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