Abalone Fishing, VIC

[cedric_herr]

dose any1 know anywer in vic has good ablone fishing, not quantity but quality. I yet see any bigones. {maybe I need to scubadive} rest all too small to catch.

so if any1 knoow pls reply, by da way it must b somewer possibleto go with snokel.

[FISHY]

yo homey <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> ha ha well you to western port bay! you will see my message in your other <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/as.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':au:' /> <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/zorro.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':zorro:' /> question

also pick up your free abalone measure from dpi 136186 leave your details and you should recieve it in the mail wihtin a few days

[AND1_HOTSAUCE]

Hi

I go to marlo regularly and always bag out on greenlip or blacklip abalone. Just about anywhere where there is good rock cover and crayweed you will find abalone.

Keep trying though

Great to eat

[new found]

hey jazman

could you tell me how you get them of the rocks because i was told useing a knife is illegal im not sure of this... would you be able to tell me a good recipe for them?? thanks

[Chick3n]

[quote name='new found' date='Apr 12 2005, 07:53 PM']hey jazman     

                could you tell me how you get them of the rocks because i was told useing a knife is illegal im not sure of this... would you be able to tell me a good recipe for them?? thanks

[right][post="4518"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]





Using a knife to try to pry them off may cut them and cause them to bleed to death. Using sharp metal objects is illegal (correct me if I'm wrong) A quick hard pull on them should get them off if they have not already sucked on to rock. Otherwise, I believe a blunt metal thin object would be legal to use.



regards,



Chick3n

[Jazman]

Using a sharp implement is illegal, you can buy or make an abalone jack, which is basically like a square-ended blunt knife.



You definately need some type of levering tool to get them off the rocks, you can get the odd one off by pulling, but not many. It is 10 times easier to get them off before they 'stick down', ie/ you need to sneak up on them and pry them off in one quick movement, otherwise they latch on tight - you can still get them off at this point but it's much harder.



After I have shucked them and trimmed the meat, I slice them thinly (1-2mm), briefly pound the slices with a meat mallet (only 2-3 hits on each side), coat with flour and fry in hot oil until golden brown (only a minute or so). Beautiful!



I get all my abalone along the great ocean road, but you can find them on most reefy areas in Victoria. The closer you are to suburbia, the harder it is to find legal-sized abalone. Also be careful about size limits, they vary depending on where abouts in victoria you are.

For Blacklip abalone (the most common one) size limits are:

12cm east of Lakes Entrance and West of Lorne

11cm between Lakes Entrance and Lorne BUT 10cm inside Port Philip Bay



There are also some other regulations regarding abalone:

-You cannot fish for abalone in waters <2m deep in between Breamlea and Venus Bay (including PPB)

-You can only take abalone between sunrise and sunset

-You must mark abalone within 20m of the place of landing by cutting the meat in half through to the shell

-You must carry a measuring device (you can pick up a free yellow abalone measure from most tackle shops)



I know a guy who had to go to court because 1 abalone in his bag of 10 was 1cm undersized, so take the size limits seriously.

Jaz

[new found]

hey jaz

thanks for that..are they rear..do you know why they are so strict on this... thanks

[Jazman]

Hey new found,

Abalone are rare in the more heavily exploited areas, but if you can get a bit further away from Melbourne they are abundant. The reason for all the strict regulations is that there was (and still is) a lucrative black market in abalone, meaning that recreational fishers were selling their catch illegally. Every few months I hear of someone caught with 10 times their bag limit of undersized abs. <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

I know a lot of people were selling their catch to local chinese restaurants and similar places. This is why you must mark the abalone you catch by cutting the meat in half through to the shell, to signify that they are a recreational catch. The same goes for crayfish, you must cut off the middle tail fin to show that they are a recreational catch.

If you come down to Flinders for the spearfishing meet that is planned next weekend we should be able to find some abs.

