The current daily limit of five dark flatheads per person for recreational fishing will be maintained. For regulatory purposes, any flathead caught in Lake Tyers or an estuary east of Lake Tyers is considered a dark flathead. « Recreational fishers were very supportive of the proposal to revise legal limits when it was presented at Fisheries Victoria`s public forums in Lakes Entrance and Mallacoota in March and April this year, » Bull said. Flathead loves soft plastics. Almost any flat-headed style or color is not picky. Our favorites include larvae, imitation worms, curly tails, paddle tails, minnow imitations. You just need to cover the floor and bring the soft plastic into their area. Other good options include deep dive bait, vibration, and blades. Watch our detailed video on the best flathead bait and soft plastics c In Victoria, recreational fisheries management regulations are also applied to Aboriginal fishing activities.

Recognized traditional owners (groups that hold Aboriginal title or have entered into agreements under the Victorian Traditional Owners Settlement Act, 2010) are exempt (subject to conditions) from the requirement to hold a recreational fishing licence and may apply for licences under the Fisheries Act, 1995 that allow normal fishing (for example, different capture and size or equipment restrictions). The category « indigenous » in Table 3 refers to the usual fishery by recognized traditional owners. During the 2012-2013 season, there were no applications for the usual fishing licence for access to the Dark Flathead. « The fisheries advisory (dark flathead) introduces a maximum size limit of 55 centimetres for recreational anglers to provide shelter for large fish to help rebuild spawning stocks, » Walsh said. Tim Bull, MP for Gippsland East, said the recreational fishing community was commended for supporting the new size restrictions. Watch our detailed video tutorial on how to catch the flathead with bait, soft plastics and bait. Dusky Flathead`s commercial catch decreased from 17 tonnes in 2012 to 6 tonnes in 2013; However, these annual catches are still twice as high as the commercial catches of the early 2000s. The trend in the 5-year moving average of recreational catch rates is stable.4 Available recreational monitoring data (2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010) suggest that recreational fishers in Gippsland Lakes rarely take a dark flathead with a total length of more than 50 cm4. In November 2013, Victoria introduced a 30-55cm slot limit for recreational Dusky Flathead prisoners. The number of licensed commercial fishers in Victorian waters was reduced by two-thirds between 1986-87 and 2010-11. The majority of licence withdrawals occurred as a result of voluntary licence buy-back programs implemented in 1999-2000 and 2005-2006. The above data suggest that, given the current rate of fishing mortality, the stock is unlikely to be overexploited.

A maximum size of 55 centimetres has been introduced to allow recreational fishermen to protect large fish to support the recovery of spawning stocks. The minimum size was increased from 27 to 30 centimetres in response to feedback from fishermen about fish of an appropriate size for consumption. This will provide better protection for large brooding flatheads, especially females, and ensure the future prosperity of this popular fishery. The new size limit does not apply to commercial fishing to avoid unnecessary discards of large flat heads. Other rules for commercial fishing will continue to apply. In commercial fisheries, nominal fishing effort continues to decline (5408 fishing days in 2009; 4100 fishing days in 2013).6 It is estimated that recreational fishers targeted the Dark Kit more days in 2013 (163,580 days) than in 2000 (147,580 days). Professional and recreational fishers primarily catch females due to minimum and maximum size restrictions. The minimum size protects most male fish and the maximum size protects large female fish6. There are ownership restrictions for the leisure sector. Dark flathead mouth hooks have high survival after release7. All-cause mortality estimates (based on fishing curves) are high – the fishing mortality rate (F) is higher than the natural mortality rate (M) – but have not shown clear upward or decreasing trends since 20076.

The estimates do not include older fish that are known to be present in the population but are protected by current larger size restrictions. Current fishing effort is unlikely to lead to overfishing of this stock. In Queensland, coastal, river and estuarine gillnets have been shown to have minimal direct impact on the environment and are quite selective in their harvesting12.