Bag and possession catch limits defined

Yep, when the fish are on, the red mist descends and some fishers will try and bag out – me included – without thinking about what they need.

I recently had an opportunity to more than likely bag out on Australian salmon, pulling them into the boat two at a time, but after landing more than a dozen decent-size fish I realised it was more than sufficient to feed my family of six twice over. 

Salmon is best eaten as fresh as possible, and I already had as much as I could manage, so I stopped fishing.

Noble as that is, there are recreational catch limits in place to ensure that recreational fishers leave enough fish out there for others, and also ensure that our fisheries remain sustainable for everyone.

But what are bag and possession catch limits? 

A bag limit is the maximum number of a single type of fish that someone can take each day.

Sometimes the bag limit won’t just apply to a person, but it can also apply to a boat so that once a certain number of fish are caught, it’s time to weigh anchor and head home.

Generally speaking, a bag limit resets itself each day, so that if you bagged out on whiting the day before there is no reason why you can’t head out the next day and bag out again if your hotspot lives up to its reputation.

Of course, there is a gotcha, with the bag limit relating to the day that you start fishing. That means if you’re fishing past midnight, that day’s bag limit will carry over into the next day.

In other words, if you start fishing at 10pm, have a slow start with only a few fish, and then they really come on the chew after midnight, those fish caught earlier still count towards the new day’s bag limit.

Unless defined as boat limits, bag limits also apply to individuals, not groups of people. That means if one person bags out, they cannot take up the slack for someone else who is yet to reach their bag limit, and are better off just stowing their rod and watching the action.

Bag limits vary widely from state to territory, so if you’re crossing borders to fish, do your homework before hitting the water.

Check the rules behind your bag limit to see whether the fish you’ve caught need to be brought ashore as you’ve caught them – common for popular species and aimed at allowing fisheries officers to easily check that you’ve not breached size limits, and you still may be allowed to remove the guts, gills or scales – or you can part or wholly fillet them out on the water.

Sometimes there is a limit on the number of fish you can possess, no matter if you’re on the water or off it.

That means if you still have some leftover tuna steaks in the freezer from the last trip you had running wide, legally you can’t go out chasing a fresh tuna.

Bag and possession limits during closed seasons for particular fish species are zero. In theory, you can’t really go out to a hotspot to spend the day catching and releasing snapper just for the fun of it during a closed season.

However, you can go out to try and target other fish not affected by a closed season, and if you get a prohibited fish as bycatch, you can release it immediately with as little harm as possible.