Hey Dawny
I know what you are saying and fully understand your frustration.
I have lived in southwest of WA for many years. When I was younger, I fished the Geographe Bay area along with areas such as Hamlin Bay, Augusta and the many spots between Albany and the mouth to the Donnelly river.
I watched my father and his friends take many many kilo's of fish in all these areas using nets, we would just pull in the 4wd, wait for the correct tide and the net would come out and trust me, we never missed out.
The education of how we treat fish stocks was needed, putting back fish you dont need, to small or just releasing the fish to keep up breeding stocks was needed.
The education now needs to filter to the semi professional fisherman. They are not policed as heavy as the recreational fisherman.
When I take my boat out, I get checked on the water, checked at the boat ramp and asked questions by the inspectors, very regularly. Its quite annoying at times but I understand why they do it. They check at all regional areas as well. In have been inspected at Jurien Bay, Exmouth, many spots in southwest.
I always ask the inspectors, do they have the same vigilance on the professional and semi professional fisherman, they all answer the same. No
There just isnt the same amount of inspections on the professional fisherman as they dont have the enough resources. Its easier to annoy the recreational angler/boat fisherman as they are easier to patrol and watch. Closer to shore, plenty of small boats around the place to annoy.
The fish stocks have fallen in all areas which I fish with the only exception being the area from Walpole through to Albany, there is plenty of fish along that stretch and the reason for this is that the professional fisherman cant be bothered with the amount of shallow reef that is spread over the area, its to hard to navigate without destroying their nets.
Bloody good for us small boats though when the weather is right.
Its been a big whinge between my mates for a number of years, we all do the right thing as the penalties as quite high, not sure the pro's have the same attitude though, we see them on the water all the time and they are fishing in the 2-7 mile area where they used to be out much deeper, they have flogged those deep spots to death and now they are doing the same the shallow depths.
