A wordy write-up, but hey, I had a fantastic time, so I want to put everything in writing and read it again in a few years...

My original plan to go to a friendly tournament in Quebec had to be canceled due to an unfortunate schedule conflict with a long business trip to come (in China!). Luckily, I remembered that another carp event was scheduled in Michigan mid-May, and the pictures from last year were very impressive, lots of fish and some nice ones caught in a backwater close to the big lake. After swapping a few messages with Dave Ash, the event organizer, I was all set to go discover some new scenery.

Wednesday 

I traveled by plane from Boston, landed in Grand Rapids early afternoon, and received a text message from Dave indicating that he was hauling carp! After checking in at my hotel, I drove to Dave's home, discovering the concept of Michigan U-turns in the process, met him and his lovely wife Jen, was provided fishing rods and an extensible salmon net, and hopped in Dave's truck to go visit the local swims. First, the park where the event was to be located, plenty of space, seemed very convenient - right close to a pickle factory. Then we checked the pier going from the harbor to Lake Michigan, and the amazing beach that goes for miles along the shore. Then a couple of 'secret' swims - thanks for sharing! As a side note, this Holland town is a former Dutch settlement (duh!), and the locals didn't forget their roots...

Thursday

We had a very early start, as Dave had planned a salmon fishing trip for yours truly. Knowing that he and his buddy Dan are true salmon specialists, regularly doing well at local tournaments, I had two quasi-professional fishing guides for free. We went out on the big water, gave it a quick try right out of the harbor, no luck, then went further on the lake. Seeing those 9 rods spread around the boat while we were circling around, that was quite a change of fishing style for me, I had no idea what to do with my 10 fingers, but obviously those two guys knew their craft.  We caught a small coho relatively quickly, but king salmons proved elusive. Dave and Dan worked hard at it, expertly deploying 9 rods, trying deeper waters, and we finally got a big take. I was told that this looked like a big fish and we may have to take turns playing it. Are you kidding me? No way! Ahem, those salmon guys use hundreds of feet of line, plus they put the reel handle on the RIGHT side of the rod, so your (weaker!) LEFT arm has to do all the work, and after a while, I was starting to reconsider the idea of taking turns. Still, I stuck to it, and we did land a magnificent king salmon which they estimated at 15lb, all muscle, bones and teeth... Way cool!

We came back a little after noon, I took time for a nap after this workout, and went carp fishing at the event's venue at the end of the day to get a feel for it. Fish were happily jumping, I thought I'd be onto carp in no time, but one hour later, I was none the wiser. I finally got a run, and this proved to be a nice one, 20 pounds and a few ounces. And then... a mirror... fully scaled... How lucky is that? I kept catching on a regular basis until 10pm, and welcomed my bed again for a good night of sleep fully of salmon and carp dreams.

Friday

In the morning, I tried one of the secret swims that looked especially scenic and promising. Well, it was scenic indeed, it was cool to watch the boats passing by and read the signs about fishing history in Holland, but after a few hours, it was clear that carp were not in this area. I was playing with the idea of checking Grand Haven (a town nearby) when Dave called wondering where I was hiding.

It turned out that quite a few folks were already set up at the park, I wondered if I was off by one day about the tourney! But no, there are so many carp around, that fishing the day before the event was perfectly fine, even with local competition from mighty dragons! A few minutes after I arrived, Andy Sprinkle landed a nice 20. Dave suggested to go try another swim nearby, where I proceeded to catch a few carp and a few catfish while Dave was actively.... resting (he went to -and won- a salmon tournament the night before!). I was there alone end of the afternoon when Nikki Sprinkle showed up with her daughter (which one is cuter is hard to say!), bringing me a couple of sandwiches and giving me an unexpected friendly hug, how nice is that? Those folks from Michigan are welcoming for sure!

Saturday

Why did this alarm ring at 5am while I was happily snoring? Ah yes, wake up, time to pack lunch and go to the peg draw. The format of the event is quite creative, when catching a carp, you elect to make it part of your top-8 or not. But you have to decide right away, without knowing what you'll catch later on. And one fish can be elected as bonus, doubling the weight recorded. Choices, choices, as Dave put it. I really loved the concept, this makes you think and rethink your strategy as you go, this is quite fun. 

