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.
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| First carp in 2016 |
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| I just love catching a nice, clean golden bones |
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| 2nd carp caught in 2016 |
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| 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.
