queensland Keeping undersized fish, what to do about it?

[riceoppa]

Hi guys just had a bit of a run in with a Middle Eastern/Indian looking couple at Orleigh Park near West End, had a look at their catch and could maybe count around 20 bream inside a little bucket, not bigger than 10cm. I ask them to release their catch if they could but they just told me to piss off, so I ended up calling the fisheries. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have been able to do much about it though since the fishers were long gone by the time they arrived (they might have been wary of me as I could see them watching in the distance as I made the phone call).

SO what would you guys do in this case? Any tips? Some might say just call the fisheries instantly but it just feels bad snitching you know so I gave them a chance.

PS I tried fishing West End pontoon in the arvo today trying to catch some flathead, but only caught one undersized bream within 30 minutes, would like to know if anyone had any advice. Cheers!!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Rice

Call the Fisheries straight away. You will run into people who keep undersize fish every now and then. Even if they don't know the laws a fine will be the best way to let them know about them. When people take a large amount of undersize fish it generally makes bigger fish more wary/means they have less food. 

I have never had much luck at Orleigh Park either. Flatties generally do not start coming up the river until May so it may be best to wait a few more weeks (and with the floods I don't think that will help much either). If you don't have one already I would suggest buying a cast net to catch live bait, but I guess that won't help much if you fish with lures.

Cheers Hamish

[Angry51]

Yeah mate, you did the right thing but next time ring the fisheries straight away.

This is why there are depleted stocks in some areas now.

They rape the waters where they come from and wonder

why they have no seafood industry.

[riceoppa]

5 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi Rice

Call the Fisheries straight away. You will run into people who keep undersize fish every now and then. Even if they don't know the laws a fine will be the best way to let them know about them. When people take a large amount of undersize fish it generally makes bigger fish more wary/means they have less food. 

I have never had much luck at Orleigh Park either. Flatties generally do not start coming up the river until May so it may be best to wait a few more weeks (and with the floods I don't think that will help much either). If you don't have one already I would suggest buying a cast net to catch live bait, but I guess that won't help much if you fish with lures.

Cheers Hamish

Yeah mate I reckon I'll just do it straight away next time. Also yeah, all I've been catching in the West End/Toowong area is bream lol, it'd be nice to catch something different. I guess I'll head to Wynnum in the meantime while winter settles in, thanks for the advice

[Bob9863]

I find if you take a few photos then the lot keeping undersized fish soon leave. 

If everyone did that there might be a lot less people keeping them. 

Around here it's a different story, it's actually a good thing to clean out all the undersized redfin. 

But with no bag or size limit its not a problem, you get so many schools of the small fish that due to biomass constraints very few few get to grow up to be decent fish let alone big ones. 

As, weird as it is to say, we actually need more people to keep more of the little ones here, I never thought I would say that. 

[Drop Bear]

Good on you. Stay safe mate. 

[allgearnoidea]

Honestly really frustrating to see people keep undersize stuff especially when they are Asian. Just adds to the already **** impression people have. I usually try asking them as you have but I guess escalation works to deter them. Sucks that its bream as well since they grow so slow.

[Mylesfisher]

I’ve had multiple run ins with the police even though my fish are the right size and it sucks to see uneducated fishos keep tiny fish once when I was at the seaway I saw some kids do a catch and cook and they kept a red bass (Known ciguatoxin carrier) they did not listen to me and found out later that night

[Bob9863]

3 hours ago, allgearnoidea said:

Honestly really frustrating to see people keep undersize stuff especially when they are Asian. Just adds to the already **** impression people have. I usually try asking them as you have but I guess escalation works to deter them. Sucks that its bream as well since they grow so slow.

Many Asians target undersized fish because of how they eat them. 

They can them, brine them and then dry them.. They then eat them like sardines bones and all but that only works with the little ones. 

For natives especially our sea fish this is very bad, but with pest fish it's actually a good thing. 

Lake Hume gets raped of 3"-4" redfin every summer, bags of 100 fish like that can be pulled out in a, day, but that actually helps both the redfin and especially our native species. But it used to really PMO when I was in Darwin and you would see them just pillage every fish that got hooked. 

In just a two year window of that I saw good land based spots dry up and it resulted in bag and size limits finally being brought in. 

[Brodie_S]

@riceoppa I know this is unrelated to the topic but that's a really impressive planche in your profile picture 

I can only hold the tuck planche for 5 seconds 

[riceoppa]

On 15/05/2022 at 11:20 AM, Brodie_S said:

@riceoppa I know this is unrelated to the topic but that's a really impressive planche in your profile picture 

I can only hold the tuck planche for 5 seconds 

lol thanks man yeah I worked pretty hard on it, trying to chase the maltese after my elbow recovers

consistency is the key, just stick with it if you really want it