Tasmanian Fishing and Boating News Issue 153 May 2023

The cover shot is a painting by Trevor Hawkins we used on Issue number One back in 1995. I was reflecting on how much had changed since then and when looking at the changes proposed by Government and the Fisheries Department it seems flathead - in particular sand flathead, as part of the State’s Scalefish fishery, is a big and dramatic change.

Sand flathead have probably had the biggest influence on an introduction to fishing than any fish in Tasmania. I would be safe in saying it would be a rare fisher in Tasmania that has not caught one - and many have grown old only fishing for sand flathead. It is usually the first fish kids catch. Most will recognise good size flathead are rarer now than in the past and science tells us there may be something called Fisher Induced Evolution (FIE). It seems the big fish are less, and many old fish are small. We are not lacking in flathead in numbers - there are plenty, just less big fish.

Many will blame, or want to blame commercial fishing on the issue, but I believe the scientists that say it is not the case. However, I think there may be other issues that are unknown. Commercial fishers take very little sand flathead, but they do take plenty of tiger flathead from deeper waters. These are not considered as depleting, and further controls are not part of this Scalefish Plan.

I have fished the Tamar River for many years and never seen plentiful big sand flathead. The researchers say there are not only no big fish, but there are no old fish either and they don’t know why. Small flathead are numerous. Separately to that, we are now seeing good numbers of big KG whiting and small pinky snapper in the Tamar that were uncommon in numbers. Damon Sherriff and others have caught many bigger snapper in the Tamar over the years, but now we are seeing good numbers of juvenile fish. I am excited to think they will grow through.

Calamari have been overfished and that is knownparticularly in the North. In 2018 the fisheries Minister issued a notice that a plan was being developed and any catch after that would not be used to assess eligibility to obtain a licence. As it became clearer a licence would be imminent the fishery got pounded more and more commercially. Everyone with a scalefish licence could take fish - and many with Scalefish B licences took all they could - and still can until this plan is passed. The only restriction has been a spawning season closure, which many would argue is too short. It was known for the lasy few years the Maximum Sustainable Yield has been overfish substantially. NOTHING was done. Over this time the recreational catch changed very little, but we are being asked to take cuts in this new plan.

Be aware, the Minister can make many determinations and changes to the Scalefish fishery by Public Notice, but chose not to. The Minister, Jo Palmer, did choose to recently and immediately change the sand flathead size and bag limit though, so it can be done.

What should we do? I urge everyone to read the next few pages which gives the issues, proposals and DRAFT position of TARFish. If you agree, please contact TARFish and express your support. If you have other ideas TARFish would love to hear them and include them in the final submission to Government.

It is really important for as many fishers as possible to contribute however you can to this process. There are probably over 100, 000 fishers in Tasmania. Use your fishing knowledge and experiences to to add your voice to the campaign and proposals. Do nothing at your peril.

Please note TARFish is the Government recognised peak recreational marine body. I am on that board and whilst some may think we can do more, we work hard covering a huge range of issues. I do this as a volunteer and take the position very seriously. The draft position which follows for the next few pages was a work in progress for months, but only released 28th April. It could not be finalised for release until the proposed rules from Government were known.

Mike Stevens

The biggest changes EVER are coming for Tasmania’s marine scalefish fishery

There are bag limits proposed for most fish, size limit increases and special licences for some commercial fisheries that do not constrain catch. There is a proposal to allow an increase to Tasmania’s sardine (small pelagic) fishery which is troubling. The biggest concern for many will be an increase in minimum size for sand flathead, combined with a maximum size and hugely reduced bag limit. There are also big changes for calamari proposed and the introduction of special licences for Northern commercial operators. Constraint in catch (Quota or Total allowable catch) is not proposed even though this fishery has been knowingly commercially opportunistically over fished for at least five years.

The following few pages are an overview and draft position from TARFish - the Government recognised peak body for the recreational marine fishery. I am on that Board and certainly understand other groups and individuals have different views. This is a draft and not the final submission. It will be updated before being submitted. PLEASE make your views known in a submission to TARFish or the Department in regard to this Scalefish Review. You will find more details at: fishing.tas.gov.au and on page 13.

Mike Stevens

Summary of Tasmanian Scalefish Proposals and Preliminary and Draft TARFish Positions

Released for consultation: 27 April 2023

Contents

Introduction

Depleted and depleting species policy

Amend limits for depleted/depleting species by public notice

Proposed prohibition of spearing certain species

DRAFT TARFish position

Southern Calamari

Introduction

Government Proposal

DRAFT TARFish position

Commercial Proposal Discussion

Recreational Discussion

Flathead

Introduction

Government proposal

Further information needed to inform advice

DRAFT TARFish position

Commercial discussion

Research and modelling

Stock enhancement

Striped Trumpeter

Introduction

Government proposals

Impact of government proposals on recreational and commercial catches

DRAFT TARFish position

Risk of displaced effort

Spawning Closure

Regional approach

Risk of social cost of management proposals

Charter boat fishery

Commonwealth commercial fishery

Risk of increased mortality from seal predation

Bastard Trumpeter

Background

Government proposal

Impact of government proposals on recreational and commercial catches

DRAFT TARFish position

Size limit not sufficient to protect stock replacement

Commonwealth fishery

Southern Garfish

Introduction

Government Proposal

Impact of government proposals on recreational and commercial catches

DRAFT TARFish Position

Jackass Morwong

Introduction

Government Proposals

DRAFT TARFish Position

Phase out of Recreational Gillnetting Government Proposal

Background

DRAFT TARFish Position

Other proposals

Vessel monitoring systems

Charter Fishery

Australian sardines

DRAFT TARFish position

Reporting

Introduction

The recently released National Recreational Fishing Survey showed that in Tasmania, recreational fishing contributes:

• $270m to Gross State Product (GSP)

• Supports 2,670 FTE jobs in Tasmania

This is more than commercial abalone, rock lobster and scalefishing combined deliver, contributing $186m and supporting 1,052 Full Time Employees (FTEs).

It is TARFish’s view that the package of proposals does not adequately recognise the benefits of recreational fishing in Tasmania.

The package of proposals in the current Scalefish Fishery Rules Review would be the single largest group of cuts and restrictions to recreational fishers at a single point in time that TARFish is aware of.

Whilst we welcome the new-found commitment of the Tasmanian Government to sustainable fisheries management, TARFish is concerned that the proposals fail to consider collective impacts. For example, southern calamari, sand flathead and striped trumpeter are 3 of the top 5 consumed recreationally caught species.

Specific concerns of the package of the proposals:

• Noting the inclusion of the Government’s “Depleted and depleting species policy”, there is no information provided on what contribution each of the proposed changes (singly and collectively) will deliver toward rebuilding the target biomass and over what time frame. It is unlikely that the Government is proposing them without any insight into this and any modelling undertaken should be provided publicly. If modelling hasn’t been undertaken

by the Government, it should be, and provided publicly.

• There is no evidence of any modelling, or indeed any discussion, on the totality of the impact on recreational effort, including unintended consequences such as the potential impact on other species through displaced effort (if effort does not reduce). For example, increased retained catch of Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) or other deepwater species such as blue-eye trevalla if the striped trumpeter bag limit is reduced by half.

• No modelling has been undertaken on the potential economic and jobs impact of the collective changes on recreational fishing at a state-wide and regional level.

• Consultation on the package of proposals is short and complex and should be over a longer period.

• A further concentration of the Minister’s decision-making powers is a reduction in democratic process that would remove appropriate checks and balances and should not be supported.

• TARFish notes that the Abalone Rules were overturned in the Tasmanian Parliament in 2021 which provided the only opportunity for scrutiny of government decision making. This is consistent for Scalefish Fisheries Rules.

Broader fishery management risks and opportunities:

Whilst we understand that this is a “rules review” process and in some senses, narrow in scope, TARFish has identified some risks and opportunities that have not been considered when developing the proposals.

• Disenfranchisement of recreational fishers. The comprehensive package of restrictions is likely to have a significant impact on the vast majority of marine recreational fishers and thus implications for compliance and ultimately government reputation.

• The review does not provide any guidance on how compliance and monitoring will be supported and funded should the raft of proposed rules come into effect.

• Scope of communication and engagement on alternatives. As the consultation is confined to what is contained in the rules review, it does not facilitate a mature and robust conversation on potential offsets to the collective impact on recreational fishers. For example, TARFish has identified a range of alternatives to support recreational fishing (below). TARFish hopes the Government will be receptive to this type of balanced approach.

Alternative fishing opportunities should be offered

The overall package of proposed management changes for recreational fishers is very restrictive and we encourage the Government to give some relief by providing alternative fishing opportunities.

TARFish supports expediting alternative fishing opportunities, particularly in the south east including but not limited to:

Rock lobster

• Establishment of recreational only fishing areas on the East Coast for rock lobster

• Implementing a winter rock lobster season

Recreational fishers will be subject to a suite of changes like never sdeen before.

Calamari

• Establishment of recreational only areas for calamari at Port Sorrel and in the south east

• No change to calamari management settings for recreational fishers noting the combination of the two is likely to have a very high impact, particularly in the south east

Gummy shark

• Interim increase of the bag, boat and possession limits of gummy shark to 3/3/6 from 2/2/5. FADs

• Rapid deployment of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) in the south east to provide alternate fishing activities

Chronic underfunding of sand flathead recovery and fisher stewardship

TARFish has requested additional funding for the recovery of sand flathead over a number of years. The $250,000 committed at the last state election is not sufficient and we are seeking a Government commitment to adequately fund the recovery of Tasmania’s favourite fish. We reiterate our Tasmanian budget submission request of $5 million over 5 years.

Additionally, stewardship programs like the worldrenowned Tuna Champions (delivered from Tasmania by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)), shows that stewardship programs can and must play a role in Tasmanian fisheries going forward – with programs developed by recreational fishers for recreational fishers.

Depleted and depleting species policy

TARFish accepts the Departments commitment to recover all depleting and depleted species including the short-term objective to rebuild stocks to at least 20% of unfished biomass, with a goal of 40% thereafter.

However, the policy is silent on its approach to recovery timelines.

It is important to understand for each species, what trajectory for recovery the department is seeking so that relevant input from TARFish can be made on how the proposed rule changes are implemented. For example, a staged approach to the flathead changes may achieve the interim goal of 20% or a final goal of 40% but over a longer timeframe. Equally as importantly is what triggers relaxation of any cuts and restrictions once targets are reached. This is an extremely important consideration for recreational fishers in determining their overall support for any proposed changes. Presenting the proposed rule changes in the absence of any assurances or commitments to returning access can, and has, created significant distrust of government and anxiety amongst many recreational fishers. Regarding the principles that have guided the proposed rule changes, TARFish generally supports all three with the following notes:

• Size limits to contribute to sustainable stocks

Note: TARFish generally supports size limits that allow fish to reach maturity and contribute to stock resilience and re-build. However, there may be unintended consequences on a species from this implementation such as increased post-release mortality. It is important to understand the net benefit of any proposed size limit change on an individual stock.

• Catch limits to reduce fishing pressure on stocks with management changes to be proportionate to each sectors impact on the stock. Note: TARFish does not support boat limits as they exceed the individual’s rights, potentially providing a barrier to participation, and may impact more heavily on those trying to reduce the cost of living when fishing for food (this is particularly the case for sand flathead, calamari and striped trumpeter). Supporting information to evidence the “proportionality” oif the proposed management changes must be provided publicly to demonstrate that the changes are proportionate. This is absent from the public consultation paper.

• Rules to support compliance with catch and size limits.

Note: TARFish supports increased compliance checks and monitoring, particularly for sand flathead to ensure high levels of compliance. TARFish also supports landing whole fish or frames to support this but note that for sand flathead, they are known to shrink post-mortem in a relatively short period of time and may trigger non-compliance with a fish that was landed at size. There is no information how compliance will be supported and funded should such a large scale suite of management changes be implemented.

Amend limits for depleted/depleting species by public notice

The proposal to introduce a rule to allow the Minister, or their delegate, to introduce or amend catch limits and/or size limits that apply to any part of the fishery, by published notice is not supported by TARFish at this time.

As noted in TARFish’s response to the Government’s Discussion Paper on the Review of the Living Marine Resources Management Act 1995, almost all decisionmaking powers reside with the Minister for Primary Industries and Water. There are current risks with this including:

• No requirement to provide a statement of reasons when a decision is made,

• The absence of harvest strategies (except abalone) and other binding documents such as a resource sharing framework to inform and guide decisions,

• The potential for political influence of decisions,

• No effective review or appeal rights to decisions unless through the Resource Management

and Planning Appeals Tribunal (RMPAT) or in some instances the parliament (for rule changes).

TARFish notes that the Abalone Rules were overturned in the Tasmanian Parliament in 2021 which provided the ONLY opportunity for scrutiny of government decision making. A further concentration of the Minister’s decision-making powers is a reduction in democratic process with appropriate checks and balances.

