7 September 2009

Illegal fishing in the ACT!

| johnboy
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The ABC reports that we have an illegal fishing problem in the ACT, and that rangers are heading out to try and do something about it.

Apparently the problem is people leaving set lines out, which is illegal here (this was news to me) and also the use of yabby traps.

    “The penalties are quite significant under the fishing act, and they can be anything up to $5,000, so we do take such matters very seriously,” he said.

    “It’s all designed to maintain recreational fishing as a past time for all Canberrans to enjoy.”

So now we know.

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rbw said :

KB1971 said :

Set lines are cruel, the fish die a slow death. People sometimes leave them out for days at a time.

sorry to wear my veg-o cap, but any type of fishing is cruel. imagine the pain of being hooked through the mouth and then dragged against the weight of your body weight for someone to stick a knife in your throat while suffocating to death and in total fear.

If someone did that to a human being they would be called a pyschopath – but for humans its nothing more than a recreational sport.

Saying that a set line is somehow less humane than the above supposedly “humane” fast and acceptable death shows how ridiculous our species really is.

*end rant*

I’m far from a vego, but I totally agree. Shooting ‘Roos gets condemned, even if it is a bullet straight to the head, then little kids get taught how to drag poor fish by the lips out of the water.

THEN, when the single redeaming feature of inland fishing is that feral species are being remover from lakes and rivers, that redeaming feature is total negated by deliberately releasing more “non-local” (feral) fish so that “anglers” (fish murdering phycopaths) can continue to partake in their sport. Imagine if fox hunters were releasing foxes to keep stocks up?

wildturkeycanoe6:57 am 26 Dec 11

Where were all you concerned platypus lovers when they tore all the nesting grounds apart at the upper reaches of LBG? I refer to the “cleansing” of the area by ridding the banks of the trees, which provided some cover/shelter from mankind and predators.
As for the fishing, there are no fish in the A.C.T., none that I’ve been able to catch on worms, corn, yabbies or powerbait. Maybe they’ve evolved into a KFC eating mutant species…
Please take me to Lake Eucumbene!

Fishing is only fun when it involves dynamite.

What about those fishermen who go fishing in blatant blue green algae areas? Next time we’ll take your library card!

KB1971 said :

Set lines are cruel, the fish die a slow death. People sometimes leave them out for days at a time.

sorry to wear my veg-o cap, but any type of fishing is cruel. imagine the pain of being hooked through the mouth and then dragged against the weight of your body weight for someone to stick a knife in your throat while suffocating to death and in total fear.

If someone did that to a human being they would be called a pyschopath – but for humans its nothing more than a recreational sport.

Saying that a set line is somehow less humane than the above supposedly “humane” fast and acceptable death shows how ridiculous our species really is.

*end rant*

phantomfisher8:53 pm 25 Dec 11

i have noticed that people are still ignoring the rules and despite numerous reports nothing serious has been done

phantomfisher8:49 pm 25 Dec 11

well i didnt see any differance since this report was filed, im still destroying set lines each time i come across them, people are still sitting down on the rivers/lakes with a shedload of rods, as usual they havent done much about this problem

Yabby nets are fine in farm dams but totally illegal in our rivers. If you look closely you will find platypus in most of our rivers. They don’t mix. Traps and platypus no-no.. Is that hard to see. Good time of year for trapping in dams. Get in quick before the birds get them all.

I agree about the bins. The ones that are there are now all overflowing after the weekend. There is rubbish in most of the car parks on the ground. In one car park builders rubbish has been left for months. Its been used to make a fire place in the car park. Someone has dumped a mattress in the water. Its been there for a month. So much for keeping clean.

The last fisherman I talked to told me that there are less carp in the lake. He seemed to think its because of Asian fisherman valuing them as a good feed. If you don’t wont to go to the trouble of flushing them you could always bury them in the veggie patch a couple of feet down.

The other thing I have often wondered is why there is not a commercial fisherman on the lake. If its as full of carp as some may think then it should be a great resource for fish protein. Fish food is in great demand from fish farmers. It would help reduce wild catch fish food from our oceans. Maybe there is a problem with pollution for this idea.

I don’t see why yabby traps are illegal, as the first comment stated. Sitting there with meat on a line just isn’t the way to go.

It’s all about quantity and being sensible, the same as with fish.

if we all want rid of the carp from the lake,What are we supposed to catch them with..sure you can sit there with your “2 attended rods” but a heap of set lines is still the way to go.as to the problem of them being left on the bank to rot,MAYBE the ACT government might just put a bit of money into the fishing community and put Dump Bins at various places aroung the lakes,perhaps thy could use all the ones they took away from the cotter!!there is NO infrastructure for us fishos,is it because were not all subaru driving public servants with sail boats,or poor little rich kids in the Rowing club…

id like to see a few fish bins around the place for the non natives

busgirl said :

Yes agree also. Well said Fisho.

X 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

gah, all this talk about fishing just makes me want to get out there and go fishing, haven’t been in so long…

Yes agree also. Well said Fisho.

Ignorance and stupidity like this really pisses myself and other fishermen off.

