riksim

Welcome to the forum. I too am a fellow Scot who migrated to Melbourne eight years ago and found it hard to find good fishing near me. Im a fly fisherman but the humble carp in the local lakes saved the day.

As you will know if you have read my other posts I have been carp fishing for about six months in the local lakes near my house. The first couple of months my family and I were catching lots of carp around the 2 kilo mark. Then after the bad weather around the time of the cyclone in Queensland’s we had no fish. Thankfully in the last couple of weeks and gradually normal service was resumed. We almost exclusively use a running sinker set up with a couple of pieces of corn on a size 10 hook at the business end. Although my son has had some success by free-lining bread, and even hooked one carp on a piece of fruit cake. I sometimes go out on a float tube and my son on a kayak because the lakes are surrounded by reeds and its very hard to find a casting spot from the bank. The other day around 3pm the better half and I went for a spot of fishing at our favourite spot on the bank. After about half an hour my wife had caught the only fish which was around the 2 kilo mark as usual. We got a call from her father who was at our house so she had to go and I was left to fish myself. I stayed there for another half hour and nothing so I decided to move to another spot. In the past I had been catching kilo carp on my fly rod here in the weeds almost at my feet and I thought I would try this again just for a bit of fun. Just for the record I normally put a size 10 hook with the obligatory 2 pieces of corn on a 2 metre leader on floating fly line. This set up I try to pendulum cast far enough out into the reeds to catch fish. I decided to cast my other 2 rods out into the middle of the lake away from the reeds and just leave them there. They were too far out for me to throw some more corn out as burley so I didn’t hold out much hope of catching anything with either of those rods. I sat down and watched my fly rod expecting to get some action on it pretty soon. Another 20 minutes passed and it was getting close to tea time. The wife didn’t look as though she was coming back and I was getting hungry so I started to think about packing up. I decided to give it another 15 minutes as I usually do then I would go. At this point one of the reels on the rod which was out in the middle of the lake started to scream. This rod is a $15 kids spinning rod with an ancient reel which the handle snapped off and I replaced with a smaller handle which doesn’t have enough oomph to click the bale arm back after casting. It is spooled with 8 kilo mono which is as thick as rope and about 5 years old. I pick up the rod and untangle the line which of course has got stuck on the rod holder as usual. When I start to tighten up there is a bit of weight there, enough to bend the rod in half. I’m winding in and the line goes loose. Oh dear I’ve lost the fish or words to that effect were uttered. So I keep reeling in and the weight returns the darn fish is swimming towards me. So I’m frantically reeling in as the fish veers to my right into the weeds. I put lots of side strain on and managed to guide him towards my left. Darn there is a bird box on top of a post in the water there and my line is heading straight towards it. "Right rudder right rudder" I tell the fish as I put some more side strain on it and thankfully it obliged by going straingt into the weeds on my left but missing the post. I struggled to get it to move from there for a few minutes then suddenly twang the line goes loose. I don’t think I need to tell you the words that came out of my mouth then I’m sure you can insert a few of your own. I start to reel in with a face on me like a sad puppy dog when suddenly the weight returns . The fish must have wrapped the line around some reeds the twang was the line coming free and thankfully the fish was still connected. The fish was only a couple of metres away but I still hadn’t seen it. There were a few boulders in front of me before the water gets shallow and for some reason the darn fish didn’t want to come over them. Eventually I managed to persuade him to come over the boulders and the fish is in shallow water. Finally I get to see him, "That’s a big fish" or words to that effect were uttered and I had to try and get him into my net. It didn’t look as though he was going to fit into my net and he wasn’t very keen either. Eventually I got his head into the net and tried to lift it. Twang my net snapped and was only holding on by a few threads. I dived towards the water and grabbed the net and pulled it out by hand. The fish is fine I’m having a mild heart attack and I have got to get a photo. My phone is almost flat and I take the worst photo you have ever seen its blurry and my finger covers half the fish. I try to ring my wife but the phone is too low on power to make the call. Then I see my wife walking across the road to our original fishing spot so I start yelling to her to come over here. She can’t hear me so I scream at her,"Could you please come over here" was what I really meant but that was not the words that came out of my mouth, but she got the gist of it. When she saw the fish some bad words came out of her mouth too. So in the end we managed to get a photo and I’m pleased to say the fish was retuned fit and healthy for someone else to catch another day. I think the moral of this story is you don’t need fancy tackle just a lot of luck and to be in the right spot at the right time. Happy fishing, Richard.

Caught my first carp on fly rod yesterday. Had floating line 6 foot leader and size 10 hook with couple pieces of corn on it. Put up nice fight even though it was just under a kilo. Caught another 4 today same way almost on edge of the bank in the weeds was a nice bit of fun and a new expierience

Just to let you know a couple of nights ago I saw quite a few decent sized carp cruising around. Managed to hook up to 5 but 4 of them broke me on first run and last one spat hook out. Tried again next night caught 1 at around a kilo and another at aprox 6 kilos. So it pays to keep trying. Seems the large carp are alwas the first to check things out you just got to be there at right time. Hopefully they will keep feeding for a while thanks to everyone for thier help. This is my best carp to date which was returned fit and healthy to fight another day

Thanks for the input. I'll definately take what you have said on board. I'm looking forward to getting back amongst the fish. I'll keep you informed of what happens. Caught a few medium sized reddies last night so I have at least them to keep me occupied. Tight lines.

Hi I'm a recent convert to carp fishing having previously been a keen fly fisher. I have been fishing my local lakes in one of the new estates in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. In January we could do no wrong catching at least a couple of fish every day smallest carp around a kilo and one nice fish of aprox six kilos, almost exclusively on corn but sometimes we freelined bread on the surface with some success. Hardly anyone else fishes the venue. We were also catching some nice redfin on spinners quite regurarly in some of the lakes too. However after the cyclone in Queensland we got lots of rain and the lakes flooded. The night after the flood there was some huge carp moving around on the surface one of which we managed to hook but were unable to land because we didn't have our net with us I estimate this fish to be around 8 kilos we caught a couple of small carp under a kilo the next day, but for the past 3 weeks nothing. There is virtualy no sighn of carp feeding at all no bubbles no rings on surface Ive seen a couple small fish jumping but thats it. Everyone I have spoken to has said the same the fish seem to have dissapeared.Others fisjherman have been using worms and dough balls to no avail. The redfin dried up too untill the last few days I have started catching small ones on spinners even some baby fish so I'm guessing the redfin are having thier young. Is it possible the carp are breeding too and therefore not very interested in eating or does anyone have any other ideas. The only other difference is the temperature has dropped about 5 degrees but nothing dramatic.. Please , please , please can you help me catch some fish again