Why It's Important To Release All Big Fish
Why Is It So Important To Release The Really Big Fish?
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve clashed a couple of times with an angler who made the call to knock a very large old girl flathead on the head. The excuses and justifications for this act of extreme selfishness were wide and varied, ranging from “my grandfather would be proud” to “there are heaps of these big fish in that system to “fish that size are past their prime as breeders and of course “The law says I can, so I’ve done nothing wrong”.
Polite attempts to draw attention to the science that refutes these claims received the response “anyone who has been fishing this system as long as I have knows that’s wrong.
Obviously, with extremely selfish and short sighted individuals such as this, pointing at facts is a waste of time – their only concern is for themselves and they’ll do whatever they want, to hell with everyone else. But for those who genuinely do care about the future of fishing in Australia, here are my responses to some of the more ridiculous arguments that were thrown up. BTW, this discussion was focused on flathead, but I reckon the same applies to the big individuals of any species we catch (except on those odd occasions where the fish won’t release well):
Flimsy Excuse #1: “There’s no shortage of these big fish, we catch more big flathead today than when we were kids”.
That’s probably true. And if so it’s because the majority of anglers are considerate enough to put those trophy fish back. I know anglers who have tagged flathead and recaptured them personally 3-4 times, or others have caught the same fish. These days the majority of anglers understand the importance of these big individuals (yes, even though they’re not always protected by law). You, on the other hand, just prevented any other anglers from catching, enjoying and releasing that fish again. Clearly, if the masses were to revert to this kind of behaviour those trophy fish would again become depleted.
Flimsy Excuse #2: “The really big fish are past their prime as breeders and you improve recruitment by removing them from the system”.
Please. Really? The fecundity (ability to produce good numbers of viable eggs) of some species may decline when fish get really large, perhaps. Or not, I haven’t spent a huge amount of time researching it. But there is plenty of published scientific evidence that the potential fecundity of flathead continues to increase irrespective of size and that the relative fecundity stays constant for their whole lives. What does all that mean? It means that the bigger the flathead, the more eggs it produces, full stop. And that a 1m fish can easily produce as many VIABLE eggs as 8 or 9 fish of 42cm length. In fact, a recent University of Queensland study showed that flathead of 75cm and longer contributed 13% of the juvenile fish recruitment, yet themselves were less than 10% of the flathead population. Big fish are important breeders.
Flimsy Excuse #3: “Smaller, younger fish are more likely to produce viable eggs”
I think I already answered this above…… but let me give you one more thought. When you want to breed a winning racehorse you breed two winning horses. When you want a good working dog you breed two good working dogs. And your best chance of having trophy fish is if the biggest specimens remain in the system to breed. By removing big fish from the system you are artificially removing the genes for long life and large size. And you are favouring the breeding of smaller fish. It’s a lose-lose situation all round for the future of fishing.
Want some more reading on flathead breeding?
https://goldcoastsportfishingclub.com.au/interesting-info-on-dusky-flattie-age-length-and-weight/
https://www.fish.gov.au/Archived-Reports/2014/Documents/Gray_and_Barnes_2008_Dusky_Flathead_Final_Report_REPORT.pdf
https://fish.gov.au/Archived-Reports/2014/Documents/2014_refs/Flathead%20Final%20Report%202000_120.pdf
Greg "Doc Lures" Vinall
Podcast Host, Lure Maker, Scientist, Educator
Greg is host of the Australian Lure Fishing Podcast. He’s an Aquatic Scientist, Lure Maker, Speaker and Author in the recreational fishing space.
Once again Greg, you explore the hot topics in fishing and put them into words most of us couldn’t.
Like many others I fully support your argument and share your anger and grief. I’ve always said we should preserve the “big fish gene” in all species – thanks for finding the scientific research that backs this up.
Cheers Brett, it’s sometimes difficult to believe there are still people out there that can’t comprehend this stuff!
Totally agree! I see it happen a lot on Facebook, overall social media has changed how people fish, most for the good via catch and release but over the last couple of years there seems to be a generation coming through that don’t care and do what ever they want even if its wrong and that needs to change so future generations can enjoy! For that particular reason I don’t tend to post stuff that much any more as I’m sick of all the negative comments. I have caught that is what I have recorded 30 pIus flathead in the last 10 years over all over 70cm and 2 in the 90’s if I kept these I know fishing in my area would drop off, in saying that I could have caught the same fish more than once. I agree with changing size and bag limits but to curb these selfish people we need more fisheries on the water and the penalties need to be more severe! Rant over too! Keep up the good work Greg!
Thanks Shane, appreciate your comments and congrats on being one of those who recognise the value of big fish and make a point of returning them to the water! Greg
Hi Greg,
Great podcast, I couldn’t agree more. I had the same experience recently with social media when someone posted 10 Mangrove Jacks they caught and were really proud of themselves. I congratulated them on an amazing day fishing and I made a very pleasant comment about maybe he could have thrown a few of them back…..Well, you would have thought I have slept with his missus!
I made a few extremely nice comments in returning (considering I was absolutely fuming!) stating that we should protect these amazing fish as much as we can….from one fisherman to another. Unfortunatley, mate I received more negative comments than positive.
Greg, I really hope us fishermen can try to understand and appreciate how fragile our estuary systems are, and a podcast like this hopefully can help people see their selfish actions have consequences for all of us and future generations.
I really appreciate the work that you do mate with your podcast and the information you provide, my $10 a month is money well spent!
Thanks heaps for your kind words Paul – and for supporting the ALF podcast via Team Doc Lures. Yes, I kept things polite too, though I had to bite my tongue pretty hard to keep a lid on things! I guess we just have to keep at it and hope to one day change attitudes.
Hi Doc Greg,
I’ve just had a listen to this episode. What a great listen and as usual full of facts.
I don’t catch many fish, and I don’t think I’ve ever caught a trophy fish. What I can guarantee is that when I do catch a monster, I will do my best to treat it well and watch it swim away.
It’s up to all of us to try and educate as many people as we can.
Great episode and very thought provoking.
Thanks for your kind words and your great attitude towards conserving fish Phil. May you catch that trophy fish sooner than you thought possible 😉
Great talk!
Please reach out as I’d love to get the science you have.