"Has To Be Done" Part Deux

Again, been rather busy this week as you would have guessed it... my final week in Sydney, Australia. Had done some hardcore fishing last week prior to a very important "Has To Be Done" trip so I'll just blog this very special outing I've had with my partner-in-all-sorts-of-crime. After a pretty much stuffed-up weather the previous weekend, we postponed the trip to Lake Glenbawn. Come last weekend, the weather forecast was brilliant and I had booked an accommodation at this place called Aberdeen Motel. Oh well, turned out to be a regrettable decision. Came Friday, I had made a prior long journey trip to the blue mountains as part of a birthday trip for snow, and as did Maurice who came along too. Got back to HQ at around dinner time and Chen had to work OT. By the time we had finished mucking around with the boat and getting our feed, we left HQ at close to midnight! Armed with the first time using Google Map driving directions, we set off to the Sydney-Newcastle freeway. Weird directions it was as we were made to exit out pretty early after being on it for less than 50Ks. Then, it was the craziest wildest adventure we both ever had towing a boat and driving in misty roads with barely 5 meters of visibility! We trekked through the narrow roads slowly with many times going at between 50-60km/h. I was rather impressed with Chen's Pulsar and at one point he was like telling me this felt like a rally! With the mist and total darkness, the shortest distance Google Map had penned out for us was useless, as we ended up getting to Aberdeen past 3am! Pulsar drank quite a lot of petrol and we were worried that it might not make it to Glenbawn and decided to drive in no-man's land past 3am searching for a petrol kiosk! Didn't find one even though a policeman told us where was the nearest. We opted to wake up early the next morning and drive down for it. Got back to motel for only 1.5 hours of sleep! Now, that's when I said earlier why it was regrettable, as that's gotta be the easiest money they earned from us at 87 bucks! KNNBCCB!!!

Alarm rang but we were damn buggered especially after a long drive. Still, I managed to pull myself out as I didn't really sleep much. Also, didn't wanna waste this trip especially after such an enduring journey. Drove down to the nearest town for petrol and by the time we could tow to Glenbawn, it was already quite bright. Past the Glenbawn state park gate and just a short drive later, we arrived to a magnificent view of the lake. Got to the ramp and it was looking quite good, with two lanes of concrete but the shit thing was there wasn't any pontoons to load up onto the boat. Anyway, no dramas whatsoever except with me stupidly stuffed up the ratchet clamp and we were on the water just past 7am. Took some photos just right after we hit the water.



Directly opposite the ramp was the dam wall and that was gonna be our first stop. To be honest, we had no clue where to fish and how to fish it. Armed with some info from the tackle shop we bought our lures, we tried the wall. Basically threw bass minnows and spinnerbaits, there is simply nothing. And the water was quite deep too!

Straight up, the sinking feeling of not being able to score anything like the Thompsons Creek Dam started to play on us. Anyway, being undeterred and at the same time super duper buggered, we headed off from the dam wall straight towards a misty horizon. Damn... the lake is bloody huge!

Next stop, was a small little island with plenty of sunken trees around and down the electric motor. We plugged along for awhile with Jackall's TN50 and TT Lures spinnerbaits for absolutely not a touch or hit. Took a short break at this spot to rig up new lures and also to chill out for some energy bar brekkie. It was quite a popular spot in fact, with a few boats very close to us as most of them either drift or tie to a tree and soak some bait. But we persisted with our lures and that Jackall lipless crankbait's rattles were so freaking loud in the water that we could even hear it on the boat!



Then, a call was made to change spots again. Motored around upwards and Chen asked me to pick one. Had no clue where looks fishy as practically the whole lake looks fishy! With sunken trees and sheltered bays, I opted one point to try and we peppered the trees and slowly use the leccy to motor us into the bay. This is where it got interesting when we started hearing splashes and seeing fish jumping. Made a cast with my Jackall imitation lure (Kokoda brand, 7 bucks only) in between two trees and a few cranks later, the blackhole went nuts! It was a very explosive take and I was absolutely gobsmacked by the shear power of this pound-for-pound aussie bass. After a short fight, Chen helped me net my first Lake Glenbawn bass (30cm ?!), phew, NO DONUTS for the trip fortunately!

