BY KARLENE BRUMMER
After a three year hiatus due to natural disasters like fire, floods and the Covid pandemic, the St Alban’s Common Annual Carp Fishing Comp was back bigger and better than ever on the weekend of November 3-5.
The Lake within the St Albans Common has been the setting for the Fishing Competition since 2007, with attendees able to camp out for the weekend to immerse themselves in the full experience of the event. The competition is a win/win situation, with recreational fishers able to enjoy their hobby, whilst at the same time clearing the lake of these destructive fish.
Carp are an introduced species which have a devastating impact on native fish and the biodiversity of our waterways, and so the fishing competition is an opportunity to try and cull the numbers of these pests, who have had free reign to grow in both size and numbers over the past several years.
There were prizes on offer for the three biggest fish caught, and this year the 1st prize of $300 went to Tomasz Pawlus with his catch of an 11.3kg monster, which was only .5kg below the record set in 2008.
The Carp that are caught are placed in barrels of water and are collected at the end of the weekend by Michael from Turtle Rescue NSW in Valley Heights, who provides a donation to the Common Trust, and takes them back to feed the reptiles in his care.
This year a total of 335kg of Carp were removed from the waterway, enough to feed the turtles for the next twelve months.
