Fisheries Victoria Fish-e-Fax

A fortnightly round-up of recreational fishery management issues Fish-e-Fax Issue 209, 22 November 2007 Released bream and snapper have bright prospects Tagged snapper recaptured seven years later Stocking update Released bream and snapper have bright prospects Fisheries Victoria has released a new fish length ruler that includes a recent change in the minimum legal size for snapper.

Released bream

A Department of Primary Industries (DPI) study has confirmed the belief of many anglers that, if handled correctly, most black bream and snapper survive after release.

When releasing undersize fish, many anglers assume that all or most of them survive. It is important to know if this assumption is correct to help determine the effective management tools, such as size and bag limits, in protecting fish stocks from the effects of fishing.

Fisheries scientists investigated how many released black bream and snapper survive post release and ways to improve their chances of survival. A group of expert volunteer research anglers were enlisted to catch and release bream and snapper under a variety of conditions.

The study found that many factors could affect the survival of hooked and released bream and snapper, but the most significant one was whether the fish were shallow-hooked (mouth) or deep-hooked. Researchers found the mortality rate among mouth-hooked bream and snapper was about 1 to 2 per cent compared to 22 to 23 per cent for both species when deep-hooked.

Rod fishing trials were also undertaken, comparing fishing with a tight line to using a slack line. A slack line gave the fish a greater chance of swallowing the bait before the angler reacted and hooked the fish. This meant there was a greater chance of the fish being deep-hooked and not surviving.

Further work is needed to determine the proportion of shallow-hooked to deep-hooked fish in Victorian recreational bream and snapper fisheries, but it is anticipated that overall survival of released undersize fish would be at least 85 per cent.

As a result of the study, DPI fisheries scientists recommend that anglers:

• Fish with a tight line because this leads to more shallow-hooked fish;
• Fish with a larger hook because this reduces the chances of deep-hooking undersize fish; and
• Cut the line if a fish is deep-hooked instead of removing the hook.

Date:	Water:	Species	Number:	Date:	Water:	Species:	Number:
1/10/07	Beaufort Lake	Brown trout	200	17/10/07	Guthridge Lake	Rainbow trout	250
1/10/07	Beaufort Lake	Rainbow trout	800	18/10/07	Eildon Lake	Rainbow trout	510
1/10/07	Eildon Pondage Weir	Brown trout	50	19/10/07	Yarranbat Lake	Rainbow trout	250
1/10/07	Eildon Pondage Weir	Rainbow trout	819	19/10/07	Jack Roper Reserve	Rainbow trout	250
2/10/07	Kennington Reservoir	Rainbow trout	120	22/10/07	Eildon Lake		1498
4/10/07	Casey Fields Lake	Rainbow trout	400	23/10/07	Barkers Creek Reservoir		600
8/10/07	Merri River (Grassmere to weir)	Brown trout	400	24/10/07	Wurdiboluc	Rainbow trout	500
8/10/07	Merri River (weir to Dennington)	Brown trout	800	24/10/07	Elingamite Lake		500
8/10/07	Moyne River	Brown trout	700	24/10/07	Elingamite Lake	Rainbow trout	500
10/10/07	Navan Lake	Rainbow trout	300	26/10/07	Hanging Rock Lake		300
10/10/07	Seagull Lake	Rainbow trout	500	29/10/07	Wurdee Boluc Reservoir	Rainbow trout	400
11/10/07	Mount Emu Creek (Skipton to Darlington)	Brown trout	1600	29/10/07	Bellfield Reservoir	Rainbow trout	25,000
15/10/07	Emerald Lake	Rainbow trout	400	30/10/07	Eildon Lake	Rainbow trout	4,600
16/10/07	Eildon Pondage Weir	Rainbow trout	500	30/10/07	Eildon Pondage	Rainbow trout	20,000
17/10/07	Blue Rock Lake	Brown trout	300	31/10/07	Bellfield Reservoir	Rainbow trout	25,000
17/10/07	Narracan Lake	Brown trout	200	31/10/07	Wartook Lake	Brown trout	400
17/10/07	Hyland Lake	Rainbow trout	250	31/10/07	Glenmaggie Lake	Rainbow trout	25,000