Wayne “Mr Freshwater” Dubois
Southern Freshwater Specialist
Wayne has been a freshwater fishing specialist forever and has fished Blowering Dam for Yellowbelly for over thirty years. He’s been in the tackle trade, spent some time as a fishing guide, written numerous fishing reports and magazine articles. He now runs Insanity Tackle, which specialises in a range of lures for Australia’s native freshwater species.
Wayne’s Top Carp Fishing Tips
- Accurate casting is really important, as is landing the lure well away from the fish and working it back into their zone with small, subtle movements.
- A great aspect of lure fishing for carp is being able to choose the fish you want to catch and sight cast to it. Skip catching the small fish and just target the big ones if you like, just like Wayne does.
- Wayne reckons carp are actually not bad eating and that Australians just have a mindset that they taste like mud. Greg’s not convinced but promises to give them another try.
- Lagoons, back eddies in creeks or big shallow bays in impoundments all hold plenty of carp. Clear, shallow water is important because the techniques that Wayne uses require the angler to see the carp and read its behaviour.
- Whilst carp are often looked down upon by sport fishers, they are strong fighters, challenging to tempt on lures and abundant enough that there’s always a target for honing your skills.
- Prime times for carp fishing on lures are definitely in the warmer months from October onwards – the warmer the water the better, afternoons often fish better than mornings as the water has had greater opportunity to be warmed by the sun. Clear, calm conditions help to sight the fish.
- Stealth is important as you’re fishing in clear, shallow water and carp are very sensitive to sound and vibration. When shore fishing, be sure and fire your casts out well back from the waters edge.
- Use a light drag to reduce the chances of the hook being pulled out during the initial strike and run. After a while you’ll be able to read the fish’s likely moves and be able to guide and work them away from structure with light pressure.
- Carp have four typical habits, but there’s one that particularly signals they’re likely to take a lure:
- When fish appear to be resting, or hibernating and aren’t actively moving, forget it, you’re probably not going to have much success. This often looks like the fish are sleeping or moving slowly and lethargically. This is common during the cooler months.
- Free swimming, mid-water carp or those moving just beneath the water surface can be caught with a perfect cast, but they’re very difficult.
- Carp will sometimes seem to move along the bottom whilst swimming on their sides in creeks or may even be observed side swimming in deeper water. It’s not clear what they’re up to, but they’re nearly impossible to catch.
- When fish are “head down, tail up” and active you can be sure they’re feeding and that you’re almost certain to catch the fish if you put in the right cast.
- Accurate casting is really important, as is landing the lure well away from the fish and working it back into their zone with small, subtle movements.
Wayne’s Carp Fishing Tackle
- A good pair of polaroid sunglasses is essential tackle for this style of fishing as it’s necessary to see the fish take the lure to know when to set the hook.
- A standard bream/trout outfit that can cast light lures is ideal. A 7 foot, 1-3 kg rod 1000-2000 spin reel. 1-6 lb braided line is perfect, Wayne prefers Berkley Fireline Crystal as he’s tried numerous brands and finds this line is less likely to form wind knots when fished on spin gear. A rod length of 4-6 lb Vanish leader completes the outfit.
Wayne’s Carp Fishing Lures
- Wayne reckons you’ll only need one style of lure to target carp, and that’s very small soft plastic lures of 1 to 1.5 inches maximum length. Most styles will work, but curl tail grubs work best at slow speeds, which is what’s required in this instance.
- Lure colour is not important to the fish, but it is important to the angler as you need to be able to see the fish take the lure. Wayne finds black or white lures give contrast and are highly visible to the angler.
- Jig head weights are critical. Use the absolute lightest weight jig head you can get away with. Wayne typically uses a 1g head with a size 6-8 hook, but if it’s windy you might need to switch up to 2g – any heavier and you’ll find that the fish will usually reject the lure.
- Scents aren’t critical, but Wayne reckons that applying a little can get the carp to take and hold a lure.
- Usually landing a lure within a metre of a feeding carp will spook the fish. A better strategy is to watch the direction that the fish is moving and cast well ahead of it. Then gently and subtly move the lure to within a metre or even closer. If the fish doesn’t move in and take it, move the lure with gentle 1-2 inch hops closer and closer to the fish. If fish still don’t take the lure, try shaking the rod tip and you’ll often see the fish light up and take the lure.