Proposed prohibition of spearing certain species

The proposal states that the proposed ban on spearfishing for; banded morwong, sand flathead, bastard trumpeter, and striped trumpeter, will mitigate the risk of spearing fish that are “undersized” or “oversized.”

The Government has not provided any information as to the scale of this potential risk.

The Tasmanian Recreational Fishing Survey 2017-18 (Lyle, 2019), states, “Overall, line fishing accounted for 97.8% of the total finfish and squid catch (2.5 million fish), with a further 1% (22,500 fish) taken by gillnet.”

This would suggest that, at maximum, spearfishing is likely to represent just 1.2% (or around 25,000 fish) of recreationally caught fish across all finfish and squid catch. This includes flounder, which accounts for around half of all spear-caught fish (~12,000).

In terms of the proposed ban on the species, Lyle (2019) identifies that spear fishers took:

1,730 flathead

1,352 other Scalefish

To put this in context, if a spearfisher got it wrong one in ten times (and we are not suggesting that this is true but using a high number to illustrate the point), and speared an under- or oversized fish, that would equate to ~300 fish.

The proposed ban is an extreme and punitive approach to a risk that has not been verified on a small cohort of fishers, with limited stock benefit.

This is even more striking when considered in the context of stock losses from fishing mortality (fish not surviving being line-caught or gillnet caught when released) and predation from seals.

TARFish is seeking the feedback of Tasmania’s spearfishers, however, early discussions suggest that spear fishers:

• Typically, only take what they need for a feed on that day and are much less likely to ‘bagout’ or to fish for the purpose of having fish in the freezer;

• Are very conscious of their impact on targeted fish and are typically more cautious when fishing to reduce unintended catch.

DRAFT TARFish position

TARFish does not support the spearfishing ban for any of the species listed.

fish.

To ban spearfishing for this small fishing community is not warranted, overly punitive and inconsistent with The Government’s Principle 3 that “management change should be proportionate to each sectors impact on the stock”.

The proposed ban is an extreme and punitive approach to a risk that has not been verified on a small cohort of fishers, with limited stock benefit.

Southern Calamari

Introduction

Southern calamari are one of the top 5 recreationally caught fish targeted for consumption (an eating fish).

It is one of the most important species to recreational fishers.

Notably, calamari are a short-lived species that die after spawning, meaning there is no disadvantage to calamari reproduction and population from taking the fish post-spawning.

Commercial and Recreational catch

The fishery had been assessed as sustainable until relatively recently, which has correlated with changes to commercial fishing effort, with increasing effort focussed on the north coast.

As can be seen from the chart below, commercial catch has returned to levels similar to that prior to 2009 – fishing effort was concentrated in the south and south east at that time. The fishery was considered overfished and in 2009 and a southern calamari licence was introduced. Unfortunately, this was not sufficiently early or effective to prevent the dispersal of spawning aggregations in southern Tasmania. This part of the fishery has not recovered.

about the status of stocks, recent fishing mortality has been excessive and is likely to cause the stock to become recruitment impaired.” Concerningly, at that time, IMAS indicated there is a similar pattern of overfishing risks to that experienced in the south east fishery several decades ago.

The most recent Tasmanian Scalefish Assessment 2020-21 shows that the commercial catch remains above the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) of 75t and well above the 33t MSY for the north coast.

The image below shows the concentration of fishing effort on the north coast over time.

The proposed commercial amendments (introduction of licensing and trip limits) are expected to only “stabilise” not reduce commercial fishing effort. The total commercial catch under this proposal can and may exceed the Maximum Sustainable Yield.

Commercial fishery management controls should demonstrate with sufficient certainty that the sectors catch will be constrained within MSY. This begs the question as to why other management controls have not been proposed for the commercial sector.

The estimated statewide Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) was estimated to be 75 tonnes in the Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery Assessment 2018-19 (the Assessment (2018-19))

The Assessment states “Catches of more than 100 t in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2018/19 exceed recent estimates of the state-wide maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of 75 t by more than 40%. The North coast region is of particular concern in this respect, given that recent catches in this area exceed the estimated regional MSY of 33 t by more than 100%. While uncertainty remains

The recreational catch and effort are shown in the table below. The data is taken from the Surveys of Recreational Fishing in Tasmania (Lyle, et al) for 2012-13 and 2017-18.

Approximately equal catches of calamari are taken by boat- and shore-based fishers. Catch effort (% of numbers of calamari caught) is predominant in the southeast and is shown regionally below:

Only 18% of recreationally caught calamari is taken from the North (~5.6 tonnes Rec v 28.8t Comm (2017-18).

The State Government’s 2018 Review of the Southern Calamari fishery (Analysis of Management Tools) states, “there has been a substantial increase in catch and effort on the north coast, which is reflected in the total commercial catch for 2015/16 and 2016/17. Consequently, this increasing interest has resulted in increasing overlap and interactions within and between the commercial and recreational sectors.”

Government Proposal

• Introduce two limited licence types for the north west and north east

• Commercial fishers that do not qualify for the proposed licences will have trip limits (shown in table below)

a significant impact on population and recruitment, particularly in northern Tasmania.

• The use of daily limits is likely of limited benefit

The proposed amendments aim to:

• Reduce fishing pressure from the recreational catch

• Limit the risk of increased fishing pressure on the north coast.

Notably, the aim of providing long-term stock resilience to rebuild a sustainable fishery is not included.

DRAFT TARFish position

1. TARFish rejects the proposed bag, boat and possession limits for recreational fishers.

• The recent implementation of an extended spawning closure in northern Tasmania to 5 weeks for recreational fishers should provide sufficient protection of the spawning biomass, the effect of the closure should be given time to take effect and reviewed before any further management controls are contemplated.

• TARFish also supported a 6-week closure to provide further protection from pre-spawning aggregations but this advice was not adopted by government. We re-state our support for this approach.

• The proposals are overly punitive to recreational fishers.

2. TARFish does not support the proposed commercial management controls (i.e. limited licences and daily limits) on the basis that:

• It may not reduce commercial catch at all

• The management controls (licensing arrangements) are inconsistent with the aim of a catch reduction to maintain catches within MSY at both a state and regional level. The management control as described will only “limit the risk of increased fishing pressure”. Limited licence arrangement could be suitable in combination with other settings as described below.

• There is no protection for pre-spawning stock from commercial targeting which may be having

noting the Governments own analysis of management tools (2018) stated “Trip Limits may be of limited benefit to the stock…”

• The proposed commercial arrangements fail to consider more effective alternatives based on cost and complexity which indicates an underfunding of sector management.

TARFish proposes:

Calamari catch has been exceeding the maximum sustainable yield for years. Planned Commercial licences, do nothing to constrain effort.

• A total allowable commercial catch (pre and post spawning) with the TACC split regionally, noting this is made easier with licencing of calamari fishers statewide.

• Increased use of technology to support greater flexibility on commercial management. This may include electronic or phone lodgement of catches so that a pre-spawning cap could be monitored. It may also facilitate a dynamic closed season that is responsive to yearly variability on spawning.

3. TARFish recommends the potential for additional recreational only-areas for southern calamari (noting that the D’Entrecasteaux Channel is already effectively recreational only) be explored with specific consideration for:

• Southern and Eastern Tasmania; and

• the Port Sorell area noting its high level of importance to recreational fishers.

4. TARFish supports, and has requested for some time, additional monitoring of the recreational take of southern calamari. As this has not occurred, it would be logical to at least wait for the outcomes of the statewide Recreational Fishing Survey Results to guide any further management considerations for recreational fishers, the percentage take may be lower based on current data so it is not currently clear.

5. TARFish supports the development of a harvest strategy for southern calamari that includes formal allocations for both sectors.

Commercial Proposal Discussion

In regard to calamari and the issuing of licences, the Commercial sector was given a Ministerial directive in 2018 that any catch after that would not qualify fishers for a restricted licence in Northern Tasmania. However, the calamari fishery in the north remained unrestricted in catch limit until current, apart from a limited spawning closure. Recreational catch changed little, or not at all, whilst the commercial sector fished it opportunistically hard taking two times the maximum sustainable yield (IMAS). The proposal for this fishery for the commercial sector DOES NOT restrain catch. It will reduce the number of commercial fishers, but no catch quota is planned. It WILL NOT protect the fishery further.

Alternatives:

Catch Cap (Total Allowable Catch)

1. Excerpts from the Government’s 2018 analysis of (Calamari) Management Tools

“There would be potential to use this option if the following tools were able to be utilised on a cost recovery basis:

1. Telephone reporting — so that the Department would know which fishers were accessing the catch cap area and direct participating fishers to send their catch and effort returns to the Department within 48 hours of each fishing trip.

2. Priority data entry of all returns relating to the catch cap area.

3. Potential for the use of an electronic logbook — say a simple electronic form on a mobile device — that could be utilised to monitor catch and would enable data to be entered into FILMS without relying on Fisheries Monitoring staff to manually enter the data. However, there would be a cost to develop this.

This report was published in 2018. It is now 2023 and TARFish seeks to understand what work or investment, if any, has been undertaken or made in consideration of the necessary sustainability improvements this option may provide?

2. Quota (non-transferrable)

This could be used in conjunction with a TAC. This would limit further effort increase which is identified as an outcome being sought by government. It would also provide certainty to fishers.

3. Limit commercial take pre-spawning

The recreational sector typically catches calamari post spawning. TARFish is concerned that commercial effort is targeting aggregations pre-spawning which may be having a disproportionate effect on recruitment. Capping pre-spawning take by the commercial sector would improve recruitment.

4. Use of technology to support greater flexibility in commercial management

Since 2018, NRE has invested at least $4m in digital transformation of commercial fisheries management. It would seem logical to implement those improvements for the commercial Scalefish sector (if not already) to facilitate a TAC, pre-spawning catch cap and electronic logbooks.

Harvest Strategy

• Given the importance to both sectors, we recommend the government prioritise a Harvest Strategy inclusive of allocation arrangements for both sectors.

Recreational Discussion

Recreational catch

• Southern Calamari is typically taken equally by shore-based and boat-based fishers. With limited shore-based fishing opportunities compared to boat, the introduction of a boat limit would seem to affect fishers that are more likely to be catching to supplement protein consumption, and those with lower capacity to fish from a boat, including those with lower incomes and reduced mobility.

• Recreational fishers use of the fishery is predominantly in December- January followed by February-March and April – May. This

is largely after the peak spawning season for calamari, suggesting that recreational fishers are likely having a lower impact on spawning aggregations.

• 35% of calamari is taken recreationally (2017-18 Lyle pp27).

TARFish recently supported the extension to the calamari spawning closure on the basis it should provide sufficient protection of spawning biomass and therefore contributing to stock resilience and reduced risk of biomass falling to low levels.

On balance, the calamari proposals for recreational fishers appear to be overly punitive and may not reduce commercial catch. It is reasonable to interpret that the aim of the proposals, although not stated in the document, is to reduce the recreational catch to support the commercial sector fishing at current levels. That is to say, without effective control/limit on commercial catch (licencing is no guarantee) it is difficult to justify that a significant bag limit reduction for the recreational sector will achieve any substantial resource benefit.

Flathead Introduction

Sand flathead is the most important recreational species - bar none, representing 70% of all recreationally caught fish each year.

Many fishers have conveyed increasing difficulty in catching “sized” flathead.

The fishery has been rated as “depleting” for many years with only one change to management in 2015 which was an increase in the size limit.

The fishery has now been rated as depleted in the most recent scalefish assessment.

The State Government announced interim changes to management when releasing the proposed Scalefish rule changes – for recreational fishers, an increase of the size limit from 32 to 35cm and a bag reduction from 20 to 10. And for commercial fishers, an increase in size limit from 32 to 35cm and banning of commercial flathead take from Frederick Henry and Norfolk Bays. They are expected to be in place until the new Scalefish fishery rules come into effect on 1 November 2023.

The Minister’s precautionary approach is responsible, and also sets a precedent in fisheries management in Tasmania.

The release of the peer reviewed stock assessment has not yet occurred and TARFish notes that the Minister has taken onboard TARFish’s advice to have it scrutinised through a scientifically rigorous peer review process.

TARFish also notes that an extensive IMAS study into recreational flathead fishers has been undertaken but the results have not been released publicly at this time. It is expected to be released in May 2023.

Government proposal

Recreational

1. Size limits

Increase the minimum size from 32 to 35cm

Introduce a maximum size limit of 38cm in the southern region and 40cm in other waters

2. Catch limits

3. Other management controls Commercial

1. Size limits

Increase the minimum size from 32 to 35cm

Introduce a maximum size limit of 38cm in the southern region and 40cm in other waters

2. Catch limits

Further information needed to inform advice

TARFish remains concerned that it does not have sufficient information on which to base a formal position on the proposals. Whilst TARFish accepts in broad terms that the stock assessment indicates serious concern for sand flathead stocks, the complete

absence of other supporting information on which to evaluate the proposed management changes is deeply concerning.

