Teammate Ben Smith rolled into camp at a decent hour last night here on Blackfoot Reservoir. We visited around the campfire but hit the sack fairly early. We now have our full team of Ben Smith, Trevor Wine and myself for the Johnny Boyd Carp Classic.
The event starts tomorrow so today we practiced. It’s not like we don’t know how to catch a carp on the fly – practice days are more about finding where the carp are hanging around. Blackfoot Reservoir is a humongous body of water and the carp move constantly.
We found a bunch of carp in the first place we looked however. We went to work trying to catch them. Like yesterday they seemed more interested in each other than eating. In three hours with a constant flow of huge mirror carp, I only had one fish break away from the school and chase a root beer colored Bonefish Bitter. And I set too late!
Ben and Trevor weren’t far away facing the exact same situation. Ben thought this carp ate and perhaps it did, but when he landed him he was foul hooked in the pectoral fin. Foul hooked fish absolutely do not count in this tournament!
The great thing about “practice” in the carp tourney is that when the going gets tough you can fight it with a little relaxation. That means a full on lunch right on the edge of the carp waters. I took care of today’s lunch and filled the boys with delicious brats along with ice cold Rainier’s.
During lunch we were surrounded by storm clouds. When the lightening started we returned to camp just in case the skies broke loose. They did and if it were tourney we’d of fished. Instead it was in the Explorer for a nap and then some work on the computer. We didn’t get back on the water until 3:30.
We didn’t catch a dang carp today. In the tourney each team player can only enter one so I still feel like in a full day of fishing hard we can each catch one. We did however catch some fish. This is a hefty Utah chub that put a smile on my face when he bent my Winston giving me at least some action for the day.
Carp Classic camp is chock full tonight. There are 30 teams of three on each so there are at least 90 people camped here. Our campfire turned into the place to hang and at one time I think we had 40 people around. I met up with old friends and made a bunch of new ones. Now it’s time for some rest so we can get up and get some fish tomorrow. This is a great event!
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