Pittwater And Hawkesbury 6/1/06

[Martin]

Hi Fishraiders, just thought I would catch up as I have just finished a month’s holiday and have not had much of a chance to log on.

Anyway, I only got to go fishing a few times. Spent 2 weeks a Coffs Harbour with the family and went beach fishing a few times getting lucky with some bream and whiting.

Also did a charter taking out my son on a 60ft Aero Cat called Out there. Ex cray boat built in WA and jet powered in lieu of the traditional shaft drive. We did a bit of everything for not much. Matthew came home with a good dolphin fish. Hooked up on live bait at a FAD. More than enough fish once filleted and skinned to feed all four of us.

Fished 6th Jan for one of the poorest days fishing I have ever had. One big fat ZERO, just a lot of under size snapper all through Pittwater. Tried 6 locations in Pittwater and the Hawkesbury/ Broken Bay all for zilch. What’s even more amazing in having a month off is I only managed to go out fishing once on my boat, however I did have a few family days.

Hope all of you did much better than I and are all well rested and ready for some serious fishing.

Happy New Year

Martin

Edited January 10, 2006 by Martin

[Guest]

Hey there Martin ,nice to see you back on the site I was wondering where you had been hiding .

Happy New Year .

Cheers Swordfisherman

[joshGTV]

Hi Fishraiders, just thought I would catch up as I have just finished a month’s holiday and have not had much of a chance to log on.

Anyway, I only got to go fishing a few times. Spent 2 weeks a Coffs Harbour with the family and went beach fishing a few times getting lucky with some bream and whiting.

Also did a charter taking out my son on a 60ft Aero Cat called Out there. Ex cray boat built in WA and jet powered in lieu of the traditional shaft drive. We did a bit of everything for not much. Matthew came home with a good dolphin fish. Hooked up on live bait at a FAD. More than enough fish once filleted and skinned to feed all four of us.

Fished 6th Jan for one of the poorest days fishing I have ever had. One big fat ZERO, just a lot of under size snapper all through Pittwater. Tried 6 locations in Pittwater and the Hawkesbury/ Broken Bay all for zilch. What’s even more amazing in having a month off is I only managed to go out fishing once on my boat, however I did have a few family days.

Hope all of you did much better than I and are all well rested and ready for some serious fishing.

Happy New Year

Martin

Hi mate

You're not the lone ranger re: Pittwater... i've found it (and Broken Bay) to be very quiet over Christmas/New Year, most of the blokes in the northern beaches tackle shops have been getting the same reports from others as well. Hopefully will pick up as the water continues to warm up.

Has anyone had much luck lately on Pittwater or Broken Bay?

Cheers,

Josh

[Martin]

Hi Josh

It was only yesterday that I got the news why Pittwater has been fishing so poorly. Some visiting pro boats that have been net trawling it hard including Broken Bay have decimated it. Apparently they are not local but visit the area and then move on.

Their netting method picks up a lot of bicatch with juvenile and mature fish falling victim. The local kingfish population has suffered in a major way. This is sad news as it was just recovering and begining to look to have a permant future with a strong reident population.

Most of the damage was done in mid November 2005. A number of charter boat operators and fishing columnists became aware and are publicising the facts.

It could be next season before we get new stock into the area

All up not good new for us

I do not begrudge a person earning a living, however it’s the method they employ that ticks me off. Nets should be banned full stop.

Cheers

Martin

[joshGTV]

Hi Josh

It was only yesterday that I got the news why Pittwater has been fishing so poorly. Some visiting pro boats that have been net trawling it hard including Broken Bay have decimated it. Apparently they are not local but visit the area and then move on.

Their netting method picks up a lot of bicatch with juvenile and mature fish falling victim. The local kingfish population has suffered in a major way. This is sad news as it was just recovering and begining to look to have a permant future with a strong reident population.

Most of the damage was done in mid November 2005. A number of charter boat operators and fishing columnists became aware and are publicising the facts.

It could be next season before we get new stock into the area

All up not good new for us

I do not begrudge a person earning a living, however it’s the method they employ that ticks me off. Nets should be banned full stop.

Cheers

Martin

Thanks for the explanation mate. Agree entirely about netting... higher prices in the fish shops would be great encouragement to become a better fisherman anyway!

Cheers,

Josh.

