First Carp Session of 2016 - Two Carp and a Catfish

I have been looking forward to getting out on the bank in search of some gold for the past couple of weeks. The weather here is Michigan has been teasing us with some above normal temperatures and until this weekend I have been stuck indoors. Yesterday was a beautiful day with a high temperature near 60 degrees with sunshine and a very light breeze. Unfortunately I was not able to fish yesterday though and my only available time was today. The forecast when I went to bed was for rain in the afternoon, so I slept well with a plan to get out early after taking my wife to the airport at 4 a.m. for a flight to Nashville.

I dropped her off and returned home. After pulling up the radar on my laptop I confirmed my suspicion. The weatherman is terrible at forecasting the exact timing of when rain will arrive. He is are usually early with the forecast, but today he was late. The rain arrived at 6:30 a.m. It was a light rain so I decided to chance it with the hope and a prayer that it would be a light drizzle and I could still fish.

I drove 35 minutes to my fishing spot and started pulling out my gear. When I started making the pack bait, I searched around in a panic for a can opener. It was starting to rain a little harder at that point and I wanted to hustle up and get lines in the water. But without a can opener it would be a major bummer because I had no other way to open the cream corn and no other options for ground bait this morning.

A guy out for an early morning walk stopped by and offered his Leatherman tool. I gave up on that after about 10 seconds and besides that the rain was really starting to come down. I decided to throw in the towel return home. It was still dark so I figured with rain that hard so early it might not get any lighter for a while.

Instead of going straight home I headed to Mejier and purchased a can opener. Of course the cheapest can opener I could find was $11.99. Ouch.

I got home and flipped on the Sunday morning talk shows. It didn't take long before I was so disgusted with listening to who's accusing who of what and when, where and how, that I turned off the TV. I looked outside and noticed the rain had let up a lot. So I decided to head back out to the fishing spot. At that point I had a can opener.

I drove the 35 minutes back to the fishing spot. When I opened the rear hatch of my Ford Explorer there was the can opener staring me right in the face. I have no idea how I missed it earlier, but I'll chalk it up to early year rustiness. It was my first carp fishing trip of the year.

I got my Panko mixed and lines in the water. It was still a very light drizzle at that point and 48 degrees with almost no wind. Things were looking up.

The rain gradually picked up. And picked up some more. And picked up some more.

And the winds came. And it got a lot colder. And before long it got even colder with more wind.

But then I got a run, so all that discomfort went away at the first sound of the alarm screaming.

Then after a few turns of the reel handle I knew it wasn't a carp. I landed a small 3 pound channel catfish a couple minutes later.

By this time I was rather damp.

But I decided a rainy, windy, cloudy day fishing was much better than listening to the Sunday morning talk shows and it was light years ahead of going to work, so I continued fishing.

About an hour later I landed a small carp. But my hands were almost numb before I got him back in the water.

First carp in 2016

I just love catching a nice, clean golden bones

2nd carp caught in 2016

And my favorite part -  Returning the fish to be caught another day by another carp angler

And after a recast and a lot more rain, wind and cold. I even caught another one.

 These were the worst conditions I have ever fished in. That automatically makes these the most challenging two fish I have ever caught.

And after a rocky start earlier in the day, my first session of 2016 was salvaged. My confidence is sufficiently boosted now after a long, cold, snowy winter of no carp fishing.

Now I can't wait until next weekend to do it all again.