Freshwater Great Day Out

It was a day which I could be earning 1.6 times the hourly rate at Myer but I chose to call in sick on Sunday so that I could go fishing with Chen. It was starting to be a wasted call when we were scoring shit on the saltwater front in the morning. Went to try out a new spot I discovered not long ago in Iron Cove as well as hitting Le Montage for super crappy results, even one lurer was doing tough, except for an Asian (Vietcong uncle we reckon), who was exceeding his bucket limits of shrimps that he was scooping up damn hardout. Bloody hell we reckons as it definitely disturbed the food source for the fishes there. To make matters worse, I was telling Chen that he might sell or cook those for XO sauce that we seemed to like so much in Chinese stir fry. So folks, next time you indulge in XO pipis or any other stuffs cooked in XO sauce, you're having an extra dosage of dioxins eh courtesy of dodgy asian scoopers!

Went to grab a feed of Maccas for lunch before we returned to HQ. As soon as I was back, I passed out again, lol. Woke up at 3pm to ruck up with Chen for his virgin trip to the Nepean. I drove Civic for the long haul up to Penrith. We had bread and corn with us as baits. Just as we had hit the M4 motorway, the heavens opened up on us. At one stage we were worried to be stucked in traffic when accidents seemed to pop up on the wet road. Luckily it didn't hamper much as the accident was on the other direction. We thought that the fishing wouldn't be happening as the rain got heavier and longer till it became a passing thing and soon we got out of the gloomy skies to sunlit afternoon. Beautiful day we said to ourselves and soon enough, we got to the Nepean River. Straight up we went to Rocky's spot and luckily no one was there and we quickly set up camp. Chen didn't take much time to start burleying our spot with wholemeal bread and the place instantly fired up with surface frenzy. I rigged up my baiting Daiwa samurai which I've changed to the spare spool holding mono lines and hook up a bread unweighted. Straight up the bread disappears and as soon as the line went taut, strike ah! Woohoo!!! My first bass on a bread!



WTF?! Hahaha... my first bass was so tiny, tamade! Oh well, no longer a bass virgin and it was taken on a piece of bread! They were going crazy at the surface bread, it was an incredible sight. Then, it didn't take long for my second bass to come on land via courtesy of breading as well, which turns out to be a slightly bigger bass, which allowed me to stuff my thumb into its mouth, a very popular way to hold up bass for piccies!

We were still very engrossed with catching those super tiny fishes that were smashing the surface bread. It didn't take long before Chen got the hang of striking the line and he was soon rewarded with another new specie that seemed to go crazy on the surface bread. Yup, he caught a freshwater herring! I too got these buggers but it fell off the hook for a picture! We were discussing how we were gonna use them as live bait next time!

Well, it became apparent that it won't be taking that much longer for Chen to finally get his first australian bass too! He actually got the fish the moment his river2sea bubble pop 35 hits the water surface. Look how infantly small they are on Chen's rugby hands! Bloody hell, we were thinking to ourselves were we ever gonna hook up on a decent sized bass?!

Whilst Chen was still mucking around with the bread baiting, I had rigged up my luring weapon with a river2sea buggi pop and I kept wondering how to do a soft approach landing of the lure. Made a far cast instead of the bank and voila, instant hookup on the touchdown! My first lure caught bass!

Hey hey... just had to show off my steezy eh.. Well, just as my speculation about whether we could score bigger bass soon became a reality when Chen hook up big time when his poppering skills were getting better and nailed a good size bass. It was his first time popping and he really did a good job. But of course credits also goes to his gun lure the river2sea bubble pop.

He was absolutely stoked with his performance. I had to coerced him into daringly putting his thumb into the bass mouth to hold it like a pro, lol. Anyway, quick photo, quick release and back to work. I had changed my baiting blackhole to use a floater instead of unweighted corns as it was easily snagged in the nepean current. Put on a smallish luderick float and watch for any 'downs'. It has been a very, very long while since I've experienced this kind of visual float fishing style. 'Down' it really went and same theory applied to fishing for blackfish and that is wait for a few seconds before striking. But since my rod was 'parked' stationary, all we need was to wait and see that the line went taut. Voila, all plans comes in place and there I was having a fight of a lifetime in freshwater and straight up we saw a good size carp splashing and diving. Zzzzz the daiwa samurai went and I was yelling out to Chen saying "who says carp cannot run, who told me that?!" Hahaha.. Chen was even lamenting that it can be compared to king fight but only in freshwater term... Kings fight is still on our number one spot. Just as we were gonna try and land it, my stupid cheapo Berkley lip grip is hopeless, and my 5lb Nitlon Darm fluoro leader gave way. Argh... told Chen it was too "diao" to use 5lb leader eh.. oops! Anyway, it was a memorable fight, as long as it made my arms sore! Continued with the floater and it didn't take long before I landed my first freshwater catfish!



