south of rotto  on the southen bank    just drifting

the bigger dhuhies , like the smaller ones, sometimes dont release well. So unless people had release weights there would be alot of big ones floating around on the surface if ther was a maximum size.

Im still a bit concerned about the release weight.. If you bring up the fish slowly then generally there should be no problem.. I feel that sometimes the release weight just takes fish back down to the bottom and then you wont get to see them float back up..

Also.. What about the speed of the fish going down.. The biggest release weight i got is easily a 24 ounce and makes me feel like the fish would suffer more compression on the way back down.. and if it doesn't successfully release off the weight, then it has to go through the decompression again when it comes back up..  If it does come off the release weight and doesn't swim off then it floats back up and decompress's again..

Hard to determine if it does really help in the successful release of fish or is a money maker for some smart bugger.. Still a good idea in theory, hard to prove in my opinion..

You think it is a spawning aggregation ground salmo?

I know that they actually exist now and I'm pretty positive that dhuies are schooling fish at certain times of the year..

Off mandurah there is some ground the size of a footy field apparently where they all are known to congregate and spawn..  And i've also heard on good authority from a pro fisherman at Walpole that there is a huge spot where they all school for spawn..

I suppose it isn't hugely different from many of the other species, snapper in the sound, mulloway at blackwall, sambos at the barge..  I think we've also found another little patch that they seem to congregate around out from Ocean Reef, we call it dhufish alley, but we don't fish it all that often unless we really want a feed of dhuie.. can't say we've had the same catch statistics as you have had Salmo with your patch, but all being female might be a bit of a concern..

I know what you mean about the release weights often being hard to get the fish off.. its quite a lot of stuffing around trying to get the fish back and I wouldn't be suprised that if you were anchored up and send one down it would spook the fish a bit.. Hard to tell really, be interesting to see with one of those under water camera's, if you could send it down that far..

Yep tend to agree that the Dhuies might be congregating....makes sense...I never believed the living in solitude/territorial story 
 
Have now moved ground a bit after noting only the females were coming aboard....even though there was a range of sizes amongst them.
 

Know what you mean.. I sometimes get that guilty feeling too.. Like when i put my mulloway frame in for research and found out it was 7 years old.. which is not too old really, but when you consider the age of what a dhuie may be when it gets to that size.. you sorta start to think a little..

But.. Its what we do and how we eat, its like a saying I heard recently:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day,
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime..

Certainly seems as if the dhuies are inclose at the moment.. Rotto horseshoe's always have heaps of just size ones..

Yeh mate, Can do.. Let me know which day is best and I'll be there.. Will send you an email..