Anyway, that turned out to be the only fish! Tamade! After leaving that spot, we went further up to a gently sloping featureless point where I told Chen the AFC people fished those spots as well. But the wind was getting the better of us as it was quite an exposed area. Stuck around for awhile before pulling the plug and headed back to our previous spot where we caught the bass. But there was truly no more joy and the wind was howling pretty badly. It was close to 1pm and we decided to pull the final pin and headed back to the ramp. Both of us were absolutely buggered to da max. Took a final photo of the Glenbawn bass before releasing it. Even at 30cm, it was quite fat compared to the ones we caught at the Nepean. We were using the live bait tank to keep it alive, even joked to Chen when we got that fish that we need one more to get the bag, lol...

Long story short, basically we made it back in around 4-5hours time. With the V drink, it didn't really help much, but we persisted and made it back. It is truly an eye-opening experience and I told Chen I won't mind going back again, as it really has potential.

Ronald

Consistent Fishing Results

As mentioned earlier, I seemed to be doing better at another fishing front, and that's blackfishing. With a small little sling bag packed with just two chinese take-away containers (for berley and weed), 2 floats, few hooks and sinkers, a keeper net, a small reel and of course, my 3 meter shimano telo rod, it's off fishing at my favourite luderick haunt. As Chen was away on holidays, I went to niggering instead as the afternoon tide was too low for luring. Plus, due to the last trip we had, I thought I should try it out myself and see how it goes. It turned out to be quite an enjoyable afternoon, with four fishes landed and this time round, I cleaned all 4 by meself!



Also got my personal best luderick at 38cm that time. That bugger fought really well. Anyways, they all fought pretty good pound for pound even on my Shimano Holiday Spin. Then, feeling still quite energetic after slaughtering 4 fishes, I wanted to try and cook the big one and so gave the rest to Joe. Filleted it pretty pretty and saw a bottle of Sambal Oeleck sauce like it belongs to nobody, I took some (actually spread quite a lot) on the two juicy fillets. This is the end result.



Yummo... didn't know just put the chili sauce and can turn out so nice for this fish! But the filleting, skinning and de-boning part really killed me man! Sambal blackfish, SEDAP!!!

Feeling kinda bad after taking home quite a lot of blackfish, it was time to practice catch-n-release (actually an excuse not to clean the fishes). So, went niggering with that mindset again at usual spot. During that day, it was kinda raining as well. Didn't take long to get a take but this bugger cut me off in one of the rocks and I realised I didn't pack anymore split shots and so my rig was gone. Packed it up just being there for only 30mins! What a joke, short of tackles! Next trip turned out different. As I became more prepared and had my sling bag ready by then. Hit 3 fishes and kept them in the keeper net for a pic before letting them go.



However, one stupid mistake I made whilst releasing them when I noticeably stepped on a rock knowingly that it was covered in weed and what do you know, I took a bad tumble. The fishes got slammed on the rocks but still let them go anyway, I'm the worst victim! Hurt my arm and it hasn't recovered yet. Oh man, don't do stupid things RONALD!

Chen was back from the holidays and I told him about my previous encounters. He was pumped and we arranged a last light session after his work. Picked him up from his work and got to spot not too long. It was quite tough but we still managed 2 fishes, with him scoring his personal best at also 38cm! We decided to take the big one back to try out the sambal recipe for him.

The tides became unsuitable for niggering and so there was a break in between, plus we all agreed to let the weed grow back again, especially the 'A-grade' weed that we used solely as bait. The B-grade thus became the berley. As I was itching after a few days plus scoring shit on the luring front, I changed from halfway luring to niggering straight. Reached the spot in no time and began niggering on an outgoing tide. But as the water was too high, I couldn't get the A-graders and ended up using whatever crap there was on the ground. Fished fruitlessly and ended up going home dejected. So, hit the spot again on the afternoon shit tide and this trip smashed my pb...



