blowies
I hate blowies but are they really a feral species as some one has said like carp , I can remember back in 1970,71 and 72 the whole of the swan and coast was infested with them I personally believe that is about when the swan river prawns disappeared ( you did a drag and all you got was bowies and jelly fish) , I vaguely remember an article in the west Australian written by a marine biologist at the time saying that the blowies were developing a deformed tail, I remember going for a dive on the south mole around the same time with my uncle when we jumped in all we could see was millions and millions of blowies heading out to sea and the next thing the swan river and coast was prity close free of blowies for decades I know people wont believe me but it is a true story
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
Interesting. That goes
Interesting. That goes against everything I've heard & read about fishing in Perth back in the late 60's & through the 70's. Everything I've read & everyone I've spoken to that used to fish the area back then has said that blowies were fairly rare & using bait in the river during the day wasn't a problem. Either way they are a problem these days & they are only getting worse. I don't know what the solution is but I hope we can figure something out to start cuttting thier numbers down.
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
clogwog
Posts: 265
Date Joined: 01/02/11
I reckon blowies are a pain
I reckon blowies are a pain in the arse, The swans bad but I reckon Mandurah is even worse. If there is a proven problem with numbers I reckon we should pay kids 10 cents for every blowie they catch and take to a drop of centre (tackle store or similar). Would get kids off their arse and into some outdoor activity rather then sitting in front of the idiot box.
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
10c per blowie? I reckon 250
10c per blowie? I reckon 250 blowies a day wouldn't be too hard, that's $25 per day per child. That'd be a few thousand dollars each week going out to kids. Pretty expensive way to solve the problem. I think it would be more effective (& cost effective) to educate people how to dispatch them humanely & then to dispose of them properly if they are in a location where they can do so. It's a bit hard if your wading the flats like I usually am but for people that keep thier feet dry it shouldn't be a problem.
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
petermac
Posts: 2946
Date Joined: 03/03/10
cityficker
in those days mate the blowies were in plague proportions but only lasted a few years , I youst to fish robbs jetty, palm beach jetty, point Walter, deep reach,the moles and freo fishing boat harbour oh and also me and my mate yoused to crawl out under the freo rail train bridge drop our lines down and catch huge tailor there (attracted because of the light there) basically I fished where ever mum droped me of at 5pm and picked me up at 12 and I aways had fish for breeky nothing beats pan fried fresh herring for brecky
clogwog
Posts: 265
Date Joined: 01/02/11
Mate set a Quotta and once
Mate set a Quotta and once its met no more cash on offer!!! Simple and quick way to solve a problem
with the added benefit of kids getting into something fun!!!!! How much money do you reckon they take from
the fishing community for licences, I'm sure there would be enough money to pay for it. I'm not saying to clear
every blowie out of the sytem either, just create a balanced eco system.
dkonig82
Posts: 2091
Date Joined: 06/07/10
Alternatively just make it
Alternatively just make it the same rule as per Redfin Perch (illegal to return one to the water once you've caught it).
When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:
n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or
n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you.
petermac
Posts: 2946
Date Joined: 03/03/10
cityflicker
not sure where you are getting you info about bowies back in those days but as a Freo boy living 5 minutes walk from fishing boat harbour (and in those days you could get good fish and crabs in there) all I ever did as a young bloke was go fishing and I promise you the blowies where there in plague proportions
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
Few old boys (well into thier
Few old boys (well into thier 70's) that I fish with & that have fished Perth most of thier lives as well as a few old mags & articles I've come across. I guess it's queit possible for different people to have very different experiences. There's always the natural boom & bust that any species seems to have as well. In any case I agree something needs to be worked out on how to control their numbers now. In this day & age it shouldn't be viewed as impossible like Fisheries seems to want us to believe.
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
uncle
Posts: 9474
Date Joined: 10/02/07
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
Auslobster
Posts: 1901
Date Joined: 03/05/08
Typical...
...want to beat blowies? Stop using bait. I've lost track of the times where I've been going well with the lures in the Mandurah Estuary system, only to have someone rock up with their prawns/mulies/squid/berley and bring in every blowie within a 2 kilometre radius. But no, the general view on here is to kill as many as possible...much easier than using a bit of "thinking outside the box" and changing one's fishing style.
The word from Fisheries is that when blowies start being taken out of the system, they ramp up their breeding efforts to make up for the lost numbers. Killing as many as possible will have virtually no effect on their overall population. Make your offering less attractive to them and they'll become less of a problem. But if the people next to you are throwing all manner of smelly crap into the water, you'll just get dragged down into the shit with everybody else. "Oh, but it's the way my dad/mum/grandfather/bookie/drug dealer taught me to fish"....yeah, but when they were doing it, the blowies weren't so bad.
Change with the times or get left behind.
