Fishing Victoria Forum

I ventured out onto the bay on Sunday, looking for pinkies on plastics.
3inch paddle tails and turtleback worms with a 1/8th Jighead worked a treat.

Caught heaps of fish . Just on legal. 28-29cm.
The best out of maybe 40+ fish was around 41cms, the next best a 32cm.

My mate and I technically could have called this a bag out.
Sort of felt wrong and we kept only a couple.

Should we be raising the size limit? A 28cm pinkie is all head and tail



I cooked up the 32 and made a nice dinner
I dropped down to my 1-3 kilo outfit and was sporting, sort off.

Cheers

I would support 35cm minimum which is my self imposed limit

Yeah there isn't much meat on a 28cm pinkie. I'd say the ideal pan size is at least 32-35cm.

I heard from a mate in South Australia before they banned snapper fishing completely that thier snapper min legal size was upwards of 50cm. Imagine how good the average size would be if we had that here

Yea 28 is small. Most of the time I get a 28 I let them go.
Usually only keep 30 and above. Best size being 35-45
At least you got a couple of nice ones Smokin!
Well done.
Cheers

I recently emailed fisheries about size limits a question I forgot to ask at the seminar at St leonards. I don't take whiting , flathead or pinkies unless they are over 30 cm. Their response was all about stock.

Their reply

All our research is showing that our stocks for key recreational species including those you have concern for above, are in great shape. You might recall Monique when she spoke showing graphs which displayed the result of recruitment surveys of both King George Whiting and Snapper in Port Phillip Bay – basically these surveys tell us how successful spawning has been in a given year by how many juveniles are located when the survey is conducted. These surveys showed good numbers of juveniles in the most recent surveys meaning this will correspond directly to good numbers of adult fish in the fishery in the coming years. This therefore accurately confirms our fish stocks are in good shape and that current management measures (size and catch limits) are appropriate and working effectively and that changes in these measures are not required.



I do however think your conservative approach to measuring fish is excellent and would encourage you to continue your practice!

So it's up to the fishermen / or women to limit ourselves

No as the release survival rate is low due to barotrauma. Best to keep some to eat then move on rather than continue to catch and release.

frozenpod wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 27, 2022 1:12 pm

No as the release survival rate is low due to barotrauma. Best to keep some to eat then move on rather than continue to catch and release.

huh? i was fishing in 4-5m, there isnt much BT there.

Side note, what depth does BT start????

35-50cm fish are the best to eat imo.

In saying that, I will keep 30cm onwards. Everything is too expensive these days, so take what I can get while having some fun.

I would be happy if they increased the size to 35cm instead of 28

smokin_reels wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:29 pm

frozenpod wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 27, 2022 1:12 pm

No as the release survival rate is low due to barotrauma. Best to keep some to eat then move on rather than continue to catch and release.

huh? i was fishing in 4-5m, there isnt much BT there.

Side note, what depth does BT start????

About 6m in which case you were fine. By the time you get to 20m the chane of survival without release weights etc is very low.