Fishing gear
Restrictions apply to fishing gear to prevent overfishing.
Tidal waters
You can use a drone to deploy fishing gear.
Prohibited fishing methods:
- Jagging or foul hooking.
- Using underwater breathing apparatus (other than a snorkel) to catch fish.
- Using a crab hook.
- Using fishing gear (including nets) across a waterway or navigation channel if it makes more than half its width impassable to a boat or fish.
Crabbing in tidal waters
- Make sure your crab pot/dilly is heavy enough and has enough rope attached to the float so it’s not lost in strong tidal currents. Lost crabbing gear can harm animals and becomes litter.
- Make sure your pots/dillies are in water deep enough at all stages of the tide so animals caught in the gear are not exposed to the sun and unwanted crabs can be released alive.
- Sort your crabs on a pot-by-pot basis to remove any no-take crabs before moving on. If you don’t, any illegal catch in your pot is considered to be in your possession.
- Check your pots/dillies regularly to ensure any bycatch or no-take crabs can be released unharmed. Ideally, you should not leave gear unattended.
- Report derelict, abandoned or lost crab pots.
- Hooking crabs is illegal.
- Don't Interfere with another person’s crabbing gear – this is a serious offence that carries heavy penalties. Stealing crabs or crab pots is a criminal offence. If you’re caught you will be reported to the police.
Fishing gear | Rules |
---|---|
Cast nets |
|
Crab pots and dillies |
|
Fishing lines |
|
Digging forks |
|
Hand pumps |
|
Lobster loop |
|
Scoop or dip nets |
|
Seine nets (bait nets or drag nets) |
|
Spearfishing |
|
Freshwaters
You can’t use:
- hand pumps or worm digging forks
- a spear or spear gun (including a bow for propelling a spear)
- underwater breathing apparatus (other than a snorkel) to catch fish
- a cast net or seine net
- a crab pot.
You can’t interfere with gear that you didn’t set – this is a serious offence that carries heavy penalties.
Traps in freshwaters
- You can use canister traps, collapsible traps, dilly nets, funnel or round traps, or open-top pyramid traps – up to 4 traps in total.
- All traps must have a tag attached with the surname and address (number, street, town, state and postcode) of the person using the trap – this information must be clearly visible, legible and in English.
- If a trap is not fixed to something stationary (e.g. a branch or boat) above the surface of the water, it must have a solid light-coloured float attached, which is at least 15 cm in all its dimensions and marked with the user’s surname.
Fishing gear | Rules |
---|---|
Canister traps |
|
Collapsible traps |
|
Dilly nets |
|
Fishing lines | You can use:
You can’t:
You must stay within 50m of all your fishing lines. |
Funnel and round traps |
|
Nets |
Scoop or dip nets:
|
Open-top pyramid trap |
|
Recreational fishing rules
Download the Qld Fishing 2.0 app and use the 'My fishing' feature to record your fishing trips and share your stats and photos.
For a printed copy of the Queensland recreational fishing guide:
- contact your local Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol office
- call 13 25 23.
For a box of fishing guides, order online.