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.

[keithdog]

Congrats on a great day on the water. I know exactly how good that feels after the long winter break!

[MIbasser]

Way to go Watterboy!!! 81 fish in a day!!?? How do you keep count?

[rrw4258]

Sounds like a great day of river fishing. It looks like you guys had a great time!

Ryan

[WatterBoy]

Originally Posted by MIbasser

Way to go Watterboy!!! 81 fish in a day!!?? How do you keep count?

My buddy, his younger brother and a friend of theirs have been fishing this river since they were kids (35+ years now for them, I've been in the last 10-15 years). Over time they developed a scoring system where different weight ranges and different species are worth more points, so my buddy has a pre-printed "scoresheet" that we mark stuff on as we catch fish. It's really pretty easy since there is a HUGE rock that we use as sort of a table for all of our gear. You can see the net leaning against it in the bottom picture and a little part of a night crawler container is showing also. Since you almost always need to put on a new crawler after every fish, it's easy to just mark the scoresheet with an "x" in the right category while you're re-baiting. We've pretty much got it down to a science by now.

P.S. - It's a bit of "mountain goat" hiking to get down to our spot and there's a couple "iffy" spots that are close to the edge of a cliff, so not many people make it down where we were fishing. We had the place to ourselves the whole day, but there were several people fishing on the other side where you can just walk in easily. Fishing is always better on "our" side though.

[WatterBoy]

Originally Posted by rrw4258

Sounds like a great day of river fishing. It looks like you guys had a great time!

Ryan

Yep, the weather was PERFECT. 60-ish when we got there around 11:00 a.m. and topped out around 70 for a high. And we even had cloud cover and a light breeze for most of the day, so there was no broiling in the sun like some years. And no mosquitoes is always a huge plus. It was a very enjoyable day!

[joedog]

Nice to hear you fishing!
Thanks for the share and the pics.

[coldbasser]

Ice still on the lakes here so I'm soooooooooooo happy for you.
Great Day
Rick