Department's Plans Fail To Tickle Clubs

Newcastle Herald

Friday August 1, 2008

Fishing, Simon Walker

MARINE Parks is determined to introduce a system of accreditation for social fishing clubs that want to run tournaments within the boundaries of the Port Stephens marine park, according to Nelson Bay angling spokesman Reg Longworth.

And Reg feels the obligation under the proposed accreditation system on small-time social operators is going to exceed their manpower resources and impact negatively on their operations.

Marine Parks, for their part, insist that accreditation is just one of a number of options under consideration to better manage the numbers of tournaments being held in the Port Stephens area.

At present, anyone who wants to hold an activity within the marine park, be it a sailing contest or fishing club outing, must apply for a permit.

Marine Parks assess the applications on a case-by-case basis. Generally, events are approved within a reasonable amount of time.

But Reg is convinced, after attending a meeting of local fishing advisory bodies, that Marine Parks is set to up the ante.

"You're required to get a permit, and soon you'll be required to get accreditation," Reg said. "And I'm telling you, no one could afford the time out of a social club to fulfil the new requirements.

"It's onerous. They'll want a survey for insurance, tourism, economic outlook, benefit to community, whether you give money to fisheries for scientific purposes and they also want you to voluntarily change bag limits.

"They'll want to say to the clubs, 'You make the bag limits, a more restrictive level than what's official with Fisheries' ."

"They'll want us to go round and get all this information on fish stocks and what was caught and released and all that, and hand it over, for free."

Lawrence Orel, a spokesman for the Department of Environment and Climate Change, which controls Marine Parks, said yesterday that the Advisory Council on Recreational Fishing (ACoRF) held a meeting recently at which it was universally agreed that there needed to be improved management of fishing competitions.

But he emphasised that Marine Parks was simply exploring their options at present, and that it was being done in consultation with local clubs.

" Locally, we're looking at exploring options for management of the considerable number of fishing competitions in the Port Stephens area," he said.

"Accreditation is just one of those. We're exploring options with local clubs but I'm not aware of the details that Reg is speaking about."

AcORF advises the Minister for Primary Industries on recreational fishery issues, including maintaining and improving the quality of recreational angling.

Flush with flatties

Stephan Pordage, from Freddys Fishing World, reckons wind and rain haven't been much of a friend to anglers this week.

Nonetheless, he reports Newcastle Harbour and Lake Macquarie have been producing some nice flathead.

"Bream have been a bit quiet," he said. "But they've been getting the odd mulloway around Stockton beach and breakwall.

"Action off the rocks can only improve once the seas settle down: all the muck that's been stirred up will have the drummer and luderick firing.

"Should expect the salmon to regroup too once the wave action abates."

Speaking of luderick, ace fishing spy Tim Isles reports one wily weedmaster was harvesting good-sized fish off the rocks east of the Brewery in Newcastle Harbour last weekend.

Pascoe's pride

Mick Pascoe won the NSW Bassin' series event held up at Glenbawn last weekend.

More than 120 anglers attended, and over 60 boats were on the water.

Numbers were good as competitors warmed up with a bit of pre-fishing for the ABT tournament on Glenbawn next weekend.

Word was they were jigging them up deep, but surprisingly, there was still a bit of an edge bite on the surface.

On the rocks

The Newcastle District Angling Association kicks off the new season with their rock competition this weekend.

There will be a club stamp-out at Burwood Bowling Club between 10am and 11am tomorrow.

Action kicks off at 1pm and concludes Sunday at 12 noon sharp with a weigh-in.

Nominated species for bonus points are bream, drummer, luderick, tailor and snapper and one heaviest of other.

Snapper off Broughton

Charlestown Anglers Steven Marsh, Gavin Dial and Ray Stenhouse fished Broughton Island last weekend and got some nice snapper up to 2kg.

In other news, Robert Irons got a 1.48kg bream in Lake Macquarie through the week and a 10.8kg mulloway on 6lb line, which is a great effort. Charlestown Anglers will hold a club outing at Forster Tuncurry next weekend.

fishing@theherald.com.au

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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