We're getting quite a few species by now and the bite rate is extremely good as the sun was starting to set. In the beginning, we were worrying about whether we could score sizeable bass but our champion popper Mr Chen pop'ed... and pop'ed... and Zzzzzzz.... oh what a first run! His Loomis was bending quite hardout and the sound of Tierra was awesome. Man, what a good size bass it was, on the R2S bubble pop 35!!!

Now that's what I'm talking about! Chen seemed to have respect for his 30cm bass as he was commenting how they could fight like a bream, lol. Then, the moment I have been waiting for, well... not quite! My corn floater was doing the bouncing dance when just as a normal down, I striked. It was a good pull but it didn't take any line at all, it just went deep that's all. After a few 'highsticking' and skull dragging piece of work, a bass surfaced. Yup, BASS EATS CORN!!!

Was also surprised how well hooked it was on just a size 8 mustad beak hook. Measured 32cm and now considered my pb bass. Bugger it though as I later found out that the legal size limit is 35cm in NSW, damn! The bass in Nepean tends to be skinny for their length unfortunately. Apparently all my action was tending towards the bait rod as I never had a chance to pick up the lure rod to cast, with the float always needing me to attend to. This time round, the float sinked and the fight was of a carp. Not as impressive as the first one but their weight and constant direction changing sure is a hoot to enjoy. Finally, landed me second carp which was even bigger than the first lost fish.



I reckon this is my pb carp as compared to my other encounters of carps in the parramatta river. But of course none compared to Jialiang's ones in the parra which he got. Although the ang mohs said that these are obnoxious pest and should be killed, we chose to release it back since there's no law in NSW for the need to do it but if in Victoria state, it's illegal to put it back. Action still continued to hot up as I landed yet again another carp which was a smaller specimen. If you ever wanted to experience a freshwater fish fight, then carp would be the one to target, just as how Rocky is hooked on them.

The light was beginning to fade away and the hoards of flying foxes were beginning to appear. One of another great phenomenon was when a humongous, (yes... bloody hugh carp estimated to be over the 10 kilo range), was jumping a few times out in front of our burley zone! I was telling Chen if we would to hook that one, that's gonna be a milestone in our fishing career! Oh well, that doesn't seem to gonna happen as me second catfish was landed on the floater... Meow!!! Their body is so slimey and disgusting to even think about holding it for a pose. By now, more and more fishos (and 'yobos') are turning up. When I caught this cattie, one guy was surprised that I could catch catfish on a float. Well, I don't know why but third time round it happened on the next 'down'. Yup, another catfish! Chen was asking me if I wanted a photo but I told him that's it, beginning to feel sick of catching them, lol. This one even engulfed the small size 8 hook which I had to cut the line. Bloody disgusting to open their mouth man! They stink!

By now, it was time to pull out our headtorch as we couldn't see shit anymore. I have been constantly urging Chen to rig up his other rod (well, he got a new toy, the Majorcraft Slicer 622L spin). Passed him a float and taught him how to rig up and explained the length needed for the float to stay upright. His bigger float was easier to see in the dark as the 'marker' was more visible than my half-submerged 'marker'. He missed the 'downs' a few times but soon enough, he hooked up and got his first carp.



Now he is a true tackle junkie, lol. Nowadays everything Japan also good. It was getting harder and harder to see my 'marker' now. I was telling Chen if we had the light sticks we would have fished longer. Anyway, the last fish came in with quite a good size carp which was my third one landed. As usual, all our bait-fishing creatures were caught on the humble Coles brand corn kernels. That kingfish combo which I always used was totally flogged the entire day. The drag is really crappy now but seemed like the thin mono line was quite a star performer as well. By now, it was too dark and even our headtorch couldn't shine the marker. Our insect repellent seemed to have worn off the 4 hour protection limit and we were getting stung by the night-time commando trained mozzies. A call was made to abort operation and we quickly pack up and head towards civic. Along the way back, we were lavishing on how great the day went on the fishing front. By the time we got to Burwood to grab dinner, we were so buggered. Got a good feed of the hokkien fried rice I recommended and drove back the remaining journey to seriously pass out.

Ronald

(diu... took me quite awhile to blog this post, hahaha.. too long-winded I supposed)