Specifically, there is no information on potential recovery times or impact of the proposed bag changes and size limit proposals singly or collectively. This makes it very difficult to suggest how potential changes could be implemented (if needed) and over what period.

TARFish considers the following information should be put in the public domain as a matter of urgency

Modelling of impact of:

• proposed changes to bag limits

• slot fishing

• combined impact of all proposed changes

• The IMAS sand flathead research project results (believed to be ready in May)

Any consideration for proposed rule changes on supporting industry including tackle stores and regional communities.

Please see section below for specific requests on research and modelling.

DRAFT TARFish position

• In TARFish’s view, the Minister’s precautionary approach in introducing interim management arrangements is responsible and also sets a precedent for applying the precautionary principle in fisheries management in Tasmania.

• TARFish supports the increase in size limit from 32 to 35 cm and a bag limit reduction to 10 as a precautionary approach.

• TARFish is of the view that it is difficult to reach a specific position on the proposals on the basis there is insufficient understanding of the modelled impact of proposed changes. The absence of available modelling of the proposed management changes means there is no guidance on likely impacts on fishers or stock recovery. The current proposals provide:

No timeline for recovery,

No modelling on the impact of individual or combined proposals (i.e. size limit and bag changes),

No results of the detailed research project into flathead fishers

• TARFish also notes that the peer review of the stock assessment has not been released.

• Based on currently available information

TARFish does not support the bag limit of 2 in the south or 5 elsewhere

A bag limit of two is equating sand flathead with highly prized and iconic species such as Southern Bluefin Tuna, Rock Lobster and Striped Trumpeter, not a fishing ‘staple’ such as flathead.

The proposed slot limit is likely to have a dramatic impact on recreational take and may facilitate the necessary reduction of fishing pressure.

Taking a staged approach would provide time for

fishers to get used to the changes and time to develop a recovery plan. We note that in Western Australia, the west coast demersal fishery recovery is a 20-year plan.

• Based on currently available information TARFish does not support the proposed slot limit of 35-38cm.

• TARFish does not support the proposed ban on spearfishing on the basis it is an extremely small cohort of fishers that are likely to be targeting sand flathead (mainly flounder fishers) and that there is no evidence to suggest this type of fishing has or will result in excessive mortality.

• TARFish supports dedicated investigation of stock enhancement opportunities and potential, particularly as it relates to rebuilding faster growing, larger fish (to reverse “stunting”)

• TARFish supports expediting alternative fishing opportunities, particularly in the south east as described in an earlier section.

• TARFish maintains its view that additional funding is needed to develop and implement a proper recovery strategy with a timeframe objectives and outcomes. This should absolutely include what “targets” the fishery needs to reach for fishing rules to be relaxed. This is of extreme importance to recreational fishers.

• TARFish restates its recommendation and budget submission requesting $5m over 5 years and should include a fisher-led stewardship program.

• TARFish supports increased compliance activities to ensure the highest protection for sand flathead.

Commercial discussion

Whilst the commercial take of sand flathead is low, it is taken in a part of the fishery that is most heavily fished recreationally (Storm Bay) and may also be having a flow-on effect to the D’Entrecasteaux NorfolkFredrick Henry Bay.

In this context, a return of 2-4 tonne from the commercial sector may facilitate faster stock recovery.

Research and modelling

TARFish requests that:

The proposed management changes are modelled for impact on recreational fishing and on stock recovery. The time frame for returning the fishery to 40% from the proposed management changes should also be modelled.

Specific modelling on the proposed slot limit of 35-38cm for impact on effort and stock recovery (exclusive of other proposed changes).

The findings of the research into recreational flathead fishing behaviour and preferred management are released publicly prior to any decision being made.

Stock enhancement

• TARFish strongly supports further investigation of stock enhancement opportunities for sand flathead. Whilst appreciating that some research into dusky flathead suggests that it may be of limited effect for biomass recovery, TARFish suggests that the investigation should be expanded with novel and new opportunities further explored that considers how the flathead population “stunting” could be more quickly reversed for example by breeding larger, faster growing fish to aid reversal of Fisher Induced Evolution (FIE).

Striped Trumpeter

Introduction

Striped trumpeter is in the top 5 recreationally caught fish targeted for consumption (an eating fish) with less than 10% of size fish released.

In 2017-18, 29 tonnes of Striped Trumpeter were retained by recreational fishers compared with the commercial sector with 14.2 tonnes the same year and reducing to 8.2 tonnes in 2020-21 (6.2 tonnes in commercial waters, 1.9 tonnes in commonwealth waters). An updated retained catch for the recreational sector is not currently available but is expected to be lower than the 29 tonnes taken in 2017-18 in line with the reduced commercial catch.

According to IMAS, striped trumpeter has high recruitment variability and there are significant stock risks with this species as a result.

The current minimum size limit is below the size at maturity.

Government propose to cut the Eastern bag for striped trumpeter limit to 2 fish.

Government proposals

Recreational

Size limit: Increase size limit from 55cm to 62cm for both male and female.

Catch limits:

Commercial

According to NRE Tasmania, the potential impact on commercial catch if the proposals had been introduced 5 years ago is 6.7 tonnes in total or around 1.1 tonnes per year.

This means, the commercial sector would see a reduction of less than 10% in commercial catch.

DRAFT TARFish position

This is an iconic Tasmanian species that is typically targeted alongside other deepwater fish such as Southern Bluefin Tuna (SBT) or blue-eye trevalla.

TARFish seeks to understand what modelling or consideration has been given to the impact of displaced effort (overall effort does not reduce).

Spawning Closure

Whilst not covered in the government’s proposal, the extension of the spawning closure could be considered.

Regional approach

Commercial

Size limit: Increase size limit from 55cm to 62cm for both male and female.

Catch limits:

Note: The Commonwealth Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF) have been subject to a trip limit of 150 kg for striped trumpeter since 2015. They do not currently recognise striped trumpeter minimum size limits, annual spawning closures, or the requirement to land the species whole or as fillets with heads and frames. Due to the ongoing assessment of striped trumpeter as a depleted stock NRE Tas is seeking complementary management arrangements with AFMA.

Impact of government proposals on recreational and commercial catches

Recreational

No modelled impact of the proposed changes has been provided. This information is needed to determine if the proposals are likely to have the desired effect and over what time frame.

It is unclear if the necessary stock protection and effort reduction will be provided by the size limit change alone.

IMAS agreed to model the impact of the proposed size limit change at RecFAC#82.

At the time of publishing, this information has not been made available to TARFish or RecFAC. However, TARFish is of the understanding that the impact of the size limit change alone could be as high as a 70% reduction on recreational take (this does not include the proposed further restriction on the bag limit) on the east and south east cost fishery.

Charter boat operators

No modelled impact of the proposed changes on charter boat operators has been provided.

• The proposed size limit change and cuts to the bag, boat and possession limits may result in a perverse stock outcome from unintended consequences.

• Whilst on it’s face, it would appear logical to increase the size limit to facilitate stock recovery, it may have the alternative effect of resulting in more fish being released and a correlating increase in post release fish mortality including that from seal predation.

• Similarly, a bag cut may appear to facilitate stock recovery but it does not account for fisher behaviour, by that we mean that fisher effort may be displaced to other deepwater species such as Southern Bluefin Tuna or blue eye trevalla which may have flow on effects to those species.

• TARFish’s view is that the fisher effort change is likely to be minimal and the overall benefit to striped trumpeter highly uncertain.

• Modelling for the proposed changes is critical in TARFish’s view to reach an informed position.

• TARFish therefore can only offer qualified support for the size limit change and will further refine its position once the modelling information is provided.

• TARFish strongly supports harmonisation of commonwealth management controls particularly as they relate to size and spawning closures and would not countenance any further restrictions on recreational catch until they are in place. TARFish is particularly concerned about commonwealth fishing of spawning fish during Tasmanian spawning closures.

• TARFish requests the following monitoring and modelling:

Modelled impact of size limit change impact on recreational catch.

Modelled impact of the bag, possession and boat limits together with the size limit change.

Modelled impact of what proportion of release would occur as a result of increased size limit change (release of sub-legal fish).

Monitoring of seal predation on mortality.

Risk of displaced effort

TARFish notes that its advice to NRE (and supported by RecFAC#82) to consider a regional approach (east and west coast) has been adopted in the draft proposals.

Whilst TARFish does not support the current proposals based on a lack of modelling and potential for perverse outcomes, a regional approach that protects access for west coast fishers is welcomed should it be needed at a later date. TARFish specifically notes the importance of this fishery on the west coast noting the relatively limited number of species that are targeted/ caught.

Risk of social cost of management proposals

TARFish supports management settings that do not act as a “closure by proxy” for the fishery by reducing the bag and possession limits to such a low level as to prevent the activity or act as a barrier to participation.

Of particular concern to TARFish is the potential impact on group fishing and potential increased costs from a boat limit.

Striped trumpeter is a deep water fish, with fishing taking place from a boat, often far from the place of launching with multiple fishers on board. A boat limit could create a barrier to participation to fishers that are less likely to own a boat (by not being taken on a fishing trip if low boat limits are applied).

Charter boat fishery

Charter boat operators are concentrated on the East Coast. As they are considered a “fishing platform” recreational limits apply to individuals onboard, including boat limits. The proposed changes to the east coast bag/boat and possession limits, may have a significant impact on charter boat operators.

It would seem logical to extend the proposal to extend boat limits for charter operators for southern bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna and bigeye tuna to striped trumpeter should the proposed boat limit come into effect.

Commonwealth commercial fishery

Commonwealth Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF) do not currently recognise striped trumpeter minimum size limits, annual spawning closures, or the requirement to land the species whole or as fillets with heads and frames.

The absence of harmonised management controls including minimum size and spawning closures may be having a disproportionate effect on stock productivity.

Risk of increased mortality from seal predation

TARFish recognises that an unintended consequence of increasing the size limit may be an increase in seal predation and an associated decrease in post-release survival rates. It may be that an increase in size limit will result in more fish being sought to achieve the bag limit and hence more fish being released and resulting in greater seal predation and therefore an unintended increase in mortality.

TARFish supports increased monitoring of seal predation and that clear guidance is provided to recreational fishers regarding best practice to minimise predation.

Bastard Trumpeter Background

For recreational fishers, bastard trumpeter is predominantly caught by gillnetting. One-third of all fish caught in recreational gillnets is bastard trumpeter. The Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery: Ecological Risk Assessment (Lyle, 2016) indicated that recreational use of gillnets was very high risk to bastard trumpeter.

The Government has committed to phasing out gillnetting by 2030 with a suite of proposed changes included in these proposed rule changes with intended implementation in 2023.

Bastard Trumpeter are estimated to reach maturity at 50cm. The current size limit is 38cm.

Recreational catch is estimated at 3.4 tonnes per annum in 2017-18 and the commercial catch at 4.3 tonnes the same year and 5.9 tonnes (5.4 tonnes from east coast) in 2020-21.

Government proposal

Recreational

Size limit: Increase minimum size limit from 38cm to 42 cm.

Catch limits:

Impact of government proposals on recreational and commercial catches

Recreational

The proposed gillnetting changes together with a size limit change are likely to have the effect of reducing recreational take significantly, effectively closing the fishery by proxy to recreational fishers.

Commercial

According to NRE Tasmania, the potential impact on commercial catch if the proposals had been introduced 5 years ago is 1.3 tonnes in total (or 250-300kg per annum) in the eastern region with no other impact outside of eastern region. This equates to less than 10% reduction per annum.

DRAFT TARFish position

• TARFish supports the size limit increase from 38cm to at least 45cm (rather than the 42cm proposed) on the basis it will facilitate stock rebuild. The final size limit should be based on the species need for reproduction and stock rebuild.

• TARFish participated in the Government’s recreational gillnetting working group and notes the inclusion of proposed changes to gillnetting in the package of management control changes. Specifically:

Reduction in soak time from 6 hours to 2 hours. Limits on depth (20m) and distance from shore (250m).

Attending nets in shark refuge areas.

• The proposed gillnetting changes together with the size limit change are likely to have the effect of reducing recreational take significantly (effectively closing the fishery by proxy to recreational fishers) and therefore the need to impose bag possession and boat limits in the immediate term seems overly punitive and unnecessary.

Size limit not sufficient to protect stock replacement

Both the current (38cm) and proposed (42cm) size limit does not protect stock replacement let alone rebuild and is not a sustainable setting.

Estimated size at maturity is greater that 45cm and more likely around 50cm.

Commonwealth fishery

Bastard trumpeter are known as by-catch in the commonwealth shark fishery. TARFish believes that the by-catch from this fishery should be considered.

Southern Garfish

Introduction

Southern Garfish are rated as a depleted stock, showing no signs of recovery in the last five years.

