Wollondilly - Carp plague!

[chrisevz1337]

Last minute Friday-arvo decision to head in-land for a camp this weekend, headed down to a spot near Bullio, on banks of the Wollondilly River. Landed a few decent rainbow trout there previously, so packed the light tackle rods and lures.

Saturday morning, bush bashed down to the river with rods + picnic blankets for missus, and threw a few lures around, part of the river that funnelled in, bit deeper with some nice current.

Second or third cast, felt a nibble on the Rapala 5cm spotted dog lure. Set the hook and soon realized it was a large fish - took me 5 mins to land it on 8lb, but finally dragged a Carp into the shallows. Didn't measure, but must have gone 60cm and 2-3kg easily. 

Over the course of 3 hours, probably landed 8-9 fish, on a variety of lures; rapala brown trout HBs, daiwa baitjunkies SPs, Cicada imitation lures, Tassie devils + Gulp Minnows. Back home in UK we'd chase them with sweetcorn, luncheon meat etc, so not only did I not think I'd catch Carp on a lure, but more surprisingly they were eating everything I threw. Countless dropped fish, too, including one ~95cm model that i went to pick up at my feet and snapped line and swam off with my lure (poor error from me). Must have been nudging 5-7kg fish.

Couple of interesting points - these fish were eating every lure. Probably doesn't say much for the local native populations through those rivers (even if the trout are introduced too) - they'd be decimating the system. They were obviously also there in plague proportions. You could basically sight cast them at points. Kept the majority of them out of the water. They were also, big fish - none smaller than one in pic below, averaging between 60cm and a meter I'd say.

That said, the fish themselves were coming out in incredible condition - hell of a fight on 8lb. Standing a top of a boulder, in 30c heat, casting out into deep holes between rock bars; close your eyes I could have been in the NT chasing Barra! In terms of the fishing, unreal fun, even if I wouldn't be eating my catch...went for a swim after, water was super warm! Does anyone know - do the trout completely vacate in summer temps?

Chris

 

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by chrisevz1337

[JimT]

only one good place for these carp,,,,Charlie Carp Factory-garden food

Jim

[Rebel]

Great report and photos.

[Yowie]

The bigger carp do fight a bit, fun to catch, but it ends there.

[Centrepin]

Chris,

Great to see you had a good time and the carp were taking lures.

I really appreciate your post as they can be difficult on lures. They are a much underrated sport fish and great fun,especially when they can be spotted.

 

Many thanks,

 

Geoff

[New Signing]

Many a slow day has been saved with a dirty great river carp or euro session.

Biggest euro i've ever seen myself was 12kg. The old man found it floating dead against the bank in Burrinjuck

[Centrepin]

Chris,

Trout in Summer?  Yes they vacate.

I have only found them in Winter during the spawn run. They run up from Warragamba and the water flow is fairly consistent as there is outflow from Wingencarribee dam.

I have not fished it in winter for some years and then it was patchy. Very dependant on amount of flow in Winter and the height of the dam. The higher the dam the better chance the fish had to migrate.

Designated trout water starts from the Tarlo junction upstream a few k's upstream from Goodmans ford.

 

Regards,

 

Geoff