Had a very funny fishing trip the other day

There is a huge park in Sydney called Centennial Park. It's 1 klm east of the CBD.
There are lots of ponds in it, and like all inland waterways it has a carp problem.
So once a fortnight, they let people go carp fishing! It's under the banner of the Volunteer Ponds Group. Since November last year, they have removed 1.1 tonne of carp from the ponds.
So three of us took off from the office at 2.30pm last Tuesday and we were fishing by 3pm. It's such a nice park, nestled in the eastern suburbs, the odd horse goes round the riding track, packs of eastern suburbs tossers on cycles whiz past, and there we were fishing.
There were about a dozen blokes and a few kids. Most of the blokes looked like tradies. Two blokes wandered down in nice gear and started fly fishing. I'd be betting they were lawyers who lived locally.
They didn't catch anything.
The preferred bait? Bread. Those fish have grown up on bread.
Hans caught a 6 kilo fish and Kien caught a 4 kilo. Being an Aussie born Vietnamese, I think it broke his heart that he couldn't take that fish home and cook it up.
I suggested to the ranger that they should think about releasing some pigs in the park so we could go shooting, too.
Scott
 

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What a great idea to deal with the vermon fish.
Looks like a nice place to spend a few hours having a yak or just enjoying the day.
I bet the kids would enjoy it.
They have pretty good photos of the ones that didn,t get away.
Unfortunatley the only way to get rid of the carp would be to drain and dryout the ponds, so you may as well have a bit of fun getting rid of them.
I do like the idea of the pigs, however you had better be a very good shot:eek:
cheers
 
I suspect the problem with draining the ponds is that there would be native fish in them - they've stocked them a few times.
Tortoises, too, But draining the ponds wouldn't be a problem with them.
Loads of eels.
The fishing wouldn't be the most efficient way to do it, but it's good for kids to learn about the waterways. It also got me into that park - it's years since I've been there. I had forgotten how nice it was. The marketing guys want to attract more people like me - lapsed users - to the park.
 
Memories

Aaahhh, Centennial Park.

In a former life when being a student and attending UNSW just up the road, the wife and I used to live in Randwick. The wife worked in the city, and on fine days used to ride into work. Just for the exercise and for a bit of security, I'd always ride with her. We used to go through the park and it was a very pleasant ride and scenery.

The horses are amazing, and it doesn't feel like the centre of the biggest city in Australia when you are there. Being next to the SCG also seems to expand it somewhat.

I remember well riding past that lake and seeing the pleasant setting.

Geez, that was when we were in renters land, before we'd purchased a property. Now that was a long time ago.
 
Yeah, I had forgotten about the horses. I was crossing the track, not paying attention, and heard one coming. 'Bugger me', I said to myslef 'That's a horse.'
There was one particularly funny moment during the afternoon. Most people who fish have caught the odd seagull. It's always annoying, but not terribly disturbing - a bit like catching a rat.
On Tuesday I heard a ruckus along the bank. Someone had caught a swan. Gee, they're big birds when they get in a bit of a flap.
 
there are some monster carp in australian waters , but we aussies dont eat them?
I thought once upon a time that ,One could safely troll these inland waterways .esp in canberra , and sort the natives from the others , then hang and dry all the carp , dry vack them in australian olive oil, and export them to the 300 million chinese , as a delicacy, they are bottom feeders i know but surely australian carp are cleaner than theirs , ;)
 
I don't think I would eat anything from those ponds.
One of the guys fishing the other day along the bank has some sort of record for carp. It was a 13 kilo one he caught in that pond last year.
A couple of years ago there was an algal bloom that sucked the oxygen from the water and fish ended up gasping on the surface. One of the ones they pulled out was apparently 24 kilos. That's a big fish.
 
I heard about that rabbit cull. Didn't know it was such a big operation. Amazing that nobody reported the gunfire - 380 rabbits is alot of shooting. I can understand gunfire in my suburb not alarming people, but there is some flash real estate around that park.
 
What a good idea! Nice to see some initiative to getting rid of pest species.

Although, why can't we eat carp?
 
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