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Author Topic: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season?  (Read 51662 times)

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #30 on: June 06, 2011, 06:41:11 AM »
Fitzy, I have been thinking about this since last Saturday since the meeting and the brackish water thing isn't so black and white. If the certain river or creek system gets a huge influx of fresh water from a good run off of rain that brackish water will extend further into the salt and leaving some spawning Bass in limbo. Some will be left in the freesh while some will head further out to the salt.

I'd be more inclined to safe our real Wild Bass populations by a closed water clause for many areas when they are spawning. Similar to one area I know of, where any fishing apparatus is band all year round through this section of the creek.

Now that is black and white!

Just my thoughts and angle on it, as mentioned above there are many places to be named. And the purists can still choose not to target these fish in other areas during the closed season.

Dave

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #31 on: June 06, 2011, 06:59:03 AM »
With a hatchery bordering the Noosa River and run-off from it going into a creek which feeds into the Noosa River, I doubt that we could now call it a truely wild fishery either.  As for the definition of "take" I can't see the average person confusing "take" with "target".  I'm sure common sense would apply, and if a fisheries officer did charge someone with "taking" Bass during a closed season, and they had no fish in their possession, I can't see a Judge or Magistrate upholding the charge.  It's a bit like that old joke where the woman says she wasn't fishing and the fisheries officer says she could have been, because she has all the equipment, and she says she'll have him charged with rape, and he says he didn't touch her and she says but he could have because he had all the equipment. 
Sadly the real issue with this does not really concern most of the people who will read this here.  A few hundred people practicing catch and release fishing for escaped stocked Bass are not what is causing the problem.  It's the people taking more than their bag limit, using nets and set-lines and abusing the fishery that are the problem, unfortunately they are not the people likely to read a forum such as this.

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #32 on: June 06, 2011, 07:54:43 AM »
With a hatchery bordering the Noosa River and run-off from it going into a creek which feeds into the Noosa River, I doubt that we could now call it a truely wild fishery either.  As for the definition of "take" I can't see the average person confusing "take" with "target".  I'm sure common sense would apply, and if a fisheries officer did charge someone with "taking" Bass during a closed season, and they had no fish in their possession, I can't see a Judge or Magistrate upholding the charge.  It's a bit like that old joke where the woman says she wasn't fishing and the fisheries officer says she could have been, because she has all the equipment, and she says she'll have him charged with rape, and he says he didn't touch her and she says but he could have because he had all the equipment. 
Sadly the real issue with this does not really concern most of the people who will read this here.  A few hundred people practicing catch and release fishing for escaped stocked Bass are not what is causing the problem.  It's the people taking more than their bag limit, using nets and set-lines and abusing the fishery that are the problem, unfortunately they are not the people likely to read a forum such as this.



And if they do they won't care anyway. One of the failings of most fisheries rules is that they only stop the honest people. The ones that self impose their own limits that are often far stricter than the official regulations. Those that want to kill will kill regardless. I spose at least that black and white laws at least allow these people to be prosecuted.

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #33 on: June 06, 2011, 08:39:50 AM »
What Bracey mentioned reminded me of an article I read of an old NZ bloke.

He lived on a little bay and over the years he saw the fish stocks reduced to a dangerous level.  Lobbied the fisheries for over 10 years until they heard and colsed this bay off, totally.

Within 3 years, there were some amazing results, (thats a long time in the life of a fish.)   The fish population in the bay came back and spilled over into surrounding ' fishable ' areas and even the pros enjoyed the benefits.

I know this is a totaly different ball game but being in a river has benefits that a bay doesn't have.

A section could be closed off as a sawning/rest area for fish because the fishing pressure is going to increase as more of us buy Kayaks.

This could have a down side by giving the pest fish a spot to breed up also, but we can sort this easily by having a Talapia busting day.  When you target Talapia you rarely catch Bass.

Some thing to consider.

Gordon

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #34 on: June 06, 2011, 11:09:39 AM »
Another thing to think of is if even a few certain rivers get closed to bass fishing and people actually listen what will happen to those withing reach of the people that used to fish the closed river. I dont think choosing only certain rivers to close would work as the surrounding rivers would get more pressure than usual and may be flogged out far too much.

Imagine if everyone from noosa that fished went to the brissy river when they wanted a bass fix ... im sure there would be a few clashes along the lines.

I could be just dribbling too .....  :o

Steve

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #35 on: June 06, 2011, 11:19:14 AM »
From the definition of "Take" as stated in the Fisheries Act 1994.

(b) attempt to , gather , kill or obtain from water or land ; and

(c) land (from a boat or in another way) bring ashore or tranship.

No matter how the the act is worded now or in the future it will not stop people from catching Bass in closed waters as fishing is still permitted.
Impossible to prove beyond reasonable doubt in court that anyone catching and releasing Bass is breaking the law unless they admit that they are attempting to catch them AND know they can not do so , not likely to happen.
The only legislation which would achieve this would be a total closure of Bass spawning areas, is this likely to be implemented in any SEQ waterways ?
A case could and should be raised for the Noosa with a total ban on any stocking in the catchment and a halt to the current net fishery in the system during the spawning season. 

cheers
Steve


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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #36 on: June 06, 2011, 11:51:16 AM »
It only matters what they(QLD Fisheries) can prove.  You can have the rules and regs but unless the Fisherman has a bass in the bag they can always say I'm not targeting bass at all.  So people are still gonna fish for them in the rivers during closed season and so long as they say I'm fishing for Bream or something like that QLD Fisheries have got nothing.