'
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
Turn it up mate. 90% of my
Turn it up mate. 90% of my fishing in the Swan is with lures & I get just as many blowies as the bait crew. Don't try telling me it's all because of bait when I'm always hooking two at a time on hardbodies.
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
Auslobster
Posts: 1901
Date Joined: 03/05/08
You're still missing the point...
...just you or me can't change things. There has to be a widespread movement away from the use of bait/berley in sheltered systems like the river/estuary/marinas. Yes, the blowies will go any sort of bait or lure but their numbers flourish because of all the free meals handed to them over the years by the bait and berley brigade.
Fishos whinge about the blowies but they have to stop and look at themselves and maybe stop and think about why there are so many in the first place...
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
In your first post you
In your first post you referenced that you can go fish with lures & not have a problem with blowies until the baitos show up. So from that I have taken that you are refering to an immediate effect, maybe I misinterpreted it but I don't think so.
Looking at it from your clarified perspective I still don't agree. If you think the few thousand tons of bait thrown in the river each year even comes close to comparing to the hundreds of thousands of tons of naturally occuring food you might like to think again. In other words, I highly doubt the bait that fisherfolk put in each year makes the slightest bit of difference to numbers. But no worries mate, I'll just go tell my kids that they can't go fishing until they are old enough to cast lures for themselves because you reckon bait is evil. I'd rather have the blowies & my kids out fishing than no blowies & my kids sitting at home. Like I said, I don't know what the answer to the problem is but I'm certain that your theory that we should all stop using bait is definitely not it.
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
Versus
Posts: 918
Date Joined: 06/03/09
They still eat my placcies :(
They still eat my placcies :(
Mattb123
Posts: 126
Date Joined: 09/01/13
They're a bit like flies.
They're a bit like flies. i.e. you can swat as many as you want per day and it doesn't make any bloody difference at all. NUmbers most likely limited by food and killing one just means another one will live naturally.
Recent trip to DOngara the blowies at the fishing platform were enough to make me feel physically unwell.
petermac
Posts: 2946
Date Joined: 03/03/10
blowies
skippers ticket, boat rego, trailer rego, fishing licence, marron licence , I don't see a lot of funding going into getting rid blowies the same way as the csiro dealt with rabbits , but I ask gain are blowies an introduced species . Over my years in the marine department in the north west I have seen plenty of bulk ore carriers pumping their ballast tanks inside the harbour precinct I hate to think what is going into the ocean from those tanks
Dale
Posts: 7930
Date Joined: 13/09/05
Yep, I remember when the
Yep, I remember when the little buggers disappeared for a decade or 2. But like all bad things, they turned up again. Don't know where they went or what they did, but it sure was good to be rid of them for a while. I'm also an ex Robbs jetty and Palm beach jetty Fisho, we might have crossed lines at some time Peter, I'm an ex Hilton Parky.
cheers
Dale
"Just because you are a Character, Doesn't mean you have Character."
Mr Wolf
uncle
Posts: 9474
Date Joined: 10/02/07
getting worse I reakon
in my swims alongside the north rocks at hillarys this year there are millions of tiny ones just born
all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs
Wes F
Posts: 1067
Date Joined: 07/01/12
Feral or not
Should have some truth in it
http://marinewaters.fish.wa.gov.au/resources/fisheries-fact-sheet-blowfish/
http://a-z-animals.com/animals/puffer-fish/
Interesting to note about the water temperature. Would it be that the warmer water flowing south for longer are making a difference. I know you get blowies along the south coast but not in the proportions as along the metro coast line. We have more tropical species being caught further south every year, will a change in currents make a difference i.e. the colder southern waters push blowies out to sea or northward?
Old fishermen never die they just smell that way.
derko5000
Posts: 125
Date Joined: 12/01/13
Who's Offering
Who's Offering Blowies????????? ill grab one thanks
tadpole
Posts: 387
Date Joined: 28/01/13
Always thought an annual or
Always thought an annual or bi-annual fishing comp for blowies would help reduce numbers if enough people joined in the massacre. The rule being catch as many as you can, whoever catches the most wins. Then after a couple of years if it isn't working, trash the idea. Or even the placement of blowie specific bins in areas where people mostly fish because although I'm ashamed to admit it, I have been guilty of releasing blowies in areas where people frequent because it pisses me off when my kids walk around picking up other people's dead blowies they leave to dry out on the river bank!
billstar
Posts: 105
Date Joined: 04/12/10
Do their part
Ive always thought that blowfish do a part by keeping river systems clean? I fish the river often and like auslobster said change tactics? You can't tell me that fishing hard bodies you pull in the mass amounts of blowies u would do fishing bait? Also fishing at night is also a option with hardly any blowies
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
I've been fishing the river
I've been fishing the river 2-5 times a week for over 20 yrs, I reckon I might have an idea what the patterns are. Get one of your parents to come with you (I'm not taking an unrelated minor out on my own) & you can come for a hardbody lure session with me. You won't feel the same way when you are done. Fishing at night isn't the answer either as not everyone can fish at night & not all methods work very well at night, like targeting flatties on lures.