- Instantly when the lure is taken, don’t strike the fish, but set the hook by just leaning back with the rod to tighten the line and drive the hook home.
Insanity Tackle
Wayne has a long history of tournament wins and an obsession for freshwater fishing that has led him to develop a line of lures and accessories specifically for targeting his favourite freshwater species. The range includes many of the soft vibes, lipless crankbaits and “angelbaits” mentioned in this podcast episode, but also boasts swimbaits, ice jigs, unique spinnerbaits and a ton more. Check out and order Insanity Lures at the link above!
As per Greg’s suggestion for ALF podies to share their thoughts on favourite lines …
My goto finesse casting line on a spinning reel is Sunline Castaway.
This is an “IGFA rated” 8-core braid consisting of 4 strands of PE and 4 strands of high-density ester mono-filaments (what ever that is – nylon?).
A trap for those unfamiliar with IGFA rated lines is that, by design, these lines must break at (or just under) what it says on the box as per IGFA requirements.
In diameter Castaway is well below the US-based rule-of-thumb that 1PE in thickness = 10lb in breaking strain. For example, Castaway 10lb = PE0.6 = 0.128mm / 12lb = PE0.8 = 0.148mm / 16lb = PE1.0 = 0.165mm.
By way of comparison, Berkley Crystal Fireline 4lb is 0.13mm, which in PE terms is about the equivalent diameter of Castaway 10lb. Given that the ultra thin versions of Crystal Fireline braid tend to break at approx 200% over the rating stated on the box (4lb when tested by Paulus broke at 11.5lb!), that makes these two very different lines rather more equivalent than one might expect … except in price.
Reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20171123043625/http://www.paulusjustfishing.com:80/4linetesting.htm
In terms of performance, Sunline Castaway is one of the finest casting lines for spinning reels ever made with no tip-wraps or wind-knots. This seems to be due to the unique construction which gives the braid more body and water resistance without making it stiff as we’ve come to expect with fused braids like Berkley Crystal Fireline.
I’m yet to try Castaway on a finesse bait-casting reel (e.g. Daiwa Alphas Air), however I expect it’d perform very well. That said, on a bait-caster used for light lures my preferred line from the top shelf is Daiwa Saltiga EX12 (or Daiwa Morethan-12 – which is exactly the same line only a different colour and ever harder to find and even more expensive). IMO this is possibly the best casting braid every made … if you can find it and/or afford it!
Cost is the only real downside of Castaway – but that aside, Castaway PE0.6 has become my preferred line for finesses spin casting. However I also use Berkley Crystal Fireline and Power Pro Bite Motion for many other freshwater spinning applications below 30lb (i.e. everything except barra and cod). IMO, Crystal Fireline 1lb (0.06mm) and 2lb (0.08mm) were possibly the best performing and most affordable extreme ultra-fine lines ever made, but have long since become unobtainable.
For what it’s worth, my two Carp spinners (actually bait-runners) are spooled with 4lb Berkley Crystal Fireline. This line is becoming very hard to find but is still available from Mike’s Fishing & Tackle and Davo’s Tackle … but not for much longer I don’t expect.
By way of an observation on performance apart from casting distance: I’ve found tip-wraps & wind-knots (aka casting knots) are more likely to occur with ultra thin braids no matter what the brand once the slick coating has worn off and/or the braid has become slightly abraded, thus allowing it to absorb more water. Another cause is dirty line – i.e. braid which has become slightly tacky due to residue picked up from polluted water. Line twist is another obvious cause, especially when ultra thin braid is used to cast very light lures since the bail roller does not operate as effectively – especially if it’s a bush rather than a roller bearing, or the bearing has seized. A little understood cause of tip-wrap and casting-knots is a mis-matched rod & reel where the diameter and position of the first guide on the rod (the stripper/ butt guide) is not optimal for the spool diameter of the reel, and on it goes from there to the design and placement of the various reduction guides up to the final choke guide – however these nuances are likely to be of interest only to rod builders.
In closing, I’m very interested to hear the observations & opinions of others about their preferred mainlines for both spin and bait-cast reels based on comparative experience over time rather than marketing fad & fashion.
Thanks Wayne … After nearly 300 episodes of ALF, finally someone was brave enough to cover Carp. Well done you, and for doing it with only one lure too!