[Brown Hornet]

I was out on Sat in my new boat, there were big schools of tailor chasing baitfish around barrenjoey headland. it was rocky but managed to get 4 nice fish around 45cm.

[marinrubelj]

We have been out a few times in broken bay/hawkesbury and seem to be only catching tailor and soapy jew,most flatties are undersize also,should be cracking late January

[James]

as a local of the hawkesbury fishing system living in dural i have seen a massive decline over the last 6 months with catches from brooklyn to pittwater, and even the closer reefs such as west reef and so on. its poor management and something really has to be done.

[neilm]

The only way to get action is to stir the buggers up . At the moment the DPI are more intersted in the whole sharks on the beaches thing (shock horror, who would have imagined such a thing?) Write letters to Alex McTaggart, Ian MacDonald, Manly Daily (or your local paper) and also, if you have tangible concrete evidence of the pros activities let Col Buckley know as he's gathering some data on their movements (Col's email: cbuckley@fishnet.com.au).

I have been writing furiously, it's important that we speak now to protect our waterway.

Cheers,

Neil

Email addresses:

DPI:

macdonald.office@macdonald.minister.nsw.gov.au

Also, local state member for Pittwater,

Alex McTaggart:

pittwater@parliament.nsw.gov .au

Also, Manly Daily (they haven't published my letter yet):

editor@manlydaily.com.au

[Martin]

You are dead right James

I had high hopes things would improve as each season progressed a few years back, then I thought its just one of those bad seasons, but why is Botany Bay firing. Then it all fell in place... Professional Fisherman netting the area. This season would seem to be over ... flathead and kingfish and bait fish such as yellow tail and slimy mackerel gone. It may take years to get the resident kingfish population back to where it was. As for the flathead maybe next season may see some numbers. Hairtail, well they have not been around for years.

They are teams of Pro’s who have worked over Pittwater and the Hawkesbury hard. They are out-of-towners who take then move on. Their nets do not discriminate killing all in their path and destroying habitat as they drag across the bottom.

It has been estimated that for every 1kg of a specific fish a Pro targets they take 15gk of bi- species. These selfish bastards just do not give a flying f...k about any one or the future of our fish populations. It is criminal what has been done in Pittwater and the Hawkesbury. Destroy an area, give it some time to recover and then come back and destroy it again. On top of all this the Hawkesbury system does not get a chance to flood any more and flush itself

I was looking forward to this season so much and now its over before it really started.

I hate these Pros

I will get off my soapbox, sorry for carrying on, it just ticks me off.

Cheers

Martin

[patl]

A couple of points regards the above

*Firstly there is no trawling in Pittwater itself (has been banned I think since the 80's or longer) I also think up to where trawling is banned they can only work less than half the river and then most of it Monday to Friday

*Trawlers can work in a line between Box Head and Barrenjoey (somewhere east of this would become an ocean trawl and not estuary trawl)

*The main catch is prawns (mostly night time fishing) and squid (day time fishing)

*they are allowed to keep legal bycatch, and do but I believe there are a list of species they can keep that includes whiting, flounder, silverbiddys' etc

* there is some fishing methods that I think are legal in Pittwater which incudes beach hauling (eg as in sea run mullet) and meshing (setting a net) but you need the endorsements to do this

* you also see traps set, mostly around west head, steel and barrenhjoey

And most importantly if you see something illegal being done get the FB number, write the details down and any witnesses and if possible take a photo, then ring fisheries

Patrick

[go-fish]

I came across a few pro's working the Tuggerah Lakes on the morning of January 3.

There were 3 of them, each using an 18ft tinny to deploy a single net. The net was already in place when I got there (about 7am) and they were still buggerising with it when I left about 9am so I didn't get to see how they pulled it in or what they got etc.

What concerned me though is the size of their bloody net. Conservatively I would estimate it to cover about 3 acres in a single go. It was amazingly huge and I was stunned. No wonder there is not many fish left up there either. ;(

Does anyone know where the rules are for these pro fishers?

I am a regular Hawkesbury bait soaker and I have definately noticed a severe lack of good fish there in the last several months.

To hear the pro's worked the area and now to have seen what "worked" really means in terms of coverage I can easily understand the likely impact on the local fish stocks.

[Martin]

Patrick

Are you positive about no trawling in Pittwater? A recent article in the Manly Daily noted that the last permanent Pro Trawler was hanging up his nets. His boat was moored in the Basin and it is a trawler with nets.

