Perth sharks and just size fish?

Went out ~20NM from OR yesterday and made the most of the nice conditions. Fishing was a little slow to start with but got a nice 58cm baldie around mid-morning. Found a school of pink snapper and had 10 or so hook ups in the space of 30 mins with 3 just undersized models coming on board before we ran into a shark problem! I've never had an issues with sharks taking fish in Perth unitl yesterday? Lost 2 complete fish to them and got this mangled 47cm specimen back. Moved spots after that one - no point donating fish. All fish lost within 10 meters of the bottom so not sure what was doing the damage.

Ended up with another just sized (40.5cm) baldie and decided to call it a day before the breeze came as the swell was well over 3m still.

The Fisheries research team were at the ramp on return recording fishing information and measuring catch. The small baldie ended up being 39.5cm by their measurements which I questioned as we measured it as being size before it hit the icebox. The young lass basically said it needed to be size at the ramp, and while they know fish do shrink on ice, it basically take at your own risk. I suggested photographing catch against a tape measure which she said may get you out of trouble with some officers but it's definetly not a fool proof method. Annoying kwirk in the rule that's for sure, as I always do the right thing. Also for species like baldies "releasing" a sized fish is essentially throwing a dead fish back into the ocean as they have a very high rate of mortiality from depths of 15+m. So if you throw back a size fish that dies, then go catch another one to keep you're doing more damage than good. I know there's no magic solution here but it's frustrating. 

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Belly Fish's picture

Posts: 499

Date Joined: 09/03/12

From experience

Thu, 2021-04-15 11:06

Having fished club competitions for over 30 years, where fish must be size at the weigh in, we do not keep anything that is just over size. All fish shrink on ice, some more than others. Breaksea and Baldchin would need to be at least 1cm over size before we keep them. Flathead are real bad too.

TorquenFish's picture

Posts: 321

Date Joined: 30/12/12

 Unfortunately I think I'll

Thu, 2021-04-15 11:33

 Unfortunately I think I'll be doing the same in future - just not worth the headache. Shame though, as it puts additional unnecessary pressure on the fishery.

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Posts: 196

Date Joined: 03/02/11

 F@#$* Shorks !!! Bring the

Thu, 2021-04-15 12:30

 F@#$* Shorks !!! Bring the indos down 

Posts: 4561

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 Petermac here got pinged for

Thu, 2021-04-15 14:26

 Petermac here got pinged for one a few years ago. Took it to court and won. Posted the finding from the court a few years ago. 

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Posts: 8016

Date Joined: 07/05/12

Was it the Queensbury Rules

Thu, 2021-04-15 15:09

Was it the Queensbury Rules court of appeal?

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Honourary Pies member for a while

uncle's picture

Posts: 9316

Date Joined: 10/02/07

Your running the gauntlet

Fri, 2021-04-16 08:08

if just size, gotta be at least 2 mil over  

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all aggressive fish love bigjohnsjigs

TorquenFish's picture

Posts: 321

Date Joined: 30/12/12

 Well it was 5mm over legal

Fri, 2021-04-16 16:59

 Well it was 5mm over legal size, but I guess I'll leave a little more wiggle room in future. 

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Posts: 619

Date Joined: 18/04/08

Fisheries stickers

Fri, 2021-04-16 17:33

The measuring stickers that fisheries supply are 5mm out in their favour. A just size baldy that shrinks 5-8mm on ice and measured on a fisheries sticker will get you in trouble

Posts: 276

Date Joined: 27/05/11

I know the stickers come with

Fri, 2021-04-16 17:42

I know the stickers come with disclaimers, but surely Recfish don't provide stickers to all and sundry that are 5mm out. Many on this site are well aware of size limits, do the right thing and return anythinbg close to undersize. But, what about the general punter who picks up a sticker from the hillarays marine research laboritories, their kid catches a just size fish (as per sticker), gets measured by fisheries and then gets into strife? 

Posts: 619

Date Joined: 18/04/08

Get a tape measure

Fri, 2021-04-16 18:50

The last batch of stickers are 5mm out. I  have checked several of them

 

Posts: 1097

Date Joined: 19/06/14

Sharks are a pain in the rear end no doubt.

Sat, 2021-04-17 04:29

That's an interesting braid to leader setup you have there. There's some good tutorials on YouTube for the FG knot, really easy and quick to tie on the water. One that's a little more fiddling about but super effective is the Bimini twist to improved Albright. Wind on leaders are great!.

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 My wife understands why I clean my rods n reels in the shower....

 

TorquenFish's picture

Posts: 321

Date Joined: 30/12/12

 Never really used wind on

Sat, 2021-04-17 08:16

 Never really used wind on leaders for anything other than trawling and if I want to drop the swivel out of the setup I generally just go the double uni knot. FG would be much nicer to pull through a rods eyes though. Bimini twist is way too much stuffing around unless you're sitting at home

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Posts: 1991

Date Joined: 16/05/09

 Bimini twist takes bugger

Sat, 2021-04-17 08:35

 Bimini twist takes bugger all time to do while fishing just put the rod in the holder and use the reel handle to give you tension on the loop while tightening it up.

Posts: 1097

Date Joined: 19/06/14

I concur...

Sat, 2021-04-17 09:46

Less than 60 seconds for a quick Bimini add another 60 for the Albright and you're back in action. 

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 My wife understands why I clean my rods n reels in the shower....

 

sea-kem's picture

Posts: 14826

Date Joined: 30/11/09

 Yep bimini to GT for me on

Sat, 2021-04-17 10:49

 Yep bimini to GT for me on all my set ups, never had one fail.

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Love the West!

TorquenFish's picture

Posts: 321

Date Joined: 30/12/12

 I never use the stickers for

Sat, 2021-04-17 08:08

 I never use the stickers for anything other than a size limit reminder. Always carry a soft tape measure for measuring all fish.

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sunshine's picture

Posts: 2549

Date Joined: 03/03/09

Sorry but I question using a soft tape measure

Sat, 2021-04-17 08:44

 That will follow the contours of the fish making it measure longer.  Fisheries use a flat end stopped measure so if you want accuracy and consistency that is how you should measure 

TorquenFish's picture

Posts: 321

Date Joined: 30/12/12

 If you lay the fish on the

Sat, 2021-04-17 10:10

 If you lay the fish on the tape not the inverse, it measures true.

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sea-kem's picture

Posts: 14826

Date Joined: 30/11/09

 Bragmat is the way to go,

Sat, 2021-04-17 10:48

 Bragmat is the way to go, lay the nose up against the back stop, can't go wrong.

 

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Love the West!

Posts: 1991

Date Joined: 16/05/09

 If fisheries want to be

Sat, 2021-04-17 11:22

 If fisheries want to be pricks the only thing that will stand up in court is a proper tape measure. 

sea-kem's picture

Posts: 14826

Date Joined: 30/11/09

 True or as I've seen very

Sat, 2021-04-17 12:45

 True or as I've seen very fine pointed verniers.

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Love the West!