawlers have and do come across school of jackets during there day to day operation and belive me no twarler would want to take part of this ask the jackets make a compleat mess of the nets only real comercail way to fish jackets is with fish traps and this is hard labour intensive work but seeing a fish trap full of jackets is a sight to be seen normaly run around the traps 3-4 times for a full day so the traps having a 2-3hr soke most of the time a few jackets are stripped down to the bones by the time the traps come up as they often eat each other time between traps is used to cut the heads and guts out of the jackets size and box them into the fish boxes and down into the cold storage rady to be unloaded once back to the co-op when they are one it is not uncommon to pull 1000kg of cleaned fish for the day and times that for the amount of boats doing it (no every pro boat does it) they are one of the best marketable fish just bloody hard work Hey Gummybusta, Yeah you're spot on about the commercial way to target them. I had a first hand look on a pro boat (for fun only) and got to see how fish are trapped. We got some jackets but we were targetting snapper, bream, pinkies, etc. The jackets need to be cleaned with gloves so you don't wear your hands out - and it ain't easy doing it with gloves. The co-op would not accept jackets uncleaned...I had no idea that they would destroy nets though - but I can imagine... I just gotta get my act together to get to the 12 mile and put down the wire rigs - all this talk of jackets has whet my appetite.....I'm a bit tired of constant bream'n'whiting - time to change the species for a bit... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmaniac Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 (edited) A few things I would like to add are: These guys turn up in huge numbers pretty much every year at some stage. It has only been a big issue because it has been publicised I have some underwater footage of a calamari we were pulling being mauled by jackets only 10cm long. They are crazy buggers and even over shallow weekbeds i have lost good jigs to these pests! In 2007 they swarmed the harbour in a very big way around this time of year. One evening in about an hour I landed 48 jackets on a RAPALA LURE!!!!!!!!!!! CRAZY!!!!!! (note that this was landed and bag limits were adhered to) And a note warning to all those fisho's who are now planning to get themselves a feed of jackets. By all means go for your life, but don't think a 2m wire trace will save you much tackle if you hit a swarming school. Trust me I have tried! They bite sinkers, above the trace where it connects to the swivel, at knots in the line and they often enjoy biting your braided mainline for the fun of it!!! Andrew Edited May 13, 2010 by fishmaniac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil D Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 I did well at 12 mile reef losing two home made traces, I used a black trace and small carbon hooks, if its shiny they get much more into the line, method, drop the line ten meters at a time and pull up a meter then drop another ten and pull a meter and so on, that way your fishing the surface of the swarm and less likely to get bitten off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oz_brett Posted May 14, 2010 Share Posted May 14, 2010 I suggest every one go out with an Ocky on wire, atract the LJ's to the top and scoop up as many as you can with a net, once you get to your legal limit shoot the others so they stop cutting my lines off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idolz Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 Catch em an eat em..... they are much better eating than alot of "big dick fish"!!!! out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvbigfish Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 We humans always like to think that we can: 1. Declare the existence of a problem simply by making a relatively small number of observations 2. Decide that we have the knowledge and ability to fix this perceived problem. The answer is that it's an enourmous ecosystem out there, governed by forces that we can't quantify, such that our observations can never be accurate, nor can our solutions ever be relevant or effective. We see what we believe to be a plague in an area that we believe to be massive. We see that the leatheries are capable of such destruction due to their abilities and their competitive nature to survive. Perhaps our observations are indeed accurate and that this really IS a serious problem to us humans and the environment, but maybe it isn't... It's impossible to guage. Do we have any photos of reefs that have been ravaged by leatheries? Is there any photos of such reefs that now show little sealife there after the razor gang has been through? If so, I'm more inclined to believe there is a problem and we can show the effects to the world. Have any swimmers been attacked by leatheries ? If so, then there would definately be a big push to catch them or somehow separate humans from leatheries, but do we seriously think we can make a dent in the population? We would have to trawl nets for them but that would cause damage as well. We can't win. Personally, I would rather catch a kingie than a jacket, but I would rather eat a jacket than a kingie. I would also be in favour of removing bag limits on jackets - I love eating them... I think we need to gather more evidence before we make any conclusions... It's a tough call... Tony spot on tony i agree with you 100%................. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauljm Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 I caught a 40kg Yellowfin a few weeks back and it had tiny little leatherjackets in its gut, about 3cm long! I like Yellowfin even more now that they eat leatherjackets! Thats awesome ive never heard of that before..... this might sound stupid but does anyone know if anyone has ever actually chucked a circle hook in an Lj"s back and had success on yft? Anyone ever seen yft with bigger jackets in them? Ive probably been a part in catching about a dozen fin and never noticed anything unusual in there guts. Ive also probably lost 100+ rigs to the jackets and hate them with a passion..... good to eat but crap to catch and you can use all the wire u like but several times i have lost 40m plus of braid as well as a couple of hooks and a snapper lead and it gets real pricey in no time at all..... as for scooping them with a net the charter boats often dump what they musnt be able to gut in time or something cos u often see dozens of them floating on the way in to the heads.... they even piss the birds off cos they cant pierce the jacket to get to the meat! Apart from eating they go well in crab traps as well.....Happy fishing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luvbigfish Posted May 15, 2010 Share Posted May 15, 2010 We humans always like to think that we can: 1. Declare the existence of a problem simply by making a relatively small number of observations 2. Decide that we have the knowledge and ability to fix this perceived problem. The answer is that it's an enourmous ecosystem out there, governed by forces that we can't quantify, such that our observations can never be accurate, nor can our solutions ever be relevant or effective. We see what we believe to be a plague in an area that we believe to be massive. We see that the leatheries are capable of such destruction due to their abilities and their competitive nature to survive. Perhaps our observations are indeed accurate and that this really IS a serious problem to us humans and the environment, but maybe it isn't... It's impossible to guage. Do we have any photos of reefs that have been ravaged by leatheries? Is there any photos of such reefs that now show little sealife there after the razor gang has been through? If so, I'm more inclined to believe there is a problem and we can show the effects to the world. Have any swimmers been attacked by leatheries ? If so, then there would definately be a big push to catch them or somehow separate humans from leatheries, but do we seriously think we can make a dent in the population? We would have to trawl nets for them but that would cause damage as well. We can't win. Personally, I would rather catch a kingie than a jacket, but I would rather eat a jacket than a kingie. I would also be in favour of removing bag limits on jackets - I love eating them... I think we need to gather more evidence before we make any conclusions... It's a tough call... Tony could not agree more tony spot on champ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PK1988 Posted May 16, 2010 Share Posted May 16, 2010 Bagged out limit (20 pp) in 30 mins outside port hacking on saturday. They are in plague proportions!!!! Just imagine what the damage to our waters / other fish would be if they had mouths the size of a piranha...see good write up in the link below: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/a-piranha-like-plague-as-ravenous-swarms-of-leatherjackets-eat-all-they-can-see/story-e6freuzi-1225865248740 do you have a more accurate location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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