When The Going Gets Tough

by Chris Matthews

The end of 2019 was a very tough end of what was otherwise, an overall excellent year for me fishing wise. I traveled some distances as is now common place for me in search of specimen carp, including two trips to Dale Hollow in Tennessee. The first trip produced some excellent results and the second trip in early winter, although a lot of fun, wasn’t as productive fish wise... I also traveled down to Texas to fish the Mill Creek Cup which as expected was an excellently well put together event by the top brass at the American Carp Society (shout out to Clayton, Sean and last but by no means least Wayne) but again, that was the start of lots of struggles for me catching fish.

As an angler it’s easy when things are going right and you’re catching but when that isn’t the case and you’re struggling to buy a bite…that’s when it has you questioning everything you do. We’ve all been there; am I presenting the right rig in the right location? Am I fishing a bait that is appealing to the fish etc. etc? Don’t get me wrong, I love being out on the bank regardless, there are always things to learn and do while we’re trying to figure things out but we love catching carp and blank hours become days and days very soon become weeks… what am I doing wrong?

Around mid-December I reached out to a friend that I met in Michigan back in 2018 (Met Lika), he lives in the Chicago area and is a very prolific cold weather angler on the Chicago river. We had talked previously about getting together to fish but with our schedules it took a long time to make happen… So, we eventually had a date set for early 2020 in January. Now, the January weather in Illinois is pretty much impossible to predict, so we were watching the forecasts closely with the date approaching to make sure we weren’t going to be fishing in too extreme weather.
With the weather officially looking good, I had my alarm set for 3:15am to make the trip up to Chicago to meet Met. We arrived at the swim in the dark and chatted for a good half hour or so about our approach for what was looking to be a temperate (mid to high 30’s Fahrenheit) overcast day. We setup together as daylight began to break ready for the day’s session, we chatted about rigs and what had been successful recently for him on this water. I have to admit, at this point I’m kind of stuck in my ways on rigs and bait because they typically work for me. So, as I usually do, I set up a German rig with a fruity tiger nut tipped with a large buoyant corn as to have the bait ‘waft’ in the slow-moving current. This rig and approach has caught every big fish of mine the last 2 years, so I was quietly confident in it despite of, as I stated earlier, my recent run of bad luck that had me rethinking life in general!

My goal for the day was just to hear my alarm a few times and bank a few fish. But the next 8 hours were to reignite my fire and have me looking forward more than ever to warmer months…

Met setup with two rods, myself with three, he warned me that three can be too many there, but I had to maximize my chances with my recent struggles. Met struck first, twice actually, as he banked the first few fish after 30 mins or so, again, the alarm bells started ringing between my ears… I start thinking, ‘WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!’.

Then, finally, it happened!

My alarm made two small beeps, the bobbin started moving slowly, the drag started to tighten and click, you know the sounds every carp angler lives for? Then, the one tone and free spooling line we all crave. My first carp in close to three months and who knows how many hours of trying, a plump 17lb Chicago river carp, was now sitting in its makeshift jail cell while we prepared the camera.

The next few hours were something that we could have never dreamed of… Met landed the largest fish I’ve personally seen caught from the state of Illinois in the shape of a 33lb common.

I myself went on to land two at 29lb, a few other 20’s and countless teens that we didn’t bother to weigh, if I were to guess how many we had, I would have to guess 25 to 30 between us?

Met had to leave around noon as he had to get home, so I was left to my own devices.

With the fishing continuing to be busy, I ended up going from three rods to two with short periods only using one while I readied my camera equipment and got a little respite from the hard-fighting river fish. I packed up around 3pm with the fishing still going well which was really tough to do but I had to try and beat the Chicago early evening traffic to get home at a decent time.
A truly unexpected experience for me, I got to share it with a good friend, with whom I owe this experience to.