Soft Plastics : Good or Bad ?
I had a freindly debate recently about soft plastics vs bait - however this was more around the impacts to the environment, not the catch rate:
One side of the debate was that there is already enough plastic in the ocean, why would we go about throwing more plastic lures into the ocean. Especially if a fish rips the plastic off and swallows it - how can it possibly digest the plastic. Would this kill the fish ? etc etc
My counter arguement was that if we really wanted to get into that side of things, then surely the impact of fishing line in the ocean, making and burning fuel, building rods, reels, boats etc etc all has a much larger impact on the environment. I also made a completely uneducated arguement that the gulps were "soft baits" and somewhat digestable/biodegradable.
Now there is merit to the scenario where a good fish strips the placcy off / bust's you off - as this happened very recently. So what happens to that fish if he did eat the lead jig and plastic ?
I did some minor investigation and found that Berkely have indeed done research on a fish's ability to digest / pass the range of gulp plastics - which is positive. But I wanted to see if members on this forum had any thoughts/knowledge on the matter ? Would be keen to hear any feelings for or against it.
Cheers !
beau
Posts: 4104
Date Joined: 24/01/10
I'll consider it once shit
I'll consider it once shit like this stops happening all over the world
https://youtu.be/XeDY3I841q0
https://youtu.be/wVnMBGXVVUI
rob90
Posts: 1526
Date Joined: 06/02/13
Too true, were over here
Too true, were over here doing our best for the planet while other places are doing their best to destroy it. But hey australia will keep buying overseas products and turn a blind eye to it all but crucify the poor bloke who's bait bag blew off his boat into the water.
Hi my name is rob............. and I'm a........... fishaholic
Francis
Posts: 326
Date Joined: 17/06/08
Holy smokes - that is
Holy smokes - that is horrendous ! Naive to think that sort of stuff doesn't happen around the world, but it doesn't make it any less shocking to actually see it...
bsir
Posts: 574
Date Joined: 24/04/11
Doh!
how shit is that?
quadfisher
Posts: 1146
Date Joined: 28/09/10
Off there website,,,,,,,,, do you believe?
quadfisher
flangies
Posts: 2542
Date Joined: 11/05/08
Also one point to consider is
Also one point to consider is the revenue brought in by recreational fishers and it’s flow on effects to tourism etc. Every time ive cleaned rubbish up at a fishing spot it’s been mostly beer cans and bottles, bait packets and fast food packaging. I believe a couple of lost soft plastics is minuscule in comparison to the other waste I see left by other land based fishermen. No one seems to care about what they leave on the rocks or beach.
Mine morenpoint about the fish digesting Berkeley plastics - I’ve seen pictures of fish with 300gram jigs hanging out their bum so I should hope they can pass a chewed up paddle tail.
Swompa
Posts: 3880
Date Joined: 14/10/12
I am lucky to work right on
I am lucky to work right on the coast and get down to the beach fairly regularly at lunchtime. There is a soft plastic i found well over 12 months ago that i left sitting in the sun that is still there.
Most frequently i will find glass and plastic bottles though after a weekend, i will get terminal tackle and bait bags. I very rarely find lures of any sort.
Darren253
Posts: 570
Date Joined: 23/07/16
I had my first real positive
I had my first real positive plastic experience at the weekend!
We had 4 fishing from my boat in 25m south side of Rotto. We moved 3times as bait was just getting cleaned of in seconds.
I decided to to switch to a squidgy prawn and landed 2 Dhu's within 10mins (68cm & 77cm) whilst the others on bait failed to hook anything other than undersize blackarse or buff bream.
I've caught on plastics before, but never had them noticeably outfit bait... I would also question the cost/volume/environmental impact if the amount of bait we would have used if we all carried on using squid and mulies at the rate we were going though them.
nebbian1
Posts: 166
Date Joined: 31/08/17
Nice work on the
Nice work on the plastics.
Last week I was on plastics, my mate was on bait, and I was outfishing him 3 to 1. The Dhueys love a good size plastic (5+ inches). I kept changing the colour/size to try to get away from them (had our bag limit in the first couple of drops) but kept hooking them.