bridge fisherman -causeway

[zimeric]

I cycle to work in the mornings and in the last two weeks there have been a number of fishermen out trying their luck around the causeway...
Kudo's to them for venturing out so early. BUUT in the last three days i have been really annoyed by a couple of people fishing right over the middle of the second bridge - directly under the sign that says "NO FISHING ON BRIDGE"

On top of that, one of those so called "anglers" had a single undersized bream in a bucket in clear display. His tackle was taking up over half the narrow pedestrain pathway and i had to dodge his rods to avoid smacking a guy walking the otherway

This morning as I rode past i gave him a spray.

This is an open letter to that person,

Mate what you are doing is not only illegal, its giving all us other law abiding fisherfolks a bad name, and thats exactly what the bunnyhuggers want so they can turn this entire state into a protected park.
Be responsable, fish within the law, and if not, then youd better hope you don't get caught....
next time i will not swerve to miss your rods so eagerly......

[Dave Press]

Kick over his rods and bucket next time.

[Rosie]

Out of curiosity, is it an offense to "accidently" bump over people buckets if they are keeping clearly undersize fish. Im with zimeric, kick his gear on the way past.

[Squidgee_Man]

Kicking him over the bridge would be more fun!!

[Tim Stynes]

No it wouldnt Squidgee.........He might land in my boat

I cut lines hanging down from bridges.....to dangerous to leave em there.....sometimes the idiot up top will get vocal but I just flip em the bird and laugh.

[angler 3.55]

nah the most fun is wen they are fishing on top of a bridge and u sneek up on the boat and tie the line onto the boat and reverse of so they think they have a fish.....i have got a handline by doing this

[SMOKED]

Zimeric

Sometimes you've got to take the law into your own hands.

I was fishing at the Middle Swan Bridge one time and as I was moving around the bank I had to go past a bloke in his 50's of european background who was sat there fishing with bait. I said hi to him and had a look in his bucket, then what I saw would make your blood boil as did mine. In his 9 litre bucket were about 10 or 11 black bream none of which were legal size and some of them had obviously been there for a while floating on there sides or belly up. I grabbed the bucket and poured the contents into the river then turfed his bucket as far as I could and told him that the legal limit was 25cm for black bream and that I was going to report him.
In hindsight I should have released the healthier fish and tried to revive the other ones but who thinks logically when the're ready to rip someones head off?
Anyway he acted like he didn't understand me but with his tail between his legs he had packed up and left within about 30 seconds!!! - not a second to soon.
Hopefully he got the message.
On the other hand I've been fishing before and seen kids with a few undersized bream in their buckets but I take a different approach and just have a chat with them about it and most of the time they just keep the fish in there for a while for bragging rights to show their mates. I just ask them to put them back in after a couple of minutes. I think education is paramount to the survival of black bream and I try to pass this message on in a way that the kids listen to and understand.
Anyway mate it's like any situation you've got to weigh it all up and make the call. Getting abusive or agressive or breaking someones gear probably won't solve anything and you end up on the same level as them.
Anyway just my experience. Hope that helps you.

Regards
Marc

[Becker_11]

Mate your wasting your time you've only seen 1 guy try driving past 'bout midnight there will be 6 or 7 of them there in all weather .... it's been going on for years I drove a cab for 7 years on nights and it was always the same ....

But I agree with you keeping undersize bream bugs the hell out of me too

Cheers
Nathaniel

[Acanthopagrus]

Wait till you enter a asian restuarant in Northbridge with Bream bearing fresh hook wounds ready for the table in a live tank.

[Rosie]

Lets not start this racism issue again but i can see were your coming from. lets hope it never gets that way as other countries have

[Yardi]

I am sure the SOU boys at the Fisheries Department would be very interested in Bream in tanks in restaurants. They love to go and audit the books on these type of people. Also take as many details as possible, i.e. Car rego etc if possible, where they where fishing, how many undersize they had, pass this on to the Fisheries guys in Freo. They will then pay them a visit or at the very least add their names to a data base

[CHUNQX]

Thats the problem isn't it? There is a size limit on fish caught if you were fishing but you could go to a wet market and see all sorts of undersized fish there and fisheries don't have a say there. Time to plug in that legal loophole. Simple common sense says that if the undersized fish is being sold, it has to have been caught. If they can't catch the ones catching them, prosecute the ones selling them and the ones catching them will not be able to sell them to the fish mongers and will then stop netting for them.
Its like narcotics, they are illegal to plant, to produce and to sell and to possess.
Undersized fish is illegal to possess, to obtain (catching) and therefore should be illegal to sell too...
Where I see complications may be that different states have different size limits. Vic limit is 26cm, Qld limit is 23cm NSW is 25cm, so if a fish shop in Vic gets their fish from Qld, it could be legally caught there but illegal in Vic. A lot of fish caught commercially comes from Eden, NSW...

[Lone Ranger]

Like most states your Fisheries Dept may not be concerned as they may not have sufficient staff to cover. On this occasion however, there may be another way around it which may protect the fish, cyclist and pedestrians .... contact your local roads authority which is this one I belief? There is a section for "Reporting a Hazard" HTH

quote:
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Cycling is a growing, important part of Western Australia's transport network. Main Roads is committed to providing safe and convenient facilities which promote cycling and the environmental, health and economic benefits.http://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/NR/mrwa/run/start.asp

[Acanthopagrus]

Lets not start this racism issue again

I make no apologies for the terminology.

If it had been a monogolian resturant or italian whatever I would have refered to the type of food served.

I can asure you Im far from racist.

Im so mongrel Aussie (5 nationalities) I see really no race.

Kicking over buckets and rods does nothin for the cause of doing the right thing.

A simple look in the bucket, walk away and get on the phone has most so friggin paranoid they run within a couple of minutes.

Besides involving yourself in assault charges results yourself in a total backfire and an opponent rebelling in the worse possible manner by doubling fish rissole product.

Think smart and dont let emotional action determine your plight.

"Gee they look small" *steps back 20 paces and makes bogus fisheries call*

To win the fight with just thought is the goal of any Jedi

[zimeric]

I can't agree more!

i have noticed that in the last two days he has been a little more discrete and moved onto the bank alongside the bridge

On a side note: this morning there were some fisho's from the tackleshack trying their luck for mullas-
anybody know if they got anything?