Here’s an interesting video released by the NT Government DPIF revealing the effects of Barotrauma in Golden Snapper (Fingermark).
To minimise our impact on reef fish stocks here’s a few tips from NT Fisheries that recreational anglers can employ when reef fishing in water deeper than 10 metres:
Once you have caught enough for your immediate needs or have reached your possession limit (whichever comes first) stop fishing or change locations and target species less susceptible to barotrauma (e.g. barramundi or trevally).
Keep the reef fish you catch and utilise them (within possession limits) as released fish are unlikely to survive.
Change locations if you keep catching juvenile or unwanted fish.
NT Fisheries recommends the use of large non-offset circle hooks (minimum 5/0) to prevent the capture of smaller fish.
Our underwater video titled ‘Fisherman’s Spy Cam – Psycho Stingray’ made the West Australian online on Sunday 9th February. The West Australian is one of WA’s most read newspapers and asked Robbie Riches, managing director of Get Fishing, to feature the video on their website.
Here’s the full article below:
A Duncraig fisherman has caught a glimpse of the bountiful marine life off the coast of Perth.
Robbie Riches, 30, was in 45m of water 25km off Mindarie when he dropped a camera attached to a baited hook to see what was lurking under the surface.
The sounder on his boat showed a flat patch of reef, but what he saw when he reviewed the footage blew him away.
“One of the most interesting things was the behaviour of the different species and how they interact with each other,” he said.
“A lot of fishermen don’t dive so they don’t get to see what’s going on down there.
“As a fisherman you can learn a lot watching footage like that. For one, it shows dhufish definitely will follow your bait well up off the bottom.”
Mr Riches, the managing director of www.getfishing.com.au, said he was surprised by the variety of fish species, which included WA dhufish, breaksea cod, baldchin groper, snapper, foxfish, silver trevally, goatfish, banded sweep, painted sweetlip, wrasse, wobbegong shark, Port Jackson shark, smooth stingray and more.
“That big dhufish is probably 6-8kgs and it’s probably the highlight of the video, along with the baldchin groper because they’re the main target species,” he said.
“The stingray was interesting because it actually picks the bait up in its mouth, flaps its wings and drags it around a bit.”
When the filming was over, the long-time fisherman and marine science graduate got down to business and caught several dhufish.
