How Big is To Big???

[batman]

I just got back from Rainbow Beach which I have to say is one of the most awesome spots in the world I have been to.

I was fishing off the jetty at the caravan park, it was about 11pm and freezing!!! A couple of older guys that came down near the jetty to the cleaning table with their eski's. This one chap had the biggest eski you can buy and he and two other chaps had to carry this eski plus there was a tail hanging out the side. They had a skin full of piss and their language was worse than a pirates! :laugh:

Never the less I went over for a look at their catch... they had some awesome snapper but I was horrified to see a massive Cod in the big eski, in fact it was to big for the eski!!! They reckoned it was around the 50kg mark!!!:ohmy:

Got me thinking about some of the fishing dvd's I have seen where Starlo and those guys reckon that the big cods etc are best put back because they are the ones that mate and keep spawning....

I am not a prude when it comes to killing for a feed but was killing a fish like that necessary?

Batty

[benno573]

i would never deem it necessary. if it conforms to the guidelines (i.e. is less than 120cm long) i have no problem with people keeping them. personally i wouldn't coz i know they taste like crap at anything gigger than about 15kg but to each his own.

[kriso]

i personally wouldnt keep it but if its within regs i guess all you can do is look the other way unfortunatley

[batman]

Chaps I thought so!

They came accross as those type of guys that go out hunting with a gatling gun and just mow everything down.

This cod was like 50kg,,,,huuuge!

[Samara]

I would have thought that something that big would taste like crap anyway!

seems a waste of a good breeder really!

[Leighton]

it will probably end up as bait or burley but rules are rules and there is nothing anyone can do

[geo57]

I would have got a pic, put it back to live another day. Then some one else can have thrill of catching it. But that’s just me

[namyau]

i thought eating big cod would cause you to get ciguatera poison, if i catch for keep i only keep what i myself can carry in my bag and AT THE MOST would be 2 threaddies around the 70-80cm mark everything else after that would be just for fun.

[Cowfish13]

Yeap as has been said, they taste like crap, are breeders and are thereofre best put back. Also, the big Cod are sort of "Kings" so if you take the biggest one from an area, most of the smaller fish will leave, looking for another place to live