When we went to bed last night after our late night campfire it was cold and windy. There were even some threatening clouds. Five hours later when we woke up it was like we were on a different planet. There were no clouds, it was dead calm and best of all it was warm. To some, such conditions seem perfect for mirror carp fishing.
At 7 am the Johnny Boyd Carp Classic (see Thursday’s blog) kicked off. This tournament starts with a $5 pancake breakfast provided by Gary and Leslie Green. Almost all contestants (there are 25 Teams of three) buy the breakfast and the Greens generously donate the money back to the fundraiser.
At 8:30 am event organizers Travis Morris and Brooks Montgomery called all contestants together for a rundown of the rules. Then Scott Sanchez delivered a few kind words about Johnny Boyd and led a toast. It was an emotional moment. Scott and Johnny were best friends.
At 9 we were off. Our group of four teams like to fish together. We sip beers, grill a lunch and have a magnificent time all while trying to beat each other in the tournament. We had a few locations in mind and based on the calm Blackfoot Reservoir conditions, we settled in one of the many bays.
As far as catching carp, I was concerned. First and foremost, I hate it when I do well in practice. Furthermore, Blackfoot Reservoir is rarely dead calm. I figured the carp would be fearing bow hunters in the glassy conditions and it would take hours for them to dare to leave the deep. The way we started however it looked like I was completely wrong!
On Ben’s fourth cast he caught a carp. It was the smallest carp in tournament history at 1.52lbs, but a carp nonetheless. Maybe it would be good after all?
Well, it wasn’t. We didn’t see another fish until 1. And this big beautiful fish reeled in by Scott Smith didn’t count. Scott accidentally snagged it from the deep and all carp must be caught legitimately to score. Bummer!
That would be the last we’d see of a carp on the line, however at 2 pm we saw carp. From 2-5 (5 pm is when the day ends) we cast to hundreds of carp. But not one of us could get the weary animals to eat a fly.
We hung our heads low as we proceeded to the weigh in. But I suspected it wasn’t just our group that had rough fishing. Turns out there were only five carp caught. That’s five amongst 75 anglers!
The biggest was 19.79lbs and was caught by a kid. Next largest was 19.62 followed by 17.59 then 13.44. Ben’s fish was indeed the smallest at 1.52lbs but the fact that we had one had us in 5th place. There was a tie amongst the other 20 teams for last place because they didn’t register a single carp. Day one was as tough as it gets folks!
We had quite the party at the weigh in. Johnny Boyd had a favorite whiskey and bottles circulated the crowd for hours. Thank god I stick to beer and wine only. We held a raffle and one of the items was a fly box of steelhead flies tied by Johnny Boyd himself. With hopes to add more value I offered to draw a steelhead on the box while everyone watched. It went for an incredible $600!
We moved the party back to our campsite around 8 pm. Josh Gallivan was chef and he kept a constant tray of meat circulating around camp. It started with chunks of fillet and ended with plenty of pork tenderloin. Despite the tough fishing, it was a no less than a magnificent day with my best of friends!
Back at it tomorrow. My team, “Could be Worse” is in 5th place. A couple of fish and we got this thing. . . .
Sounds like a great day for a great cause.
Tad