I'm happy to leave them alone.   

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #37 on: June 06, 2011, 05:17:44 PM »
I would imagine it might add up to a couple of km of the river that is a no go zone.

If that were the case in all the rivers that are Bass breeding territory I think we could handle it.

The signs we see up around the head waters of the Mary catchment that explain the need to protect the MR Cod.  There are serious penalities mentioned there and only the brave would fish dare fish those streams.

A very clear and low cost way of getting the message out.  A bunch of signs along a section of the river and note when you get your next reminder for your fishing permit

Gordon

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #38 on: June 06, 2011, 05:47:05 PM »
Gordon.

Even a sign at the majority of access points to rivers and creeks and parks about rules and reg's on rec fishing so that ignorance becomes less of an excuse if not one at all.

Im sure someone would be up in arms about the cost of additional signage tho.

Steve

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #39 on: June 06, 2011, 06:35:05 PM »
Another thing to think of is if even a few certain rivers get closed to bass fishing and people actually listen what will happen to those withing reach of the people that used to fish the closed river. I dont think choosing only certain rivers to close would work as the surrounding rivers would get more pressure than usual and may be flogged out far too much.

Imagine if everyone from noosa that fished went to the brissy river when they wanted a bass fix ... im sure there would be a few clashes along the lines.

I could be just dribbling too .....  :o

Steve

Upstream of Mt Crosby , most days since the flood in the Brisbane , fishing for Bass , you are the only one out there . You may spot others having a go on the weekends , but I wouldn't call it as being flogged out .  There's 60kms of river between Wivy and the Mt Crosby weir , and it seems the only fellas doing the wrong thing are the ones in the over loaded petrol dingys trolling the river .

Cheers,
Dave.


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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #40 on: June 06, 2011, 06:56:30 PM »
What is the answer?

I'd be more inclined to safe our real Wild Bass populations by a closed water clause for many areas when they are spawning. Similar to one area I know of, where any fishing apparatus is band all year round through this section of the creek.

Now that is black and white!

Dave

A total ban on all fishing in bass spawning areas . These areas should be chosen though on the merits of whether the system is polluted from stocked fish and the overall health of that spawning area ( i.e. how successful is the recruitment from the lower Brisbane and Bremer rivers? )

Would we all have our knickers in a knot if we had WORKING fishways on the barriers in our rivers?

Cheers,
Dave.

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season?
« Reply #41 on: June 06, 2011, 07:08:14 PM »
The easy answer is to change the wording to:

Bass Closed season July 1 to August 31. No take, no target. All Qld waters from border to Noosa upstream to the first man made barrier. All waters north of noosa river are almost all stocked (or polluted) so should not have a closed season.

Clear and easy  :thumbsup

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season?
« Reply #42 on: June 06, 2011, 08:03:18 PM »
The easy answer is to change the wording to:

Bass Closed season July 1 to August 31. No take, no target. All Qld waters from border to Noosa upstream to the first man made barrier. All waters north of noosa river are almost all stocked (or polluted) so should not have a closed season.

Clear and easy  :thumbsup

No take, No Target still won't work or change a thing.

As already said by others nobody & absolutely nobody can prove a fisher is targeting bass unless they admitted they were.

I can go bass fishing tomorrow if I wanted but claim to be targeting forkies or spanglies & that can't be regulated against without banning fishing in an area full stop. I don't claim to have any idea on the solution tho ???

Brad

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #43 on: June 06, 2011, 08:04:53 PM »
Gordon.

Even a sign at the majority of access points to rivers and creeks and parks about rules and reg's on rec fishing so that ignorance becomes less of an excuse if not one at all.

Im sure someone would be up in arms about the cost of additional signage tho.

Steve
The problem with signage is that the "crooks" rip them down such as the ones that used to be at luscome weir or they become targets for the tagging hoons.
My personal opinion is that the majority people who are breaking the law are aware of the regulations and believe that they can do what they like or come up with their own smart arssed interpretation of the regulations to justify their activities.
Re the biodiversity of the gene pool of stocked fish I thought that this was part of the criteria that stocking groups look at when soursing fingerlings.
I can remember a thread on this subject and think that it was said that Bill Proctor sourses his brood stock from as far afield as the richmond and clarence catchments and he changes his brood stock frequently.
I also believe that there is a program where fingerlings are released into most streams in SEQ so in fact there is probably no pure strain of wild fish anywhere in QLD.
The more you look into it the harder it becomes.
Cheers
Ray

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Re: Green light on fishing for bass during closed season
« Reply #44 on: June 06, 2011, 09:31:20 PM »
I can remember a thread on this subject and think that it was said that Bill Proctor sourses his brood stock from as far afield as the richmond and clarence catchments and he changes his brood stock frequently.
Cheers
Ray

That could be as bad as 2nd generation hatchery bred local bass couldn't it? potentially bad for locally distinct traits.

 

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