Kingfish contest overkill?

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    Posted: 25 Jun 2019 at 8:59am
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Hi Craig, after reading about the decline in Tauranga harbour kings, this is slightly off topic but what is your view of the BOI Yellowtail Tourny setup. 218 kingfish weighed over 4 days out of a fairly small area with bugger all released. Plus if we factor in all the fish that would have busted off (6kg line)or were sharked we are looking at easily +300 Kingfish killed in the 4 days in a smallish area. Many fish only 6-12kgs.
You would have more idea than me and I might be out of line, I know it is a tournament with history, but if its to have a future wouldn't at least a 12kg min weight or something be beneficial, or can the area handle this ok with no impact.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snuffit. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2019 at 9:08am
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Originally posted by Adam Scott Adam Scott wrote:

Hi Craig, after reading about the decline in Tauranga harbour kings, this is slightly off topic but what is your view of the BOI Yellowtail Tourny setup. 218 kingfish weighed over 4 days out of a fairly small area with bugger all released. Plus if we factor in all the fish that would have busted off (6kg line)or were sharked we are looking at easily +300 Kingfish killed in the 4 days in a smallish area. Many fish only 6-12kgs.
You would have more idea than me and I might be out of line, I know it is a tournament with history, but if its to have a future wouldn't at least a 12kg min weight or something be beneficial, or can the area handle this ok with no impact.

Good to see some soul searching. I suppose a bigger question is - without the tourney would the same number of fish been harvested anyway? Were any regulations broken? Were any fish wasted (not meaning the sharked ones)?

You cant eat my toast fish
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2019 at 10:07am
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Adam, I think it is something that has to be addressed in the contest. The Bay of Islands kingfish do take a hammering all summer long. The contest is just a continuation of the heavy charter and visitor kingfish fishing that goes on through the 'peak' season. Somehow the local kingfish stocks do seem to handle the pressure, but kingfish size can be smaller in the Bay of Islands and it's not uncommon to run into highly educated fish in the middle of summer.

Possibly they could do things in the contest to reduce the high kill rate- higher points for tagging or restrict the number of fish eligible to be weighed. It should be remembered though that the contest just gone enjoyed exceptional weather and sea conditions and coincided with a dying easterly swell that helped keep water temperatures up. Catches were high as a result. Typically this contest can be a battle against the elements with the weather limiting catches.

Personally I think the contest organisers should be wary of repeating the high catch totals and should think about how bad it may look to the wider community. There was a whole dead kingfish floating around the wharf after the contest. It was not good to see.

Thanks for your comments. No doubt they will generate some interesting debate.


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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Fraser Hocks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2019 at 10:30am
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You make some good points Nick.  However its pretty much common knowledge that the kingfish fishery in the area is in decline. Well that's my understanding, so tell me if I'm wrong? Embarrassed.  So anything that encourages increased removal of fish cant be a good thing.  

Personally I wouldn't be involved in any tournament that isn't catch and release only.   I cant see why it cant be a catch and release tournament with photos on sizing mats being enough proof. 
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Mudfish marquand Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2019 at 10:53am
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Fraser, I agree with your last paragraph wholeheartedly. As recreational anglers, no matter what method we use, we need to treat the resource responsibly. As recreational anglers, and particularly myself, we are very quick to point our fingers and blaming declining fisheries on the commercial sector. Whether or not the B.O.I. kingfish fishery can take such a harvest is beside the point. In my mind it shows a complete lack of respect for the resource. The bag limit for kings is too high, and I for one would prefer to see a bag limit NZ wide of one fish per day per angler (except for Tauranga Harbour, where it should be catch and release). Competitions can bring out human greed, where the dollar value of a possible prize exceeds the value of the particular resource. I have seen fish left behind after competitions, guts still in the fish which has started decomposing. Makes no sense to me.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (2) Likes(2)   Quote Troutzilla Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2019 at 7:32pm
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Fishing for big powerful fish on very light tackle is super old fashioned and not cool in my opinion.

It reeks of fishermans egos being put before the long term health of the resource.




It aint no use if it aint chartreuse!
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote FishMan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Jun 2019 at 8:51pm
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I sort-of agree Jeremy, if kingfish are being lost to snags because of light tackle. However, a lot of kingfish are lost to snags on heavy tackle too. One could argue that there are no more kingfish lost to snags on six kilo than on ten or fifteen. The true answer is unknown. I say this because kings often dive for structure less when played gently.

Similarly, I have never lost a kingfish to a shark on a fly rod. And I have caught many kingfish on fly out around Bird Rock and Cape Brett in water where shark eats on hooked kingfish are not uncommon on heavy jig and livebait tackle. The fly rod fights are similar to light tackle fights on conventional gear with the kings plugging away for a reasonably long time in thirty or forty metres of water. Perfect shark fodder you would think, but it has never happened to me.

Consequently, there is no real answer as to whether or not light tackle causes more shark hits on hooked fish than heavy tackle. In my experience it causes less shark hits.

The only argument here then is whether the total landed catch for the tournament was too great and whether or not some effort should be made to mitigate that.

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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Snuffit. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jun 2019 at 8:16am
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By definition fly gear is not the most effective means of catching big powerful fish, but everyone in this part of the forum does it - we even have a thread dedicated to super light tackle fishing (for kahawai). 

I've lost a few kings to sharks on fly gear Craig, off Raglan, off Cape Runaway, off Auckland, off Nth Cape so I can't say that its a method that attracts less sharks than other gear. 




To me it comes back to the regulations - its up to the individual angler as to how they play within the regs. The tourney organisers could change the rules up to reduce what seems to be overkill.

You cant eat my toast fish
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote Marligator Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jun 2019 at 9:39am
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As soon as I saw the numbers caught in this year’s Comp I was concerned. 218 was just way too many. The other thing that is surprising is that the BOI Club for this comp does not follow the NZSFC minimum length of 1m and instead follows the recreational limit of 75cm. if they just followed the 1m limit then the number weighed would have been significantly reduced. Looking at the weighed fish there were 38 fish <10kg of which I would say the vast majority was <1m (has to be very skinny to be >1m), there were another 58 fish between 10-12kg of which I would say 60% would have been <1m. In addition some of the 12-13 kg fish probably would have been <1m if they were fat, but I will ignore that, so conservatively on this rationale if they had used the 1m rule then the number weighed would have reduced to about 145. Still a lot of fish, but much more acceptable. Also the top three boats on a points basis weighed in 50 fish between them with one boat weighing in 20, another 18 and the third 12, this is over 4 days. I am sure none of these fish went to waste but that is a hell of a lot of kingfish. 

 
As Craig said the weather was great which is typically not the case for this comp and it may be one of those things that the minimum size of fish for the comp is kept a bit fluid dependent on the weather and a call is made at the start of the comp as to minimum length dependent on weather and numbers of fish about prior to comp then the numbers weighed could easily be kept to a more acceptable number. Last thing you want is a comp where no fish are weighed.
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote pjc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Jun 2019 at 11:35am
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1 metre minimum size,1 fish per angler per day,reduce contest down to 2 days??

surely us reccs must set a standard so not to have the finger pointed by some comm who just happened to walking around weigh area?

seeing how bop is suppose to be deprived of fish.

Just my thoughts seeing how nzsfc  operates "Legasea"
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