Thread: Nelson recreational fishers beware.

This is not an abundance, it as a slow partial recovery from the absolute rape of the fishery when I was a young boy.

"The current pre-spawning abundance of snapper in Tasman Bay has brought fresh attention to this fishery, which is a prime focus for recreationalists and important to the commercial sector"

He said there wasn't enough up-to-date information to make any changes and he would maintain a cautious approach. It was a decision that dismayed the commercial sector, which saysthere is so much snapper bycatch - which by law must be landed and paid for at "deemed value" if they can't buy quota to cover it - that it makes coastal trawling uneconomic.

Good fuck off away from shore then.
"But while the commercial fishermen have been asking for a 100-tonne increase, recreational fishers, getting record hauls from Tasman Bay, especially on 25-hook setlines, are beginning to talk about possible regulation to protect the biggest snapper in the spawning season, from October mid-December"

While I agree with putting the big ones back(they taste like cardboard anyway) this is absolute crap, the fishery is recovering and all of a sudden its record catches! what a load of arse,you are only allowed 10 and you steam 6-30km to drop 2 long lines run 5 rods as well and get ten?

My grandfather and father used to catch a feed of snapper at will off the beach at best/bell island all year around and there is only water there 4 hours of the tide.

"Inspections on boat ramps and in Tasman Bay had so far failed to uncover excess numbers or undersized fish being taken." No surprises there.

This is what fucked it and it is finally on the improve but still has a long long way to go,increasing quota now will see it never recover!

"Ministry figures show that following the introduction of pair trawling in the 1970s, the national commercial snapper catch peaked at 18,000 tonnes in 1978 but had fallen to 8500-9000 tonnes by the mid-1980s. The decline was emphatic in the top of the south, where 4500 tonnes was landed in the peak year, and in 1989-90 the area seven catch was set at 160 tonnes. It was increased to 200 tonnes in 1997 and hasn't changed."

I am not just a prick with a dingy whinging, I fished commercially for 9+ years and know how the industry works.

It will never happen but I would like to see no commercial fishing within 10km of any point of land in the bay, it is not like the rest of our island. It is basely one big estuary.

I was fishing 4km from the nearest point of land this morning in a dingy and still only in 6m of water and it is bloody rare I can get out that far.