trevour wrote:
If the legal criteria for keeping a fish is incorrect, then the fight should be with those making the law. You can't have a go at someone driving 60km/hour if 60 is the speed limit. If you think 60 is too dangerous, then the limit is what you should spend your energy trying to change.
That's why we have laws - they define what is right and wrong, what we may or may not do, and as citizens we believe decisions for passing laws are made by informed people. So I would agree that people should be left alone if they keep a fish that they are aloud to keep, knowing that the time was taken by informed people with regards to any and every fish to set a legal size and bag limit.a
Trevour you also use some common sense i guess.... if the speedlimit is 60 but like in Cape Town on Frans Conradie between Durban road and Mike Pienaar you know you are passing 2 Schools, and at least 5 pedestrian crossings, you slow down even though the limit is 60km/h.
Someone is petitioning for speedhumps in the meantime, but till then it is up to the average roaduser in that area to apply his mind....
Anycase far off topic but not that much. Use your head.
One day we say the researchers for DAFF are idiots because they closed coppers, banned beach driving, changed galjoen to 2 per season, they say treknetting is sustainable, the made rock lobster season almost nonexistant, there are many more GW's than they say, they closed breede fishing at night etc etc etc....
The next day we say they are geniuses because they got the restrictions on kob and steenbras and so on spot on for their survival and if we keep to those restrictions the species not only are sustainable they will bounce back....
Now either they are idiots and wrong or they are right, we can't have it both ways....
If you are happy keeping the fish keep the fish. In today's age make piece with it someone will ask you why.
I kept the cracker in my avatar. My first one i caught was in a release comp. The next were just undersize, twice by a cm and 3cm, the next one was just size that i kept, then i got this decent one. I kept it and knew i'd get the questions. I havent been upset with one person that asked why. I baked it in butter. People say big crackers taste sleg. They dont. It was lovely, made flakes the size of an old Half Kroon coin. The pieces we didnt eat i made into a curry fish that would make you throw back all the hake and yellowtail you get for the rest of your life.
I've released 2 since. At the spot these were caught we've decided we won't keep one again. My personal decision is one over 10kg will go back from now on.
Make up your mind live with it deal with it carry on. I havent tasted a steenie yet. Heard it's better than grunter, so will probably be a sad day for my first decent steenie, released a few undersize, one was undersize by less than a cm, caught a nice one in a reserve that got tagged and released.
I know enough about Tuna to know he has ecology's best interest at heart, seen enough fish released by him as well.