Cheers

Jaz <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[new found]

hey jaz... sounds interestin ...the speer fishing meet sound like fun ill ask my dad about it?? you seem to know ALOT about fishing and pretty everything to do with it have you been fishin from a young age...

the abalone are they some kind of favrouit food for a fisherman i dont know much about them

thanks

[glen]

fisheries actually want to make the regulations a lot tighter and are proposing to reduce the bag limits to just 4 abalone in the central vic zone and only having 30 days fishing season each year. hopefully this does not happen because the strict regulations will unfairly impact on recreational fisherman.



keep an eye on the fisheries website to see if the proposed changes are introduced.



cheers, glen

[Jazman]

Hey Glen, I just checked the DPI website, those regulations have not been introduced yet. The 30 days per year thing doesn't sound too bad, the discussion paper that I downloaded from the website said that those 30 days would coincide with weekends during summer and autumn - but I think the 4 abalone per day amandment is unfair. It's hardly worth going for just 4. They also want to remove the requirement of cutting meat in half, which I agree with. I couldn't attach the dicussion paper to this post (it's too big) so if anyone is interested in reading what the proposed changes are, you can download the PDF from:



[url="http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfaq.nsf/LinkView/99893A04EE014B6ECA256EFB00229105C098C493D99506EC4A2567D700236323"]http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/nrenfaq.nsf/...A2567D700236323[/url]



There is a stack of info in this document about harvesting, abundance, the black market, and lots of other stuff, it's worth having a look at if anyone wants to learn more about abalone.



New found, abalone are not really too popular amongst recreational fishers in Victoria, the fisheries website states that of aproximately 550,000 recreational fishers in Victoria, only 10,000 take abalone. I have been fishing since I was tiny, and can't think of anything I would rather do (well actually there are a few things, but this is a family website so I'll keep it clean). If you need a ride to the spearfishing meet I'm happy to drive you if it's not too far out of my way - same goes for anyone else interested in coming along.

Jaz

[new found]

hey jaz ... thats interesting to hear...i think i should be all right getting there but if it comes to that....i live in cranbourne just so you no but ill be ok getting there i guess ill see you there then....

thanks

[Chick3n]

[quote name='new found' date='Apr 12 2005, 09:42 PM']hey chick3n

                thanks for that....do you go catch them oftern.. if so please tell me where is a good spot and how you cooked them

      thanks

[right][post="4521"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]





Hi New Found,



I haven't gone to catch abalone before. A friend of mine goes diving off his boat and i just go down with them to watch. Never really taken them because of all the rules about when you can/cant catch them. I dont find them very nice eating either - would rather have a cray.



I have heard that pressure cooking them with chicken (no pun with my nickname) tastes quite good, or in soups.



hope that helps,



Chicken

[AND1_HOTSAUCE]

Hi guys

Abalone are extremely common once you get away from PPB. In some places they are that thick that you can see them even out of the water! I just got bak from Tas and they were everywhere there. I would much rather a feed of abs rather than cray. they are so much easyer to eat and tast just as good. I usually just slice them really thin and fry them in butter for like a minute. Do you reckon that greenlips taste better than black? I have heard they are creamy flavour but I only ever get black lips.

[Jazman]

Greenlips definately taste different to blacklips, and the meat is different, much softer. I've only ever caught 2 greenlips though, so I don't have much basis for comparison! I have to disagree with you about abs vs cray, I'd prefer a feed of cray to a feed of just about anything else! (except maybe scallops caught the same day). <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> Also, crays are easier to prepare than abs in my opinion, just boil them, cut them lengthwise and dig in! No trimming, slicing and time consuming batch frying required!



Tell us about your tassie trip sauce, did you spear many fish? See any crays? How's the new gun? Maybe start a new topic in spearfishing and diving.

Jaz

[AND1_HOTSAUCE]

Hey Jaz

Tassie trip was great but water was absolutely freezing!! Saw some small crays and heaps of abs. Did see heaps of fish and but im still to inexperienced to get them. I also caught a 3 1/2 pound bream on line!

Still looking at guns, looking for a suitable one with an easy rubber to load.



Cheers sauce

[new found]

hey sauce

when you say your to inexperenced to get them do you mean your to slow you load at the rong times or keep missing?????

[Jazman]

Hey Sauce

Glad you had a great trip. I've only dived in Tassie a few times, and the freezing water temp. is what I remember most......on one dive I was so cold that I wasn't thinking straight, and I put my bag of crays down so I could jack some abs.....and left it there! <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/mad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':woot:' />

This was about 3 years ago, and my dive buddy won't let me forget it! It's great that you found some crays.

[AND1_HOTSAUCE]

Hey

By too inexprienced i mean im only diving in water like 1-2m meters. I only see wrasse and crappy fish. The crays were too small though jaz. Massive cave on the edge of the gutter i was diving maybe 6m deep. I rekon there would have been heaps of crays there but i there was massive waves crashin over it so i didn't find out. I was diving a little south of Swansea on the east coast.



Thanks SAUCE

[Jazman]

Ooohoohoo, that massive cave sounds promising! Well done on that massive bream by the way, hopefully you took some photos to show us?