G'day from Australia!

[AussieGeezer]

Hi all,
hope you're all well.Great site you have here,and happy to have stumbled upon it.
Yes,I'm from Australia,not of "British descent"(not that it matters)and carp are a "pest" here,but no carp i have ever caught have "met their maker".....they all seem to "escape" somehow!
Look forward to catching up with you guy's later......in the meantime,there is plenty of reading for me to do.
Please "excuse" some of my questions later on if they seem to be condescending,but some of our terminology seems to be different,and our methods certainly are!
Proud to be a part of this forum.......perhaps we can "exchange" notes later.
Cheers.

[Tom]

Hi there,

Great to see that our site is reaching an international audience

I'd imagine your methods are highly different to ours, as I do remember that carp are considered a pest and are believed to be the reason some of the native river species are becoming endangered?

So, do you normally dispose of carp over there? as they're a pest. Some of our members might look at it strangely as carp over here are a sought after catch but I can appreciate it as I do remember reading that your rivers are becoming totally overrun with them.

[sqwat]

its the law when you catch a carp in ausse you have to knock it on the head there rivers are over run with them lucky beggers

[AussieGeezer]

hi guy's.......thanks for the welcome.
you're both sort of right in what you're saying.
here in oz,they are virtually in plague proportions,and in the late 70's and early 80's were "blamed" for the downfall in population of our native fish stocks.
having said that,there are a few "man-made" problems on our waterways (pollution,irrigation, poor land management etc) as well.carp are generally frowned upon as a "rubbish fish" and therefore knocked on the head when captured.
it is illegal to return a carp to the water alive in south australia......where i am.....and in victoria.
our methods here to catch carp involve.....any rod / reel combo,any breaking strain line,any hook size and anything laying around that you wouldn't eat for their bait! that's just about how crude it is......anyone can catch one!
of course,those that "refine their tecniques" catch the better fish than the average bloke........those that choose to "specialise"......like you guy's,well,they do even better again.
i like to class myself between the latter 2 catergories,and hopefully find a few ideas on here that are a bit different to what we normally do in oz.
cheers.

[sqwat]

you can get away with heavyer gear cause no one fishes for them over here the fish we fish for are pressured 24 7 so every thing has to be spot on fish over here are really line shy so you have to pin every thing to the lake bed

[AussieGeezer]

that's exactly right mate!

[Tom]

The other problem we face over here is that baits can "blow", i mean like it can get to the point at say one lake where everyone has used exactly the same bait for so long that it seems to strike a danger signal with carp and that bait will totally lose any effectiveness at catching.

[AussieGeezer]

all the more reason not to follow the status quo,and think outside the square.
do things your way.....there are no hard fast rules in fishing,and the old adage......rules are made to be broken certainly applies!