Ethical fishing?

[DougieK]

Personally i'm never going to keep a bag of fish. I will kill exactly what i'm going to use that day. I'm disinterested in freezing fish and not that interested in eating them. Once in a while i'll use Salmon as fresh bait or slimy macks or mullet as live baits but that's an exceptional day.

I'm not interested in killing anything that's not either trying to kill me, or i'm going to use in the next 24 hours.

I see reports of guys keeping 93 undersized bream or whatever and wonder what the F#%$ they are going to do with 93 tiny fish?


Chris if you want to see the scope of what land based amateur anglers can do to a place, check out TNA. We are fortunate because it's full of carp and not an actually desirable fish because even just with the reports on this forum, amateurs wanting to catch a fish have SMASHED that place over the past 4 months. You cannot take the 200+ fish out of a lake and expect it to have no effect. Now everyone on here is pretty decent with following bag and size limits, but imagine if that was a Cod hole, and you had people smashing it and keeping whatever they happened to come up with. There are 3.5 MILLION recreational anglers in Australia (ABS statistic, I didn't just make it up) and that many people can destroy just about anything if not carefully managed.

The DEPI fisheries department is in my opinion, one of the government organisations that is doing a fantastic job.

Max size limits do exist in many situations in Victoria, including trout, mulloway, dusky flathead, and murray cod. In a situation like trout I would never kill a breeding female even though i'm legally allowed to keep two fish over 35cm.

Fishing to me is about a combination of things. The research, the tactics, the preparation, the drive to the spot, the walk to the actual spot, the rigs, the casting technique, hooking a fish then finally landing it is an overall experience. The killing and eating is a tiny tiny part of that experience which barely adds to the whole thing, and i'll only ever kill something when it's absolutely necessary.


PS, for an awesome hunting show where the guy talks aboout this a lot and there is no bull sales of whatever sponsors gear he has that week, check out Steve Rinella "meateater".

[sloth]

To me this sounds like ethics vs morals. Ethically I wouldn't have a problem keeping a bag limit. Morally I'd keep only what I need.

In practice I'm 100% catch and release. This in itself raises a moral question. Is it right to hunt/fish purely for my own pleasure without killing the animal? I assume the catch and release process must have some negative impact on the fish - although not lethal.

[Lecterfan]

Hey guys, this is all brilliant stuff.

I wanted to say as a quick side note that in my job I talk about ethics (and depending on the literature and which paradigm you want to engage with ethics and morals can be considered synonymous or interlinked, or separate as Sloth has pointed out) in the same way a metallurgist talks about alloys and minerals, or that a physicist talks about dark matter; it is one of interest, not one of 'taking the high moral ground' so to speak.

So yea, I just wanted to emphasise that I'm not trying to position myself as 'more' or 'less' ethical, just interested in the fact that we all have our own personal codes when we go fishing, and sometimes it can be fun to talk about those codes while being respectful and courteous to others.

Thanks guys - I continue to be really impressed by the quality of this forum!

[ducky]

In practice I'm 100% catch and release. This in itself raises a moral question. Is it right to hunt/fish purely for my own pleasure without killing the animal? I assume the catch and release process must have some negative impact on the fish - although not lethal.

Careless anglers will kill fish despite releasing them. Yesterday I was surface fishing for perch. I landed a couple (I also donutted the dawn session this morning) the second one I caught took the lure down so deep it had both trebles lodged both in its tongue and a bit deeper in its throat. Whilst the fish swam away I have no doubt it was in slightly worse condition then before I hooked it. I wasn't ready with my long nose pliers and I had to sit the fish in the net whilst I stuffed around getting them out. I now have medical forceps on the to buy list and next time I'm yakking I'll have them on a lanyard around my neck. I don't see the point in fishing catch and release if you are going to harm the fish in the process.

By the by. Perching is awesome fun.

[DougieK]

From time to time you're going to hook something through the face or gills and kill it. There isn't really anything you can do about that, at least you know it'll end up being fishfood and stay in the foodchain, unlike removing 100 undersized pinkies or some other rubbish like that.

[FishnMiss]

I now have medical forceps on the to buy list and next time I'm yakking I'll have them on a lanyard around my neck. I don't see the point in fishing catch and release if you are going to harm the fish in the process.


Hey Ducky & Dougie,
I agree sometimes we do hook fish that the hook goes in too deep etc.
A week ago I had a Toadie swallow the hook so deep I ended up cutting the line off & chucking it back (after much stuffing about)- I'm not sure how well it went after that (I know most people don't have much regard for them, but it's still a living creature & it's not evil just cause we can't eat em).
Anyways I felt rotten afterwards

[Tomcat1]

i do catch and release from time to time, but i usually fish for a feed of fresh fish. if i do catch my bag limit then i usually invite the family or friends over for a fish dinner. i do also keep plenty of salmon and garfish for bait when i catch them. but i also throw back a lot of salmon. i always let other know if they are breaking depi laws. and if they persist i call depi to let them know. i believe the bag limits are there for good reason. the thing that makes me madder than anything in the world is idiot leaving trash all over our fishing areas. i always take extra bag to pick up other peoples rubbish, and i often ask them when i see them leaving their rubbish if they think its a good idea to leave litter all over the place. this usually gets them to pick up their rubbish.only once did a person get mad when i mentioned that they should pick it up. the guy started yelling like a idiot asking what business it was of mine if he left it. this drew too much attention to him and when he saw others walking towards us he just picked up the rubbish and left lol. in the usa i saw lots of great fishing spots get closed to the public because of idiots leaving litter. i would hate to see the same thing happen here.

[rafei1]

I believe as long you stick to the limit, there shouldn't be an issue in keeping the bag size limit to eat urself or use as bait as long its legal size. But the biggest issues we have are greedy people taking over the bag limit or just undersized which they have been catching and unfortunately its too late by the time they get caught since all the fish are probably dead. I normally would tell people if I see them keeping undersized fish to make sure they are aware of the rules, and see them return the fishes. Most legal sized fishes I do keep since I always returned undersized fish which I catch much more of all the time. If I end up catching one legal sized fish id be happy.
In terms of garbage lots around everywhere especially on mordi pier, people drinking and leaving their bottles cans and lines, bags of chips, perhaps the council should put a bin somewhere on the pier so people wouldnt be too lazy to throw it into the bin. If the council is too lazy to send someone to empty the bins then they should pass by just to see the trash left on the pier, maybe they will see the big picture. I normally put my trash in the esky to keep it from flying away especially during a windy day.
I would prefer stay legal all year long with much more inspections but flexible to within 1cm in terms of size because measurements might differ from one person to another.

[Plas-Flicker]

My last few sessions have been completely environmentally friendly and 100% no catch ha ha.
But seriously when I do get onto some fish I have no issue taking one or two home for the table as fresh is best, but am a firm catch and release, take only what you need and leave only footprints supporter.

[longbob]

legal limit? do people actually reach legal limits? lucky sods