Fairfield resident Hamish Stewart, 31, has been fishing since he was old enough to hold a rod. Growing up in Coromandel he was out on the water as often as he could and he still goes fishing off the Coromandel coast about once a week.
"I'm all for the changes to the catch limits, but not as dramatic as they've been proposed. A bag limit of seven and increasing the size to 30 or 32cm is right. Reducing the bag limit to three would mean it wouldn't be worth going out," said Mr Stewart.
Sue Whyte, who goes fishing out of Tapu with partner Paul Innes every second weekend, agrees with the seven-fish bag limit and increasing the size to 32cm. But she believes commercial fishing operations also need to be held accountable.
"Commercial fishing operations can take 25cm snapper. I would support a review of their net hole sizes so the smaller snapper can escape. The commercial guys need to improve their practices."
National MP David Bennett said the Prime Minister [John Key] and Fisheries Minister [Phil Heatley] had ruled out the most extreme of the options.
Mr Bennett said there had been "some misinformation around the issue". Mr Macindoe agreed it hadn't helped that the proposals had been "poorly reported". He said several options had been put forward for consultation but it was the most extreme options that garnered the most scrutiny.
"Within those options, there could be increases or decreases to the commercial catch limit and recreational allowance."
The Hamilton MPs and several other National colleagues met the associate minister and several senior Ministry of Primary Industries officials recently to voice their concern on this matter.
"All the MPs who were present supported the general concerns of recreational fishermen and I was not the only one to say how dismayed I am at the way this matter has been handled," said Mr Macindoe.
"A clear message was sent to the officials to improve their communication and consultation meetings with recreational fishermen and to sort things out.
"Overall snapper numbers are up 70 per cent over the last 15-25 years, but are still about half the level of the current management target."
Submissions close today with any new rules due to be in place by October 1.