Recreational fishers are estimated to have caught 300kg in 2017/18 compared with commercial catches of around 10t (17 tonnes in 200-21). Commercial catch has been increasing each year over the last three years.

Commercial

Size limit: Increase minimum size limit from 38cm to 42 cm.

Catch limits:

• Therefore, TARFish does not support the proposed bag, boat and possession limits as proposed.

• The impact of the proposed changes to the commercial sector is minimal and it is unclear why the commercial sector should be overly advantaged in this shared fishery.

Seasonal spawning closures have been in place in the commercial fishery since 2009, prompted by declining catches. Spawning closures for the recreational sector were introduced in 2023.

There have been no other commercial constraints (management controls) to limit garfish landings since the fishery has been rated as depleted.

The issues with stock recovery are unlikely to be exclusively the result of fishing pressure but that environmental factors such as warming water and habitat change are also likely to be impacting southern garfish.

Recreational catch of southern garfish is low and traditinally done during winter

TARFish has a published position on southern garfish that was informed by recreational fisher feedback.

Government Proposal

recovery are unlikely to be exclusively the result of fishing pressure but that environmental factors such as warming water and habitat change are also likely to be impacting southern garfish.

Jackass Morwong

Introduction

TARFish notes the planned changes to gillnetting management settings are likely to have an impact on recreational take from 2023 onwards.

TARFish recommends that there is no urgency and a watching brief should be maintained to assess the impact of changes to gillnetting requirements before applying any further management controls.

Recreational proposal - above

Commercial proposal - above

Impact of government proposals on recreational and commercial catches

Recreational

The proposed bag, possession and boat limit have not been modelled, however, given the recreational take of this species is ~350kg per annum, the changes appear punitive without any demonstration of improvement to stock recovery and sustainability.

Commercial

According to NRE Tasmania, the potential impact on commercial catch if the proposals had been introduced 5 years ago is 5.3 tonnes in total (or 1 tonne per annum).

This equates to less than 5% reduction per annum on current commercial landings.

DRAFT TARFish Position

• TARFish does not support the proposed changes to bag and possession limits for recreational fishers on the basis that they will have little or no impact on stock recovery: given the recreational take is extremely low; and a spawning closure was recently introduced.

• TARFish suggests that the benefit of the spawning closure should be assessed before any further restrictions on the recreational sector are contemplated.

• TARFish supports additional restrictions on the commercial sector to limit total landings of Southern Garfish.

• TARFish does not believe the proposed commercial limits will sufficiently constrain commercial catches to facilitate stock recovery and notes that commercial catch has increased each year over the last three years.

TARFish further notes that the issues with stock

Jackass morwong is currently rated as “sustainable” in the most recent Tasmanian Wild Fisheries Assessments (released December 2022). Commonwealth assessments concluded that Jackass Morwong stocks were Overfished from 2008 to 2010, but stocks have since been classified as Sustainable (Patterson et al. 2021). The offshore commonwealth fishery has been rated by the CSIRO as depleted for the eastern stock only. The Government’s Public Consultation Paper 2023 is misleading regarding the stock status of this fishery.

It is unclear why any management changes are necessary when the current Tasmanian stock assessment has rated this fishery as sustainable.

Abundance of Jackass Morwong is low in Tasmanian waters and, as such, the species is not actively targeted by commercial fishers in Tasmania but landed as byproduct of gillnetting.

Jackass Morwong is an important recreational fishery. Recreational catch is predominantly line caught with some gillnetting.

Government Proposals

Phase out of Recreational Gillnetting Government Proposal

The Tasmanian government has committed to phasing out gillnetting by 2030.

The government is proposing to Introduce stronger gillnetting requirements:

• Reduce soak time from 6 to 2 hours.

• Requiring recreational nets set in Shark Refuge Areas to be attended by the licence holder at all times.

• Prohibiting the use of recreational gill nets in waters greater than 20 metres in depth.

• Prohibit the use of recreational gillnets in waters further than 250 metres from the high-water mark.

• Prohibit the take of all Maugean skate in Macquarie Harbour as well as the taking or possessing of any other skate, ray or stingray.

Background

• An interim emergency management order currently in place Macquarie Harbour, the proposal for gillnetting in Macquarie Harbour will formalise an existing order into rules.

Recreational proposal - above

• In October 2020, TARFish made a submission in response to the Tasmanian Government’s Discussion Paper “Towards a 10-year vision for recreational sea fishing in Tasmania”. The position TARFish took at that time is shown below.

Commercial proposal - above

Note: Proposed ban on spearfishing

DRAFT TARFish Position

The proposals for jackass morwong are a nonsense. Given the low level of take by the recreational sector and that the current stock status is “sustainable” there is no pressing need for additional management controls.

• “It is important to balance the need to reduce high impact fishing methods with their cultural importance. A good example of this is gill netting. Changes to mesh sizes, set-time and areas have already reduced the impact of this fishing method. In addition, gillnetting is waning as a preferred fishing method as indicated by declining licences. This would indicate the overall impact of the activity has been reduced markedly in recent years. Any further changes need to consider the relative impact of further changes or bans. One option that may be useful to consider is to grandfather existing licences and cease issuing new licences.

This would facilitate the gradual phase out of the activity without disadvantaging those that continue to practice it. Alternatively, a 10-year lead time that sees the practice of gill-netting cease in 2030.

• In 2020, a survey of over 3200 recreational fishers was undertaken to understand community attitudes to a raft of potential measures that were being considered for the Tasmanian Government’s Recreational Sea Fishing Strategy. Responses to a proposal to assess “whether high impact recreational fishing methods such as gillnetting should be allowed” received 66% approval (and 17% disapproval). Of the 106 written responses accompanying the questionnaire, 94 called for the complete banning of nets while only 5 respondents opposed a ban.

• TARFish participated in the Government’s gillnetting working group in 2022 and supported the consensus position that “Grandfather licensing followed by mandatory attendance and soak time rules, ultimately leading to… a complete phase out by 2030.”

• TARFish supported the position on the basis that mandatory attendance and soak times were consistent with best practice. TARFish also offered to undertake fisher consultation regarding gillnetting to gauge preferred options for phase out however this offer was declined by the government. As a result, TARFish has limited insight into the views and wants of Tasmania’s gillnet fishers aside from the response to the 2020 survey.

• In terms of impact on fish, Lyle et al (2014) assert that gillnetting in Tasmania has had demonstrable impacts on the populations of Bastard Trumpeter and Blue Warehou.

• The impacts – actual and potential – of recreational gillnetting on inshore fish stocks have direct implications for the quality of fishing opportunities available for line fishers (and spear fishers). It is likely that Tasmanian gillnetting activities spanning more than two centuries have had a major impact on inshore community fish composition, in particular net-vulnerable target species such as Bastard Trumpeter, Long-snouted Boarfish and Banded Morwong. It is also likely that ongoing netting activity has contracted the range of Striped Trumpeter to deeper reefs – the species was once commonly caught in shallow inshore reefs around the Tasmanian coastline (Bridge, 2007). Recent reports of deep-water recreational gillnetting (up to 80 m) targeting Striped Trumpeter are also concerning, particularly given the potential barotrauma of released fish and additional impacts of lost (ghost) nets.

• The establishment of emerging species such as King George Whiting, Yellowtail Kingfish and Pink Snapper may be impacted by the use of gillnets. An example highlighting these concerns is the targeting of snapper in Norfolk Bay in recent years by gillnetters, often through illegal night sets (A. Pender, pers. comm.). While snapper continue to establish a population in

the bay, they appear to occupy a small number of highly localised shallow reef sites in their seasonal movements (Wolfe, 2021). These sites, and the time they are occupied by snapper, are well known to IMAS, and increasingly to the recreational fishing community. Supporting the establishment of these species could help address a current lack of shore-based fishing opportunities and provide reliable alternatives to catching depleting/depleted species such as Sand Flathead and Southern Calamari.

DRAFT TARFish Position

• TARFish notes the intention to phase out gillnetting by 2030 which aligns with TARFish’s position.

• TARFish supports the proposed gillnet rule changes on the basis:

• It will provide better protection for Bastard Trumpeter and Blue Warehou and Striped Trumpeter.

• It will provide some protection for emerging species such as snapper.

• It may improve inshore fishing opportunities for line fishing.

• It improves the fishing practice.

• There is broad support for the phase out of gillnetting amongst recreational fishers.

• TARFish supports efforts to protect the endangered Maugean Skate.

• TARFish does not support the proposed additional restrictions for Jackass Morwong (introduction of a boat limit) or Bastard Trumpeter (cuts to bag, possession and boat limits) as the proposed gillnet restrictions are considered sufficient to protect the stock.

Other proposals

Vessel monitoring systems

TARFish supports formalising the ability to require Scalefish licence holder to have a VMS device fitted and operating whilst on a fishing trip into the Scalefish rules.

TARFish strongly supports the intention to direct all Danish seine vessels to install and operate VMS, particularly in view of the current concern regarding sand flathead stocks.

Charter Fishery

The Sea Charter Boat Operators of Tasmania (SCBOOT) are a TARFish foundation member organisation. TARFish is currently seeking the views of the proposed changes from SCBOOT and will incorporate them once received.

Australian sardines

TARFish acknowledges the recently released stock assessments for sardines in the Tasmanian Scalefish Fishery Assessment 2020/21 which states:

“Australian Sardine in Tasmanian waters represent a proportion of the South-eastern Sardine stock, which is shared by three jurisdictions: Tasmania, Victoria, and

New South Wales. Research indicates that the spawning biomass of the South-eastern Sardine stock in 2019 may have exceeded 200,000t (Ward et al. 2022) and that there is potential for development of a large-scale fishery for Australian Sardine in Tasmanian waters (Ward and Gardner 2022).”

The information contained in the Scalefish Fishery Rules Review (Public Consultation Paper) provides insufficient information on the Government’s intent for a sardine fishery let alone developmental fishery management plan.

TARFish has not been engaged on this fishery at any time in the lead up to the Scalefish Fishery Rules Review. Without any necessary background it appears precipitous at best to be proposing rule changes for this fishery.

TARFish therefore does not support the proposed rule change.

DRAFT TARFish position

TARFish does not support the proposed rule change.

TARFish encourages the department to consult with the recreational sector, through TARFish, prior to any rule changes and preparation of a developmental fishery management plan given its strong interest in small pelagics, their relationship with other recreationally targeted species, and previous issues with small pelagics. To not approach this potentially highly contentious fishery in a staged, precautionary and consultative way increases the risk to social acceptance.

Reporting

The proposed rule change could effectively mean mandatory reporting for all recreational fishing. TARFish does not support such a board-based rule change.

Specifically, TARFish only supports the use of mandatory catch reporting for recreationally licensed fishers (e.g. rock lobster) and only when a fishery is rated as depleting or depleted.

Without any information or guidance about the potential application of this rule, TARFish does not support it and it is unnecessary at this time.

Have your say

Contact TARFish with your views: Via Facebook, www.tarfish.org, call 1300 665 225 or email at info@tarfish.org

Wild Fisheries

Public consultation is open until midnight 29 May. Have your say on the proposed changes, by: Filling out the online form at: fishing.tas.gov.au/scalefish-review

Emailing a written submission to; scalefish.review@nre.tas.gov.au

Posting a written submission to:

Scalefish Fishery Rules Review, Wild Fisheries Management Branch NRE Tas, GPO Box 44, HOBART TAS 7001

In Tasmania bluespotted flathead (Platycephalus speculator) have a bag limit of five, minimum size of 40cm with only one allowed over 60cm.

Bluespot Flathead

Weedless techniques in tough locations

Lubin Pfeiffer

The technique of fishing weedless hooks with soft plastic lures has been a revelation for me. My first experience of fishing with weedless came during a trip to Queensland a few years ago. Big Barra was the target but at the famous lake Proserpine where it is very weedy around the edges, a weedless style bait was the only way to work the water efficiently. There are a couple of ways you’ll find barra at Proserpine. The most fun way is to search the many weed beds for fish sunning themselves and then cast unweighted plastics at them. Without a weedless style hook, you would simply grab the weed before a fish has even had a chance to see it. The other common way to catch a barra there is to set up on a point and fish the moon or tide times. One of the best places to do this is Point Proserpine which is where a huge weedy point juts out to the middle of the lake and fish will cruise

past the end of it on their way to somewhere else in the lake. Not only is the point itself weedy, but there are also lots of weed towers dotted around the end of the point. Because you are usually fishing in the low light or dark, the easiest way we found to navigate the weed towers was with a weedless hook which almost always made it back to the boat weed free. I find it very interesting that an aggressively feeding fish can be so fussy to a lure that may only have a small strand of weed on there, but as they say, they don’t get big by being stupid! Fishing some of our waters in southern Australia, weedless design hooks have been very handy as well for a few fish but none more than fishing for blue spot flathead. The fact that you can fish right in the shallow weed line and pop your plastic out onto the sand has been a game changer.

