Doesnt increase mean there is more of them about?

 ...fisheries is most likely getting their numbers from recreational and commercial catch reports...and because of the increase in rec fishers chasing them, of course there are going to be greater numbers caught...FOR NOW!

 that whiting stocks are decreasing then reduce the bag limit. Why reduce when the whiting numbers are up. That like saying let's reduce the catch to 12 blue makeral instead of 30 because I think there are more people targeting them. 

 http://recfishwest.org.au/yellowfin-frames-for-science/

 I believe this is where Auslobster is coming from....

 I totally agree with him...and from my experience,  I have an eerie suspicion that fishery's numbers may be misleading because the number and size of catch of YFW is definitely declining compare to previous years. Not sure how they obtain their numbers.

 Anyhow, personally, I am with Auslobster. I don't keep >10 whiting for a feed and I ensure they are at least 30cm. This is just my self-imposed rule.

30 per bag limit is way too many in my opinion. With the amount of people wading the flats, luring for them (that I have seen lately), it is a matter of time before the population of YFW gets decimated.

P/s: heard from the grapevine there are more license netters in the Peel/Harvey estuary now so naturally the numbers of YFW caught by commerical means has increased, but i could be wrong.

you would think removing all commercial beach netting from geo bay may have had an impact here as well
with the smaller size haul nets used for blue/whitebait in the bay over many years, they always usually had bycatch of small whiting in them among other fish species that now with their removal might be improving on the bio mass size there

hezzy

Personally I think a size limit of 28 and catch limit of 10 per person is ample for them.

Personally I CBF cleaning them for the missus so I mainly c&r them now.

 fishery and would like to keep it that way. I think if you have a big family and were fishing in Walpole karlbarri and wanted to share the fillets with them 30 is good. 

 yep. Ive seen thimpact of gill netting for em from when I was a kid to now. Last time I went dwn to concrete jungle we went for a drive dwn to cristaluna drive where alot of my lb fishing was taught to me on catching big fat whiting.

Nowit is a dad state of affairs w blatent gill netting onunprescribed days and basically its fished out!

Thankgod up here the whiting stocks are healthy and a bag limit decrease wouldbe even better to sustain the stocks.

I hve a minimum size I take and a doz feeds me n my little girl easily.

The good thing here is not too many ppl fish for em out in boat and there are cpl spots that have absolute thumpers all year round.

 Pricey down in Augusta nets them commercially in the blackwood. No idea how his season is going. When I first moved down to Augusta 10 years ago there were yellowfin everywhere, the numbers went down quick though.

Just try and get any figures from DoF on the amount of YFW and other fin fish being taken from the Mandurah estuary.

You would have more luck finding out the secret ingredients col sanders uses in Kentucky fried chicken. why is it that (as far as I can find out) there is no catch limit on the pros licences for Mandurah estuary.

DoF in my view, are undertaking the study of YFW frames to determine the structure of the bio mass of the species and to see if it is sustainable with the increase in catch by recreational fishers. Now if the studies show that the bio mass is under threat who do you think will have restrictions placed on their catch, the pros (yeah right and pigs might fly) or recreational fishers.

I know who I'll put my money on, I'm not against the pros, there is a well established need for them, it's just they seem to have no restraints at all place on them, and don't give me that load of crap that "they look out for the future of the stocks and are self regulating."

Many a time I've stood on the bank of the estuary and seen the pros working their nets and it has appeared to me that every hole in the net has a YFW in it.

 agree fully mate. Net fishing in general should be outlawed.there is no way to stop bi catch and with nets you take whole!!!! School not just a select amount! Same with trawlers! A fish hoovering machine hence why the snapper fishery in lets say NSW is all but depleted because they just take the whole school. For us wetlining at least when a school thins out due to size you pull the pik n move.

If comm net fishos havent adapted to find a better way of fishing for their target species thenits just either they cant be assed or dont care n just keep bodging the books as what hsppened with a cray fella up this way to make fisheries think there was no problem!

We.ll be lucky to have a residential whites run again this year 4 years running!!

Nets dont discriminate!!!!

 30 of any species is too much

15 is more than enough

 Yfw are everywhere and you can easily get your bag of 30 almost immediately year round if you fish in the right area out from the marinas north of the river. We are getting more yfw and quicker than we ever have before over the last 2 years.  We fillet and keep the bigger ones and use the smaller ones as bait.

We generally find that we need around 20 fillets to feed my family of five.  I also like to give fish to my parents who can't get out as easy these days.

I don't think that thirty fish is an unreasonable number of fish particularly as we get less herring now.  Maybe they are getting more scarce near shore or on the flats, but the larger bio mass of this fish are in the 20+m mark, and this fishery is only getting better as far as we have been able to tell.

caught in Leeman, pro fisherman nets up and down the coast gggrrrrr  Can't throw a line in to get one, only bloody blowies.

 ...they think that the increase in YFW numbers may be due to much higher spawning activity during those years of really warm water (La Nina effect) that we had. And they get their figures from commercial catch reports, and monitor amount of effort, as well.

So my concerns above may be unfounded. However, in the Peel system we now have legions of lure flinging whiting fishermen as compared to five or so years ago, when there virtually none...a lot of extra pressure on a particular species in a relatively short period of time. Don't see a good long term result if they want to persist with the standard bread and butter bag limit.

 For those of you that don't know they used to be raped during winter in the Dawesville cut with a bag limit of 40. The bag limit was reduced to 12 Nd has since been increased to 30