Carpy Dreams

A few weeks ago we decided to plan a session with family to try and fish one of  our favorite venues, Corriloch wedding venue and koi farm.
This boutique venue has really become a special place in our hearts.

We arrived late on Friday evening and set up as quickly as possible. We dropped our lines and hoped and were quickly on the fish losing one in the reeds that was sure to be a “biggun” bending open the hook and wrapping us around a sunken tree.

Our runs came in sporadically with Rudi landing a small but pretty common and myself a lovely little lump.

The cold front rolled in on Saturday and the weather turned a bit. We were cold but still persevered and got the spots fizzing. We had constant liners and a few solid runs. By the end of Saturday we had landed 6 pretty commons all over the 4kg mark.

On Sunday the weather had cleared a bit. We continued to fish while we dragged our heels packing up. The fishing Gods heard our grumbles and blessed us with quite a few runs. Our time meant to be packing was spent running between pods and dropping lines.

We manged 24 runs with 17 fish landed, only two of them under the 3kg mark. Little Emma even managed a new mirror PB of 6.4kg catching the same fish Tarryn caught last year and bettering her mom’s mirror PB by 200g!

Proline boilies, Nash popups were the baits of the weekend. Tackle and bankware as always supplied by the one and only SNZ Tackle.

We finished the weekend tired and smelling like fish, the way any good weekend should be. 

Each and every time we go out on the bank we prepare ourselves to the max and try cover every angle from what spots to what bait and what rig. Once it is in the water there is an element of fate that we have no control over.

There is always the possibility that we might hit a big blank. Recently I have been proving this theory quite often. Granted we have been fishing a few notoriously hard venues, or the weather decided that I was not worthy, but the knock to your ego is a sobering one. I was even blanking at my normal haunt.

I started to doubt myself and what I knew and wondered if I should maybe hang up the waders. I had the best equipment supplied by Mr SNZ, who asked how I enjoyed my new kit. I couldn’t answer as I spent each session staring dejectedly at my rods begging the alarms to make a beep. Nothing, niks, nada….

And then out of nowhere after the 11^th session of nothing, a blip. The little blip that sent my heart flying. Soon after the blip, my rods tore off. I did it! Yes! I landed my first fish after what felt like an eternity. A beautiful small that made the last few months seem irrelevant.

Sometimes I think the Carpy Gods need to knock us down a peg. We need to humble ourselves a little and remember why we do this. And eventually after a big blank, we get rewarded once we have. And sometimes the smallest fish can mean the most.

Trying new things, for me, is a mixture of excitement and nervousness. I was filled to the brim with both when R and I joined a new club. We would have to try some new techniques and strategies. Each and every one were completely foreign to me while he had a far better knowledge than I did. But in our typical fashion, he wont let me be complacent in any way and helps me learn constantly.

I now had to learn how to spomb and how to cast at distance. This was quite nerve wracking, but with R’s encouragement I was prepared to try and learn.

We got to the lake before the birds had even decided to wake up, having left home the second curfew was over. We set up our rods in the dark and even though I am not a morning person, I was still excited to be out and on the bank.

We unfortunately didn’t have the best of starts. The first rod went in flawlessly, the second, not so much…

The first cast, snapped off. Second Cast, snapped off. Third cast, wind blown line, into a tree, and, you guessed it, snapped off. Finally the second rod was in. Now we had to spomb the area. At 16 wraps we spombed happily. Perhaps the power of 3 was done.

We now had to wrap up the distance rods. 3 rods out at 30 wraps. We planned to spomb the area first. The first cast out with the spod rod, we suffered with an unbelievable case of wind knots. 7 to be exact. We then decided to rather cast the lines in as they were clipped up and ready, and spomb after. The first of the 3 went in. We managed to spomb a few out and tried the second distance rod. As old Murphy would have it, we managed a few wind knots in that one too. And the third distance rod had all the mono pop off the spool mid cast. Then the spomb snapped off.

At this point we were trying to work out what juju we had. It was a complete comedy of errors. We eventually managed to get all six rods in the water. Just as we were finally going to sit down, one of the rods tear off. I landed a beautiful disk shaped small, and a short while later R landed a pretty common, with a third later in the day.

At the end of the day we managed 3 fish. Even though it was the most challenging day I have ever had on the bank, I still at least landed 1 fish at a new venue, managed to throw out a spomb and also managed to cast to 23 wraps on my 8ft rods. R and I learnt the new meaning of patience and a new respect for the anglers that fish like this constantly. We wont be deterred. We will be back and will try again.