Why go weedless?

Fishing for me is all about percentages. Weedless design hooks are always going to be less effective in actually hooking the fish than a standard style j-hook jig head. The area where weedless design hooks excel is the fact that your lure is swimming in the zone more often, therefore creating more chances and catching more fish than a standard-style jig head. If every one of your casts is weeded up it doesn’t matter how well the hook will penetrate the fish because it’s simply never fishing for long enough to be of benefit.

Getting the weight correct

There is a couple of different options to weight your plastic while fishing with a weedless hook. There are weedless hooks that have lead moulded onto the shank of the hook and others that have the weight as a free

You’re an Angler, and no matter how many times you go fishing you’ll want to go again and no matter how many fish you catch (or nearly catch) it will never be enough.

There will be days when the fishing is better than one’s most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home. You’re hooked, along with us.

WE ARE TONIC!

swinging attachment that connects to the eye of the hook. The former is what I prefer simply because it gives you great flexibility with your setup. For example, for fishing for blue spot flathead I’ll have some 1/8, 1/6 and 1/4oz heads with a couple of packs of 2/0 and 3/0 hooks. I can then mix and match hook and weight size depending on the water, the lure I’m using and how the fish are eating it on the day. When the weight is moulded to the hook you are stuck with that hook size and weight.

Rigging

Without a doubt, the most important part of fishing weedless style hooks with soft plastics is to get them rigged correctly. Rigging correctly will have the lure swimming perfectly and the hook finding its mark when a fish eats it. Using plastics such as Zman (which have huge amounts of stretch) is beneficial with weedless as they will last a lot longer than other less stretchy baits.

Starting at the front of the plastic you only want to pin it lightly through the nose of the plastic and then out the bottom of the bait. Thread the hook dead centre through the nose of the plastic and then push the hook out the bottom about three millimetres from the nose toward the back of the bait. While this may only seem to be lightly hooked, the design of the weedless hook and the fact the plastic is so stretchy will hold it perfectly in place, even after the fish have eaten it many times. As you move the plastic on the hook you’ll need to flip it upright and get the nose over the little lead keeper at the front before you can thread the point of the hook through the middle of the plastic. This is the important bit as you want the plastic to be perfectly straight and not deformed in any way by being stretched from incorrect hook placement.

Try to pin the hook dead centre through the slot and out the top of the plastic, doing a rough measure with the hook before inserting makes this easier. As the hook point makes it out the top of the plastic it should sit nice and snug in the top groove. Getting this right will see the bait swimming beautifully and the hook point covered so that it can move through the cover freely.

Open to change

I find it very easy to get stuck in a particular method that may have had some success in the past which finds you constantly returning to that because that’s all you know. I’ve been very fortunate to be able to travel heaps with my fishing and it is amazing the different things you pick up along the way. It is often these things that change your fishing forever. I remember the first time I fished for blue spots after returning from up north and used the weedless hooks along the beach I’d fished previously with a standard-style hook.

Gone were the doubts of whether that style of weedless hook would even hook a fish as I just finished catching a hundred barra on them so confidence was high. I distinctly remember casting into places I previously thought were off-limits as it just resulted in a snag or a hook full of weed. Shortly after a big bluespot nailed the bait out of a gnarly bit of shallow rock at the edge of the beach. As the beautiful fish slid

A selection of weedless baits

up onto the beach, I vowed never to fish a conventional hook for them again, weedless just made it so easy!

Big bluespot flathead are the perfect target for weed-less style baits

A paddle tail plastic rigged weed-less

Typical terrain you’ll find bluespot flathead waiting in ambush

Jumbo KG Whiting

Where, how and when

Damon Sherriff

King George Whiting may have always been present in Northern Tasmania, but over the last 15 years, a massive explosion have been targeted in our estuaries and inshore waters. We have a substantial fishery of these fish now whereas years back they were a bit of a rarity. Tasmania now also boasts some of the biggest King George Whiting in the Nation with 50cm plus fish reasonably common and fish as big as 60 plus centimetres a reality for Tasmanian anglers.

About eight years back, I moved from home on the shore of my beloved Tamar River Estuary to the seaside village of Bridport. I am no stranger to fishing at Bridport, I have spent the last 3 decades chasing big snapper there but my fishing was limited to that when I went there. Moving there allowed me not only to target more big Reds in the area but also to target sea trout, king fishing bream and of course King George Whiting. After sourcing some local knowledge from recreational divers in the area I had a fair idea of where to start looking for the big whiting. I had

caught plenty in the Tamar but not out of Bridport so I was pretty excited about a new challenge.

One day I gave the Snapper a break and decided to have a crack at the local whiting at Bridport. It was a lovely December day so I headed to the local seagrass beds along the coast from Bridport. I had caught some fresh squid on the way. I anchored up in a place we had seen the whiting the week before while snorkelling in the area. My young son Sam was swimming on a super hot day while we were out fishing and saw some monster whiting in this area.

I baited up my rigs and cast in. It was a bit quiet after the first fifteen minutes so I moved up the shore to the next sand hole to try. I was fishing in about four metres of water. I waited another ten minutes. I started to get a sharp fast bite which certainly looked like the right species. The rod buckled over and I was on to my first Bridport KGW. The way the fish was playing up, I knew I had a larger model on as well! After a few short runs, the big whiting gave up and

The right rod holders will make a big difference to hook up rate

Damon Sherriff with a big northeast caught whiting

lay on the surface waiting to be netted. I scooped him up with my snapper net and found that I had caught the biggest King George Whiting I have ever seen. I was very excited, the first trip out and I caught a beast that was far bigger than all the whiting I had caught in the Tamar. I ran the measuring tape over him and he went 55 cm.

Soon after that, my second rod went off with a familiar bite. Another whiting and another good one too! He started screaming line off of my little reel. I finally got him close enough to the net. Another beautiful KGW at 54 cm. The bite started getting a bit ridiculous. A big whiting was coming in every few minutes into my boat up to 57 cm. They finally moved on and I bagged out with 5 Whiting (which is the bag limit in Tasmania) over 52cm and up to 57 cm, a pretty impressive haul if I do say myself.

Another memorable trip I had on the whiting was in September 2020 season. The Hook Line and Sinker Fishing Television Show asked me to take them out to try to do a show on Northeast Tasmanian whiting. In recent weeks before they asked me if the fishing had been very good but I am never confident trying to catch a target fish under pressure. The presenters Andrew Hart, Nick Duigan and myself headed out bright and early from Bridport in search of a monster King George Whiting. We anchored up in a likely sand hole that had been producing some good fish during recent trips. We baited up with fresh calamari which I had caught the day before and cast our rods into the beautiful clear ocean water. It did not take long before I started getting a sharp familiar bite. “A whiting!” I shouted excitedly! I hooked the fish while Andrew started filming. After the short fight, a stonker of a KGW came into sight. I gently led him to the landing net that Nick held. He scooped him up and we all burst into a cheer. The pressure of catching a big whiting on film was off. We had done it! We measured the fish and he went a whopping 57cm.

After the first catch, a hot bite started up with stonker whiting coming into the boat every few minutes. They measured between 50 and 57 cm.

The Holy Grail - A 60cm Whiting

After a few seasons, I was pretty keen to break the 60 cm mark, it was mid-March and I had my friend Christopher Ganar coming over from Victoria to fish with me, he has a yearly snapper, bream and whiting trip with me. I decided to do some pre-fishing before he got to Bridport to save a bit of time finding the fish when he got here, the first tip I fished shallow and really struggled to find them, I only landed one fish of 50 cm. On the second pre-fish trip I fished deeper, in nine to twelve metres and I found the whiting big time, it was definitely the best whiting trip I have ever had, they were in a frenzy. I landed dozens of big whiting over the tide change most over 55 cm and the biggest at 60 cm. I was pretty chuffed to finally tick off the 60 cm whiting.

When Chris got here the next week the fishing where a lot more challenging, we fished big hours

just to drum up a few fish in the same area each day, but he did manage to land some beautiful whiting throughout his stay, breaking his Victorian personal best with a beautiful 57cm fish. He kept his fish to take back to Victoria to eat. When he was cleaning the fish we noticed all the whiting were females and were heavily in roe, April in the Northeast is the quietest month for whiting in the shallows, the fish seem to disappear for about 4 weeks during this period we presume to head to deeper water to spawn. We concluded that the week before when I prefished they were schooling up just about to head deep. I have a feeling the males might leave before the females because the week Chris was here all the fish were females. This is just a presumption though.

Tips For Successful Whiting Fishing

Firstly, Move about. Whiting are like many species which move about with the tide, foraging the bottom for food, so the best method is to give a spot no more than 30 minutes, then pull up anchor and try another likely spot nearby. Do this until you eventually find them.

Don’t Burley. Many people get shocked when I tell them I don’t burley for snapper and whiting. Whiting has a super sense of smell and your bait is enough scent to lure them into the area. If you start to burley, you will more than likely attract unwanted species into the area which will make it hard to get to the whiting. There are always exceptions to every rule though, it depends a lot on where you are fishing.

Keep the bait big to target the bigger fish. Although whiting are known to have small mouths, once they get to a certain size they can swallow a bait meant for a snapper or a gummy shark. Fish over 50cm will take a fish fillet or a big squid strip readily.

Don’t be scared to fish shallow. There are no rules to how shallow you can fish for King George. One metre of water is still plenty of water to catch them in. Especially if it has the right weedy bottom. They also can be in this depth during daylight hours.

You don’t need expensive tackle to chase whiting successfully. A 7-foot light spinning rod, matched with a 2000-size spinning reel is ideal. You could pick up a

combo for under $50 from your local store that will do the job nicely. I use 4 kg mono fishing line for whiting.

Try to be quiet when anchoring a spot and don’t drive over where you are fishing. The best way is to position your boat upstream or upwind from your chosen spot and turn your motor off and drift onto your mark and anchor quietly. Or if you are lucky enough to own an electric motor with GPS Spot-Lock, this will work even better because you won’t have to use your noisy anchor.

Although KGW will accept frozen bait, fresh bait is definitely better if you have the time to catch your bait before your trip. Fresh calamari is my favourite bait but I also use green prawns and bass yabbies at times.

Whiting can bite at any stage of the tide. They often move through an area at the same stage of the tide each day. A bit of local knowledge goes a long way when chasing them.

Reedy’s Tinganoster whiting rigs are the go for big King George Whiting. Also, try a Reedy’s Whiting Whisperer Wide Gap hook on a Western port-style rig. This works really well when using big baits in the current. If the whiting are smaller in your area try the Reedy’s Rigs Tinganoster in the Mutu hook. Use a

Fresh bait will always produce more consistent fishing

small square of calamari instead of a long strip. And don’t strike at the fish, let the Whiting hook himself before you pick the rod up. It is best to fish your rods in snapper rack-style rod holders. Your rod should be nearly horizontal and easy to get out of the holder

75–115hp FourStroke

without giving the fish any slack line.

If you would like to view some red-hot Tasmanian whiting fishing have a look at my fishing channel on YouTube and check out Northeast Tasmanian Mega Whiting. King George Whiting is one of my favourite

Unbridled power, unexpectedly compact, uncompromising reliability, unbelievably fuel efficient. Mercury’s 75–115hp FourStroke Range. Unlike anything the world has ever seen.

fish to catch and eat and is well worth the time and effort of chasing them. I hope this little article has helped encourage you to get the boat out and go and catch a feed of the best-eating fish around.

A trophy sized King George Whiting

North East Lagoon Trout

Browns and rainbows - prepare yourself

Jonty Krushka

Areas to Target

The coastal lagoons of northeast Tasmania are home to some fairly large trout. They are relatively shallow, warm, heavily vegetated and absolutely brimming with food sources, which results in very fast-growing trout. The feeding habits and size of the trout in these systems can make for some very visual and entertaining fishing at certain times of the year. It is not uncommon to watch fish of over five pounds almost beaching themselves chasing Galaxia, having said this they can often be very difficult to catch. There are brown and rainbow trout in these lagoons but I spend the majority of my time chasing browns in the shallows.

Most are closed now, but they are great early season places to try.

Depending on the water level these systems can be fished from the shore, kayak or a boat. Generally, if the water levels are low or the wind is blowing a gale, I will opt for wading and when water levels rise and wading becomes difficult I’ll bring out the kayak. Most areas in these lagoons will produce fish but there are a few that will often produce more than others. Similar to trout in most systems these fish love to hang around any areas which provide an ambush spot for them. Any banks or flats that have a steeper drop-off into deeper water than the majority of edges will often hold fish. I have found that trout often like to cruise in the deeper water until they find a school of bait and then launch an attack into the shallows. This

is especially the case for shallow sandy edges with steep drop-offs. Points and weed edges are also great spots especially if they are surrounded by deeper water. The very backs of shallow bays also hold fish. They seem to use these bays to herd baitfish into and then smash through them when they have nowhere left to go. The time of year, time of day, weather and what the fish are feeding on will often dictate where the fish are found so it pays to move about and try and find actively feeding fish as each day can be completely different.

