Sorry Matthiam to drag this thread to the top for the new year, this post is NOT directed at you but a broadcast to anyone who is interested and listening. Don't take any offense
I suggest mense read the first page of this thread and read what was said regarding fish stocks in this country and dusky cob in particular and the newly discovered facts regarding breeding capabilities of the old cows.
I then suggest you grab a copy of or at least read the new edition of African Angler's "Ski-Boat" magazine and read the article entitled "Dire Straights". I feel completely vindicated and think that we need to realize that we need to get over the "whinger" label and start to actively create a new culture of looking after these fish so we can not loose out in the future as we are loosing out now. This starts with discussing it with fellow anglers, as I do here, and bringing them up to speed with facts and the unfortunate truth of where we currently stand.
http://www.africanangler.com/sb_article.asp?id=985
Some things that struck me from the research is that we have estimated at less than 1000 of the big breeding dusky cows left, that shocked me, I had no idea it was so bad when I replied to this thread earlier in the year. Another is that the survival rates of the larvae to actual fish is so low that an 8kg young adult may have something like only 4 fish survive to adulthood from her first spawn, the difference between here and a large eg. 50kg cow is exponential with estimated 15000 fish surviving to adulthood from a large cow's spawning event. I know other research I have read found that older cobs would spawn a few times a year while the younger fish only once so that makes the numbers even worse with a cow cob making something like 10000 times more baby fish in a year than a good size 8kg female. And we have less than a thousand of those bitches left..shocking. It is just a numbers game and we are currently loosing big time, slot limits are the future. We can win so easily if we just play the game right.
We need to start implementing this ourselves, we cannot wait for the state for do it for us, let everything go below a certain size and let everything go back above a certain size. Big old cows we should not even remove from the water for pictures, like they have legislated for tarpon in the florida. We need to do this not because it is the legal thing to do, but the right and ethical thing to do. We need to educate ourselves regarding our target species, what is their stock condition, ecology, breeding nuances etc.. so we can all have better fishing for the future. No brainer as far as I'm concerned.