All the reports on what happened in Pittwater by the out of town trawlers are about them trawling with nets, however the issue is that what they did had not broken any laws, hence is net trawling allowed in Pittwater.

The problem with nets is the indiscriminate capture of other fish (bicatch) that in most circumstances is dead when the nets are hauled on board. This bicatch includes juvenile fish. The prawn nets in particular have weights, chains or balls rolling across or dragging the bottom to stir up the prawns and prevent the nets snagging. So not only do they capture bicatch they destroy the habitat of the fish.

One of the worst fisheries is prawning because these live on the bottom and the most economical means to catch them is by netting. As I noted previously for every kg of prawn there can be 15kg of bicatch. If the pros want to keep it or not, the problem is its dead, so if they throw it back its thrown back dead in most often the outcome be they undersize or legal. Prawn nets do not let much escape, then again prawns are not large, therefore the mesh of a net is small.

The traps we see against the shoreline around West Head and down to Flint and Steel I think are lobster traps.

Cheers

Martin

[Fishlessmick]

I came across a few pro's working the Tuggerah Lakes on the morning of January 3.

There were 3 of them, each using an 18ft tinny to deploy a single net. The net was already in place when I got there (about 7am) and they were still buggerising with it when I left about 9am so I didn't get to see how they pulled it in or what they got etc.

What concerned me though is the size of their bloody net. Conservatively I would estimate it to cover about 3 acres in a single go. It was amazingly huge and I was stunned. No wonder there is not many fish left up there either. ;(

Does anyone know where the rules are for these pro fishers?

I am a regular Hawkesbury bait soaker and I have definately noticed a severe lack of good fish there in the last several months.

To hear the pro's worked the area and now to have seen what "worked" really means in terms of coverage I can easily understand the likely impact on the local fish stocks.

G'day go-fish, i live on Tuggerah lakes and get sick of seeing this.The pro's dont give a sh1t and when they bring their net in the amount of byecatch that gets thrown back is BS.

cheers

Mick

[Guest]

I came across a few pro's working the Tuggerah Lakes on the morning of January 3.

There were 3 of them, each using an 18ft tinny to deploy a single net. The net was already in place when I got there (about 7am) and they were still buggerising with it when I left about 9am so I didn't get to see how they pulled it in or what they got etc.

What concerned me though is the size of their bloody net. Conservatively I would estimate it to cover about 3 acres in a single go. It was amazingly huge and I was stunned. No wonder there is not many fish left up there either. ;(

Does anyone know where the rules are for these pro fishers?

I am a regular Hawkesbury bait soaker and I have definately noticed a severe lack of good fish there in the last several months.

To hear the pro's worked the area and now to have seen what "worked" really means in terms of coverage I can easily understand the likely impact on the local fish stocks.

Today I made some enquiries regarding meshnetting by Profisherman. I spoke with Amie Hibberd who was very helpful and is sending me a hardcopy of the Fisheries Management (General) Regulation 2002. The copy of the email she sent to me follows:

From : Amie Hibberd <Amie.Hibberd@dpi.nsw.gov.au>

Sent : Wednesday, 11 January 2006 10:23:49 PM

To : <stewysmackme@hotmail.com>

Subject : Netting Regulations at Windsor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi Stewy

I have attached the relevent legislation, some is from the Fisheries Management

Regulations and some from Fisheries Closures, I have put the web address above

each.

for the website, pls direct general questions to (02) 84374917 or

(02) 84374913

to report any illegal fishing in the Sydney (including Windsor) area - 0419185525

or lower Hawkesbury - 0405134523

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Cheers

Amie

Amie Hibberd

A/DFO Wollstonecraft

Department of Primary Industries

Fisheries Branch.

This message is intended for the addressee named and may contain confidential

information. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify

the sender. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender,

and are not necessarily the views of their organisation.

This link pertains to Tuggerah Lakes http://www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au/general/ho.../tuggerah_lakes

Cheers Swordfisherman

[patl]

Haraka

These are the regulations for commercial fishing that should give you a good idea of what is lawfull or not

Thanks

Patrick

[Narralakes]

This is definitely bad news, but nothing new, it sucks and there has been some discussions on this topic before on FR. Apparently today's paper had an article about it, we should read up and discuss possible ways to go on this before rec fishos have nothing left to fish for.