Show your catch, not your kill.

by Jarrod Day, FishingBoating-World Editor on 12 Feb 2013 Having been involved in fishing journalism for the past ten years, I am still dumb founded that some anglers, whether recreational or commercial operators continue to display their catches with piles of dead fish lying on the deck of the boat or on the ground after a fishing session.

In this day and age, anglers right around the country are always fighting a political battle against the high and mighty in attempts to ban marine parks, reduce netting and long lining only to show to the world what they have just killed.

This totally astounds me and I just can’t believe it continues. Images uploaded to Twitter, Facebook and the like can spread world wide like a wild fire and while it might make an angler feel good at the time, it dose very little for our reputation as a whole.

Personally, I would rather see one person, even three anglers in a boat or on the bank holding one fish each displaying their catch after the fishing session. Is this really on? Do we want the government and fishery departments to continually see anglers killing fish and displaying them like they mean nothing? I think not.

While I do not know of the correct solution to fix this issue, I think it is all up to each person individually to take the necessary steps to begin the transformation from a killing machine to displaying their best catch with a nice backdrop of the ocean. You’ll get more respect that way rather than being labelled as a slaughterer.

With that said it is my pleasure to bring you this week’s line-up of educational articles.

Lee Brake re-visits the drains vs. snags theory and dives into the thick of it explaining the how’s and why’s of the productiveness of snag fishing.

Gary visits some local beaches in search of Sydney’s yellow fin whiting and goes through all the ins and outs of how, where and when to target and catch these highly prized bread and butter species. This piece is very precise and if whiting is something you have dreamed of catching, after reading this piece I’d be surprised if you weren’t catching them the following day.

I also hit the shore along Victoria’s south eastern beaches in search of Australian salmon. Salmon are a highly prized species for land based anglers in the south and while they may not be to the likes of South Australian’s monsters, they can be a lot of fun with the right techniques employed.

There is plenty of fishing to be done around the country and with the above articles designed to get you into the action we all hope you have success.

See you on the water,