Went 41cm on my Myer tape measure. The shape of the fish is extraordinary, the belly was so bloody round! It was the best fight ever on the Holiday Spin. Niggering seemed to hold no bounds at this spot, low tide, high tide, shit tide all can get fish, or more importantly, the 'downs' that our eyes were so glued on! Niggering or breaming? I say niggering for NOW!

Ronald

Dismal Luring Efforts

I don't know why but for the month of January, the luring front has been pretty bad. It's the last month I'm gonna be here but the fishes just wouldn't co-operate with me! KNNBCCB!!! Maybe it's the spot that has to do with it. I've been going Iron Cove pretty hardout, though some fishes were caught, they couldn't push through the 30 mark. Here's some breams I caught up in the canal and seemed like the gun lure for that place was the midget 2inch gulp worms.




The very first session at the canal was the best after all, when I remembered getting 10 plus odd breams all on the worm. The good thing about that spot was the puffers weren't that prolific as in the actual bay itself. And most obvious observation would be that so long when the water starts moving, the bites would come on. Having located a few sub-drain mouths helped as the breams liked to congregate around there. The hardbodies in this season was a total disaster, with some efforts put into using them, but little time to exploit them, it didn't turn out too well catching fish at all. Tried using it at the canal with better result though a few hits and a landed fish was all that it was. Randomly went to Rocky's wolli-eel spot and got one smallie as well. Only the Sx40s seemed to perform so far, the Tango was a let-down.



Then, with the summer came the thought of using poppers hardout as well. Accidentally bumped into a spot in Glebe that seemed to make poppering quite useful. Was exclusively using that Rebel Pop-R at the mangrove shallows and there were huge splashes a few times but just couldn't hook up. Seemed promising though but alas, went back again subsequently without a single follow! The first time whilst there I only managed 2 tailors, the biggest going at 24cm.



Then finally, the last luring trip at Iron Cove had steezy screamed for awhile. At first I thought it was a good size bream but with the headshakes and easy coaxing, I was thinking likewise. A mere 36cm whiting was landed instead, geez... it ran quite hardout for such a size.

Guess I would not have the chance to land a 40 model after all. Sianzz... That's about it on the luring front so far but seemed like not much time left here to do any quality session. Been too focused on surfing the net for jobs and preparing applications that I didn't have time to do progressive blogs. Guess the fishing bug is slowly wearing out too. Will do another blog soon on my niggering quests as that prospect seemed to be firing for me lately, hehe...

Ronald

Trouting Has To Be Done

Damn, it's been a long time since my last blog. Haven't been too keen to come into blogger or even checking the integrity of it. Anyway, I'll try to keep this a short one, might be due to the fact it's quite a hassle to type stuffs here after doing it over a year now. With the impending trip back to Singapore soon, there seemed to be many.. many... many species still not being conquered here in Australia (well, Sydney for a fact). So, Chen being a bro as he always has been, suggested that I should try for trouts (not even sure if it's season yet). The place to go to was called Thompson Creek Dam or TCD as the forum people always calls it. It has been always in my to-do list (I have many lah) to go there and so Chen says "IT HAS TO BE DONE". Shit, we have a lot of "IT HAS TO BE DONE" thingy before my leaving. Anyway, the day before the road trip, we ruck up at K-mart to get some trout lures (we had no direct clue what they like) and so roughly suggested to Chen we get some pink tassie devils and "celtas" (spinnerbait kind of lures). Quite cheap for those stuffs anyway.

I passed out quite early the night before and so sort of woke myself up earlier (around 2am) to research the way of getting there (talked about last minute!). Roughly printed out the road map and was calculated to be around a 2.5 hours drive! Sort of left a little late than scheduled but we were practically still driving in the dark. Proceeded to the Blue Mountains region and after passing the Katoomba area, it was gonna be the furthest out west I've ever driven. Got to the town of Lithgow and we ruck up at the Maccas there for a feed. To our surprise, we saw Team Berkley's rig!!!



