Keeping undersized fish / crabs
Went down to Palm Beach Jetty tonight to flick around some new TT Twitchblade lures, and had some luck catching a flathead, snook, and chopper tailor. What pissed me off was a couple of people keeping undersize tailor and crabs. There was woman with a kiwi accent 10m down the jetty from me pulling up her crab nets and just emptying her catch into a bucket without even measuring them. I know for a fact that all of the crabs she kept were not sized but she didnt even check once.
Then i fished up at the top platform where an old bloke was catching tailor, and i started to get a few on the Switchblade, the fish i saw caught wouldve range from 25cm-32cm, and i was catching and releasing anyway and the old bloke was releasing his undersize fish, then the family on the other side of him started catching them and the loud-mouth-know-it-all woman started yahoo-ing about what nice size herring her family had started catching, but they were actually tailor. So after i saw them put a couple of undersize fish in the bucket i yelled out to them that they better watch out about keeping undersize tailor because if they get caught they will recieve massive fines and may appear in court, and told them I see the fisheries down here quite often. I have actually never seen the fisheries down there, and i dont know what the fine is, and im pretty sure you wouldnt have to go to court, but I was just trying to use scare tactics as the woman was trying to blatantly ignore me and then was trying to pass them off as herring but im pretty sure they knew they were tailor because as i was saying all this, they pulled up another tailor and she said she was going to release this one because it was a bit small, then in the corner of my eye i saw her put it in the bucket!! A guy even further up then started to tell the family about how he had been fined for catching snapper out of season, and mentioned that he was fined around $450.
After this i saw them trying to sneakily measure the fish without anyone seeing them, and you could tell the fish were undersized just by looking at their worried faces! THEN, they proceeded to fillet the fish they had caught and started fishing again!! By this stage i was pretty angry, but there was nothing else i could do, I had warned them and i was just hoping the fisheries would rock up.
I know this topic has been done to death on this site, but im just posting because you never know who reads through this site, im hoping someone from the department does and decides to check out the jetty some time soon.
Im NOT a happy fisherman tonight!!
Goodnight all, Beau.
Faulkner Family
Posts: 18330
Date Joined: 11/03/08
not good when you hear about
not good when you hear about this sort of thing happening. good onya for trying something without being too pushy as it can turn nasty.
RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together
Dicey
Posts: 912
Date Joined: 23/07/10
If catching undersized fish
If catching undersized fish was like speeding fines you can bet there will be more fisheries officers, i remember long time ago nearly all the hotspots had at least 1 fisheries officer there quite often, now its like they have disapeared and mainly targeting boaters, if for example they did a road block at the entrance of southmole and check everycar man they would make some big bucks that night.
strike_zone
Posts: 403
Date Joined: 09/09/10
fisheries/fishwatch
get there car rego then dob them in on the fisheries fishwatch number not sure off the top of my head what it is but look up the fisheries website my brother had the sticker on his old car we were down the narrows one night when everyone was pulling in undersized mulloway and we were all releasing them except for these 2 dickheads that thoght they were tailor we and everyone else around advised them they were not tailor so we rang the fishwatch number and some days later fisheries did a raid on there house i think they have now learnt
Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
The fisherys have just done a
The fisherys have just done a blitz on the fremantle moles targetting undersize tailor with many fined and many more warnings,,hopefully the Ammo dump ,Palm beach etc gets a look in as well soon,,
If they fillet them they will be fined,,being a Cat 2 fish they have to be kept whole so they can be measured etc,,(no lopping off the head either)
Oh the fines were $100 on the spot,,not large but enough to make people think and if they get caught next time watch out (your fishing gear should be confiscated IMO)
soupster51
Posts: 2724
Date Joined: 29/11/06
FISHWATCH
Plug the number for FISHWATCH into you phone and just tell the people you are calling FISHWATCH and do it in front of them. Then say the Fisheries Officers are on the way, even if they are not. They'll quickly be out of there.
The best reason for doing what's right today is tomorrow.
wazzbat
Posts: 977
Date Joined: 19/01/10
(No subject)
I fish for the future - Cause I can't bloody catch anything!
Mrs Benno1
Posts: 29
Date Joined: 15/12/10
Weve been checked (in QLD) at
Weve been checked quite a few times (in QLD) at the ramp with the boat on the trailer after a weekend on the water...2 Fisheries Officers came onboard...checked the eskies and all the contents...all safety gear etc. It amazed me the number of boaties that went the long way round or just turned back out the mouth of the river...prolly pissed :P. Its a shame that some ppl dont give a rats about what they take out of the water...just so long as they get a feed...and with attitudes like that its no wonder the regulations are the way they are. *insert angry face here*
Mrs Benno1
Sunny
Cheers Hekser...you can just hear the dogs thoughts "i dare you to touch me please touch me...just once ill learn ya" :P
hekser
Posts: 572
Date Joined: 31/03/10
on an unrelated topic
Mrs Benno1 : that avatar is the goods ive been having a chuckle everytime i see it. nice :D
bod
Posts: 2321
Date Joined: 03/05/06
saw this
Perth Fisheries officers concerned about undersize offences Date: Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Fisheries and Marine Officers in the Perth Metropolitan area are concerned about the high level of offences involving undersize tailor, after a weekend compliance operation.
