[yellowfin]

I can vouch for justfishing and his salmon releasing claim..I lost count of how many fish he returned at the mak mouth last season..excellent angler!

[yellowfin]

i have supported a 1 salmon a day limit at various F&G meetings now,its a shame it wont get lowered at this stage
to not change a salmon daily limit from 2 fish down to one just because often fishermen are travelling long distances and are working hard on any given day is poor reasoning burkefish.

i do many kms a season in my truck, on my 4 wheeler and on foot a year and am happy to catch one fish a day, and release a second if ive caught it. while ive caught quite a few limit bags in my fishing career, im happy now to catch and release more salmon than i take home

on the bright side. nothing at the Hurunui for thee last 3 days, not that that is a bright side

[burkefish]

i think the reasoning is that when you look at the stats the majority of those fishing for salmon catch maybe 1or 2 fish a season. it is the 8 to 10% who catch the majority of the fish that need to change
as most of them should know more about the fishery because the time they spend at it this is where the change is needed and I think the feeling is that that is happening voluntarily. you will get a very small % who still look at large tallies as the pointer of their season. however the change of attitude has become more evident in the last few seasons that conservation is happening. the stats also show that what ever the final run numbers in any season are the catch rate remains constant at just over 50%, its when the catch rate gets to 60%+ that it becomes a major problem.

[yellowfin]

I landed 4 Fish last season (12lb to 16lb), (lost many more). I went in with a goal of getting 5 to keep, and anything over that would be released.
I have the same goal this year.
if at any point I feel I need more salmon from the freezer, I will go to the canals.
And if I catch anything up over the 20lb mark, I would feel obligated to release because i see these fish as Geneticly superior.

So far down south I have heard of a few smaller(6-9lb) fish being landed around the Otago harbour Basin and Taieri River Mouth. I havent heard anything from the Waitaki or Clutha River Yet.

[shark slayer]

i agree fishon thats a poor reason to not drop the limit and why would you complain about catching your limit early in the day?damn! some people you just cant please haha..i got my bag limit in 40 mins a few weeks ago and it felt good to sit down and chill out satisfied and watch my mate plug away,plus it meant i could trash talk him and scyte about how easy it was to get my limit..and it was cool watching him hook and land a 10lber after a hundred or so casts..wich wouldnt have happened if i was still fishing..50 percent harvest rate is way to much and its only an estimate anyway the rnumber taken is probably higher.drop the limit is the key you cant rely on the honesty system,i would also like to see upriver fishing banned from 50km upriver onwards..whats the point in taking dark deconditioning fish that taste like shit anyway??

[yellowfin]

Went to the Waimak last night below bridges. Lots of fisherman and birds working but didn’t see any fish landed. Saw one poor bloke announce “last cast” and with that his the end of his rod came off and the line snapped too. Not a good way to finish. Bugger.

[burkefish]

a lot of volunteer work needs to be done if there are to be more fish in the spawning streams as our rivers do not have large areas to spawn in and though a lot of work is going into protecting what we have there are problems outside of f&g control that can have a detrimental effect on numbers. large numbers of fish spawning don’t necessarily mean a greater return. in 95-96 season 23,000 fish spawned in rakaia- the largest number ever, 3years later there was 1 of the poorest runs ever. they have similar results in the northern pacific when trying to boost runs so much so in some rivers they monitor returns daily and adjust catch rates ,if too many you can take as many as you like. it is a complex problem but supplementing the run as is now happening is proving to have a positive affect but as I said before it relies on volunteer help and in some cases donations for certain projects to continue to improve. it is a complex problem the simple one is a lot more cash is needed to sort it out but lifting licence fees to a level to fund it would be very detrimental as it has been in the past if you can get it past the government.

[burkefish]

if you want to know more read Ross Millichamp’s new book, he give a good summary of the problems.

[yellowfin]

What percentage of licence money is actually going back into the fishery.

[burkefish]

the salmon fishery up until the 90’s use to be the ‘cash cow’ for f&g now its taking a lot of the funds. the annual report is due out so that should give the latest details. do know that f&g north Canterbury has lost a $300,000 contract of supplying smolt for the clutha river to a fish farm and that has ment the cutting of personnel and staff hours.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how many salmon get taken by the fishing trawlers? I’ve tried finding the information online but there’s nothing. It seems a bit strange that Fish & Game (or other fishing groups) don’t kick up a stink about the fishing companies profiting from all the time, effort and money put into the fishery. In fact no one really seems to care or know about it.

Twenty odd years ago, my dad was telling the owner of a local fishing company he knows (who shall remain unnamed) about how he wasn’t having any luck catching a salmon. His reply was that if he wanted salmon he had plenty of it and you can see wild salmon on his companies posters at your local fish and chip shop.

[burkefish]

fishing trawlers if they wanted to could take plenty of salmon but it costs them to much and the price they would get is low because of farmed salmon. a trawler needs to move at a speed that puts too much strain on their gear is not cost effective. in the 80’s they did take a lot but was put a stopped by regulation and penalties. they do get a few government monitoring says less than 1% of the run again details in salmon fever the new addition of the book also lists all the variables that affect the run.

[yellowfin]

I would be interested to see how much money is being taken out of the fishery and lining the pockets of lawyers dealing with irrigation rights.

[burkefish]

I think you will find that it is shared equally between all f&g regions and comes out of the f&g headquarters budget.

[burkefish]

Had a 4hr fish at the point today, excellent water. didn’t see a fish although someone on the otherside by the whitepost lost one ,the net went down so could have been a salmon. believe 1 was caught below the railway bridge this morning and was informed that 2 had been caught up the kaiapoi in the last few days. things are maybe starting to look up especially when some of the regulars are putting in an appearance or is it to get rid of some ‘cabin fever’.

[Author]

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