G’day fishos. Well, to paraphrase the Chris Isaak song, “I did a bad, bad thing!”
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I suppose most of you would have heard by now about my indiscretions in the Northern Territory.
To end all the innuendo and rumour, I thought I’d just let you know what happened and what’s ahead.
After 37 years of informing fishos on fishing and fishery regulations, I’m very embarrassed to tell you that I didn’t heed my own advice.
Which usually went something like ”make sure you know what the rules are in the area you're fishing.”
After 30 years of doing trips to the Northern Territory, I got a bit slack and wasn’t aware that they’d brought in a regulation that required anyone doing any sort of charter, for mates or not, to have an FTO.
What’s an FTO I hear you say? That’s exactly what I said to the police when asked for one.
An FTO is a fishing tour operator licence and is a piece of paper taken very seriously by the Northern Territory government.
Consequences of operating without one can include extremely heavy fines, confiscation of equipment – including cars, boats and motors – as well as other related equipment and, in extreme cases, jail time.
I also had issues with a lack of some safety gear including flares and V sheets – which was, again, my own stupid fault.
This should be a wake-up call to all of us that you really do have to make sure that wherever you travel, you check out the local regulations. Just because you are allowed to do it around your town or in your state doesn’t mean it’s legal in another.
And, just to settle the rumour mill down, during this inspection and three previous inspections over the years we’ve never had an issue.
Hopefully, others learn from my stupid mistakes.
AT A GLANCE
Dartmouth – fished pretty well for the trolling comp last weekend, with 60 entrants landing 96 trout. There were only six rainbows among them.
Biggest trout of 1.085 was caught by Wayne Mulloy and average weight overall was .545g (just over 1lb).
Streams – might have settled a bit from the recent rains, but most will still have a bit of colour about them.
That isn’t a bad thing in a lot of cases, with trout feeling a little more comfortable moving about when visibility is making it hard for predators to spot them.
Drifting a worm can be extremely effective in these conditions, and as the water clears lures come into they’re own. Don’t forget, smaller streams will clear first.
The Mitta is copping an environmental flush this weekend as well, so don’t expect pristine conditions there.
