Fishing Parramatta - 6 species caught

[ireallylovefishies22]

Headed out to the Parra today with @44jeff, @eaglesilk5 and another one of our friends from school. We arrived at around 9am, and had a scout around too see if we could find any carp. This is when we saw a pretty unusual sight - around 10 large carp, just cruising around in the salt water section of the parra! Guessing the flood must have washed them out, but still strange nonetheless. We dropped pieces of bread and corn in front of their faces, but they weren't too interested, probably that saltwater stressing them out. While Eagle stayed there trying to catch the saltwater carp, the  rest of us moved back to the freshwater. I managed 1 nice hookup on worms, (prob a good bass) but it managed to snag me on the lily pads, and Jeff also managed a hookup on a big carp for it to snap the line too. However, Eagle managed the first fish, which I believe was a goldfish as it did not have the usual whiskers of a common carp. Caught in the saltwater, which is pretty neat.

After spotting a group of good sized carp of the opposite bank hiding away in the lilies, I decided to put a piece of bread on my luderick setup so the bait would stay near the surface. I casted out well behind the fish, then slowly dragged the bait into the school. A few seconds later, my float went under, and I was onto a nice carp! Luckily, the carp decided to swim into the open water as opposed to the lily pads. After a fun fight, I landed a nice carp, going around 65cm. 

The action of this carp seemed to spook the others in the group, as for the next couple hours we did not see any other fish at this particular spot. After capturing a small mullet, we decided to fillet it as bait to try and catch an eel. Again, Eagle decided to fish the saltwater side, as you never really know what could be in there. The mullet was getting plenty of action in the fresh, with lots of takes and hookups with eels. Their abrasive teeth made it hard to land them, as our leader wasn't strong enough to hold them on. Despite this, Eagle surprisingly managed to catch a nice bream and flatty in the salt, going 26cm and 40cm. Catching a carp, bream and flathead out of the same body of water has got to be a pretty rare occurrence.

After grabbing some lunch, we headed down to Lennox bridge as the fish were slowing down in our area. I had a down on my float almost immediately, but I missed the hookset. I headed around the the other side of the bridge, on the high wall, as i had spotted some monster carp there in a previous outing. After a bit of waiting, I managed to land almost a pigeon pair of bass on bread, going 27cm and 26cm. I recasted in the same spot, and i'm on again, except this time the fish is screaming drag and going nuts. Its a big carp for sure! However, the 2-3 high wall im on proves to be a big pain, as im on 6 pound leader and i have no hope of dragging a 3 kilo carp up. I try to walk the along the wall to the beach, but there are several bushes along the wall. One by one, i manage to overcome the bushes, until i'm at the last one. This one extends really far out into the water, and I try to get my line around it...but it gets caught! After around 10 minutes of trying to untangle it, the line snaps, and i lose my rig along with my favourite luderick float. However, Jeff manages to find my float a while later, washed up on a small beach. Eagle managed a very nice bass on his eel bait after that, going 34cm, his new PB! As we were packing up during twilight, his eel rod goes off once again, and this time we manage to land the slippery thing. Packed up after that because it was now dark.

Overall, a very fun day fishing the upper parramatta river. We managed 6 species, or 7 if you count the goldfish as separate to the carp. Will definitely be back!

 

 

[ireallylovefishies22]

Eagle's bream, flathead and nice bass:

    

 

 

[linewetter]

That’s a really big carp! 🫢 I’ve been following your reports of fishing the freshwater side of Parramatta River. I have been wanting to check it out for months now but never make the trek out from my area, but every time I see the reports of so many carp around in there, makes me want to go more and more to check it out finally. Looks like they’d be fun to catch especially at those sizes 

[Mike Sydney]

Great read. Congrats on so many fish and finding your float again at a different location too!

[bessell1955]

A great variety of fish.

[jenno64]

Great post and 6 species in one session means the fish were on!