Fisheries Minister Norman Moore today announced Western Australian recreational fishing rules would be made a lot simpler following a major review.

The review included extensive consultation with WA’s recreational fishing community which provided more than 900 public submissions. 

Mr Moore said he supported Recfishwest’s recommendations developed from the consultation.

“Currently there is a myriad of different rules across four different regions, whereas the new rules will apply on a State-wide basis and removes many of the significant variations that exist between the regions,” he said.

“The changes will remove the complexity of the existing regime.  For example, the existing 13 finfish bag limits categories will be cut to four new resource-based categories across the State covering demersal, pelagic, nearshore/estuarine and fresh water.

Key changes include:

• Large pelagic fish - mixed bag limit of three fish across WA
• Demersal species - mixed bag limit of five outside the West Coast Bioregion
• Nearshore and estuarine fish - mixed bag limit of 16 across WA
• Freshwater - mixed bag limit of four
• Standard bag limit of two barramundi across WA
• Standard bag limit of eight for all rock lobster species across the State
• Possession limits - no use of commercial couriers to transport unaccompanied fish
• Simplifying the rules of processing/filleting at sea and how they are landed.

The new rules come into effect from the beginning of February 2013.

“This outcome shows the recreational fishing community is willing to co-operate to improve the fishing experience for everyone in Western Australia,” the Minister said

 Wtf?? We've been bent over again

 http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/rec_fishing_guide/rules_guide_statewide.pdf

By road a little harder unless you have a portable freezer or drive really quick.  I usually bring back a few ( not lots and never over 10kg) coral trout fillets but have used a professional freezer truck to ensure they retain perfect condition - oh well Engel sales will be boosted  

I don't really see how we've been screwed over?

Recreational fishers were given ample opportunity to have their say (900 people actually bothered), and infact many of the original proposals were adjusted according to community feedback...i don't see that as 'being screwed' myself.

I think it's fair. 

They have done a good job in simplifying the rules and put it into an easy to follow booklet.

Not all limits have been reduced, increase in pelagics to transfer some of the pressure off slow growing demersals.

Putting Spanish Flag and Charlie Courts in a seperate category to the prized demersal fish was a good idea. As well as raising the limit of Black Snapper to 5 to keep Shark Bag Gulf fisho's happy.

Looks to me that metro fishers get one extra pelagic fish in the mixed bag limit and 4 extra in the medium risk (near shore and estuarine) mixed bag limit.  

am i miss reading somewhere, or have some of the boat limits been lifted?

i know dhu's are still 2 per boat, but if i had 4 lic holders on board i can have 2 dhu's and 6 pinkys or 8 pinkys and no dhu?

cheers

Think you can have 2 Demersal each and no more than 2 Dhu per boat,so 2 on the boat means 1 Dhu each and another Demersal ie pinky or baldy each, or 2 pinks each or a  mixed bag of 2 demersal.Doesnt look like much has changed re demersals Think you have it right fisho - ron ?

 Simplified???? Seems everyone's confused already.

Im still a little confused but bit simpler as its on a statewide basis. But just something that has always got me confused, if I have 3 people on board each of whom are licensed how many demersals can I have? I'm pretty sure 2 dhuies is max regardless but what about pinkies and baldies?

3 licensed fishermen = 6 demersals of which 2 could be dhuies.

  ie= 2 dhu 4 baldie    (or whatever mix of demersals you got (2 each))

      or no dhu and 6 in total of baldies or pinkies, black ass,  or whatever (2 each per fisho)

3 licensed fishermen = 6 demersals of which 2 could be dhuies.

  ie= 2 dhu 4 baldie    (or whatever mix of demersals you got (2 each))

      or no dhu and 6 in total of baldies or pinkies, black ass,  or whatever (2 each per fisho)

might as well make it 3

so they have removed some of the other boat limits?

edit: my bad, i thought there was a boat limit of 4 pinkys, but i just looked on the old rules and no boat limit.

 But it says mixed bag limit of 5 demersals. How's that 2 per person? Or am I reading it wrong. 

so for west coast nothing has changed as usual. Am i wrong

 supposed to be more uniform across the state. Missed that mark. 

 Just read it on the fisheries site and now it all makes sense.  

 For the West Coast bioregion, nothing much has changed. Still 2 demersals per lisence. You can however keep an extra pelagic / shark now though, and they've removed individual bag limits from pelagics, so you can keep up to 3 of any pelagic (apart from Marlin, Sailfish & Swordfish).

For the rest of the state, the limits have been altered a fair bit more. Previously pelagics and demersals were grouped together and you could take a max of 7 'high risk sp'. Now you can have 5 demersals, and 3 pelagics, so for you guys saying you've been 'screwed' I dont see how? 

You'll also notice that Mulloway, Threadfin, Mangrove Jack, Barramundi etc are no longer classified as 'high risk', but now as 'near shore/estuarine'. So if you really want, you can go out, catch 5 demersals, 3 pelagics and up to 16 of these inshore species (provided you dont go over bag limits for individual sp.).
 

I have noticed however that harlequin fish (Othos dentex) are no longer mentioned in the rules. It used to list them under Cods (family Serranidae), but it now classifies cods as Family Epinephelidae, which harlequin are not. I guess harlequins must be free for all then hey? 

KG's have gone from 8 to 12 as well...

it's pretty simple to me. up north it's a mixed bag of demersals of 5 down from 7. you can then take up to the allowed individual limits to make that 5. 1 trout, 2 rankins and 2 reds. when it comes down to grouped species anything with an asterix means you can take up to the individual limit of those, say you get 5 Emperors, you can take 3 Spangos and 2 Red Throats, thats your 5 done or say 1 coral trout, 1 bar cheek coral trout and say 3 bluebone.

nice to see we can keep 3 Reds per angler instead of 2 but Karratha/Hedland has lost it's little 2 Trout bonus we had which sucks as some times it's not hard to get a few when they are on the chew. I like the 800mm max rule for Barramundi and the 2 max possesion limit state wide, smart move to protect the breeding stock and i see that they have made note of no limits for yellowtail scads and needleskin queenies for us northern billfishers. no complaints here in the end. As daniel Y said, get your 5 demersals and your 3 mackies and you have your fillets for the travellers of you out there.

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/recreational_fishing/rec_fishing_guide/rules_guide_statewide.pdf

page 7 and page 4 explain it mate, they are captured as a group of species not just a Coral Trout.

Tuskfish, Coral Trout, Cod, Emperors, Fox Fish, Pig Fish, Red Fish and Tropical Snapper & Seaperch are groups, individual limits apply to each fish be it 1, 2 or 3 depending to your mixed bag limit.

Wow, that is a bit of a step change from previous rules! Not easily understood, but the example with emporer makes it easier.

So does this mean that we can only take the equivalent of 2 x licences and that the limit for the boat ?

Boat limit

In addition to bag limits there are also boat

limits. A boat limit is the maximum number of

fish of a species or group of species that may be

on a boat or attached to a boat at any one time.

On day trips in powered boats, there must be two

or more Recreational Fishing from Boat Licence

(RFBL) holders on board to take a boat limit. This

includes boats used for recreational crabbing.

This year fishing in Coral Bay, with 4 anglers on board I could (not that I did) take 7 fish per angler with a boat limit of 21 fish. If I read the above correctly that now becomes a boat limit of 10 fish ?

All the year and posts on the subject and ,you still get confused ,did any off you guys go to school. Can't see how we got screwed .all looks good to me .We've all known for some time that the limit outside the west coast zone,was going to change.most people go north and feed most there fish to the sharks anyways.