GOod old DaYs

[josmo99]

Thought I'd share a couple of pics of a 'once in a lifetime' fishing session. Believe it or not, these fish were caught in an hour. Location is Batemans Bay, NSW far south coast, New Year's Day 2004. If I remember rightly, that lone flathead measured about 45cm, which makes the bream above it at least 40cm. These were the ones we kept, we released another 7-8 25cm+ bream. It was the most amazing fishing session I've ever had.

The other photo is a mate posing with our catch on New Year's Eve 2006, again same location but this time we fished for 6 hours. The flatheads were about 50cm in length. He looks rather happy.

So if anyone is heading down that way for Xmas, don't forget to pack a fishing rod or two!

[roobs]

congrats on keeping only what you needed- it's easy to get carried away with a big haul but fish take time to grow and need parents! i've had a few sessions like that- if that was what fishing was like "back in the old days" then bring on conservation!

[roobs]

congrats on keeping only what you needed- it's easy to get carried away with a big haul but fish take time to grow and need parents! i've had a few sessions like that- if that was what fishing was like "back in the old days" then bring on conservation!

[josmo99]

Funny enough this was BEFORE netting was banned in the Clyde river (the main 'nursery' at Batemans Bay). But yeah, in the last couple of years since it was stopped I've noticed fish numbers have bounced back amazingly quickly.

Best way to conserve fish stock is to stop netting I think. Dunno what you think but I find it very difficult to believe the crock that the NSW government put out some years ago about how recreational anglers were depleting fish stocks. I mean, two of us fished 6 hours on the beach for those 12 fish. A trawler kills hundreds of baby fish in a single sweep. On days after the prawn trawler went through that beach, you can't catch a single baby flathead - that beach always had heaps of little sand and tiger flathead. It was that bad.

I hear netting is still allowed in Moreton Bay. That's a shame. And I read on one of the posts that the Logan river is also netted. No better way to kill future generations of estuarine fish.

[Feral]

Yeah those were the good old days, - where you could take a feed of fish home without the Catch and Release brigade giving you a flogging.

[josmo99]

Feral wrote:

Yeah those were the good old days, - where you could take a feed of fish home without the Catch and Release brigade giving you a flogging.

As long as the fish aren't wasted, I don't see what the big deal is. Man eat fish, fish eat man ... circle of life and all :laugh:

The fish we catch are fresh and tastier than just about anything sold at the fishos. It's depressing to see boxes of big sand whiting that look like they're about to go off. Now that is a waste.