Carp and Kangaroos

11-24-09

Having been away from home so long, I had forgotten what a great place Canberra and its surrounds are for fishing. There are 3 major lakes in Canberra (Burley Griffin, Tuggeranong and Ginninderra) which are all regularly stocked with natives, numerous rivers and it’s only a 2 hour drive into the mountains for some brilliant trout fishing or down to the coast for great estuary or offshore fishing.

Since being back I have been lucky enough to be doing some work with one of my mates on his Phd where he is investigating the effects of kangaroo over grazing on endangered bird, mammal and reptile species. This has given me the opportunity to explore some of the off the beaten track reserves around the place where I have encountered some stunning scenery and animals as well as getting the chance to test out my 4WD skills on some pretty tricky terrain.

Shingle Back or Sleepy Lizard – these guys are awesome, they are almost invulnerable predators because of their armour

Echidna – when you spot them they basically curl up in a ball and try and bury themselves

After a hard day’s work and a massive hamburger dinner, I got the opportunity to take my mate out fishing for his first time – we were camping in the reserve near the river and I thought it was a great opportunity to do a bit of night fishing. Night fishing was made a lot more difficult by the fact that somehow, neither of us had remembered to bring a torch.

Despite the lack of light it wasn’t long before I was hooked up with a decent sized carp and it wasn’t long after that that he had run me around a submerged (actually it was only semi-submerged I found out in the morning) log and broke my extremely light line. Brett fished on until he finished his beer with no success and I fished on until I’d finished a couple more before calling it a night and throwing the rest of my corn in to burley up for the next morning.

The next morning was an absolute stunner. We were up at sun rise to count kangaroos from the Hilux, which is kind of akin to going on safari – except instead of hunting we use rangefinder binoculars to spot them hopping through the bush and record their numbers.

Having completed the morning’s work we returned to our fishing hole where the carp were well and truly on the bite! They were striking hard and often and constantly diving into the snags to try and cut us off but with the aid of light I was able to land the first carp of the day. Within seconds Brett was also hooked up and doing a pretty brilliant job of controlling his first ever fish! So finally what you have all been waiting for, a couple of fishing pictures.