Page 67 - Demo

Adjusting for water temperature changes
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tremely effective as the sungetshigher,andfish- ing deeper with hard- bodies and weedless plastics will get results.
time to chase them. Whiting are not a common target fish around the region but can be found in good numbers and make for
will be an option in the Fitzroy River and Port Alma,whilebarramundi are still off limits.
move – they have been Hopefully everyone around in low numbers, has a great start to the though you will need newyear.
If we get a bit of rain, mud crabs will start to
to work your pots and keep moving them until you find a couple.
Cheers and happy fishing from Gladstone.
If you’re keen and brave enough to be on the water just before or after an afternoon storm, you will find jack can be extremely aggressive and willing to hit almost anything offered.
a great feed.
Grunter will still be
Don’t rule out the use of pillie for bait – at times they can out-fish a live bait or a well- presented lure.
These same pylons will hold plenty of queenfish, with the odd trevally mixed in – the trouble could be find- ing which of the many pylons are holding fish.
Flathead will be around in good numbers on most sand banks and at creek mouths, and the last hour or two of a run- out tide will be the best
A school or two of blue salmon will be ap- pearing in the harbour and deeper sections of the rivers.
Blue salmon will be around, particularly in the harbour. This one ate a soft plastic on the ats.
around in quantities throughout the harbour and around the ship- ping marker pylons.
Also, threadfin salmon
8A0-year-old midnight snapper found in WA
N 81-year- by two decades. tral Indian Ocean. Fish otoliths contain a fisheries survey af- old mid- “Until now, the old- It looked at three annual growth bands ter Nirvana came and night snapper est fish we’ve found in species not targeted that can be counted in went.
caught off the coast shallow, tropical water by fishing in the state; much the same way as “It’s just incredible
of Western Australia has taken the title of the oldest tropical reef fish recorded any- where in the world.
have been around 60 years old,” Dr Taylor said.
the red bass, midnight snapper and black and white snapper.
tree rings.
Dr Taylor said the
for a fish to live on a coral reef for 80 years.”
The octogenar- ian fish was found at Rowley Shoals about 300km west of Broome, and was part of a study that has re- vised what we know about the longevity of tropical fish.
Dr Taylor said the research will help us understand how fish length and age will be affected by climate change.
“It survived the Great Depression and World War II,” he said.
Funding was provid- ed by the Bertarelli Foundation and con- tributed to the Ber- tarelli Programme in Marine Science.
“We’ve identified two different species here that are becom- ing octogenarians, and probably older.”
Co-author Dr Ste- phen Newman from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Devel- opment said long- lived fish were gener- ally considered more vulnerable to fishing pressure.
oldest red bass was born during World War I.
The research is pub- lished in the journal Coral Reefs.
“It saw the Beatles take over the world, and it was collected in
The research identi- fied 11 individual fish that were more than 60 years old, includ- ing a 79-year-old red bass also caught at Rowley Shoals.
“We’re observing fish at different lati- tudes with varying water temperature to better understand how they might react when temperatures warm everywhere,” he said.
“Snappers make up a large component of commercial fisheries in tropical Australia and they’re also a key target for recreational fishers,” he said.
Australian Institute of Marine Science fish biologist Dr Brett Taylor, who led the study, said the mid- night snapper beat the previous record holder
The study involved four locations along the Western Australia coast, as well as the protected Chagos Ar- chipelago in the cen-
“So, it’s important that we manage them well.”
Marine scientists are able to accurately de- termine the age of a fish by studying their ear bones or otoliths.
Photo: Brett Taylor, AIMS.
www.bnbfishing.com.au
Bush ’n Beach Fishing, January 2021 – Page 67