First fish of 2012!

[WatterBoy]

Well, they weren't bass, but my fishing partner and I got on the board with our first fish of 2012 on Saturday. We made a 90-minute drive to a river we try to hit once a year (although we haven't made it over there since 2009) and had a fun 6 hours of fishing. We caught 81 fish between us (him-46, me-35), including 12 carp, 3 walleye, and the rest were a combo of catfish, sheepshead and suckers. The catfish were mostly between 2-3 pounds and the carp were almost all brutes -- they were a BLAST to catch. My biggest were 10.4, 9.3, 7.0, 6.6 and 6.3 pounds. My buddy's two biggest were 7.2 and 6.8. They were all great fighters, but the three biggest of mine were extremely fun. Once I got them hooked, they pretty much went wherever they wanted to, peeling line whenever they felt like it. They were each a several minute battle before finally tiring and allowing me to get them to shore. We were just tossing out night crawlers on spinning rigs with 14 lb test line.

Here is a shot of me with the 10.4 carp (29.5")...



And my buddy with a 2.9 catfish...



What an awesome way to spend a Saturday afternoon! And it gets even better. The ice has been off the lake my dad fishes in Iowa, and he's caught a handful of bass already this year (no seasons on them there like we have in MN), so I'm headed down there next weekend to see if I can catch my first bass of 2012.