Fish bites: NSW sets new dusky flathead slot limit

The move, which will come into effect from August 1, will replace the current bag limit that allows fishers to take up to 10 dusky flathead sized from at least 36cm, with one of them permitted to be a trophy fish above 70cm.

However, under the new rules, the bag limit will reduce to five dusky flathead sized between 36cm and 70cm, with fish larger than that needing to be returned to the water.

“These changes will help boost the stock of bigger dusky flathead and ultimately provide better fishing opportunities for recreational fishers for this highly popular species in the future,” the NSW Department of Primary Industries said. 

“Support for the dusky flathead rule changes is consistent with community sentiment over the past decade for proactive, more conservative fishing rules, such as a slot limit, to provide for more protection of the spawning biomass in the dusky flathead stock.”

NSW has also upped the rock lobster catch limit from two to three.

Grab your smartphone and get ready to hit the water, because global power and sailboat maker Beneteau is launching a global fishing competition that’s even open to Aussie anglers.

The Beneteau Fishing Trophy is a no-take saltwater fishing competition open to anyone in the world, run via the FishAndYou smartphone app and your phone’s camera.

It officially launched on June 13, with the first of three separate rounds closing on July 17. Participants are awarded a point for every centimetre of one of a number of mainly European and North American fish species caught.

The social media-based competition will come down to the five largest fish caught. Australian species on the list of catch-and-release fish eligible for the competition include great amberjack, giant reveille barracuda, mahi mahi/dolphinfish, and cobia.

Anyone entering is eligible for a prize, although the third stage of the competition will be open only to Beneteau power and sailboat owners.

Victoria has recorded a record snapper spawn in Port Phillip Bay, the third-best result since records started almost 30 years ago.

The strong result comes on the back of a record spawn in 2018, and a year of almost no fishing in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns that were among the most severe worldwide.

According to the Victorian Fisheries Authority, the survey is held in March each year and measures the number of snapper sized between 3.0cm and 10.0cm that have survived from the previous spring-summer spawning.

The survey has also shown that fish that spawned in the record 2018 season are now larger than the minimum 28cm size limit, promising to make this year’s snapper season one of the best yet.

A survey of West Australian recreational fishers and charter boat operators has shown many of them have had to change the way they operate to try and minimise the number of fish damaged by sharks.

Shark "depredation" – the official term for when only part of a fish is pulled into a boat – is a big problem in the state with Fisheries WA launching a multi-year research initiative looking at viable methods to minimise the number of bite-offs that fishers are suffering.

The survey showed more than half the private boat and charter operators had proactively tried to minimise shark bite-offs, with the most common methods is going somewhere else, using wire traces or just giving up and going home.

However, the survey also collected what its authors said was “detailed information on attitudes among fishers” to the taxman – important for guiding future policy on how to minimise the contentious problem.

You can read the report on the survey's findings here.