Soft Plastics

Over the past few years, the lure I have caught the majority of my fish on has been a BaitJunk-

A big brown trout caught from the shore

ie 2.5-inch minnow in copper flash, rigged on a 1/12th-ounce jig head with a size 1 or 1/0 hook. In particularly windy conditions or when the fish seem to be on the deeper weed edges, I will change this up to a 1/8th-ounce jig head. This helps with casting distance a little but most importantly helps to keep the plastic in the water

and tracking straight. On some occasions when fish have been feeding in super shallow, weedy areas a 1/16th-ounce jig head is a better choice. Other soft plastic colours that have worked well in the BaitJunkie range include pearl gudgeon, ayu and black & gold. I will often change over to black & gold when the water is dirty or once the sun has set. Any paddle tail soft plastics will work well but I find the BaitJunkies have great action (especially at a really slow speed), great resilience and a great range of colours. I haven’t used the BaitJunkie jig heads a lot but so far, they seem to be as good as they claim to be. I prefer to fish soft plastics due to their cast-ability and versatility. A plastic on a 1/12th ounce jig head can be fished effectively in almost no water right down the deepest parts of these lagoons. They are also less prone to picking up weed and even when they do the tail of a plastic still swims fine with a bit of weed on the head but the action of a hard body minnow is normally ruined by a bit of weed. When I begin fishing, I like to cast at about 45 degrees to the shore so that I’m covering different depths whilst also covering a bit of bank. Once I have found where the fish are feeding, I will try to focus on this depth by casting parallel to the shore in this depth range. My favourite retrieve for soft plastics is just a slow constant roll. Sometimes a change of pace or a short pause can get a bite when they are not committing.

We’re here to champion you, Tasmania’s marine recreational fishers. To find out how we are doing that and for the latest on the issues that matter in marine recreational fishing from your peak body, visit our new website.

www.tarfish.org

Other Lures

When the conditions are right and the soft plastic isn’t getting the bites, a changeup can get results. My go-to hardbody minnow is a shallow Cranka minnow in either the smelt or jollytail colours. I fish these with a similar retrieve to a plastic. I have found diving hardbody minnows to be easier to use when fishing parallel to a weed edge or drop off in a constant depth compared to fishing areas with a large depth change. Another lure I have caught some nice fish on is the Biwaa s-trout 90mm swimbait. This lure is surprisingly weedless and given its slow sink rate, it is easy to fish in very shallow weedy areas. Again, a slow roll is my retrieve of choice with this lure. When the fish are feeding aggressively late in the evening one of my favourite lures to tie on is the Tiemco lonesome sweeper. This is a jointed surface lure that results in some awesome bust-ups. However, I have found the hook-up rate isn’t that great. I generally fish this lure over weed beds in less than a metre of water. Sometimes when the bite is really tough or the fish are locked in on insects a small nymph-style plastic such as the Strike Tiger nymph or a small hand-tied jig can get a bite. I generally fish these with short sharp hops on a very slow wind.

A selection of successful lures used by the author

The gear I use when fishing these areas is a pretty standard spin setup. When fishing from the shore and being restricted to one setup I will opt for a 6’8” 2-4 lb BKCustom rod matched up with a 2500 size Daiwa Certate. Although this is a fairly light rod and the fish can often be fairly large there isn’t a lot of hard structure and you don’t often need to steer the fish away from anything. I have the reel spooled up with 6lb Sunline Xplasma asagai. I have found this braid to be very easy to manage especially in really windy conditions which is a massive bonus. It also ties great knots, casts well and is plenty strong enough. I then attach a few metres of 5lb or 6lb leader via an FG knot. My leaders of choice are the Sunline shooter fc sniper invisible and the Daiwa Xlink. When fishing from the kayak and having the ability to carry multiple outfits I usually pack three. Two of the setups mentioned above, one with a plastic and one with a hardbody and also a slightly heavier outfit with a swimbait tied on. This rod is a 6-14lb, 7’ BKCustom matched up with a 2500size reel. This heavier rod makes punching a heavier lure into the wind much easier. On this outfit, I usually run a 6lb or 8lb leader.

Time Of Year

The time of year, time of day and weather conditions can have a huge impact on how the fish behave in these systems. Generally, my favourite times to fish here are the last 6 weeks of the season and from the beginning of the season until the end of November. Being quite shallow and only a few metres above sea level these lagoons heat up quite fast and can get fairly hot. I have seen the water temperature at 22 degrees at end of November. Once the temps get this high I have found the fish become much harder to catch especially during daylight hours. They also become more focused on insects and less interested in the Galaxia during the warmer months. When conditions are warm, I’ve found slowing down and fishing deeper can sometimes get results.

Conditions

I have found the best weather conditions for fishing out here are the worst conditions you could imagine. The windier, colder and more overcast/rainy the better. Fishing in these conditions is a little less important early in the season but as it begins to warm it becomes more of a factor. The time of day is the same. Early in the season, it is not as important but once it begins to warm up periods of low light definitely pro-

duce more fish. For some reason, I have found evenings to be more successful than early mornings with the short period between sunset and last light sometimes producing multiple bites after hours of nothing.

I have found the weather and time of day tend to counter each other as well, so if it’s a windy overcast day they will still bite throughout the day but if it’s calm and sunny, periods of low light are best. When you get a windy overcast evening, this is usually when the fish feed most aggressively. Early in the season fishing the lee or windswept shores doesn’t seem to matter too much but once the water warms, I actually prefer to fish the lee shores. My theory with this is that the prevailing wind pushes the warm surface waters towards one side and draws up cooler deeper waters to the surface on the lee shore. It also makes casting much easier when fishing off the bank. As for water clarity, it often fluctuates a lot depending on weather conditions. It is generally quite clear in these systems but strong winds can cause it to become murky easily. Once the water warms algal growth can sometimes proliferate and cause the water to

take on a murky green appearance. Overall to have the best chance of catching a few quality fish I would plan a trip early or late in the season on an overcast windy afternoon/ evening and focus my efforts around points and weed edges. Even when the conditions are perfect the fishing can still be quite tough. In these situations, the best tactic is to just keep on casting. I have lost count of the number of trips I have gone fishless for three hours and then caught three fish over 4lb in less than an hour without changing any gear or locations. A lot of the time it is just a matter of having enough casts that eventually you pull your lure across the nose of a hungry fish.

The Northeast produces some amazing condition trout

Match the hatch!

TROUT

STANDARD

TRUE TO WEIGHT LINE

• Features the revolutionary AST Plus slickness additive for superior shooting ability and increased durability

• Floating Texture on the tip section for the ultimate in flotation; it simply keeps dry flies floating longer

• Shooting Texture running line delivers longer casts, thanks to a reduction in friction

• Mid-length head for exceptional mending and accuracy at distance

• The casters line

• Braided multifilament core

• SA AMPLITUDE STANDARD WF X F (X = line weight)

Great Lake

Winter fishing - rug up and enjoy

Logan Reid

It’s the middle of June and the trout fishing season has been closed for a bit over a month now. And you are itching to wet a line again, but what options do you have? Well in last year’s off-season, I decided I wouldn’t stay inside for the winter and decided to see what trouty experiences I could find. I fished Huntsman’s Lake and found a few fish but the real excitement came to me in the form of big healthy hard fighting rainbow trout off the rocks on Great Lake. Great Lake rainbows are in excellent condition and I found myself running along the rocks just to keep up with them before they took me into the backing. These rainbows would hit hard, fight hard and jump all over the place. You can actually target both brown

trout and rainbow trout separately on Great Lake, they both like to be in different types of water. I find that the shallower rocky banks will have more brown trout on them and points of bays and deep rocky drop-offs will have more rainbows on them. Explore the edge of Great Lake and you’ll find some of these areas.

Rods And Reels

You’ll need a good fast-action fly rod for fishing for trout at Great Lake in winter to help you punch into the wind that Great Lake tends to get at this time of year. It has many calm days too, but you need the right tools. I’ve been using the Pisces Turbo in both a 5-weight and a 6-weight and both the 9-foot and 10-foot

lengths and definitely recommend them. The Pisces Turbo is a budget-friendly rod as it only costs $395 at the time of writing this article.

And for the reel, I use the Orvis Clearwater large arbor cassette reel. I’ve been using this reel for the past couple of seasons and really enjoy using it. The smooth drag this reel has helps me to not break off fish. The cassette function in this reel gives you the flexibility of changing from a floating line to and sinking line quickly and easily.

Lines And Leaders

I’ve been using the Scientific Anglers lines for a couple of seasons now and have been enjoying their

use. The two lines I have been using the most on Great Lake are both the floating Infinity line and the Sonar 1/3 sinking line. I’ll change between these two lines throughout the day depending on what the fish are doing. Now for the leader set-up, I like using a 9-foot tapered leader down to 4x which is about six pounds or three kilograms. To this, I’ll add a tippet ring and about another six feet of 4x tippet (about 1.8 metres) which brings my total leader and tippet length to 15 feet (or about 4.5 meters long). I’ll also add a dropper tag to my tippet ring so that I can run two flies on this rig.

Tactics for Great Lake trout

Great Lake fish don’t seem to be too picky when it comes to fly choice and are often quite opportunistic and will take pretty much anything you throw at them so all you will need are a few flies you have confidence in and you are right to go. Just the same as you would be doing in the season you need to watch the water and try to work out what the fish might be feeding on. Even in winter if you get a nice still warmer day midge hatches can still occur so keep an eye out for that! If you can’t notice anything on the top it might be time to take a look subsurface. Can you notice things such as stick caddis? Or see a few galaxias darting in between the rocks? Well, it might be time to chuck a couple of wet flies on.

Some of my favourite flies for wet fly fishing on Great Lake are the orange bead green Magoo, the Shrek and the black and gold humongous. Other flies I’ve had success on are the gold sparkler, red and black matuka and a sunset fly.

When using a couple of wet flies I tend to start my casts really short and only have about a rod length of fly line out the end of my rod. And to retrieve this line through the water and give my flies movement I just lift my rod tip as you would do at the end of a cast usually and hang them there giving my rod tip

a jiggle every now and then to give them some movement. I’ll also fan these casts out. After I have worked over all the water in front of me then I’ll then strip some more line off my reel to add an extra bit of line so I can cover the water a little bit further out. Again fanning my casts out and covering all the water in front of me. I’ll repeat this process until I have covered all available water in front of me before moving further up the bank and repeating this process. I’ll change up my retrieve until I find what the fish are after. Some of the retrieves I’ll use throughout the day will be a figure of eight retrieve, a standard pulling retrieve and a jab jab jab pause retrieve. But I find often that any of these retrieves aren’t as important as the pause is. I’ll often find that I’ll get takes when the fly has stopped moving. I believe this is because the fish has seen a moving item and started chasing it and when it stops moving the fish’s predatory instincts kick in a pounce on your fly before it gets away.

Dry Fly Choice

I have also found that even in winter these opportunistic Great Lake browns and rainbow trout will still take dries and I find that the best dries are your biggest and ugliest dries, things like the Chernobyl ant patterns and bruisers bugs work well. I also like big palmered highland duns in either a dark brown colour or black. On a bright and sunny winter’s day, you can polaroid fish by walking along the rocks and scanning the water. This is a really exciting way to fish Great Lake and I find it very rewarding. Finding a fish cruising the edge and then presenting your dry to it is always enjoyable. But, you won’t always be able to polaroid during the winter so another good option is to prospect with your dries. By thoroughly working the first four or five metres of water from the bank opportunities will come your way. All you will need to do is fan your casts out over the water and only leave them there for somewhere between five and ten seconds before giving the flies a little bit of movement

Finn McDowell with a Great Lake brown trout

Rainbows can be found hunting the deep drop offs

Its cold at this time of year, so

AWARD WINNING RODS AT A REASONABLE PRICE

•Winner of Yellowstone Anglers 2020 5wt Shootout “Best Overall Rod” with 30 plus 5wt rods tested

•Distinctly effortless casting and increased sensitivity on some of the industries lightest blanks and swing weights in its class

•REC Titanium shape memory Cerecoil stripper guides with zirconia inserts, REC Titanium recoil guides

•A skeletonized aluminum reel seat, double uplocking rings with nylon bushings and burled blackwood inserts

•Moderate-fast action, multimodulus blanks constructed with G-Tec platelets over a glare-resistant platinum color with G-Armour coating

•AAAA flor-grade cork

•Section alignment dots featuring rod line weight

•Powder coated aluminum tube and plush moisture wicking rod sock

•Lifetime Warranty on all Douglas Fly Rods

Photo: Logan Summers

“The Douglas Sky G is astounding. I’ve been y shing for over 50 years and own more y rods than I care to admit. I’ve thrown just about every brand rod there is, but I’ve never used a rod that has the characteristics that this one has. I can carry a ridiculous amount of line in the air and reach long distances e ortlessly. It is a joy to sh.”

