Koonacs/Gilgies
Im heading out for a look for some tucker tonight and looked through the fisheries bag limits to see what I could have and how I could catch them.
10 per person (not heaps but a feed is a feed)
So how do you catch them? Well fisheries have no information in their pamphlets at all!
A quick phone call to the local fisheries office and the bloke laughed. First time he has ever had someone ring up and clear the matter first. Usually he said they get reports of people marroning out of season and go and catch them. Now here is the interesting part.
If you are out catching koonacs or gilgies in public waterways and you are using a drop net or a trap of some sort, apparently you are able to be charged with attempting to fish for marron out of season and possibly using illegal gear- you cant prove that you are intending them to not catch marron. Probably similar for going out C+R fishing for demersals during the ban.... Private property is fine but he suggested dont get caught between home and the property.
Fisheries need to do some clarification on fishing for gilgies/koonacs so people going out and doing the right thing in public waterways and not fishing for marron but koonacs/gilgies only are protected. Whether its a license or closed season or permitted methods.. something needs to be done I reckon.
At the end of the conversation he said the safest way to go about it was use the old meat on the end of a string and a scoop net method as the way to go. And make sure you are exactly 100% on your identification of the crayfish as if your caught with a marron, you are toast. He also added that this area has plenty around (from his experience) and wished me luck in getting a few!
Fish for thrills....
tim-o
Posts: 4657
Date Joined: 24/05/11
Traps, are illegal but work
Traps, are illegal but work the best as you can leave it set all night and will yield a good feed for 2 minutes work
I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.
Swompa
Posts: 3908
Date Joined: 14/10/12
We used to go to a creek,
We used to go to a creek, tie a bit of old meat to a piece of a fishing line and throw it in. Generally we found that the little buggers would hold on out of the water and you could just put a bucket under them. Alternative, just take a small fish tank scoop net and put it under them as you pull the bait to the surface. Just lower your bait near a ledge in anything over 20cm of water, where there are reeds or roots ext.
Brad Y
Posts: 260
Date Joined: 03/02/12
Well we got just under 50
Well we got just under 50 with 5 people in a couple of hours which was good and all of them came from 10-20cm of water and we just used small scoop nets and led torches. Looking forward to a tasty treat on the weekend. Some good size and plenty of small ones seen too.
Fish for thrills....