Inside maccas, I recognised Mark Mangold but not the other 2 guys with him. Was kinda excited to tell Chen we've met celebrity tourny anglers, lol. Then whilst I was taking photos of their rig outside, a copper walked past us with a weird look thinking we were doing some dodgy stuffs, lol. To our astonishment, when the Team Berkley guys went out, the cop was talking to the guys. It must have been a warning to them for taking the whole stretch of parking lots due to the Skeeter's length! Anyway, we were wondering what the hell they were doing out this far! There isn't any bream in that region for sure! Perhaps they might just be out here trying some new Gulps exclusively for trouts?! How cool was that?! Tax deductible work, KNNBCCB!!!

Set off for TCD and after passing Lithgow, we were onto this even smaller town Wallerawang. Just basing on some texts I printed out from forums regarding the direction, we roughly made out how to get there. On passing a cemetery, we overshoot a small road entering TCD as there was simply no sign telling at all! It was the most well hidden place for sure! Got there eventually after stopping at a virtually souless area to ask a gardener for directions. Parked at the end of a white gate to be greeted by a very very cold place there!!! Shit, we were so under-prepared for clothing thinking that maybe out west it should be hot like fuck! Was practically shivering and trying to take pics to show we had been there!



After reading no bait fishing allowed, we left the pail and corn baits (yes, you heard it right) in Chen's SSS Pulsar and began the long (not that long actually) walk to the Dam. Up a little hill and we were greeted with this.




The whole place just reminded me of Pandan Reservoir (in Singapore) but way heaps bigger. There were plenty of signs saying we can't fish the rocky areas as it may pose danger. But then, we saw many photos of people holding fish with the rocky area behind them! Anyway, not wanting to risk getting caught (they said if we violate their rules, they will close the whole place to anglers!), we complied and went down to the shoreline. It was a clay-like shoreline and very shallow as looked from the top. Ok, to cut long story short now... NO FUCKING FISH for 6 HOURS there!!! We practically almost covered the whole dam (exagerating a bit lah, but really walked like hell!!!) and fished at every shoreline we could possibly do. The only thing I can say is, there are trouts in there, we saw super small fishes following our lures but they are all pussies, all they do is follow the lures! We had thrown almost every hardbodies at them for nothing. Chen even lose the tassie devils due to the fuctup Yamatoyo braid snapping. Then, to make the whole trip even worse, there were literally millions of flies attacking full-on at us. I would have easily killed many of them but it's like on your back, there's like easily a hundred flies resting. Anyway, packed up after the 6 hours and left the place disgusted, vowing never to return there unless there's a very very good reason to do so.

Got back to Lithgow and we stopped for fast food again. The KFC there I reckon gotta be the worst. With both of us buggered, Chen took a can of V straight up and began the painful drive from Lithgow back to the M4. We then opted to stop at the Nepean for a much needed itch curing process. Long story short again, JACKSHIT.. No carps (or simply not a single 'down' on the baited rods), only saw Chen scoring ok-size bass on his trusty bubble pop. My buggi pop did manage a new specie in the Nepean for me.

Freshwater mullet whacked the lure, some weird shits always happens there. Bloody yobo kids are out in force and we called it quits with us getting ultra-buggered to da max. I took a can of V also and drove back from Penrith back to HQ. Stop by $5 thai for a feed and as you would have know, totally passed out.

