what is a demersal scalefish?
Submitted by mrwinta on Fri, 2010-10-01 07:52
Can anybody explain in lamens terms what is meant by demersals and palagic fish, are these the 2 main catogories for recriational fishing? I am still fairly new to boat fishing and as the ban for demersals is fast aproaching I dont want to break the rules but want to be sure about what I can still target arround perth.
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NEVER PUSH YOUR GRANNY WHEN SHE'S SHAVING
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Pete D
Posts: 1681
Date Joined: 07/06/07
Fisheries
Pretty straight forward;
http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/docs/pub/WestLimits/westcoast_rules_2010.pdf
Cheers Pete
crasny1
Posts: 7003
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Dont even worry about the site
Demersal swim and live on the bottom, wheras pelagics are free swimming oceanic fish. Mostly the pelagics are cought with lures and floating baits etc, whereas bottom bouncing in its various forms with jigs, plastic and bait account for demersals.
Examples: Snapper, Dhue, Black bum, Baldchin, whiting are demersal
Herring, tailor, tuna, mackerel, sailfish, marlin are pelagic
That is not to say you cant catch either group trolling or bottom bouncing. People have caught Marlin bottom bounching, and certainly some demersals like coral trout will very often hit a trolled lure.
Hope this helps
Ask any question anytime and someone will help. And welcome to boat fishing. Youll love it, in all its forms. Just look for some good groung, dont "ping" other people (nobody like it when their spots been pinched), try squidding etc. All great fun from a boat.
Cheers
Neels
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
mrwinta
Posts: 457
Date Joined: 14/01/10
Cheers lads.... so you would
Cheers lads.... so you would say that you would be targeting demersals if you were to do much bottom bouncing apart from jigging for sambo's.....best to fish the surface over the next couple of months....
I did read the brochure too and I'm glad I did as there was some of the possesion limmits and species I thought were different....
NEVER PUSH YOUR GRANNY WHEN SHE'S SHAVING
buschy
Posts: 626
Date Joined: 27/11/09
There are plenty of species
There are plenty of species other than Snapper & Dhu that you might want to target on the bottom - so it's perfectly fine to fish the bottom if you are chasing them. Just remember to treat a snapper / dhu with care and release it (using a release weight if appropriate).
Good luck!
Tony Halliday
Posts: 2500
Date Joined: 14/06/07
not always true for bottom
not always true for bottom bouncing. As skippy and treavly species are pallagic and not in the dermal section, yet are a bottom bouncing bait or lure or sp target fish.
I'd more say dermals have a home ground and normaly are founf around a structure of some sort and remain or return to that gorund.
Pallagics are correct termed " free swiming fish" but some pellagics like Sambo's can be resident to an area as well. So for the purposes of the clsoed season we have to go back to that list from fisheries as the only guide to use...
Tony Halliday: ~Meals on Reels ~
It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it
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