Compliance Manager Todd A’Vard said a focus on Swan River fishers and checks of the North and South Mole at Fremantle, on Saturday and Sunday nights, lead to the issuing of ten $100 infringement fines and 17 warnings.
“It is particularly concerning that so many of the fishers we encountered had undersize tailor,” Mr A’Vard said. “These are fish for the future and it is important that fishers only take home tailor that are at or above the minimum size of 300mm. There is also a daily bag limit of eight and fishers must not take more than two tailor larger than 500mm.”
Fisheries Department media release
Dicey
Posts: 912
Date Joined: 23/07/10
well if they were there
well if they were there everytime when the wind is at least blowing SW they woulld rack up at least $1000 each session, the repeat offenders are not stupid either they have people watching and they hide the undersized fish and over the limit catches in the rocks for later.
Dale
Posts: 7930
Date Joined: 13/09/05
1800 065 522
1800 065 522
That's the fishwatch number to ring to dob in the scum.
Cheers
Dale
"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."
Mr Wolf
monfsts
Posts: 111
Date Joined: 13/09/10
It makes me angry too!
Hey, i know how frustrating it is when others are taking undersized fish and crab.
I have had similar experience in south perth. This guy is taking anything and everything, undersized bream, over the limit, undersized crabs, and even COBBLER!!!!
I warned him nicely a few times, he ignored me, he even told me is alright...
Took the car rego, and reported to fisheries. He was long gone and no officer came.
Got a call from the fisheries on Sunday morning, and they said they will look into it. He will be taken to court and receive a $1500 fines for each Cobbler and $100 each for undersized crab.
That guy has taken more than 1 cobbler for sure and he is still fishing in South Perth near the Swan River Trust building/boat shades and also in Canning as well.
I am really concerned...
Michael Yoni
Posts: 606
Date Joined: 02/01/11
I have seen people take
I have seen people take cobbler at Rockingham..... is it also illegal to catch them there. The regulations are not that clear as the ocean cobblers would be different to the river ones you would expect. Can anybody clarify this further.
They also just cut the head off and threw it back into the water. Supposedly so that they do not risk getting stung by the spines.
Cheers
MY
snappermiles
Posts: 2102
Date Joined: 05/11/10
na mate its
only been closed in the river!!! rocko is fine
ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS EXCEPT YOU AND ME! AND IM NOT SO SURE ABOUT YOU!
Dicko
Posts: 219
Date Joined: 07/10/10
I don't get it
I don't get taking fish under 30cm??? what do you get out of them??
I'll be sure to put that number in my phone, thou dunno how on-the-ball they are in Karratha. I've been checked twice in 2 years.
nana nana nana nana fishing!!!
Dicey
Posts: 912
Date Joined: 23/07/10
Over 10-15 years ago there
Over 10-15 years ago there use to be so many checks its not funny at any hotspots, but the times they were there, nothing was going on or was dead quiet, what i reckon happen is they hired too many people at the time and they got the sack, it seems that way with the amount of fisherie offices that closed down, so dam hard to even get a crab gauge or information on fishing etc so how do the people without internet even know whats changed etc.
Auslobster
Posts: 1901
Date Joined: 03/05/08
Land-based licence.
Been asking about it for two years now. If you start charging people, say $20/year to fish off their local jetty/beach/groyne, you will weed out a lot of the no-hopers that do the wrong thing. I am dead set againt the concept of pricing people out of doing things (like a couple years ago when they talked about bringing in the $150 demersal licence) but these morons that insist on taking undersize fish and going over the bag limit are doing massive amounts of damage to future fish stocks. Keeping tailor/snapper/skippy/etc that haven't even had a chance to breed once yet is literally costing us millions of fish down the track. Not to mention depleting natural food sources for larger predators, both inshore and offshore (mulloway/dhuies/big snapper/sambos).
Fisheries will spend millions of dollars on state-of-the-art facilities like that thing they just built in Mandurah, and 9m Naiads with 500hp worth of Suzukis on them, but they can't cough up the cash to do more shore patrols? How hard is it to consistently monitor all the "hot spots" like Palm Beach/Moles/River/Peel estuary/marinas and so on? Apparently a lot harder than to simply sit at the ramp and inspect boaters who have already paid for a licence and who, on a percentage basis, are more likely to do the right thing in the first place.
Dicey
Posts: 912
Date Joined: 23/07/10
I was really against that
I was really against that landbased fishing license but after seeing many days and years of people keeping undersize fish it might not be so bad? But also in saying that the $20 per person means they can hire more staff right and plan accordingly with volunteers and public help, not just sending them to do rounds not knowing if anyone is there doing something illegal etc wasting money, if they are not going to do at least something like that then im still fully against the $20.