SKYG89049’0”#84B

SKYG 6904 $1450 $1450 $1450 $1450 $1499

Best 6 weight - Yellowstone Angler

and skate them before recasting somewhere slightly different.

Trip Preparation

Tassie is already an unpredictable place weather wise and adding Great Lakes elevation of 1034 meters above sea level at full supply it becomes even more random. Then add to that it being winter you will need to be properly prepared for any weather conditions that may arise. Make sure you have an accurate weather forecast for the day you’re planning to head out. I use the Bureau of Meteorology ( the BOM for short) other good apps are Willy Weather and Windy. You’ll also need appropriate clothing. Winter on Great Lake can get very cold. I like to wear a layering system in these cooler months. I’ll start with a base layer being a long sleeve thermal layer both on top and on the bottom. Make sure you have warm socks too. A good pair of Merino wool socks are a good option. The

next layer is your mid-layer. This is where I like to wear some trackies on the bottom and a puffer jacket on the top. The last layer is the outer shell to protect you from wind and rain. This is when I’ll hop into my waders and throw a rain jacket on over the top. Now you’re ready to head up the mountain. Make sure you know the rules and regulations on Great Lake this time of year as not the whole lake is open all year. Canal Bay is closed to protect the spawning fish that will be swimming up the Liawenee Canal. And all the creeks and rivers that flow into Great Lake are off-limits and also a 50-metre radius below where they run into the lake is also closed for the same reason. On a side note make sure you drive to the conditions. The roads can be icy at this time of year.

Siglon PE, is made from EX-PE fibres and offers a tightly woven braid that provides superior abrasion resistance, a very thin diameter and minimal stretch. Available in 8 carrier PE (PEx8) and 4 carrier PE (PEx4).

Sight fishing is an option when conditions allow

Nude Bombs

The first time the term “Nude Bomb” became apparent, was through Australian Cricket circles. It was a somewhat derogatory, tongue-in-cheek term, used to describe the great Mark Waugh’s off breaks. Mark remains one of the country’s most stylish and elegant right-hand batsmen with 20 centuries and 47 fifties and both a batting and bowling average on the high side of 41. Whilst probably not in the true all-rounder class, Mark took wickets with both medium pace and off-spin, but it was his spin, or perhaps the lack of turn he extracted, that coined that phrase. It was suggested his off breaks had “nothing on them” meaning the ball lacked meaningful revolutions in the air and pretty much went straight through with the arm. Probably all a bit harsh, but teammates do what teammates do.

When trying to find a name to describe unweighted, sink-rate fishing with plastic grubs and creature baits, we needed a term or name to reference this style of presentation. And one didn’t seem to exist. So, in regards to weight, the presentation “had nothing on it”. The more traditional standard jig head had been omitted in favour of a bare, unweighted worm hook. The term Nude Bomb was respectfully repurposed to describe this type of lure fishing.

It was the deployment of a naturally sinking (not a floating) soft plastic, which at the time [2017] seemed a long way removed from the mainstream technique of weighting plastics, which helped cast lures of lightweight a reasonable distance and also enabled them to sink toward, or onto the bottom. This descent was relatively fast, depending upon the weight of the head.

Technique Development

In previous editions, techniques like bent minnows on trout and slow sinking swim baits on bream were discussed and the development of nude plastics followed a similar vein in the sense they were both borne from observation and opportunity. Trying to make new lures or presentation styles work for the sake of making the claim isn’t time well spent. There are already a lot of great ways to catch fish like bream and forsaking time honoured techniques and the hard work done by others is best undertaken when those techniques fail and you’re out of options. If something different can work in that situation, and its brains fish in numbers, then the technique and its ideology are likely to stand the test of time. Furthermore, if the technique isn’t set to offer prospects into the future, its development probably isn’t worth the time or effort.

Scotto James

Black bream on Paddle Grub

From top: Prolure PaddleGrub, Prolure SK62, Keitech 3inch shinner and Gulp 6 inch Worm

The initial targets were aggregations of spawning bream. A lot of people have observed surface spawners and a lot have failed in their pursuit of them. That included me on a grand scale. These fish are notoriously tough to tempt and apart from small windows around dawn and dusk, bringing them undone with consistency during daylight hours when they can be easily observed had proven to be a bridge too far. And, that was okay back then. A relocation from QLD to Tasmania around 2010 was all about the trout, and bream were more of an occasional distraction when trout were slow or a change of scenery was warranted. But these fish can do your head in, and that’s exactly what happened. The frustration of seeing them in upstream locales over several years and not being able to catch them had led to some sole searching. Observing them while angling for them hadn’t transitioned into witnessing feeding behaviour. So many questions were posed to oneself. Did they feed during the spawn at all, or live off fat stores? Did they feed primarily at night? Did they feed in deeper water out of sight?

All of these questions came up blank when fishing at those times and areas so the decision was made to go and watch these fish without fishing tackle. Yep, go to the water, find some nice high ground with a great view of the resident bream and sit and watch. It is a harder decision than you might think when the fish are an hour and a half away, and time and money need to be committed without making a cast.

A Room with a View

The first journey to the area had eventuated, and a prime viewing area located in some gorge country on an intermittent system. This large, comfortable rock was to be the venue that designated many visits. After four or five trips to the location, an acquaintance of sorts had been made with some of the resident fish. The system didn’t have the spawning numbers of what would later be found in major systems, but modest numbers were to be seen, nonetheless. There was one particularly large fish witnessed on a few occasions. She appeared to be attended by about a dozen smaller, but significant fish (probably males). These fish spent time seemingly doing very little and extended periods facing in the same direction. This part of the puzzle would come together some years later. Time was also spent nipping at her tail and this behaviour may help explain why older and often larger bream have tatty and shortened caudal fins. They didn’t chase her because she wouldn’t run from them. This beast of a fish would not be intimidated.

At times they appeared to be no more than casual playmates or passive company, and on other occasions, perhaps a mild annoyance. At different times she would park up hard on the gorges cliff face, with rock behind her tail and her imposing menace quite possibly staring down the numerous potential suitors. It had been an education watching these fish and a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but no feeding behaviour had been observed. None! Thoughts around pulling the pin on the entire charade were entertained, but after

arriving home that evening, a commitment to one final excursion was decided upon.

On this occasion, the prime ground under the viewing platform wasn’t holding fish and they were located further up, and into the gorge. Another viewing area was found but this time it was more of an uncomfortable squat, well up a ledge, not the comfortable rock that had hosted past visits. The water was deeper. Time was again spent watching the fish in the hope of seeing signs of observable feeding behaviour. It seemed it wasn’t to be, but it was a lovely afternoon and to be fair my attention had drifted into a bit of a daydream. Peering into the water but without really watching anything in particular, my gaze was stolen by a large dark shape inching its way into the small school of fish from below their position. The bream didn’t spook. After about a minute it had risen another foot or so and was directly under the bream. The distinct stripes of a massive Luderic slowly become evident, which was no real shock. Polaroiding bream sees blackfish in attendance at irregular intervals.

As the big fish continued to rise in the column, the white on the inside of the bottom lip of its mouth was easily visible. It wasn’t unlike the white colouration inside the mouth of a trout. Its mouth could be seen opening and closing continually, as were its gills, which again was of no real consequence at the time. Luderic are regularly weed eaters and filter feeders. My gaze then averted to the mouths of the bream, which seemed to be doing the same thing and then the penny dropped. Were they filter-feeding too? Had I been looking at them feeding for numerous hours, embracing a number of trips, without ever noticing?

The next half hour was spent watching the bream intently. And learning new things for the first time. It won’t be the last time that fish, can leave a fisherman, feeling particularly inept.

This brown trout took a Nude Paddle Grub at Blackman’s lagoon

Chub are a very tough lure proposition, this one took a Nude Worm

Game Plan

If the fish were filter-feeding, then a conduit to permit this behaviour needed to be discovered. As someone that is somewhat obsessed with fish scents as an additional attractant to just about all lure presentations, Squidgy scent was chosen over a host of others to begin trialling with. Both its texture and the ability to dissolve relatively quickly put it on top of the shortlist, as did its well-earned reputation as a stand-out performer within the scent market. Oil-based scents that stick to plastics particularly well were found to be far less effective during the trial phase.

The next thing to decide about was the presentation or individual lure form to carry the scent. Back then, the use of tiny, slow-sinking swim-baits had been well proven, and they had accounted for fish throughout the pre-spawn and up until the fish were primarily situated on or near the surface. At this point, their action wouldn’t tempt the fish and theories was speculated around it being too aggressive. So while they weren’t catching these top water aggregations of fish, the small light offerings could regularly be introduced to fish without having them spook, providing a natural, unassisted drop was implemented. That alone was a big enough deal to take plenty of notice of.

Based on that, and thoughts around passive actions and slow sink rates it was decided to start with plastics with narrow body profiles. Profiles with limited actions. Curly tail grubs were ruled out early in this process. Without head weight, the tails fizz through the air like a propeller and slow up the lure in the air, which dramatically impacts casting distance. The sound is absolutely audible. Trial and error with the smallest heads possible began, but they sunk plastics through the water column too quickly. From there the search was on to find plastics that would sink by themselves. This turned into a somewhat frustrating endeavour as it was to become quite apparent that most plastics floated.

A lot of time, effort and money was spent until Prolure paddle grubs were found. These, like the many before them, were trialled at home with a worm hook inserted through them and dropped into a glass of water. After experiencing some initial joy in freshwater, salt was added to the glass until it tasted like seawater. Dropped back onto the glass, the plastic still sank and was nice and slow to boot. We had a starting point. Over the ensuing years, several other plastics have been added to form an arsenal of slow-sinking plastic presentations, but the paddle grubs were the beginning of a presentation style that would change the way I fish for bream, and several other species, including trout.

Very few things within angling literally change the way people fish in a profoundly different and positive manner. This should be the essence of the grossly overused phrase “game changer” but rarely is.

Presentation

Trials in earnest started in about 2017 and some fish were caught despite those results being modest. But modest was a significant improvement over bugger all. Then, as quickly as it had all begun, spawning behaviour

for that season finished and angling to these fish was forced to a halt. As someone with a pretty solid pedigree on the yellowfin bream front, which had its roots in Queensland on hard-bodied lures from the 1990s, a lot of black bream behaviour including spawning time frames and how bream interact within a given system over their biological year needed to be ascertained with far more precision. Blacks and yellows are certainly a chalk-and-cheese proposal at times and are probably better treated as completely different fish, rather than two animals within the same family.

In short, there was a hell of a lot to learn about catching spawners and their location within systems after spawning began. There were no rule books, and no literature we knew of to guide us. It was a learning process and those processes continue to this day.

One of the first important distinctions to make within presentation strategies is that the term sink rating refers to the speed the lure will sink, and not the literal way those lures catch fish. While the sink rate allows for the presentation, that’s a starting point at best and simply allowing these things to descend via their physical properties, ie. in a free fall, won’t account for a lot of fish.

It will definitely account for some, and that’s regularly in a limited time frame after the lure splashes down, however, other presentations can be taken by fish like that, so it is difficult to state with any certainty that this particular presentation entirely accounts for those fish. Rather than word-smithing anecdotal evidence to support these theories, it’s best to stick with the substantial realities that are further empowered by analytical observation. That means fishing these presentations in a results-type format, against timehonoured traditional techniques within the same session. Although much of that information had been gathered over the proceeding years, which allowed the development of these techniques, due diligence would not have been served if all available options were not pursued to rule out things like overtly aggressive or inconsistent fish behaviour, on any given day. Within the following season, most of this had been completed. We had a killer technique on our hands in a fishery that had frustrated lure fisho’s from about the time bream on lure became part of the accepted fishing landscape. It was pretty much virgin territory to our knowledge and was an absolute buzz to be a part of.

Regarding specific techniques on both ‘nudes’ and slow sinking stick baits (the advantage of which became apparent during this process), they fall in general terms, into four separate/defined methods. High sticking and ‘stepping’ the lure through the column toward the

bottom, Low sticking is the same method. Keeping the lure at a specified depth during the retrieve and ‘flick baiting’. High stick ‘stepping’ is made far easier on longer rods and appropriate tackle and this will be discussed shortly. After making the cast the rod tip is held high with small rod tip movements both halting the lure’s natural sink rate and orientating the lure, briefly, towards the surface. It is sinking but has the appearance of trying to struggle its way toward the surface. This works both in spawning periods, high in the column, and at other times of the year, but is at its best when fish are not exhibiting aggressive traits. It can be slowed up to painfully slow during the spawn. Low sicking is not dissimilar in technique, but rod orientation allows the lure to sink a little faster, which is still comparatively slow and encourages more horizontal movement during the retrieve. Speed continues to be very slow.

