Berwick carp live

[wokka1]

Eventually I will catch a >70cm Carp like these junior burgers seem to do on a regular basis

And some of the senior burgers.

[Cornacarpio]

I think I lost a >70cm Carp today.

Teach me your secrets junior and senior burgers.

[Master-pro]

Haha, I'll make a video and show you how simple it is to catch carp from this lake


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[Cornacarpio]

What's the rent like in Berwick? :rofl:

[raco09]

What's the rent like in Berwick? :rofl:

Not cheap. But lot's of lakes to entice you to the area. Lol

[wokka1]

I think I lost a >70cm Carp today.

Teach me your secrets junior and senior burgers.

I'm all for sport fishing and fish as light as I can but at some point you need to up your gear to land the big beasties consistently if you are chasing them in the snags. There's no finesse involved where I chase them. They hit hard and keep going so you need to stop them before they hit cover. If you know the 70 plus are there I'd run 10 lb braid minimum and run that straight to your hook or lure. You'd be surprised how much dragging over submerged timber good braid can take and survive. It's the sharp edges that will kill it. If you want to run leader run heavier braid...up to 30 lb, there are no teeth to worry about and (in my opinion) the braid is more pliable and has a softer feel in their mouth than fluoro or mono so they are less likely to reject it.

My light outfit is 2-4 rod, 2500 reel and 10 lb braid and I'm only a 50/50 chance of stopping the 70+ in tight quarters with this. When they are on at Brimbank park about 2 in 5 fish are 70 or bigger so that's what I gear for. Heavier rig is 15 lb on a 3500 3-5 kg rod and I've been well dusted on this more than once. Biggest Yakked so far is 80 and i'd like to think the magic metre is in there somewhere but 85-90 is probably more realistic. Anything bigger than 75 usually has noticeable "wrinkling" and shrinking around the mouth area and i'm interpreting this as a sign of old fish which are close to maxing out their growth. There is absolutely no science behind those interpretations, only observation. They also tend to get fatter rather than longer as they get older i think. Check out the beasties caught at the Northern carp cull for an illustration of this.

Anyway, that's what works for me in the location I fish and gives me a ratio of about 4 fish landed for each flogging I get. Those odds i can live with.

If you are sight fishing and you don't get any interest in say 10 min, either try something different or move on. Sometimes they just don't want to party.
Even if you are using lures, throw out fingernail sized pieces of crust that will float on the surface and that might turn them on. I think you've already discovered that if you do battle with one in a small hole or skinny water chances are the other will spook but if they were actively feeding before the spook they'll usually come back on in 20 min or so.

[Cornacarpio]

Good advice Wokka :thumbsup:

The light 6lb set up does me fine 99.94% of the time, as I like going down to the local and trying to catch as many Carp as I can. It's just that when I get a huge one and it gets off I wonder why I didn't bring the heavy artillery :snap: . There's obviously trade-off's involved when using a light set up (getting more bites/losing bigger fish) and using a heavier set up (less bites/more chance of landing a stonker). Like you said:

I'm all for sport fishing and fish as light as I can but at some point you need to up your gear to land the big beasties consistently if you are chasing them in the snags.

'Tis the Carpooner's dilemma.

I also agree with your anecdotal evidence about differing growth rates. Would love to mix it with the 'big boys' at Coburg. Even if they don't get that really, really long in there, they get very, very fat. I hope that when (if) I do break the 70cm mark, its not one of long skinny things, although I'd take it .I've seen a couple around the 70cm mark on the Internet that would barely go 10lb I reckon, as obviously the fish are a product of their environment.

Thanks for sharing your insights and taking the time to respond to my question.

[Mark1981]

Is that the main lake on berwick springs promenade or the lake on moondarra drive.. I normally fish moondarra drive and have had a ball with the carp there.. Trout are still apparently stocked in the the Berwick springs Prom lake but I've yet to see 1.. I've only caught carp and roach from there...



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[Master-pro]

Is that the main lake on berwick springs promenade or the lake on moondarra drive.. I normally fish moondarra drive and have had a ball with the carp there.. Trout are still apparently stocked in the the Berwick springs Prom lake but I've yet to see 1.. I've only caught carp and roach from there...



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It's the lake in an estate called the chase


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[Mark1981]

Is that the 1 on Grices Rd??


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