Lads, you don’t need pics of monster fish to get a mention in the weekly report. If you’ve been chasing bream, flatties or squid, let’s hear about it.

For our Sydney readers waiting for Roseville boat ramp to reopen as promised in July, don’t hold your breath. Here’s a pic I took on Tuesday:

The weather has not been kind and fishing has been a bit "slim". Randal and Angelo had fun out snapper fishing and found a few up at the Drum. The snapper frames are destined for fish stock for Angelo's chowder.  Have seen a few kingies still coming in and bonito and Salmon are still around but few and far between because the water temp has dropped right down. It would seem the Bay has gone into hibernation for now, even the humble flathead have shut down. Time to get on with boat maintenance instead of fishing it seems. Cheers from chilly Jervis Bay, Dave and Kate

Good on you, Dave! We need one of those concealed game cams at Husky ramp, imagine the footage we’d get.

Some good news but unfortunately no pics, from Herb re Sydney Offshore:

Hi Andy, fished today and the 12 mile is holding fish. We jigged for half an hour on our way to hunt tuna. A couple of 68cm kings and a couple of teethy coutas. Only lost 1 jig in the time while hooked up  so dunno if jacket or teeth. Browns is holding lots a blue eye, a couple of charters bagged out! Got an alby about 8kg on the cubes then headed in, Not sure if any fin were caught, wasn’t much chatter for tuna. I know how much you love jigging the 12 and bottom bashing at browns.  What’s an electric setup worth for bottom bashing Browns?  Cheers Herbie

To politics, and if you’ve ever wondered who’s on our side in Parliament, take a look at Barnaby Joyce’s speech on last week’s marine parks declaration:

Labor’s latest foray into their key policy objective of closing things down can now be seen in the oceans of our coast. It is perplexing when trying to go beyond the usual roll out of the rhetoric of imminent environmental destruction to find exactly what they believe is a problem.

Australia extracts less than 30 kilograms of fish per square kilometre from our ocean territory, compared to a global average of 755 kilograms per square kilometre. We are an island continent surrounded by fishing grounds but we now import 72% of our seafood as we close down our capacity to feed ourselves.

We get most of our fish from Thailand, China and Vietnam, and all of these countries extract more than 5,000 kilograms per square kilometre, around 200 times our rate of extraction. Try and buy a fish caught in Australian waters, you will be searching, and now it is going to become even harder.

Burke was a smoking wreck when Barnaby was done with him, so NSW Ports and Roads Minister Duncan Gay hopped into the ring, to finish him off:

The Hon. Duncan Gay: ….. I, like others, saw the Federal Minister for the Environment, Tony Burke, announcing a huge new marine park ringing Australia. My thoughts were, "Here it is, putting out the garbage at the end of the week." That announcement was the first anyone knew about it. My colleague the Minister for Primary Industries received her information on this issue via the television. That is not consultation. This is not about saving the environment; this is about saving the Federal Labor Government. It is typical of the deals that are done by the Federal Government.

Exactly, Duncan. Queensland Senator Ron Boswell:

Thanks for all you do, Ron. And we’ll let the wire do the talking, to Minister Burke:

But sadly there are still some people who don’t get it, and that includes Damon from Nomad Fishing. Like others I could name he thought he had an understanding with Burke, and he got shafted big time:

The Full Story started over 3 years ago, and I've been involved the whole way, with many many meetings with the heads of the environment department and other various scientists, culminating in a meeting with the Federal Environment Minister, Mr Tony Burke, about 4 weeks ago. I hate to get political, but I can only tell you what I've seen in this process and what I've been told by the various government representatives along the way…..

You ‘hate to get political’, Damon. That’s why you lost.

…. we need marine reserves, and properly managed marine parks in Australia, but they must be implemented with conservation and access for low impact activities as their primary goals, not be implemented just to keep green groups happy.

Nice. You support marine reserves, just as long as they’re in someone else’s backyard. Damon, wake up – we don’t need marine reserves in Australia. Marine parks are not about protecting the environment, and Burke is not a conservationist. Seven thousand people protested against Burke in Griffith today.

He ignored them. How likely is it he cares about your operation? Max Rheese has got Burkes’ number:

"Let's recap. The Prime Minister solemnly declares we need to cut 'green tape' and projects a vision for Australia to feed Asia. Her former agriculture and fisheries minister and ex-Wilderness Society campaigner Tony Burke, now wearing the cloak of environment minister, who launched an as-yet-unseen national food plan two years ago, is busy removing as much water from food producers as is politically possible."

Yep, Burke was a Wilderness Society campaigner. Do Damon Olsen, Allan Hansard, Jim Harnwell and the like have any idea how hardcore Green you have to be, for that job? Ask Peter R, who writes in with an update on the hate filled wilderness campaigners, in southern NSW:

….  I enjoy your emails Andrew.  The marine parks stuff is scary.  The process is the same as that used to cripple the native forest industry over the past 20 years.  Science is irrelevant to most pollies.  Mustering votes is the only thing they understand.

‘Ladies’, he he he. Mustering votes is the only thing they understand, we have got to get that message through. And you can bet Burke was involved in the war on forestry, too. Check this out, the mark of the greenies:

With the Greens picking up 9.6% of the vote in Watson. Connect the dots Damon and maybe you’ll figure out who’s more important to Burke’s future: you, or those 9.6% Greens. Here’s a suggestion of what we can do, to defend our sport. Write a letter to your local Federal MP, hand writing or typed page best. No emails. Put your home address at the top of the letter, so he or she knows you are a local voter. Example, to a Liberal or National Party MP:

Thinking about the marine park closures announced by Environment Minister Tony Burke last week.

My family and I are keen anglers and we are upset to see a minority Government ban fishing over such a large area, without any genuine consultation. Could you please let me know whether you would support a Bill to overturn the declarations, should the Coalition win Government at the next election?

If the answer is yes, please list me as a supporter prepared to campaign for you at election time.

To a Labor MP:

Thinking about the marine park closures announced by Environment Minister Tony Burke last week.

My family and I are keen anglers and we are upset to see a minority Government ban fishing over such a large area, without any genuine consultation. Could you please let me know whether you would lobby Mr Burke, to overturn the declarations? If the answer is no, please be aware I will contact the Coalition candidate to campaign against you, at the next elections.

Don’t be nervous about going in hard like this. Like with the Rock Itt magazine issue, the fight against the mako fishing ban, the overturning of the ban on angling at Fish Rock, it is only by making a noise that we will have an effect. That’s why the greenies are so successful against us, even though we outnumber them by a factor of ten to one.

Thanks yet again to all those who have sent in pics and reports and please – don’t stop! Until next week,

Andrew Hestelow

Managing Director