Keeping the lure in a specified zone can be done with both techniques and this can help mitigate wind or current issues. When fish are biting at very specific depths, high in the column, this can be manipulated to have the plastic moving even slower than the abovementioned methods.

The final technique of flick baiting with ‘nudes’ was developed as an offshoot of these techniques and is particularly effective when fish appear to shut down at other times of the year. In this situation, the lure is allowed to sink and rest on the bottom before being given a sharp flick. Fishing in a similar manner to this is no doubt already practised by many fisher folks, but the enormous advantage of employing it to unweighted plastic is how slowly it settles back to the bottom. Weighted plastics plummet to the bottom in comparison, whereas ‘nudes’ waft seductively back to

A typical East coast spawning small water

a point where they settle. This action brings undone nearly all resident estuarine species and can be an absolute killer. Nude, 6-inch Gulp Worms, are in a category of their own as a creature bait. They don’t cast particularly well, which is a common theme amongst many of these lure types, however, they are so good at producing strikes, we modified tackle specifically to help present them at a desirable distance.

In conjunction with good mate Daniel Davis, we committed two summers [2019/2020] to try to exploit what is perhaps the last sacred bastion of nearimpossible fish that had eluded us. Large rogue fish in summer during easterlies on crashing barometric pressure. These conditions aren’t as difficult in the colder waters dished up in other seasons, but are really tough in warm waters, and even more problematic in glass outs or the calm waters that regularly present themselves fishing lee shores with the wind behind the angler. Over this period we targeted those conditions on purpose. There are many hypotheses regarding the overwhelming successes achieved fishing both ‘blind’ to fish at depth and to tailing fish in super shallow water. There’s too much information to include and describe that in this article, but suffice it to say these things can be a phenomenon in warm water. ‘Nude’ techniques can be undertaken for the specific, observable, behavioural traits exhibited by the target species and/ or the exact conditions mother nature dishes up to us, on any given day.

Talking Lures

This description can be fairly short because trial and error has omitted a load of lures and left us with some absolute standouts. Regarding sinking plastics that sink via plastisol density and not wet scent impregnation, Prolure Paddle Grubs and Kietech 3-inch Shiners cover most scenarios and are a great starting point, as are the pin tail models from the same manufacturer. These offerings also allow for the addition of any chosen scents. Smell and taste appear to be a real and not imagined benefit where discerning fish are concerned. With scent-impregnated, wet plastics, offerings from Gulp which include their 6-inch worms are particularly effective in summer whilst they may be far less successful in very cold water. In short, many chemical-type reactions are aided by heat. It may well be the case that more scent dispersal takes place in these conditions. It’s also likely that conditional factors, controlled by any number of weather phenomena, change what tastes and smells become more or less attractive to bream and other species throughout the year.

Talking small stick baits, Prolures SK62s regularly produce the goods. There have been several other slowsinking stick baits available in the past that tick all the boxes, but the availability of the Prolure product and the fact they cast a mile and work well means they too are a great starting point. Trials with some new sticks with different actions will commence this year. Regarding colour, colour is a big, big deal to spawning fish, in particular, there is some trial and error needed on behalf of the angler. It is worth mentioning that

the attrition rates of these offerings are regularly very high. One packet of plastics can last 20 minutes with toads or jackets on the chew. Be prepared and take what’s necessary. Running out on the water, amid a great session would be devastating. We’ve even enjoyed some success on things like ‘tailing’ chub. If there’s a tougher target than those, it’s difficult to assert what that would be.

Gearing Up

Forefront in our minds regarding tackle selection should be that nude grubs, in particular, are very light. Skinny diameter braids from pe 0.3 to 0.5 are suitable and effective. As an example of diameter, pe 0.3 is approximately a quarter of the thickness of quality 3lb fluorocarbon. The scope of these types of advantages is mind-blowing.

With casting being such an important component to fishing ‘nudes’ effectively, long rods in the 2- 4kg range have proven to be very effective tools. Messiah Customs 9’,6” in that power rating has seen the development of many of these techniques and the extra length helps considerably with the line angles necessary to help control and maintain lures in specific areas within the water column. At the time of writing, Andrew Death just won the Hobie Bream round at Bemm River using a Messiah 9’.6” @ 2-4 kg. The long, light, lure rod genre is now penetrating the extremely competitive mainstream, rod length market. These rods are the real deal, and regarding distance casting, they remain unparalleled.

Spin reels in the 2000/2500 size range are effective

and balance out most combos nicely. Great drags are more important than bearing counts or overall reel costs when it comes to maximising pressures on the particular leader or mainline strengths. Landing large bream regularly means pushing tackle into red line zones (regarding failure) if necessary. Trusted, consistent drag systems are crucial.

Conclusion

Far from a flash in the pan, these techniques have been six or more years in the making (for us) and the learning process is ongoing. Another of the many benefits is the multi-faceted applications of the technique. From making the lures look like a struggling prey item to the extremely passive deployment of the lures to carry scent, imitate nothing in particular, and simply deliver a scent stream to what are most likely filter feeders. In more recent times, mussel and other shellfish profiles have exploded onto the bream scene and while they can sink faster in general terms, they still fall into the category of general sink rate fishing applications. Moving forward and toward 2030, it would be difficult to imagine any other bream or light line, lure technique, gaining more popularity. This form of fishing is fun, and demanding but rewarding to learn, and produces fish that have traditionally been very difficult to tempt using other methods.

To quote the great Molly Meldrom, “Do yourself a favour”, and consider the benefits of these insanely effective techniques.

The author with a fine black bream on Nude Paddle Grub

Social Media

What should you post

Richard Sherriff

Afew years ago some of the now popular recreational targeted species such as kingfish, snapper and whiting were the best-kept secrets of a few recreational fishers who enjoyed catching them at locations that were understandable only known to them.

I can remember back in the early 1980’s the late Bob Gladow and Joe Sankey catching yellowtail kingfish at the Low Head trolling around the last red seaward channel marker and between there and Hebe Reef trolling fresh garfish on ganged hooks.

Bob used to catch garfish the night before and said this was the magic bait for the speciestrolled around the beacon the opening weekend of the deer season.

Joe showed me pictures of 30 and 40-lb kingfish which reached from the ground up to

his waist. On one trip and using his favoured 100lb corded line on a game fishing rod and reel he was spooled, nearly pulled out of the boat and the seat on the reel bent out of shape as the line ran out. They kept this a close secret only exposing it (to the best of my knowledge) to my friend Tony McGuire and myself and we were sworn to secrecy. No doubt others anglers may have been targeting these fish in secret and others were getting spooled while fishing for salmon not knowing a kingfish was the culprit. Tony and I caught a few there and also around Waterhouse Island, they were great fun to catch, extremely good fighters and rat cunning, at times as they would hit the lures and then the school would disappear in a flash. In NSW they call these fish thugs they fight so hard. This secrecy all changed with the advent of social media and the posting of pictures of anglers’ success and locations being posted along with the species becoming more prolific in our waters.

Facebook and Instagram are media where daily we can get our fishing news, whereas in the past we relied on a weekly article in the local press with the writer relying on getting snippets from angler feedback. Publishing and posting fishing pictures on social media pages and managed sites gives anglers a great opportunity to share their successes with others and let’s face it the excitement of catching a good fish never wanes regardless of age or experience.

When posting pictures it’s important to remember that the audience that sees it is varied and consideration needs to be given to the presentation to not offend.

Always ensure before snapping your catch it is still fresh looking and is held or positioned in a manner that compliments it in the picture. Thrown on the deck of a boat or ramp in a pool of blood is not a good look. The fish is the hero and will be what attracts the reader’s attention.

Some don’t want to give the location away and ensure the background is blurred - or excluded.

Beautiful snapper from Bridport

Gummy shark from the Bass Strait

David Sherriff with an east coast tuna

Todd Lambert and a salmon caught at Low Head

Matt Sherriff holds a Bass Strait caught gummy shark

The size of the pictured fish does not matter but the freshness does, presentation and colour exposure are important. Best pick one or two of your best fish and where a bag limit is five and you show fifteen always indicate it’s a shared catch. Reader will comment if it appears someone is exceeding the bag limit and/or is being greedy.

Calamari makes for a good picture while alive, they are such interesting creatures. However, posting pictures of dead colourless squid does not inspire. Neither does picturing a large catch of freshwater trout laid out with broken necks. Trout being held correctly, pictured when freshly caught and glistening with water makes a great picture to publish, the same goes for any species, get rid of the blood and guts and present it in a manner that promotes our recreational fishing sport to all. Whilst no expert, I have included a few pictures as examples of good photo presentations.

NEW - Pisces Turbo Fly Rods

9’ 5wt, 9’ 6wt, 10’ 6wt $395 or full outfit $550

This is one the best value priced fly rod ranges on the market. Moderate to faster action rod they are perfect for for river, shore and the 10’ rod is perfect for boat based loch style fishing with floating or sinking lines. Finished in matt black finish to reduce ‘line flash’. All rods have full wells grips, are 4 piece and come in a cordura tube for protection. Spare parts are available immediately.

9’ #5wt - $395 - or with alloy reel, backing, WF line with loops, and leader $550.

9’ #6wt - $395 - or with alloy reel, backing, WF line with loops, and leader $550.

10’ #6wt (includes fighting butt)- $395 or with alloy reel, backing, WF line with loops and leader $550.

Express Shipping is FREE Australia wide. Buy instore, phone to order 03 63318944 or online at: www.essentialflyfisher.com.au

RAPTOR - PREMIUM SQUID JIGS – Manufactured exclusively for Sherriff Fishing & Outdoor

#3.5

Ozzie #3.5 Pacific #3.5

Postman #3.5 Sunset #3.5

Ocean’s Legacy Hybrid

Slow Pitch Jigs, Slingshot Casting Irons, Keeling Stickbaits and specialised Rods

Rob Bucknel and a big squid from Two Mile Reef at Low Head

RECREATIONAL SEA FISHERIES NEWS

Scalefish rule changes open for public consultation

As a community, it’s our responsibility to take care of these fish species, not only for ourselves but also for the fishers of the future.

So, the Government is proposing a range of rule changes which are now open for public consultation so anyone in the community can provide feedback.

What changes are being proposed?

There are a range of changes proposed for both recreational and commercial fishers as part of the Scalefish Rule Review, including:

• Fish size and catch limits for depleted and depleting species;

• Regional management for some depleted and depleting species;

• Two new limited commercial calamari licence types;

• Recreational gillnetting arrangements; and

• Registration of charter fishing operations and reporting requirements.

The proposed rules have been developed based on scientific advice from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS).

You can learn more about the other proposed changes, and why they are being proposed at:

fishing.tas.gov.au/scalefish-review

Any recreational rule changes would not come into effect until 1 November 2023.

Scalefish Fishery Rules Review

Wild Fisheries Management Branch

NRE Tas

GPO Box 44

HOBART TAS 7001

There will also be public information sessions held throughout the state if you would like to talk to fisheries managers and scientists about the proposed changes before you make your submission.

You can also catch up with us at the Fishing Hub at Agfest.

Immediate interim protections for sand flathead

Sand flathead are the foundation of recreational fishing in Tasmania, accounting for 70% of recreational catch each year.

In consideration of this, and the depleted status of sand flathead, the Government is implementing immediate interim measures for sand flathead to provide protection for this iconic species until more comprehensive measures can be put in place, following public consultation on the Scalefish Rules Review.

The minimum size limit of sand flathead has been increased from 32 to 35 centimetres for both recreational and commercial fishers, and a new statewide bag limit of 10 sand flathead for recreational fishers has been implemented.

Commercial fishers will also not be allowed to take sand flathead from Frederick Henry and Norfolk Bays.

Every 5-10 years, the Government reviews the rules (like size limits and bag limits) for our scalefish fishery, so we can make changes to make sure that our fisheries stay healthy and sustainable for many more years.

Species Stock Status

Sand flathead

Calamari

Striped trumpeter

Bastard trumpeter

Southern garfish

Blue warehou

Jackass morwong

Depleted

Depleting

It’s now time for a review of the rules again, and we know from the annual Scalefish Fisheries Assessment from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) that we need to make some changes.

Seven of our scalefish species, including some favourites, are either depleting or depleted, which means that they are being overfished, and current rules and management are not enough for them to recover in the future.

How can I have my say?

Public consultation is open until midnight 29 May. Anyone in the community is invited to have their say on the proposed changes, by: Filling out the online form at: fishing.tas.gov.au/ scalefish-review

Emailing a written submission to scalefish.review@ nre.tas.gov.au

These interim measures will remain in place until the new scalefish fishery rules come into effect for recreational fishers on 1 November 2023. More information is available at: fishing.tas.gov.au/flatheadfor-the-future.

CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY. CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY. BOATWISE? BOATWISE?

ARE YOU DODGY BOATWISE? ARE YOU DODGY BOATWISE?

CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY. CHECK BEFORE YOU BUY.