I'm from the River Land in South Australia and new to Brisbane. I understand even targeting Bass can land me a fine. I am not interested in catching a Bass and want to catch Yellow Belly during this time. Am I risking a fine by targeting Yellow Belly, as lures work on both species? If so is there any info on the amount of the fines issued. I want to know if its worth the risk if I get a grumpy fisheries guy seeing me with lures.
Also I haven't caught either so don't know what technique works with either. Any light on the subject? I'm use to fishing for Murry River Cod and understand there is the occasional Mary River Cod found in Brisbane River?
Novice:
Go for it chasing the Yellas during the bass closed season. If you find that the bass are becoming a pest in your yella hunt, change tactics/lures and move to a new spot. The rivers are not closed to fishing per say, only closed for targeting/taking of bass through June to the end of August.
Mary river cod are protected all year round in rivers, except for some stocked impoundments( where a bag limit of 1 is allowed). Illegal to target, but do turn up from time to time as a bycatch.
If you need to get ya Cod on, best to drive the 320kms down to the border rivers region ( Severn,Dumaresq,Macintyre Rivers and Macintyre Brook ).
Cheers, Dave.
rayke1938:
It is not about the fines of being caught it is about doing the correct thing about this magnificent native fish. Here is some info from another forum. From the Recreational fishing rules and regulations for Queensland "Why do we have closed seasons ? Closed seasons (regulated periods) prevent people from taking a particular species at certain times of the year. This protects these species at vulnerable times in there lifecycle, such as during spawning seasons." There have been numerous empirical scientific studies on the effects of handling and capture on pre spawning Percichthyids. One fairly extensive one on Australian Bass being The effects of angling on post-release mortality, gonadal developement and somatic condition of Australian Bass Macquaria novemaculeata. Hall, Broadhurst, Butcher and Rowland 2010. A quick search will find the abstract for this if anyone is interested A brief synopsis of this study which only had female fish to stage 3-maturing. Immediate mortality <5%, delayed mortality 25% "The mean percent of atretic oocytes increased among females of all groups, but was significantly greater in those that were harshly angled." Atresia is the degeneration and loss of an anatomical structure, usually said of ovarian follicles or eggs that may be absorbed. "The results demonstrated that the gonadal developement of M. novemaculeata could be suppressed or impaired (by angling,handling or confinement), and that further reasearch is warranted. In particular the timing and severity of angling in relation to the stage of gonadal developement could have important implications for the temporal restriction of angling." This study DID NOT include any Stage 4-Mature or Stage 5-Ripe fish. From my own and the experience of other people who culture catadromous fish at the later stages of maturity the effects would be significantly increased.
or in plain english. When you catch, handle, photograph etc Bass that are nearly or ready to spawn 5% die shortly after, 25% die some time after, the ones that dont die reabsorb their eggs and dont spawn. This is the reason we have the closed season, and the No Take legislation has the clauses it does to ensure that handling is at the bare minimum required to release any caught as BYCATCH.
Another of my posts re info from Tony Ham. Catch and release bass during closed season???? Qld.
Postby rayke1938 » Tue Jun 28, 2011 12:59 pm This subject was recently raised on another forum with the statement it was ok. I had previously sought a ruling from DEEDI on this subject on 2009 and they stated it was not allowed. As a result of this thread on the other forum I once again referred the matter to Deedi . I have just been speaking to Tony Ham re this subject after emailing DEEDI re this issue. He has also sent me a reply in writing that is is nor legal to target bass during closed even if it is only for catch and release purposes.He has given me permission to publish this email. Here is his response. Cheers Ray From: "Ham, Tony" < Tony.Ham@deedi.qld.gov.au> Add sender to Contacts To: rayke1938@yahoo.com.au
Ray, I am replying to your enquiry regarding fishing for bass during the closed season. The original definition that was sent from Anita Ramage is still correct regarding take and I have pasted it here…
This is the definition of “take” as stated in the Fisheries Act 1994
take fisheries resources includes—
(a) catch, gather, kill or obtain from water or land; and
(b) attempt to catch, gather, kill or obtain from water or land; and
(c) land (from a boat or in another way), bring ashore or tranship.
You will notice that attempting to catch fish is included in the definition of take and therefore my understanding is that if someone is attempting to take a species of fish during a closed season they would be in breech of the regulation.
There is no restriction on fishing for other species during any closed season, however incidental catches of bass (in this instance) must be immediately returned to the water, unharmed.
The closed season for bass does not apply in certain impoundments and bass from these waters may be taken and retained as per usual.
I hope this is of some assistance and should you have any further questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Regards, Tony Ham Manager Recreational Fisheries, SIPS and Fishcare Industry Development
Please consider fishing in or above the dams during bass closed season. And remember if you are closed waters and catch a bass it must be released IMMEDIATELY not measured,or photographed ( Also DPI ruling) and if you catch a bass and continue to fish in the same spot you are deemed to be then targeting bass and are committing an offense. If you doubt any of the above please feel free to write to DAFF as I have in the past. Cheers Ray
Cheers Ray
Sweetwater:
Thanks for posting Ray. That's all well & good in a perfect wild river, but as stated elsewhere, the current Bass Season regs are woefully flawed IMHO & in urgent need of attention to realistically achieve what the closed season is intended to do.
But, even if the law that applies to a certain time & or location is wrong, it's still the law. So we currently have closed season on waters where there are no wild bass, stocked bass only & in others the spawning is quite possibly in full swing before the closed season begins..... Anyhow, the regs, be they flawed/redundant or not, are still the regs. Break them & risk a fine.
While I have an absolute mountain of respect personally & professionally for Tony Ham & his team, I can't agree that it's about "doing the right thing" because if the right thing had been done, the regs would be up to scratch by now, so IMHO in some cases (eg. Ewen Maddock Dam, Mid Brisbane River, upper Caboolture River, the whole Burnett, Burrum, Gregory, Kolan systems etc etc etc) it is more about the fine.
I wouldn't think twice about targetting bass in August at Ewen Maddock dam, yet that would land me in trouble....rediculous really.
Cheers,
fitzy..
rayke1938:
So where is the stumbling block for getting things fixed. With the government ? Within the department? Or we as anglers not putting consistent pressure on our parliamentarians and DAFF. If you go back through the various forums and fishing publications this subject is raised every year at the commencement of closed bass season and yet nothing changes. Cheers Ray