Commercial trapping of kingfish became a hot issue until the traps were banned in the mid-1990s.

It was expected that the kingfish population and average individual size would increase as a result.

Not so around Port Stephens.

My records agree with local champion recreational fisherman George Trinkler, who is of the belief that the numbers of big kingfish and the overall population numbers have not returned.

It is not only kingfish that have decreased in average size and numbers.

Snapper, dusky flathead, mulloway, whiting, tailor, bream and squid are just a few of the more common species that have headed in the same direction.

I recall a friend of mine from One Mile Beach telling me that tailor to eight kilograms and bigger could regularly be caught off the rocks in the northern corner of Samuari Beach.

These days a tailor over two kilograms is a rare catch. Since tailor were designated a 'recreational fish only', decades ago, no increase in population size or individual average size has been obvious in our waters.

Silver trevally and mackerel once prolific in our system have disappeared.