Carp fishing in Australia

[tileys]

A good freind of mine is emigrating to Oz on October and is concerned that he will not be able to do any carp fishing. He has loads of gear which he doesn't want to get rid of but also doesn't want to pay a fortune to ship it out there if carp fishing is scorned upon. He tells me ALL carp are considered as vermin and you MUST kill any you catch, apparently there's a stiff fine if you get caught returning carp to the water!!!!

Is this fact or does anyone know better, is carp fishing outlawed or is it just returning them that's illegal? My mate said he'd not be able to "catch & kill" and would rather pack up carp fishing all together.

Can anyone advise if or where in Austalia catching carp and being able to return them is acceptable? Not sure which area he's moving to.

 

Thanks - Phil

Returning carp is illegal in Victoria but not illegal in New South Wales although most people you talk to maintain the line that it is illegal in the hope that you wont return it. They are pretty much universally hated and blamed for just about every waterway problem here.

 

Perch (known as redfin or English Perch here) are also an introduced species but are viewed as being less of a problem because they don't stir up sediment and also because they taste nice... Trout are continually introduced as they don't seem able to sustain a decent population in some waters here and are viewed with less suspicion than redfin wrt habitat damage.

 

The truth is that carp are increasing in biomass while other natives are finding it hard going due to drought and inappropriate water use and flow altering, and this increased biomass is leading to problems of competition for food, plant uprooting and increased turbidity. Recently it was estimated that there is a density of 1 carp per cubic metre of water in the Murray-Darling basin. Densities like this will keep average size of carp small and that coupled with the fact that carp caught are generally killed means that larger specimens are will not be as common as they might have been. Having said that, unless carp are eradicated here e.g. daughterless carp technology, then I can see larger specimens turning up in the future.

 

There are some great natives to fish for here - Murray Cod, Estuary Perch, Bass, Barramundi (Nthrn Aus only), Golden Perch etc. In southern regions of Australia there are also populations of Tench and Roach that I know of but they're typically overlooked by most freshwater fishers here. Freshwater fishing here is characterised by lure approaches - plugs, soft plastics, fly etc. and bait fishing, especially coarse fishing tactics e.g. maggots, corn etc, is viewed with scepticism at best and unAustralian at worst.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve