A little while back I said i was going to give trout fishing a try at a spot near my friends house in the southern highlands. Well today was that day.  My alarm was set for 6am so i could get an early start. I had a quick coffee and pecked my wife on the cheek and then i was off.

now looking back if you remember in August i posted a youtube video of a fishing segment called inside fishing where they were spinning for trout in a small "secret" stream. I recognised one scene from this video where they were at a pool at the bottom of a waterfall... this was my first port of call.

I started casting about with a small hard bodied lure but realised within a few casts my lure probably wasn't hitting the strike zone (deep). I then put a small spinning blade lure and cast that around the pool. after about the 3rd cast in the back of the pool (pictured right) I got a hookup!  I remembered that the guys from Inside Fishing scored a fish from this pool and it was a small fish of maybe 20cm, but this seemed a bit bigger and was certainly doing a good job of not coming in. there was''t much room for the fish to move in this pool so it generally swam back and forth and towards the back of the pool. I leaped and that's when i knew it was a good one and not i tiddler like in the video. The trout was a good 40cm all up.

I worked my was up stream from here stopping frequently, and then down stream as far as i could go. This was my only fish even though I saw several feeding on the surface. The stream its self is quite pretty and tranquil but choked by fallen trees... I lost 4 lures. Still this was a fishing adventure I will never forget.

Here is a link to that video if you don't want to look back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEgYfUwmAhs

Tight lines everyone!

Sydney has been subjected to some unseasonably warm weather of late as spring starts off with a boom. I was a little worried that Id have to wait a month or 2 more before the carp started firing up again but the reports on many boards are showing that the season has indeed started... So I headed down to my little carp hole.

I usually travel with only one rod but this time grabbed the spare as well. This spare is usually the one my wife uses and is a light tip 2kg spin set up. After parking the car I walked down to the weir not really expecting anything, but there in about 30cm of water were 2 carp of about 2-3kg each digging up the bottom. i tried to catch these two but they were too skittish and disappeared. Moving up steam a little creeping along as best as i could i spotted another larger fish. The river here is only 2-3 meters wide and the fish was in a bit of a hole near the edge. I used this as my start point setting up both rods with bread bait and a little bit of berley and had 2 hookups but but didn't land either. I moved from there up to the main pool and didn't get any action there till I moved further up the pool where a fish ran me straight into a submerged log.  

All up i saw maybe a dozen or more fish and they were all very actively swimming around but they weren't really feeding. Its still early in the season yet and I am guessing that given another month they will hit just about anything. So the total was 3 hookups and none landed. Soooo.... no picture for you!

On a side note while quietly sitting by the bank a guy with a video camera came crashing through the bush in the hope of recording a platypus. Apparently they reside further down stream. While he was bush bashing to get to the river it occurred to me that we are a very noisy species. Just as well he didn't have to rely on stealth to hunt any more, that guy would have starved!

Hello, and welcome to the first entry. 

First up, maybe I should start with an introduction. My Name is David, I am currently 45yo and I live in St Helens Park with my wife Cheryl and my plethora of pets (2 cats, 2 chickens, 1 frog and my mother in law and her 2 dogs), it’s a crowded little house. I work in a public library 50 kilometers from home so I have a long commute. I have a few hobbies so I am never bored. Carp fishing (my newest hobby) is very new to me, though I have fished for various salt water species nearly all of my life...  

CARP
The Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio) is a native fish to Europe and Asia where they are a popular angling target due to their large size and fighting ability on light fishing gear. However in Australia (and other counties) they are considered a significant pest. They  were probably brought over from Europe as an ornamental species in the mid 1800s' and have since made just about every fresh water River, stream and pond their home. In some areas carp make up 90% of the fish species. 

Impacts: 

Carp are responsible for the degradation of water quality as the dig up the water bed searching for food. This degradation causes native species to die off due to increased turbidity decreasing the ability to sight feed, lack of food as weed beds the are homes to the plankton, shrimp and other small animals are ripped up or die off due to the lack of light making it through the water.
 
Carp are also responsible for erosion as the undermine the river banks (their normal feeding area) while searching for food. 

The NSW law currently states that while the species is considered a pest it is not illegal to return them to the water from where they are caught. I believe however that you'd be doing the environment a favor by humanely killing any carp that you catch. 

More reading is available on these web pages:  
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/pests-diseases/freshwater-pests/species/carp/general-information
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/pests-diseases/freshwater-pests/species/carp/what-you-can-do 
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/pests-diseases/freshwater-pests/species/carp/groups/recreational-fishers

FISHING FOR CARP

The species in its natural habitat can reach 1.2 meters in length and up to 60 kilograms, but its natural habitat is not in this country. Here in Australia the species is know to grow well over 10kg with 4-6kg fish being quite common. All this equates to an absolute blast for fishing, especially on light gear! 

Catching carp couldn’t be easier, and just about anyone with some fishing line can catch them. Carp catching is not an expensive past time as the simplest of tackle can be used. I personally use my Bream fishing rod and reel which is a light weight outfit that I can take anywhere. It consists of a 6 foot light action fishing rod and small spinning reel. Some people will still spend hundreds of dollars on this but its just not necessary. on the reel I have 1.8kg line (just monofilament of reasonable quality), this ends in a small swivel with a very small sinker just above it and a 30cm trace of the same line to a small size 4-6 hook. For bait I just squeeze some bread onto the hook making sure the barb/point is in the clear for a clean hookup. I also burley lightly with chicken pellets. Told you it was cheap! 

You need a license to fish for anything in NSW. follow this link to information regarding this. 
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/licence-fee 



Well off you go, time to catch some fish!