Fishing: Cray clampdown coming

A tidy-up of fisheries regulations aims to eliminate anomalies and difficult prosecution decisions as well as some questionable fishing methods.

The controversial methods include "bobbing" for crayfish or using snares, pull-pots and ring-traps.

Bobbing uses a bait-filled stocking or old football sock tied to a rope which is weighted and thrown off a fishing ledge.

The odd cray will become entangled in the mesh or wool and can be drawn gently to the surface, where they often break legs off in a panic to get away.

I've used the method myself, with limited success but the odd surprise in a good-sized red.

But the latest legal decision as sought by MFish is that it's illegal, based on the mesh size limits for pots.

Pull-pots, where a bait-filled cylinder is dropped on a reef and the fisher pulls up any cray that enters, are ruled out because they do not include the required escape holes.

Ring-traps are plastic or metal boxes filled with bait, with strings of small rings dangling below. Dropped to hang over a reef, they attract crays which entangle themselves in the rings. They cull young and females in berry, with those snared often breaking legs off to escape.

The Recreational Fishing Council is dead-set against ring-traps, but in two minds about pull-pots, which are widely used in the South Island.

Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope has asked for council involvement in the regulatory review and the council has identified crayfishing as one area needing adjustment.

It has also proposed changes to regulations on possession of scuba gear and shellfish, as well as the issue of counting of scallops on the seabed as opposed to a boat.

Technically, an angler who goes to Foodtown and buys mussels for bait and then takes his scuba gear on the boat to dive for paua can have boat, car and gear confiscated. And a party on a boat cannot include snorkellers looking for paua or mussels as well as a diver taking scallops.

The ministry last year warned that scallop divers had to measure the shellfish and count their daily bag limit on the bottom, and some who brought over-limit numbers to the surface to sort have been fined and had boats impounded.

Divers maintain it is a safety issue and point to the fact that dredge-users bring up in excess of their limit then sort on the boat.

There's also the anomaly that the boatman using a dredge is entitled to a bag limit of 20 scallops because he is deemed to have participated in the gathering, but a boatman for divers is not.

Some drop divers and, once they have their share, drop a dredge. The dredge does more damage to the beds than letting the divers bring up 20 shellfish for the boatman.

The law has been changed to stop specific instances of poaching or pushing of the regulations. Fisheries officers have had a party on a boat claim a six-cray quota for a 2-year-old child; there have been cases where divers have filled a holding tank with crays, returned home with their daily bag then gone back to the pot on successive days to bring home consecutive daily bags.

So the issues of "take" and "possess" are unclear and subject to abuse that then threatens the access of all fishers.

"There are so many scenarios - we're looking for some common sense," said council secretary Max Hetherington.

Benson-Pope expects the review to be completed before the start of the new fishing year on October 1.

He is also looking to establish an independent fisheries advisory panel to meet around four times a year and advise on areas of concern. Advertisements inviting applications appeared last weekend.

THE fishing is hot, wherever you are. Gamefish reports have everything all abuzz, from Napier round North Cape to New Plymouth, with multiple catches being reported at clubs and many boats nailing multiple billfish in a day.

At this stage 2005 looks like being a record year for yellowfin tuna - they and skipjack have been schooling in numbers not seen for many years.

The snapper fishing has also been hot, mostly early morning and evening, with limit bags common around Auckland. The fish are not huge - up to 3kg in the main - but there is no shortage and they are feeding more aggressively.

For a change there is some consistency, with squid-baited flasher rigs the best bet and the holes around the inner Gulf islands all producing well.

About 3000 anglers will be at the annual Furuno contest at Pah Farm, Kawau Island, with talk of turning it into a more family-friendly event finding little support among regulars, for whom the weekend has long been a chance to get away with mates and without family.

The trout fishing has been "ballistic" in the Rotorua lakes, according to Eastern Fish and Game manager Steve Smith.

"It's been going crazy at the stream mouths. The fish are sheltering from the heat in the cold water plumes, they're in huge densities, so we have a long lineup of anglers but they're all getting fish."

Best times are morning and evening. The Ngongotaha, Hamarana, Waititi and Owahou stream mouths have been best. There have been several fish in the 4.5kg range out of Rotoiti, and many of 3kg.