Bait advice needed

Hi folks,

After relocating out here to Australia from the UK I've decided to fish the recreational lakes we have here ..... But have come across some rather fundamental problems, which I hope you guys can advise on.

The first one is that I cannot find ANY tackle which we would use for coarse fishing. Apart from saltwater, it would appear it is lure or fly only, but the majority of people just use lures. If I am talking float rods, feeders, methods, or any such thing, i may as well be an alien. Apparently, a guy in a tackle shop told me they tried the 'European style' of fishing about 20 years ago but it never took on. So it looks like il be shipping all my gear over from back home.

With this in mind, I cannot get the usual baits, so will have to resort in making my own. This is where I need advice, on making ground baits etc?
I have to be careful here also as I would like to avoid certain species, namely carp.
The waters here are loaded with carp, big buggers too, the lakes and the rivers, but these are classified as a noxious species and are not allowed to be returned to the waters under any curcumstance (much like Zander). So I would hate to catch a 30+ Ib monster then have to bin it, so would be aiming specifically for the tench - any ideas anyone? I have looked into ground bait ingredients but not sure how to actually avoid one species over another, especially both being bottom feeders.

On the plus side, these lakes are all well stocked, including trout and can simply take home what you have caught, within bag limits, for free

Whereabouts are you? The "European style of fishing" is alive and well in Sydney, or it was when I was there fishing the creeks with Ausi family but agree they're heavily influenced by the yanks as far as saltwater fishing goes (blame the TV) but even so, we still used real-food baits from the boat and shoreline, calamari was the preferred bait mostly.
You probably wont avoid the carp altogether as they will eat anything edible as you now but for tench I suggest trying red hookbaits and sweet fruit mixes in your groundbait ingredients.
You could also use small thin gauge hooks prone to straightening out (plenty of cheap Chinese **** out there) in case you snag something real big that you couldn't 'legally' return.... unless you like a barbi?

I'm down in Melbourne and can't find any gear in any shops around here.
Il try the tips you suggest, thanks

Someone in Aus is fishing for carp and being naughty by putting them back.

https://www.youtube.com/user/tpawlus/videos

kabodhi said:

After relocating out here to Australia from the UK I've decided to fish the recreational lakes we have here ..... But have come across some rather fundamental problems, which I hope you guys can advise on.

Click to expand...

Hi, we have a few members here on FM who are in Australia.

The best one to contact, via PM here, might be "Chevin"

If you search on his user name then send him a PM I am sure he will help you if at all possible.

Good luck

Peter Jacobs said:

Hi, we have a few members here on FM who are in Australia.

The best one to contact, via PM here, might be "Chevin"

If you search on his user name then send him a PM I am sure he will help you if at all possible.

Good luck

Click to expand...

There is also AussieBob who has posted recently.

Steve Pope flits about a bit too

Best bait I was shown down there for trout was worms. Usually a bunch of them on a size 2! I heard of leatherjackets being popular. I fished the shore mostly whilst on the east coast using yabbies, beachworm, pipis that I gathered myself. Along with mullet and herring using a cast-net( dismally inefficiently).
Most fish I found respond to movement and twitching baits has gotta be worth a chuck or two. My guess is you have enough fishing nous to improve your catches once you start getting bites and some feedback from whatever species are present.
As for the carp I was convinced by a local of the Murray of how serious a threat carp had become to indigenous species. With the habitat damage and salt boreholes Murray Cod were endangered. It's an icon fish down south and grows to enormous size. In those circumstances I would choose to follow the code, but maybe find a use for any I caught.
It could just be you are the guy to teach the aussies how to fish properly!