[color=#006600]sparticus[/color] wrote:
[color=#006600]Marthin[/color] wrote:
On a more serious note to myself. Why did the water look like an oilspill on Sunday?
All due respect on a much more serious note the pic above contridicts your report , My friend reckons that what you said is not what he has seen , he also took a pic for all us to see what the trekkers do to Rays. Such a magnificent animal killed for what ? They rather keep the effen Maasbanker and release the ray the maa se bankers !!!
Sparticus i'll highlight in bold what i said in my post. Your friend doesnt contradict what i said, he verified it!!! Read again....
Hi,
often i've read posts regarding the treknetters. today after fishing with Baldrick they were busy pulling out a net near palletjies. I was under the impression these were unscrupelous harvesters, taking everything in the net.
All undersize kob were released. An elderly chap picked up three injured ones that were still reviving and put them into a bag. The treknetters quickly told him the odds if he took one more struggling fish that has been released!!!
A big steenbras was caught in the net. The moment it was visible it was taken with great care by a scruffy looking chap and released, swam off like a train!!
All non edibles, blue ray, eagle/bull ray, some lesser sandies, and 2 normal brown rays were taken. All under a 30cm wingspan safely released. 3 electric skates?? were also released, and gave 3 innocent helpers a shocking experience.
All small maasbanker that were fit were released, and the dying were handed out to eager fishermen as bait.
One thing bothered me, ALL ELF were taken. there was about 14 in the net, different sizes and they were all taken and sold like hotcakes.
A nice catch of BIG mullet was taken.
3 Nice Belman
2 Very big strepies
About 4 size kob.
Except for the ELF, i have to say the guys tried their best to get undersize and illegal fish back in the water chop chop like, and didnt stop at idle threats if "innocent bystanders" tried to scale a fish that should be released. Now i havent seen what happens if they get a school of tail or kob, and the slaughter it might be, but today was an eyeopener to me.
So, again they released the small ones.
I have never defended the treknetters. I simply said what i saw on sunday. I can say this, bar the non eds, treknetting doesnt come close to what the guys are doing with nets in the bergriver catching mullet and killing thousands of undersize elf.
Also i'm tired of people being hypocritical, and also hitting out at something and not the other, starting with the beach driving... (Sparticus this isnt meant at you just in general)
1. beach driving is illegal, keeping undersize elf for live/dead bait is illegal, buying any bait from any person that doesnt have a permit to sell such bait is illegal, pumping more prawn than allowed is illegal, keeping undersize fish is illegal and the list goes on. Sometimes there is a fuss made of these things, but more often than not some things are accepted as okish. Any of the above is just as illegal as the guy that took out boats full of red steenbras. Which has the bigger effect is another topic. But as the big man said 2000 years ago.... "haal die balk uit jou oog voordat jy die splinter uit n ander s'n wil haal. If you are not doing ANY of the above or any other, by all means stand on the soap box and scream as loud as you can
2. If skates and killing thereof is such a big issue for anyone, i suggest boycotting Checkers/Pick&pay etc because of the skate wings they are selling. These are the people creating the market. I had never seen skate wings for sale until i moved to cape town. (naive boy from the platteland)
3. I cannot answer for the amount of fish taken in the last 2 weeks, neither do i want to, i merely was impressed by what i saw on sunday. By all accounts i might have just seen a good day out of thousands of shitty ones.
4. Walt it wasnt oil, but looked like it, downright filthy water.
5. Perhaps i should have posted my question regarding the elf a bit clearer. I saw that all elf were taken. I hoped to get a legal point of view or size limit for commercial fishing of elf or bycatch etc.
6. I would like to know how much non eds they take out. Again if i ever visit the factory in Gordon's Bay again where i saw the shark meat, i'll get some pics. I'm telling you what the treknetters took is nothing. Not even a blip. Commercial shark fishing is taking 3 - 4, 1mX1mX1m containers FULL TO THE TOP with shark fillets DAILY, and this is one factory out of false bay, right under your noses.
On one afternoon i saw more dead small bronzies and smooth hounds than i promise you a whole season of all catches of both species from the coast in False Bay & Langebaan combined.
Yes killing the duckbill for a buck is extreme. But in my opinion we have bigger immediate problems.
A ray i took a picture of on sunday. Sorry the pic was a bit small.
I hate treknetters!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is so sad to see!!! Loomis caught this nice Duckbill Friday night which was re-leased after measuring 1.60 meters.
