There’s been a lot of action in the fishing world locally and nationally over the last few months.

Locally, the fishing has been pretty epic. On those days the weather allows it, the Bay of Plenty continues to provide.  

In close on the sand, along the coast and off the beach when the conditions are right, some fantastic fish have been caught up to 40-odd kilos. Social media has had some interesting discussion topics, and one of the most intriguing is the point raised by a lot of people on fishing for snapper in spawning season.

One comment that sat strongly with me was: “Farmers don’t kill pregnant livestock, why do we fish for snapper at the same time?” This could be the extreme end, but there could be some thought given to limiting the size of snapper taken in the approximate months of spawning or a possible reduced bag limit for the same time.

Whilst they are all good ideas, snapper appears not to be in bad shape at this current time. It may not last, so now could be a good time for a rethink.

We have a new government, who are yet to really show their colours on what they consider as the important issues that will affect us as rec fishers.

We have had presentations from new group The Fisheries Project, under the banner of the New Zealand Initiative, who held two evenings in Tauranga that were both were well attended.

The up-shot is they are trying to establish a funded organisation to protect the rights of recreational fishers in New Zealand. An absolute voice directly to government. The initial funding for their research, to gauge the public’s reaction to the ideas they are pushing, is funded by the late Sir Douglas Myers – a very passionate angler and a very passionate New Zealander.

Their ideas can be seen by visiting: https://nzinitiative.org.nz/assets/Publications/The-Future-Catch.pdf

The talks were hosted by Dr Randel Best and key speakers including Sir Mark Soloman, Ngai Tahu and a very interesting dissertation from Dr Andrew Rowland, the Chief Executive Officer, who explained the processes used by his organisation Recfishwest, from Western Austrailia.

He presented some solid ideas to protect the rights of the recreational angler and they put forward some interesting ways to fund the process.

Here comes the summer. Get out there, make sure your boat is ship shape beforehand and enjoy. We live in a fantastic part of an epic Country.