Carp! Love em, hate em, but you can’t underrate em

[Andy from the CJ]

Beautiful weather today and having worked pretty hard this week thought we deserved some fishing. Had the bride along and she’s not saltwater capable so instead we decided to go carping at Secret Creek. On the way I had to drop some gear into a mate whose heading off on an amazing adventure tomorrow. Fishing remote sea mounts hundreds of miles out in the Coral Sea. This beautiful statue in his front yard typical of the man’s style:



Down to the carp spot. Lo and behold there’s some lads into it already. Matter of fact one had just hooked up as I parked the car:



We got to talking and I asked to see the boys’ catch. Some solid carp there, including a good mirror:



Super motivated I went a little up river and got started. Frustrating! Pulled the hooks on three good ones in a row. Figuring it was something to do with the business end I went back to the car and ferreted through the tackle box. Have used the Mustad Ultrapoints with some success previously but today they just weren’t cutting the mustard (he he.) Flicking through the trays and found a hook UK pro carp angler Roy G had kindly sent me. Curved shank but noticeably more open:





Tied that on, baited up, hooked up in a couple of minutes. Not as big as some of the boys monsters, but he gave me a good fight on light gear. I’d forgotten how strong they are:



Really enjoyed this afternoon, and so did Caro. If things work out I’ll be back chasing them next weekend. Cheers, Andy

[gunna]

Well done Andy. Makes a nice break from the fishing Longy.

[ashh]

nice, have seen plenty of them but never targeted them as I'm always using lures for bass, have heard of people using corn kernels as bait for them. What do you use for bait?

[Andy from the CJ]

Well done Andy. Makes a nice break from the fishing Longy.

Had a ball Gunna, hoping to chase them again this weekend! The carp in the pic above was cut up for bait and produced six gemfish for us at Browns Mountain today. Cheers cobber, Andy

[Haji-Baba]

Great fun on light gear, worms, shrimps even lures.

Best way to get a carp is .22.

Find a waterhole in a local creek where the are, go to the leeward end of the hole where the green moss will be blown to, and sit up on the bank and watch. The rest is up to you.

Not necessarily legal but it works.

Have fun Haji-Baba