Your Catches: Common Carp Caught on Lure?

I show off my surprising catch!

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I was studying in Melbourne, Australia back in 2007 and I took every opportunity to explore the fishing scene there. I met another avid angler by the name of Sunny, who resided in Melbourne for more than 20 years and we quickly became good fishing buddies. We looked forward to the weekends when we would go on fishing excursions. We targeted all sorts of species from both freshwater and saltwater fish.

It was early winter when Sunny organized a day trip to fish for trout! I had always been excited to fish this fantastic species. We headed up north of Eildon Lake, which is situated about 4 hours north of Melbourne.

We started wetting the lines very early in the morning. We would see trout leaping above the surface, it was truly a sight to behold! I never knew trout behaved that way! The sight gave us a confidence boost. We began casting small plugs, spinners, and spoons into the depths of the lake.

The bite rate seemed slow and I decided to downsize my lure. Changing my tactic to work my lure slowly near the bottom. On my fourth cast, I felt my line tighten as I worked along the bottom of the lake. Instantly, I striked back to set the hooks and my 8lb line peeled away as if I hooked a bullet train. I thought I had hooked into a lunker trout! What amazing luck!

I was struggling to gain leverage as my rod and line setup was very light I feared a break off. The fight lasted about 20-30 minutes as I gently played out the fish until it was tired. To my surprise it was a common carp I caught that tipped the scales at 7.7lbs. Nonetheless, the carp species has never failed to give me sweaty palms when it comes to their fighting abilities. Its a simply great sport-fish for any form of fishing, and I guess I was just lucky enough to catch a common carp on lure!

I was using a 6′ Ryobi Regno 8-16lbs medium light rod, paired with a Shimano Symetre 1000 series. The spool was loaded with 8lbs Berkley Fireline XDS, attached with a 10lbs Berkley Vanish Fluorocarbon leader. The lure I was using is a Lucky Craft EBR 50 (a shrimp like lure.)