Key amid rising wind

mask in clear waters, Hoffensetz and Cram used spear to claim a pair of tasty painted crayfish.

Recreational anglers must be wondering what it will take to make the fisheries managers take note of the very real shark issues faced by both recreational and commercial fishers.

Anecdotal evidence of increased shark numbers and adverse encounters with fishers during recent years is overwhelming.

Experienced game and reef fisher Mick Meiers told anyone who would listen of a deep-water trip last week when he and his crew counted 34 hooked fish that were lost to sharks.

“I could be embarrassed by those numbers if I was silly enough to stay in one spot and continually lose fish to sharks, but we moved time and again — more than a dozen times,” Meiers said.

“And these weren’t popular spots where sharks are now the norm … they’re spots we find while gamefishing and seldom fished, if ever before, but now there’s sharks on all of them and we’re killing too many fish just attempting to pull them past the sharks.”

Meiers said the sharks were mostly whaler species, including bull sharks, and few smaller than two metres.

“It’s no coincidence that the shark problems that anglers are facing has increased exponentially since the introduction of a 1.5m maximum size limit on all shark species that weren’t already protected.

“The glaringly obvious problem is that anglers are hooking and unwittingly killing more fish to put even just a portion of their allowable bag limit in the boat — and sometimes that number of lost fish will easily exceed a bag limit. That can’t be good for any fishery,” the Alligator Creek man said.

And while winds and uncomfortable seas shut down offshore and reef fishing aspirations for many anglers this weekend, anglers are reminded of looming Coral Reef Fin Fish closures that will render most recognised reef species off limits for two five-day periods.

The first 2020 Coral Reef Fin Fish closure starts on Wednesday October 14, and prohibits the take of prescribed species until midnight Sunday, October 18, while the second closure kicks off Thursday, November 12, and remains in place until midnight Monday, November 16.

Prescribed coral reef fish species include tropical snappers, coral trout, emperors, sweetlips, wrasse, cod and grouper species among others, and extends to wherever these are caught within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park from the tip of Cape York to Bundaberg — even within estuaries and from foreshore waters.

Species of interest to anglers and not governed by the closures include golden snapper or fingermark, grassy sweetlip or grass emperor and gold spot or estuary cod.

For comprehensive details regarding the Coral Reef Fin Fish closure check out www.daf.qld.gov.au.

While talking reef fish species, recent biological data from Fisheries Queensland and James Cook University suggest that stocks of redthroat emperor or tricky snapper are in great shape.

The popular recreational and commercial species boasts an estimated biomass, according to the experts, of 72 per cent — well above the 60 per cent unfished biomass required to ensure the fishery is a sustainable one.

The spawning biomass is the total weight of fish that have reached sexual maturity and are capable of reproducing.

Redthroat emperor are protected by a 38cm minimum legal size and maximum recreational “in-possession” limit of eight fish.

Hitting the fresh water could be a productive weekend option for keen an anglers not hellbent on snaring a seasonla last barramundi. Sooty grunter or bl black bream offer a w worthwhile challe lenge on lures when an anglers chance their ca casts in several local an and regional systems in including Keelbotto tom Creek, the B Burdekin River and up upper reaches of the H Haughton River. Tarpon or ox-eye h herring can be fo found in most wetla land lagoons both n north and south of T Townsville and are gr great fun on fly ta tackle, an occa casional barramundi hardly surprising w when they beat a tarpon t to th the f fur and feather.

Sleepy cod are perhaps one of the best northern freshwater species if a fish for the table is sought and plenty can be found in the upper reaches of Black Weir in the Ross River but remember, anglers 18 years and over will require a SIP or Stocked Impoundment Permit if fishing weir waters — even if barramundi are not the prime target.

And jungle perch might require a little more footwork to find the larger fish, however the effort is most often regarded well worth it given the pristine mountain stream environments in which they’re found. Highly regarded as a supreme sportfish, most regard jungle perch as purely a catch-and-release option, although protected by a maximum size of 35cm and in-possession limit of one fish.