Disappointing opening to carp season (covid edition)

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sloth
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Disappointing opening to carp season (covid edition)

Post by sloth » Sun Sep 19, 2021 8:33 pm

With the restrictions moving out to 10km I figured I’d try new territory and swap the estuary for freshwater. Been having heaps of fun lately mucking around with baitfeeders on the nong so I figured I’d see if I couldn’t do the same with the mud Marlins at cherry lake. So I swapped the chicken for a can of sweetcorn, threw a bag of homemade burley in the bag, packed the rubber mallet (got to feel confident) and hit the lake.

Kept it simple and fished a running sinker rig to a black magic kl 1/0 with a few corn kernels. Hooked up twice and pulled the hook twice. Disappointing but to be fair … the conditions were a little …. Challenging ….
301556F3-F1BF-4306-84BA-0E52A41E7B50.jpeg

Blowing 25knot gusts and quite honestly at times it was like surf fishing lol. Couldn’t tell a bite from wind and chop … both hooked fish were on the end of the line when I picked the rods up to wind in and check the bait. Got to see one of them at least … the hook popped as I tried to lift him from the water - wasn’t worth getting wet trying to stick him with the lip grips so I figured I’d chance it and try to surf it in and then lift it. Didn’t quite go to plan and it belly rolled and popped the hook at the edge.

Still - was plenty of fun and a nice change from the banks of the nong. At least I hooked up, so looking forward to some calmer weather and then I reckon the mallet will get a workout.

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Sebb
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Re: Disappointing opening to carp season (covid edition)

Post by Sebb » Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:41 pm

Did you use the baitfeeders too at Cherry lake?
It's great for carp fishing. Let them eat the whole thing, make a run, then set the hook. Won't strike if it's just nibble bites.

Haha yes, for a second when I saw the photo I thought you were fishing the surf.
Water looks dirty too.
Yeah wind been crazy strong. Few lemons fell from the tree on my backyard.
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sloth
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Re: Disappointing opening to carp season (covid edition)

Post by sloth » Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:45 am

Sebb wrote:
Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:41 pm
Did you use the baitfeeders too at Cherry lake?
I had one baitfeeder with me. I initially got a tiny 500 sized ceymar baitfeeder which I’ve been using for bream in the nong. Turned out to be a lot of fun and a nice contrast to lure fishing all the time. So since then I’ve got a 2500 penn fierce III liveliner which I was using at cherry lake and I’ve got a 4000 ceymar on the way which I’ll use for carp and school mulloway.

You’re right about the water being dirty - it was like chocolate milkshake and where the wind chop hit the lake edge it was like a washing machine. I opted to fish the corner the wind was blowing into given I knew that’s where most of the food would be blown to and I took a guess that at a metre deep that the bottom would be being churned up and maybe that’s what carp like? The other option was find shelter and see if the carp were holding there but I only had an hour so moving around wasn’t really an option. I’ve not hunted them seriously before so not really sure of their behaviour so took a punt on fishing leeward…. Was nuts though … I had to use 60g to get the rig to hold bottom so I could have at least some kind of line control in the wind … normally I would have quit and called it unfishable but quite honestly these days I’ll take anything I can get.

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Sebb
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Re: Disappointing opening to carp season (covid edition)

Post by Sebb » Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:36 am

Yeah, any fish will do.
I can't remember when was the last time I hooked a fish.
Baitfeeders can definitely be fun to use. Live baiting for mulloway with baitfeeder is great.
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sloth
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Re: Disappointing opening to carp season (covid edition)

Post by sloth » Thu Sep 23, 2021 7:37 pm

Been back a couple of times since and I can’t find the bloody things. I’m guessing they may be doing their spring thing around the reeds to the northern edge as the SE and S areas are very quiet. Could just be I’m struggling to shift gears from estuary to fresh. Been quite a while since I’ve had consecutive donuts, so now this is getting serious :) With bream it’s pretty straightforward - structure and flow finds the fish. Cherry lake feels big and empty - not much structure … few reed banks to cast to and the odd overhanging tree but it really dies feel like chuck it out and hope … been fishing the banks getting the wind and morning sun but not so much as a nibble :(

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Re: Disappointing opening to carp season (covid edition)

Post by Sebb » Thu Sep 23, 2021 9:46 pm

sloth wrote:
Thu Sep 23, 2021 7:37 pm
Been back a couple of times since and I can’t find the bloody things. I’m guessing they may be doing their spring thing around the reeds to the northern edge as the SE and S areas are very quiet. Could just be I’m struggling to shift gears from estuary to fresh. Been quite a while since I’ve had consecutive donuts, so now this is getting serious :) With bream it’s pretty straightforward - structure and flow finds the fish. Cherry lake feels big and empty - not much structure … few reed banks to cast to and the odd overhanging tree but it really dies feel like chuck it out and hope … been fishing the banks getting the wind and morning sun but not so much as a nibble :(
Yeah, cherry lake is a bit like that.
Last time caught 5kg carp from a lake was burumbeet, and was the same, just big open shallow lake with no structures. 5 people fishing for hours and only one hit and one fish out in the open in chocolate water.
Just gotta be lucky i guess.
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