Your in paradise Frosty, you lucky bugga. Problem is according to the boat ramp surveys done by the Hawkes Bay Sports Fishing Club the boaties are not doing as well as they used to either so its not just a shore problem. This material (recorded stats)were presented at the Legasea HB meeting. Thats why they formed. Wasn't just bitter and twisted surfcasters like I'm supposed to be. Every ones noticing a decline.

Second point is that if you look back at all the various club stats theres been a steady decline over the last 5 or 6 years. Something has changed, oddly enough about the same time as MFish was absorbed into the superministry MPI.

One example of this and I hate to harp on about it is gurnard. The trawlers took 128,189 tonne of gurnard OVER there quota of 725,000 tonne in 2010. No one was ever held to account that I know of. This is the standard of MPI policing here. Very poor. If you think about if you add customary and recrational take you could be looking at nearly 1 million tonne of fish sucked away. I'm no scientist I admit that but can any biomass with stand that sort of hammering in one year and just recover overnight?

We also know that certain companies have recieved fines for quota mismanagement to the sum of millions in the past and yet they even now another case has been revealed. They just seem to be able to pay and walk away. How can any one have any faith in fisheries management where this occurs?

Anyone who gets around here hears all the tales of cowboy trawlers mostly fishing at night, dumpiing fish, misreporting stats, fishing close to the shore and basically doing whatver they like. Dont take my word for it, these are comments from trawlermen themselves backed up to an extent by a 3rd degree documentary shown on TV3 thats been widely circulated on social media. One guy I met in a professional capacity invited me out on his boat, he was so keen to show that not all of them are rapists. But he was the first to admit a some of them are.

There are fantastic guys here who bust there balls to be sustainable fishermen but there are others who dont seem to give a damn. They backed by unscrupulous companies that support them, and seem to be very much focused on the bottom line before anything else.

Also its very political here, certain fishing companies are well known for handing big campaign donations (Some would call it bribery) to certain political parties. Dont take my word for it, look it up TVNZ it was reported on the news about 18 months ago. MPs were named including some from this area. Not fanciful claims from me but factual news items.

Add to this Iwi interests, who are connected to a party very chummy with the current govt and who are doing very well thank you very much by selliing there quota and you start to see the extent of the problem.

These are some of the things that I suspect have got people up in arms and frankly I dont think you can blame them.

Just as an aside the original posting is about Kahawai and if you look at some of the articles I've posted you'll hopefully soon realise that the original post actually refers in a very back hand way to comments made in the press. Some might say this post seeks to undermine them, but I can suggest people make up there own minds on that.

You and I both know some of the guys who made these comments in the press Frosty and we both know the huge contribution they make to surfcasting and indeed the comp in question. They dont do it for the money. They do because there bloody good people and I'm not sure they deserve to be singled for daring to speak up. Still everyone has the right to an opinion, I know that.

It looks like someone hacked my account and must have made some comments that were regretable and shouldnt have been made. Ive deleted them because they just weren't on and were unacceptable. Whoever said these things deserves a boot up the arse for being a passionate and concerned fisherman, but also for being too hot headed for there own good.

But so saying I aint gonna sit around and see good people bagged by someone with unknown agendas, without stating my point of view. I dont think thats unreasonable.

Said all I'm gonna say Frosty, take what you will from it. Send some of of those beauties you tease us with down here if you don't mind because I can tell you now theres not a lot to be caught of a beach here unless your very, very lucky. Best wishes for fruitful and fishy summer in the Winterless North. Not that you need it