Carp Fishing in Australia
The word 'Huge' also comes to mind.
Often 'ringing between the ears' at the same time is 'terrible muddy taste'.
This is so if you do not know how to treat your fish once bagged.
I remember sitting around with friends dinning on Chinese cuisine when the taste of carp was raised.
It was noted that the flavor of the 'seafood combination' was indeed appetizing. Receiving much disbelief and mockery I did point out that some of the food in this dish was actually carp.
Carp is a considered a delicacy in most parts of Europe and Asia but for some reason has earned an unwarranted bad name as a food in Australia.
It was not so long ago that Australian Tuna had a similar reputation with regards to its flavor and was predominantly fished for the pet food industry.
There was a reason for this. It was the way Tuna was generally handled after landing. After basic research, normal handling of the catch was changed to placing the fish on ice as soon as possible after it came on board.
This simple expedient has seen the price of Tuna climb from 'cat food' to a delight worth over a thousand dollars a fish in some instances.
I doubt that you will see a thousand dollar price tag on a carp in the near future but the process is the same.
Preparing Carp
As soon as you land your fish, put it on ice, get it as cold as possible as soon as possible.
The reason is this:
While you have the carp out of the water, it experiences a physical stress that has the effect of raising histamine levels in its blood.
The longer the fish experiences these physical stresses, the higher the histamine levels become filling capillaries running through the flesh. This is what gives the carp its trademark muddy taste.
Putting the carp into ice immediately on landing does two things. First it greatly reduces or stops the production of histamines in the carp. Secondly, the sudden cold the carp experiences draws blood from the shoulders and flanks and moves it to the bloodline immediately under the length of the spine. Being quite boney, this part of the fish along with he bloodline is normally discarded.
After this process, cutting two fillets clear of the spine and rib cage yields a quite fleshy slab of meat with a blood line generally down the middle. Simply slice away the clear flesh from the bloodline coloured meat and you should have tasty fillets with no hint of muddy flavour. Some people like the skin but I prefer to remove this from the fillet as well (you don't have to worry about scaling the fish this way).
Enough about preparing Carp - now for fishing!
One underrated aspect of Carp is the pure fun of fishing for them with their abundant numbers and fine fighting attributes once hooked. A large carp can get the adrenalin pumping more so than a Bass or a Trout, the weight of the fish pulling on the line with strength and speed. The bigger carp do definitely give a good fight. Record size carp up to and over 14Kg ( over 30 lb old school ) have been caught in recent years and it really is not unusual to catch fish 4 Kg and over on a regular basis. For fresh water fishing, this is big!
Being ubiquitous to most of South Eastern Australia they can be found in most waterways both sides of the Great Dividing Range. They are present from the lower ends of the Murray Darling River System where fishing for Carp is an industry - to Bathurst and beyond. On the other side of the Range they are prolific in the Hunter River System from below Glenbawn dam through to Maitland, Morpeth and further. They also are present in waters of southern Western Australia.
Carp Lakes and Rivers
Being ubiquitous to most of South Eastern Australia they can be found in most waterways both sides of the Great Dividing Range. They are present from the lower ends of the Murray Darling River System where fishing for Carp is an industry - to Bathurst and beyond. On the other side of the Range they are prolific in the Hunter River System from below Glenbawn dam through to Maitland, Morpeth and further. They also are present in waters of southern Western Australia.
How to catch Carp
Bait fishing, lure fishing, fly fishing - they all work, just keep your eye on what the fish are doing. At times you can see them feeding at the surface when a fly or a lure deftly cast will nail a carp. Other times just relaxing with a bait presented close into shore can do wonders.
Personally, my favorite style is bait fishing with bread kneaded onto the hook in a fashion resembling a worm and cast three to six feet in from the river bank using more bread rolled into little balls as a berly. The lightest or no weight on the line seems to work the best. This method has landed countless fish, some very large indeed, including one that nearly got away with my rod and reel due to my lack of attention.
See Catching Carp on this site for more information.
For cooking tips, see Cooking Carp
See Catching Carp on this site for more information.
For cooking tips, see Cooking Carp