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
tadpole
Posts: 387
Date Joined: 28/01/13
I also just vary where I
I also just vary where I fish. Because I do most of my fishing in the Canning for bream, I just take my kids down to Castledare railway and that way they can have a fish with baitI've never caught a blowie there and they can have a bit of fun with the trumpeter, small bream or the juvenile tailor you catch there. If I head downriver I'll just use lures nowadays unless I'm fishing at night. My lure success rate is minimal but it's good exercise so i persist with it
petermac
Posts: 2946
Date Joined: 03/03/10
robbs jetty
hey dale robbs jetty , you stired some old memory's I would love to read some history on it but in its day was one of the probably the best jetty around to fish from and we older blokes know why the abattoirs that was near had a bit to do with it
jack93
Posts: 99
Date Joined: 15/07/10
Peter
Peter I sent you a pm just curious if you received it or not?
Super peg
Posts: 760
Date Joined: 02/09/12
Dekonig is on the right idea,
Dekonig is on the right idea, make it illegal to release blowies that are caught, and as Tadpole mentioned have blowie bins located at trouble areas. This will at least keep numbers from rising, especially with the numbers of the fishing community rising,
also the idea of a competion as Tadpole also put forward, a free to join comp, free bait, everyone recieves same quantity of bait, and at the end everyone gets together for sausage sizzle and a laugh as the tubs of filthy bait robbing,hook swallowing, soft plastic eating blowies are weighed, the prizes not need to be grand, hell IDE do it for free and it sound like a lot of other people would too, the idea just need to be formed, e.g if a fisheries advert came on the telly and a page or two in the Sunday times people would jump on this train! And I do believe it would have an impact, just think how many blowies you catch per trip, not trying for them mind you, then imagine using 5 hooks per person and specifaclly targeting them, throw some burly in, and as was mentioned earlier ' every blowie in a 2 km radius'.
thats how I would do it , but this that's me.
The art of fishing consists of casting, winding, trolling and jigging
while freezing, sweating, swatting and swearing.
tadpole
Posts: 387
Date Joined: 28/01/13
Woo hoo! Glad someone else
Woo hoo! Glad someone else liked the competition idea! I've mentioned it to my mates many a time over a cold beer after another unsuccessful fishing trip and generally I get scoffed at. Might work on contacting fisheries and see if they'll support the idea
Super peg
Posts: 760
Date Joined: 02/09/12
I rekon if we had 200 300
I rekon if we had 200 300 people fishing, a few of those salmon bins the pros use down south would get filled, and that's 2 salmon bins of blowies not on my lline
Great idea!
The art of fishing consists of casting, winding, trolling and jigging
while freezing, sweating, swatting and swearing.
tadpole
Posts: 387
Date Joined: 28/01/13
Just reading on the fisheries
Just reading on the fisheries website, blowfish are native and seems the fisheries support the humane release of blowfish so doubt they'd support a blowfish massacre
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
Wonderful, that means if a
Wonderful, that means if a comp did get sorted & it did Fisheries would just introduce a bag limit to kill the whole idea. I would support a blowie catching comp & take part even though I think the numbers would be back to normal within a month
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
jack93
Posts: 99
Date Joined: 15/07/10
I
I agree numbers may drop ( I don't personally think much at all) but they'll soon be back up
CityFlicker
Posts: 524
Date Joined: 31/01/13
- & it did work.sorry, hate
- & it did work.
sorry, hate typing on the iPadiPad
Just because I smile & nod does not mean I believe the crap coming out of your mouth.
All people have the right to stupidity but some abuse the privilege.
Decella
Posts: 401
Date Joined: 01/02/09
I still believe that the
I still believe that the should commercially catch them and make cat food out of them.
Would kill 2 birds with one stone.
tadpole
Posts: 387
Date Joined: 28/01/13
+1!
+1!
Super peg
Posts: 760
Date Joined: 02/09/12
Judging by the responses, I'm
Judging by the responses, I'm gonna catch a heap and apply for photo of the month haha
The art of fishing consists of casting, winding, trolling and jigging
while freezing, sweating, swatting and swearing.
fishing mad
Posts: 23
Date Joined: 17/04/13
I wish every fish was as easy
I wish every fish was as easy to catch as a blowie
hilly9
Posts: 282
Date Joined: 13/10/12
The amount of wrasse around
The amount of wrasse around seems to me to be getting worse to. Never would get them fishing as a kid in the tinny now i'm even catching a few from the beach
FISH-ON
Posts: 469
Date Joined: 19/07/11
i agree with the amount of
i agree with the amount of wrasse caught so many today
Be patient and calm - for no one can catch fish in anger