Gill Netting

[AGP]

Went for a Jew session in the Hawkesbury last night. Was lucky enough to score 5 live squid and a tank full of livies so things were looking good with the high tide on its way at our regular spot.

Thats when the fun began. A couple of blokes in an old Tinny with no Nav lights pull up to the shoreline an hour before the tide change at about 7pm. They then proceed to lay a gill net of about 300m from the shore to about 40 feet to the back of our boat.

We had a spread of 4 rods out with live baits and were blown away by how close they dropped the net to us.

It was strategically positioned to intercept anything passing that way plus obviously totally ruin our chances. 20 years of going to that spot and I have never seen anything like this.

Rang fisheries who told us what they were doing is legal at that location etc etc.... Now I know these blokes are making a 'living' out of this but laying gill nets across an entire river mouth while people are already fishing there seems off to me. No fish moving by would be missed.

I guess complaining about it seems kinda pointless as i cant see this sort of thing being banned in a long long time. To top it off we saw them come flying past us at about 9pm hugging a rocky shoreline with no lights at all on the boat in the pitch black. Dodgy as it gets. We all know fish dont survive gill nets. Why bother reviewing Jew size limits and still allow this sort of crap to go on?

We obviously moved when they dropped the net on top of us, Only consolation was we did manage a Jew at the spot we moved to but thats not the point.

Edited December 16, 2013 by AGP

[Flickn Mad]

I have my own opinion of pros (negative) on the hawksbury, after seeing a similar episode which ended with many boxes of undersize jew of to the filleting table,

There is also a good chance the guys you saw were not pros at all. Hugging the shore line at night with no lights on does not sound like guys with nothing to hide. If you can you should get boat and or car regos and hand them over.

Word of warning though, poachers can get violent if they think you are gunna dob them in.

[Scratchie]

Sorry to say, but this sort of thing happens all the time in the hawkesbo! The government really needs to buy these guys out.

Cheers scratchie!!!

[oz_brett]

to me not having nav lights is like saying we have some thing to hide!

[sbf1]

I was once fishing the shallows behind palm beach golf course and these guys set some nets for as far as I could see then used huge winches from the sand to pull them in. They pulled in truck loads of fish. No more fish there

[Paikea]

This post reminds me of a fisho who was pulling in an illegal net and received a visit from a guy who asked him what he was doing.

The fishor asked and who are you. The other guy replied I am the local fisheries inspector whereupon the netter replied thank god for that, I thought that you may have been the owner of this net.

All right I know that it is an old one but still a goodie.

Cheers

Paikea

[krause]

Solution? 50m of heavy leader, big weight, and a treble. With that rig you might just "accidently" cast over their net . If someone is an @#$! to me then ill be an @#$! back, fair is fair. Same thing rock fishing, first in, first served and keep to your stretch of water. People get what they dish out.

Cheers

[qnut]

Actually had a poacher CAUGHT the other day near my house - Dropping drag nets. The so & so had 2 children onboard with no lifejackets and feet dangling over the bow as he did doughnuts around his net.
The fisheries only took 30mins to attend after I made the call and took some photos and the sorry bugger was still hauling. Caught in the act.

[Testlab]

Thats when the fun began. A couple of blokes in an old Tinny with no Nav lights pull up to the shoreline an hour before the tide change at about 7pm. They then proceed to lay a gill net of about 300m from the shore to about 40 feet to the back of our boat.

Snipped

We had a spread of 4 rods out with live baits and were blown away by how close they dropped the net to us.

It was strategically positioned to intercept anything passing that way plus obviously totally ruin our chances. 20 years of going to that spot and I have never seen anything like this.

I know of this guy, he routinely lays that net across Mullet and Mooney Creeks.

As for unlit boats, there was a plague of them around last Saturday night. Either completely unlit or showing nav lights only and no all round white. Please people, if the white is getting in your eyes then it's either too low or you need to make a glare shield to place under the light at the top of the pole. It makes a huge difference to the visibility of your boat, it's essential, which is why it's a legal requirement !!!!!!

[Jamestown]

I have my own opinion of pros (negative) on the hawksbury, after seeing a similar episode which ended with many boxes of undersize jew of to the filleting table,

There is also a good chance the guys you saw were not pros at all. Hugging the shore line at night with no lights on does not sound like guys with nothing to hide. If you can you should get boat and or car regos and hand them over.

Word of warning though, poachers can get violent if they think you are gunna dob them in.

Na they having nothing to hide they are LFB and they normally behave like this.

Normally see them running the shore line at Gunya they lay there nets then run chains to spook the fish out, lights are off to minimise spooking the prey.