1. Carp are here because you are here. The way we have completely destroyed our waterways with flow barriers, pollution and excessive extraction has created an environment where carp thrive and natives die. Carp are a symptom. You are the cause.
2. Fish that are more damaging than carp are spotty carp (trout), redfin, and mosquito fish. There was even some softc*ck in the canberra times feedback today stating we can re-stock perch (regarding the Cotter Dam expansion). Silver and goldens yes, although the silvers will just die if redfin are present or there is too much sediment in the water. Macca’s no. Macca’s have never been successfully bred in captivity, you cannot just ‘restock’ them, and the EHN virus carried by introduced redfin perch is fatal to silver and macquarie perch. And what about the bluenose?
3. Any lake fish is pissweak compared to a river fish. Any canberra fish is pissweak compared to its NSW wild counterpart.
4. Wishing a ‘slow death’ any any living creature means you need counseling. Seek professional help ASAP. I have no problems with killing animals quickly. I gain no enjoyment from killing animals. I kill animals as it means I can then eat them. A slow death also destroys the taste and texture.
5. Feeding anyone a fish caught in an ACT lake should be considered Münchhausen’s by proxy. If you won’t drink the water, don’t eat anything that came out of it.
6. Certain yabbie nets are legal. Others drown platypus and turtles. If you can’t be bothered checking out what is legal and what is not, don’t go fishing. 45 seconds on TAMS will find you the answers.
7. Set lines are illegal. There is no reason to use a set line. I’ve destroyed a few setlines, if anyone using a setline is caught by an angler your survival chances are slightly less than 0%.
8. The most predominant abusers of fishing laws I’ve encountered are born and bred australians. Basically they chuck 20 lines in, kill anything and everything then turn around and whinge about how the fishing is stuffed. While I’ve seen a few ‘me no understand’ types about, they generally only catch redfin.
9. Opera house nets or any trap that a platypus cannot swim out of are illegal.
10. If you brought it in, you can take it out. There is no excuse, under any situation, for any reason whatsoever to leave litter and filth around our waterways.

Basically if the ACT government is going to start enforcing the laws we already have that can only be a good thing. About time.

They should also bring their waterways classifications up to spec and at least the match the minumum size limit for Murray Cod with that of NSW. Or better, introduce a slot limit so it is illegal to kill the big breeders.

If you’ve ever tried to report illegal fishing activities in the ACT before you’d be breathing a sigh of relief that it appears they are finally taking the problem seriously.

Anyone who breaches a fishing law should not be fined. They should be issued a trespass notice banning them from coming within 500m of any waterway.

la mente torbida3:30 pm 07 Sep 09

@pterh

agree totally about the dead carp left lying on the shore. Some mornings I have encountered up to 20 large carp left lying around Yarralumla Bay whilst walking my dogs.

Credit to the ACT govt employees (I assume) that clean them up on a regular basis.

Mr Evil said :

Which of the two likely candidiates will it be: the “Me no Australian – me no understand your law”, or the “I’m an Ozzie – your law sucks, and I’ll do what the f*%k I like”?

most likely candidate A, but they will certainly understand a fine if they are caught…

the use of set lines – as in the ones left for days at a time wasn’t what i thought a set line was. I have fished where I have put a line in and come back later in the day to check it, whilst fishing a bit further down the bank, usually to find a large carp at the end, which I have dispatched quickly, before disposing of the carcass. I would never think of leaving the line in for several days.

one pet peeve I have about fishing on our lakes is the number of people who catch carp, kill it, then put the body on the cycle path, in a tree, or leave it on the grass. They really don’t smell very good after a while… much simpler to kill, bag and bin it.

All other considerations aside I prefer catching Carp to some of our natives that come in like a big dustbin lid. A Carp will give a fair old fight so in in sporting terms alone it’s worth fishing for.

barking toad said :

Carp deserve a slow death

Maybe they do but its not their fault that they are here, no sense in being cruel to them.

barking toad1:48 pm 07 Sep 09

Carp deserve a slow death

Which of the two likely candidiates will it be: the “Me no Australian – me no understand your law”, or the “I’m an Ozzie – your law sucks, and I’ll do what the f*%k I like”?

Opera house yabby nets (that can be bought at Rays or BCF for about 10 bucks each) should be banned. The flat ones are the way to go. I understand the opera house ones are banned in some states and not others – but they clearly are a danger to platypus so they should be banned everywhere.

Set lines are a disgrace and anyone who uses them should be fined and fined heavily. Not only can the fish die a slow death, swans ducks etc get tangled up in the lines and can be killed in the process.

The yabbie trap that collapses flat is OK, its the ones that the yabbies can crawl inside but cant get out that are the problem.

Set lines are cruel, the fish die a slow death. People sometimes leave them out for days at a time.

How are we supposed to catch yabbies, if not with a trap?? buggered if i am going to spend most of the day trying to entice the bugger into a hand net with a piece of old meat and a string…

what are the set lines being used to catch? I would have thought if they are being used to rid us of excess carp, it would be a godsend.

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