Carp Fishing & Cliché Slang

A while back, Chris went fishing with his girlfriend out at Oura and hooked a decent size cod, using cheese as bait. I was pumped to hear this, and swiftly bought a better rod and joined him on the campaign to become the next Paul from iFish. What didn't occur to either of us at the time, was that fishing luck comes and goes. Somedays you get a ripper cod, a healthy yella, a bag-limit of trout, or even find yourself in the middle of a 'swarm' of reddies....somedays you don't even get a bite....and somedays you can't seem to hook anything but those stinking carp.

Now I fully understand that ripping in a carp can be a bit of fun, but what Chris and I couldn't understand was why it was the ONLY species we found ourselves reeling in. After a few months of very successful carp fishing, we were the self-proclaimed 'Wagga's Greatest Carp Fishermen', and were pumped to think that one day we would be holding firm in our hands the trophy for the most fish caught at the Gundagai 'Carp-a-thon'.

We were growing quite sick and tired of our 'luck' with the carp, so decided it was time to head down Tackle World way and find out what we were doing wrong. With the help of Matt, Tony, and Graeme, we found ourselves with a bunch of lures and info that was SURE to help us snare that award winning cod or yellowbelly. The only issue was, that our early-days amateur fishing laziness at finding a decent fishing location usually meant we tried all our fresh gear down at Wiradjuri, casting from the bank into God knows what. It wasn't long before we found ourselves naming certain spots along that stretch of water to match the mood we were in for that day. Those names are not appropriate to be mentioned on a family friendly blog, but we still refer to those spots by those names (we'd be more than happy to point you in the direction of '______ Beach' or '______ Cove' if you're keen enough!)

It's funny how with fishing, as with any other sub-culture or hobby-based community, theres a particular language thats used, that all within that community understand. For Chris and I, we've always found it hilarious to hear farmers use their language of 'points' and 'chaser bins' and all that stuff, and now that we're hearing all the fishing equivalent language, we try our best to use it as often, and sometimes completely out of context, as possible. Sometimes for a laugh, sometimes to deliberately look ridiculous, and also sometimes out of complete naivety. 

A fisheries fella stopped us out at Old Man's Creek one arvo to check our licences and told us that we'd probably only have luck with the 'euros' on that particular day. We, for whatever reason, hadn't heard of them referred to by that name for a long time, so we thought it was the best thing we'd ever heard. To this day we refer to any fish we see, or catch, as any nickname we decide to use. We reckon it adds a bit of a laugh to our usually stressful trips and stops us from taking it all too serious. We also try to use as much of that 'fisho' terminology as possible when chatting to old dudes, coz we all know how much they love to talk about fishing with anyone who even remotely sounds like they know what they're on about! So basically, if you hear Chris or I using any of that 'fishing talk', be assured that we both know we're talking rubbish!

So although we regularly haul in the euros, we more often than not enjoy the whole process, as I'm sure you all do too. And its not all doom and gloom. I mean, just check out this ripper yella Chris pulled out of the river up near Old Man's Creek! It was the only hit we had all day. Successful outing! 

To cut a long story short, whether we're using live bait, lures, or Powerbait, we always seem to attract the carp. Its also very interesting to see how different fishermen 'dispose' of these pests (I've seen some absolute rippers!). Its important to note, however, that not everybody in this neck of the woods actually disposes of them...just ask the blind drunk lady stumbling through Wiradjuri, muttering something under her cask-wine breath about the dog who is biting my leg apparently not being a 'biter', who asked my old man and I if she could take one of the carp we'd caught so she could cook it up for tea. 

It takes all sorts.

Cheers guys,

Jim