John_M
Posts: 967
Date Joined: 17/01/10
Yeh I heard of some guy
Yeh I heard of some guy being fined at woodies about a week ago. It just sh*ts me when people do things like that.
garethgkr
Posts: 317
Date Joined: 16/12/09
I see this happening all the
I see this happening all the time at North Mole. A lot of asian familes (not being racist, im asian also) just dump their tailor into their bucket without checking their size.
When I walk over and tell them that there are size limits and bag limits, they just stare at me as if I'm speaking gibberish....
Ticks the **** out of me!
pale ale
Posts: 1755
Date Joined: 02/01/10
Yeah, I have seen some Asian
Yeah, I have seen some Asian families with tubs full of little crabs. Really pisses me off when people dont follow the rules.
Matstx
Posts: 12
Date Joined: 26/03/09
Ive seen em on the north wall
Ive seen em on the north wall of hillarys taking anything thats pulled in. Even the blowies didnt get a chance. Annoys me no end seeing this kind of behaviour. When you have 15 or 20 people in a group all catching and keeping undersized fish it wont take long to deplete stocks and then what are my kids or their kids gonna catch in the future. Squat.
Spinnerak
Posts: 521
Date Joined: 03/04/10
and i thought the amount of
and i thought the amount of fish in our waters today is bad...
Subway cookie is the best burley
John_M
Posts: 967
Date Joined: 17/01/10
HOWS THIS!
Went fishing with Marko tonight, and as we got there, a guy and his family were fishing. They caught about a dozen pink snapper all about 15cm in length. I told him it was illegal to keep them at that size, and I even after I showed him the fisheries book, he continued to catch and keep them....
beau
Posts: 4135
Date Joined: 24/01/10
disgusting!
disgusting!
Joodles
Posts: 362
Date Joined: 19/11/10
When I was younger growing up
When I was younger growing up in Albany my family lived on the water front at Oyster Harbour, Lower King. We used to be able to walk out on the flats at low tide and collect a feed of oysters and cockles without much effort. The asians got wind of it, started rocking up in a 12 seater bus with the big black rubbish bins, about 70 or 80 liters I think they are. Raped the flats of shell life filling their bins, what do you know - nothing there now!!
It's not rocket science is it?
GROGfish
Posts: 9
Date Joined: 31/12/10
Its a hard lesson for kids
We were catching chopper of 25-30cm down at Binningup a few days ago and the kids were having a ball. Telling them they had to put them back was a bugger and they were very disappointed, but they have to learn the lesson so they don't end up being idiots. Frankly its not about whether you get caught either - its about acting responsibly and helping the kids to understand that there are very good reasons for the size/bag limits.
Perhaps if my grandfather and his couterparts had not done their never-ending freezer-filling we wouldn't be so tight now!
Tell them fisheries have more power than the police and can sieze not only their fishing gear, but their vehicle and anything else used in their illegal activities and they will think a bit harder.
Feet in sand, rod in water, beer in hand - the perfect counselling session!
chris308
Posts: 33
Date Joined: 04/01/10
Not Cool!!
All us responsible people take the time to find out what the fish is on the end of the line. Not to mention the size and limits that go along with the species & most importantly play by the rules. It must have been very frustating to see it actually happening before your very eyes.
Silk200611
Posts: 286
Date Joined: 08/02/09
Almost the same storye last
Almost the same storye last night at (late Avro) old guy catching and keeping 10cm to 25cm tailor from Guilford Bridge, I know they were small tailor as I was sitting in my boat casting into same school.. Whated to keep one for live bait but didn’t as the tailor is such a top fish to catch when a lil bigger so all mine went back.. Kept the grunters for live bait with no results
Call me Brad as that's my name..
gumnut
Posts: 108
Date Joined: 30/09/10
makes my blood boil
i was out at the cut last night in bunbury after tailor - caught plenty but they were all undersize, 20-25cm. pissed me right off to see d!ckheads keeping them.
thanks for that number dale. im sure only a few people would have to be followed up by the fisheries for the news to get around that the fisheries are out there and do their job (occasionally)
Stanno
Posts: 27
Date Joined: 15/11/09
Keep ringing fisheries. Even
Keep ringing fisheries. Even if they dont show up, they will be getting a data base of hot spots. I know they are stretched pretty thin.
Daniel Y
Posts: 423
Date Joined: 30/09/05
Definitely ring the fishwatch
Definitely ring the fishwatch number to dob in bastards who keep undersize fish/crabs. If the guys who were mistaking tailor for herring released them after you told them they were undersized, then perhaps you could forgive their ignorance. The fact that they kept fishing and filleted the fish to try and stop fisheries from measuring shows that they deserve to be fined to teach them a lesson.
Personally I think tailor should have a size limit of minimum 35cm, due to the fact that they don't mature until this size. Fish under this size havent even had a chance to spawn yet before they are caught. All other species of fish in wa have a size limit greater or equal to their average size at maturity, so why not tailor?