I think the impact of recreational fishing on fish stocks is a load of rubbish being fed to us by pollies who are not prepared to to address the real problem... POLLUTION.
Old guys back in the 60s & 70s used to tell of the fantastic fishing back in their old days, now we're saying the same to the young guys of today and I don't believe it was rec fisherman who destroyed to stocks.
What do you think?

Yeah I think recreational fishermen account for a bid part of fish stock but not to take all the blame

Pollution ???

Not @all fish will adapt to pollution although you wouldn't swim in some area's fish do

Believe 2 things more than anything have contributed to drop in fish stocks Pro's in 2 ways
* depleting stocks day in day out
* & moreso their bi catch I'll use Botany Bay for an example when we had all those trawlers working the bay they were wiping out the fish's food source prawns baifish etc etc & without a food source fish cant survive.

Same goes with offshore species baitfish just isn't around likr the good old days & without baitfish around how do you expect bigger fish to eat ?
Just take a look @ my sig think it says it all our baitfish is going to the cat food industry.

Next you have motherships what those japs & the likes of them do to fish no's out there well dont like to think about it although they may not be fishing our waters they are killing stock B4 it gets to us.

Pollution ??

Although not a very nice thought think thats the least of the prob

Sometimes you really surprise me Jumpy.

Why is that Fed

For some crazy reason I thought you would agree with me.

Cant do that it wouldn't be Jumpus like

You asked for opinions I gave mine.

Do think however that pollyticians have made the recreational fisherman accountable for all their bloody stuffups
Your average Joe Blow catch's very little but there's alot of them hence they keep small fish
Then you've got the Dave's of the world who want to keep anything & everything
Think alot of fishermen these days are getting the message take what you need not what you want
Again I'm talking about the Bay cause it's where most of my fishing is done & I've seen how it's changed over the years not a big Bay by any standards mostly shallow depths 4 - 5 meters but have a look @ how they've developed it .
Thats not recreational or LFB fisherman playing with nature it's politicians & you cant do that & expect fish to still be around they dont live in an area fish migrate & if there's no food for them thay move on

This is a subject that we have touched on in the past. We love our fishing and we want to keep on fishing.

We are a small group, or are we a small group.

I want to be able to catch a fish every time that I go out fishing. I do not care what type of fish just a fish. I am happy to put them back from the very small to the very big. And try to put them back nicely.

I try and keep my little part of the world clean and recycle everything that I can. I used to just put the lot in the bin, but now that we have recycle bin it is so much easier to recycle. I even go to a place called Reverse Garbage in Marrickville (Sydney) and give them what ever I can.

I think that it is much better to be used then to be thrown out.

Recyclable

The Bay should be wall to wall fish by now, the Pros are gone, the Recs are restricted, the no go areas are in force, they released 80,000 (I think) Jewfish but there is no improvement.

The Georges & Cooks rivers are pouring a chemical cocktail into it all duly licensed by you know who.
ICI is bleeding and you know who can't stop it.
The oil refinery must have it's share of booboos that no one mentions.
There's never ending constructions, low flying jets, huge commercial vessels and a desal plant in the pipeline.
Remember the headlines about the seagrass dying, what did they do... nothing.
Remember the headlines about the foreign seaweed choking the Bay, what did they do... nothing.

I first fished the Bay 45 years ago in a neighbours boat and I can tell you it was wall to wall fish then.

Fed when was the last time you fished or for that matter how regular do you fish the Bay to caome up with those theory's ???????????????

It's not very often @ all that I fish the Bay & not catch fish not allways what I start off targetting but still end up catching fish.

Think you fail to realise fish migrate yes rven your Brims & Jewgong which go down south to visit their relo's in woollongong



That's where the fish are we're just not allowed to fish in there in other words they've turned the Bay into a no fish zone



Grass grew back years ago when they stopped the trawlers dragging up the grass from the bottom you should don a pair of goggles & go down & have a look

About the only time I dont do any good in the bay is around the full moon with the bigger tides about have no idea why maybe the fish move up the poluted river cause others seem to favour these tides

I rekon illegal pro fishermen are a big factor. People from overseas are coming along and taking all the gamefish like tuna. Also the bycatch from pros (legal or illegal) and the practice of gaff and release. Gaff the fish into the boat and if it's too small chuck it back...with a big hole in its side.

