Time to clean the boat as fishing closures kick in
Fishing Closures
Fishing season closures kick in tomorrow, Thursday, October 8, with Spanish Mackerel off of the catch list through to October 29 in the Round 1 closure.
A window to chase the sports fish runs over the last weekend in October, before the Round 2 closure from November 6 to November 27.
Coral Reef Fin Fish are also off limits from October 8 to October 12 and then again from November 6 to 10.
And Barramundi is the next species on the list with a closure on catching the fish from November 1 to February 1, 2027.
Closed seasons prevent people from fishing for certain species at certain times of the year, to protect those species at vulnerable times in their life cycle, such as during spawning seasons.
You should not target those fish during a closed season.
Mossman Ice Bait and Tackle Specialists’ Pat Hutton appealed to fishos to do the right thing, and warned those breaching the rules faced hefty fines.
“You can get all of the updates on the Fisheries page but I always advise people too as plenty of people are keen to go to the reef fishing… and they can’t really,’’ she said.
“While you can catch other species, I don’t know how you do that.
“The closures are in place for the spawning.”
Closed waters is a different scenario and prevent people from fishing or using particular fishing gear in certain areas:
- where a population of endangered or threatened species lives
- where fish gather during or before spawning
- near artificial barriers where large numbers of fish may collect or get trapped and be susceptible to overfishing
- to separate incompatible uses (e.g. spearfishing in a swimming area)
- to enable successful migration of fish through fishways.