But I have a question about that one lure. Given that you’ve emphasised just how important it is to get the size right (i.e. very small – 1-1.5” / 25-40mm), can you tell me what curly-tail grub you’re using because I’m not familiar with anything quite that small.
I’m also wondering which make/model of jig-head you use since choice in the 1-2g (1/28-1/16oz) range with a #6-4 hook is pretty limited too.
As a follow up to my reference to optimal guide placement and the relationship between guide position and spool diameter, I suggest googling “27X method”, and also terms like “Fuji system”, “NGC system” and “KR concept”.
Alternatively, visit some of the rod building websites like http://www.rodbuilding.org, https://anglersresource.net/, and https://www.stripersonline.com/, etc, for many lively discussions.
Even if you don’t build your own rods, you can still measure the guide placement on your existing store-bought rods and match them to the ideal reel size. Casting distance, and maybe even accuracy, will be likely be improved when rod & reel are matched.
However, of more practical importance is that a well matched rod & reel may also reduce so-called ‘casting knots’ since it’s the control of line loops as they come off the spool of a spinning reel which is what the reduction guides and their optimal placement are all about.
However, if all that sounds a bit complicated (which it is!), if plagued by casting knots then two things are definitely worth checking:
(1) Don’t overfill the spool. What tends to happen is that the initial spooling is done under considerable tension, however subsequent cast & retrieve cycles tend to apply less tension. So, over time, the spool ends up being slightly over filled because the line is less densely packed. And it’s this which then contributes to casting knots because coils of line literally fall off the spool.
(2) Many spinning reels come with a few spacers/shims which are intended to be used to alter the shape of how the line lays on the spool – which is critical to line control. Shimano refers to this as “Winding Shape”.
The worst ‘winding shape’ is a ‘backwards cone’ – i.e. one which has more line laid at the lip of the spool than at the base. This reverse cone shape is claimed to slightly improve casting distance, however it can also cause casting knots because loops leaving the rear of the spool have a tendency to knock loops of line off the lip as they exit the spool.
The typical shape is that of a cylinder with equal amounts of line at the lip and base of the spool. This symmetrical shape looks to many to be how the line is supposed to lay, however it’s typically not the optimal shape for light braid.
A cone shape with slightly less line at the lip than at the base of the spool has minimal impact on casting distance or spool capacity, but is claimed to significantly reduce casting knots due to the coils peeling off the rear of the spool not dislodging coils closer to the lip.
It’s dislodged coils, whether due to an overfull spool or an incorrect line lay, which can cause tip wraps and casting knots due to the reduction guides not being able to sufficiently tame the chaotic coils before they enter the forward most runners. And it’s these untamed coils which are subsequently mis-diagnosed as ‘wind knots’.
The wind does not cause these knots, however casting a light lure into the wind can cause the lure to slow down faster than the line still flying off the spool. In effect this produces an ‘over run’ not dissimilar to that caused by an incorrectly calibrated bait-caster and/or an ‘uneducated thumb’, and it’s this condition which can then amplify the impact of untamed coils.
To minimise ‘wind knots’ (which is the correct term here) when using a spinning reel to cast light lures with considerable force into a head wind, try feathering the line off the spool towards the end of the cast using the index finger.
Hi there. 1st of all i love the podcast and the series in general.
Just want to correct some minor info from this that i have found in my carp fishing. I also regularly fish blowering dam.
Winter is my primetime for carp fishing, granted i fish for them with bait. In winter the bigger fish generally bite more than in summer. Similarly in the UK they get their biggest fish in winter. I prefer winter as less smaller fish dont bite as much and 10-20kg fish bite more often.
Also in regards to the jumping the fish have several jumping styles in regard to how it is. Usually if its vertically upwards on the launch it is a feeding jump even in 100ft of water. As when they feed they make big plooms of dirt it clogs up their gills and jumping dislodges the dirt or feed from gills and can continue feeding. When im bait fishing if they are jumping aggressively i know they are feeding. Other less agressive jumps can be spawning related or they are spooked or feeling threatened.
Hope this information helps. Im a bait fisherman so i dont qualify for this podcast but if you are looking for any information feel free to contact me
ECN fishing on instagram.
Keep up the good work love em and hopefully see you out on the water