Ronald

Finally... I Tried For It

Nope, not trying for another new specie or new spot. It's been going on in my mind for ages to give one of my old haunts a try for you guessed it... niggering! As we (both Chen and my old mates Dylan-n-gang) always hang out at Greenwich for jewfishing, I didn't know that blackfishing can be done there till once I saw some oldies doing it. So, it went into my mind that I had to give it a go other than knowing OMH is the only place to do it. So, came new year's day, me and Chen ruck up for a fish and since it's impossible to launch boat knowingly that there were heaps of boats after the fireworks display, we chose to do land based instead. As the predicted swell was not gonna be pretty at OMH, we decided that we should try Greeny. Brought out my Shimano Holiday Spin 12 footer telescopic rod whilst Chen just bought a new niggering rod (Jarvis Walker Aurora 3meter estuary blackfish) to try and blood it. Got to the spot with a fair bit of wind blowing but since we needn't cast far, it didn't bother us. Saw the area where we could gather weed and grabbed some sand as well for burley. So, the waiting game began and my first 'down' didn't take too long to happen. Told Chen this is a good sign as there are ludericks around. Whilst he was on the phone, I had my 1st hookup and a good size blackie hit the keeper net. Chen struggled a little till he finally got his first Greeny blackie too. All up the tally was 9 fishes landed which saw us releasing 2 small ones as we didn't wanna clean that many!



The float that I used actually belongs to GTK! Good float man! It was quite an enjoyable session, but definitely not the clean-fish part!!!



Took out Chen's brag mat and placed our "hardwork" cleaning, lol. Biggest for that session seemed to be 35cm. Man... the big ones do go really hard on flimsy long rods! Now Chen is telling me, "I Love Niggering Man!" Hahaha...

Ronald

Old Passion Rekindled

As I am about to leave Sydney soon, I thought it's time to bring Chen to one of my past favourite fishing joint that I've always went with my old buddies such as Dylan, Kenny and Gerald. We used to smash that place regularly and target fishes such as blackfish (luderick), drummer, groper and salmon, plus millions of crapolas such as sweep and butterfish. In order to fish first light and also to get to the gate when they open at 5am, I managed to pull myself up and woke a very sleepy Chen. He had barely an hour sleep and looked totally buggered even before we ruck up. Anyway, last minute we gave up the idea of bringing out the 12 footers for salmon as we can't be farked slugging it down the hill. Left HQ slightly late but got to North Head in no time. Ah... what a feeling to be back at the carpark and the bloody parking machine is still there. Saw a 4WD there without a ticket and so we follow suit. The walking track entrance seemed to be slightly covered by trees but it's still the same shit. The walk down was totally the same and once we got to the halfway mark, Chen was first time greeted with the top view towards the rocky platform. We saw 2 other fishos there and they seemed to have just started. Anyways, continued the scaling down and we reached the platform in no time. Same kind of smell on the rocks as before! The sea was relatively calm and not much swell happening which was all good. Quickly set up my blackfish outfit which I hadn't caught any blackfish yet except Jialiang whom I lent it to him last time he helped me break the virgin. Helped Chen to rig up as well and I moved down to my favourite blackfish platform with the aid of my gum boots which had the rock cleats. Chen couldn't fit into my other sandals with the rock cleats and so I told him to walk the dry parts. Started using weed as bait first and also kicked some into the wash. It didn't take quite long till I got my first 'down'. Bloody hell, turned out to be a butterfish! Persisted for awhile and finally got a blackfish! Taught Chen how to rig both the weed and cabbage and he too got the thrill of the float going 'down'. He even commented that it's a total different fishing experience. Got sick of the rubbish fishes taking weed and thus went with the cabbage. Caught a fair few and it took awhile before Chen landed his first blackfish, well done bro! We learnt alot as well, about the timing to strike the fish and identifying the 'downs' by either the fish or the waves. As soon as the sun was high up and more fishos coming down to the platform, the bites died down as well. We called it a day as we've got enough for feed.

Total tally: 6 blackies (lost 1)

Old Man's Hat platform at North Head.

The pool which we used to bleed the fishes.

I was glad Chen liked this kind of 'old man's sport' of fishing and it was really good to rekindle back the past rage which I was really crazy for. Packed it all up and began the painful uphill climb. Luckily Chen didn't think it was that bad, rather, he felt the stairs at Clifton was a killer! Lol...

Ronald