Pollution...nah. It won't do them any good but it won't do nearly as much damage as over fishing. Take a look at Iron Cove or Hen and Chicken Bay, absolutely filthy but the fish don't mind.

#1 factor is unsustainable fishing from pro fishermen. Hauling mullet from the beaches when they spawn, nets that kill everything in their path, dumping less desirable species either on the beach or back in the water dead...the list goes on.

Recs do their share, but compared to pros the amount of fish we take is tiny.

Dont know where you got that info from ????

Pro's are few & recs are many even though pro's generally get big catch's the Rec's inflict a far greater impact to fish no's

Can recs take tonnes of fish per day? Do recs go out every day of the week? Do recs take home thousands of marlin per year? Is almost every fish taken onto a recs boat doomed to die one way or another?

I didn't think so.

Answer to all your Q's is Yes

Cant give you figures cause I haven't got any but back when Australia's population was around 15 million it was said 1/4 of those fished whats 2day population ??

But use your noggin to even think about itnot eveyone release's fish there's a hell of alot of Dave's out there & most of them know how to catch fish & have big freezers & come summer months these people are out in droves filling freezers.

You have no idea how many peeps actually fish but go away do your sums then come back & speak to me

So Jumpy, you think the Bay is recovering quite well?
Not trying to put words in your mouth just interested in your thoughts.

How long has it been since they bought the Pros out in the Bay, it has to be 4 or 5 years I'm guessing.

Bay fish's pretty good most of the time Fed.

You dont allways catch what you're targeting & have to be a bit versatile in order to catch fish @ times guess the next few years will tell.

By that I mean we have copped a pretty long drought the past decade or so as well with no rain to regularly flush out the riversI'm no rocket scientist but reckon thats had alot to do with fish no's as well

Yes the drought could be a big factor I guess.
I was thinking about the kingie traps they banned too, that has to be 10 years ago but you never hear of wall to wall kingies at the peak anymore.
Just some idle thoughts here, doesn't the paper mill pump out bleach into the Shoalhaven river?
Do you remember the Pros polling kingies at the Banks, that big green boat, forget it's name now.
I guess the Banks has had a hammering from Recs too, all this stuff must contribute to the reduction of fish because one thing I know as a fact... It ain't like it used to be.

The shoalhaven / well moreso the crookhaven dosen't fish anywhere as good as it used to Fed think there'sstill 28 lfb boats netting the river & giving it a hammering

I've been not able to find bream down there for years exept for the odd couple my old spots dont fire any more but also I dint go down anywhere as much these days.

Pro's never polled the kings you're thinking ofthe stripy's & no they dont simple because it's rare to find stripys in any no's arseholrs used to pole up to 8 ton aday 4 boats working thats alot of catfood &the boat you're thinking of is Ajax.

ps] They lead lined the kings down there not poled them

Ajax was the boat, my mistake I thought they were poling kingies.

i do hope u blokes don't mind me putting my 2cents worth in to this conversion it is very hard for me as i do not know the bay at all so i will confine my remarks to what i do know and know well that is the Richmond and Brunswick river systems
i am thinking back to about 15years ago on the Brunswick netting had been band for about 3 or 4 years and the fish stocks were returning but peeps were still complaining that they could not get fish.
this thread has made me think about this, j g has said i can go out and get a feed not all ways the fish he targets, but he gets fish why is that when others miss out.
in my own case i put down to knowledge as i fished those rivers hard and often and had a good success rate, the best gear in the world will not catch fish if u do not know were to fish as i have learned since moving down here possum and i have started to put in the hard yards to get the knowledge and i have to thank Arnie and Steve for the help they have given us but we still have a long way to go.

I have not really fished the bay since they put in the third runway. Back then it was just off the sand and one long walk along the second runway. Interesting when you had to do a pea and you had a plane landing. :o

I never was any good at catching fish back then so I know that I did contribute to the decline to fish stocks. B)

I have done some fishing off the rocks and sand in recent times in the bay but can not say that it is wall to wall fish.

I have done some fishing with Majed on his boat and this is mainly in Georges river.

Might see what comes out after targetting more on the bay.

Christos

Well that would've resulted in a very sharp decline in fish no's

But good news Christos fish are starting to come back & they've recovered from all those pee's which you did

I remember it as there was only one bush and it was near the second runway fence.