Really Dark

[Cameron 77]

And they are chucking back huge numbers of 18 plus lbers, too big for the market. Oh and he's a bastard also

 

I'm pretty sure that's highly illegal for the commercial boys. Fish caught in nets tend to die if thrown back. I'm pretty sure they have to keep all they catch until they hit their quota limit then they are finished for the season.

 

I think all these reports in the papers of dead Snapper washing up on beaches etc is a result of the Commercial guys dumping "non prime market fish"... The term used to decribe the practice is "High Grading"

 

Knotme... give softbaiting a crack. It's very very effective.

[Guest]

Na they can chuck back as long as they aren't floaters. A smallish boat and only 1/2 tonne hauls so knot big damage if any. I know the skipper is anal as and did ring MAF (whoever) when only 2 fish decided to become floaters, which they subsequently recovered. Apparently the risk of being busted knot telling them about even one fish is huge.

 

The hassles is for the smaller guys is the company they fish for will say 'we want 800kg this week, go get' so if the boat catches too many or a lot of sub-prime they have no where for the fish to go. And as the boats get paid surprisingly little and are open to serious drama if MAF catches them doing naughtys they do need to run a very fine line between making a buck or knot.

 

The boat and the other smaller similar ones will often see lots of floaters coming in from further offshore. They reckon it's the big boys losing and in some case dumping fish. But they do seem to think most of the big spills are more gear failure than on purpose.

 

Bugger softbait, I'm taking grenades next time. Tried those softies but never had anything like the joy I've had with a bog std pilly.

 

Seriously, if you find you usually motor instead of sail, then get a launch, that's what they do, that and run really big refridgeration systems. We won't respect you of course, but if you distribute cold beer to Crew.Org members when out, we'll at least appreciate you, it's the best you can hope for on the really dark side.

And if you do turn get used to sitting upwind of all the real boaters, that diesel smells and in bad cases can taint a good yachties rum.