My name came up early during the snake draw, and I selected a peg near where I fished the day before, thinking I was very smart about my peg choice... I went there, prebaited a bit near the shore and farther away, eagerly waited for 6:45am to cast my first rod and got a run right away while I was still holding the rod! FISH ON, was I ready to scream! Er, why this fish going in strange circles? This was a f*** catfish. I was a bit bummed, I have to say. Then I cast another rod farther away, and discovered that doing a bit of depth plumbing before chumming could have been in order. I had a really deep channel in front of me (yesterday, I fished in front of a wide and fairly shallow plateau, didn't cross my mind it was different at my swim, yet it was!). Still, I caught my first carp rather quickly, so I felt confident that I could adjust the plan. I wasn't so convinced a large group of 20+ anglers would catch that many fish (we rarely do during fish-ins), I knew many people would get greedy and skip small ones and consequently not fill up their full scorecard, so my own strategy was to record any fish above 10 pounds. Dave told me he'd only record 15lb and above, while setting up at an 'obviously poor' (in my eyes!) peg nearby and pouring a ton of bait in the water, and I rolled my eyes a little bit, I have to admit... The morning went by, I caught a few small ones, then rediscovered that Pakka pellets and Pescaviva is a killer way to attract catfish. Don't know how many I landed, but easily a dozen... Darren close to me had the same predicament. 

I was running out of maize, but Jen (Dave's wife) came to the rescue, quickly boiling some and bringing me a full bucket, all with a radiant smile... Oh, and we got some news that Nikki had landed a 27 pounder... In my next life, I'll marry a Michigan girl... Well, all I attracted for now were catfish, which kept me busy while carp were nowhere to be seen. Why? Because Dave's strategy paid off, he attracted them all, and started to haul, including a couple of 20 pounders. You have to be kidding me... At the end of the day, I finally got a decent run and... it was a mirror! Now that made my day, allowing me to tease Magda from WCB who gently mocked my use of Pescaviva when we started - well, the WCB team had fun with catfish too... I recast, checked my phone a few minutes later, the event was over for the day and... I got a run! At 5:01pm, I swear! A baby carp to close the day, and I only had a few ten pounders to show... I tried to claim that mirrors were worth triple points, but somehow this was forgotten from the rules... At other pegs downstream, real nice fish were caught, upper 20s and even a low 30. We finished the day eating monster burgers and making birthday girl Nikki drink strong shots with salacious names. I left early, eager to go rest after a long and hot day. I am pretty sure a couple of catfish tried to follow me, but I succeeded to escape...

Sunday

Another early wake-up, this time, I selected a peg at the other end of the venue, fishing close to Dan and Jathan, two former CAG dignitaries (me too! lol). Everybody had fancy pods to deal with the railing, me, I just put my rods in there without an alarm... Keep it simple, those Shimano baitrunners tell you when you have a run... Dan took an eternity to set up, he didn't have a rod in the water 40 minutes in the event! And yet, he caught carp way before me... My strategy today was to impress those Michigan fish with a spicy mix with chile powder. Maybe I confused the Canadian border with the Mexican border, because they sure didn't like it very much. Jathan and Dan caught a few, while I was busy netting their catches! Farther away, I could see that the youngsters seem to catch steadily. Then the word came that Austin landed a 36 pounder! He actually came to release it near our pegs and this was an impressive beast of a fish indeed. This young guy is 17, and this wasn't even his PB... I finally landed a low teen around noon, and then it started to be real hot! Luckily, Dan was well organized, set up an umbrella and we had some shade to play a chess game on my smartphone. And I gave him some payback from the fact that he was catching all the carp nearby! 

The afternoon was different though, as the boat launch started to become quite active, and this killed fishing for Dan. Jen and her friend Cassie were kind enough to go buy iced coffee from the local Starbucks, how sweet of them. And Rod had yummy hot dogs for everybody's lunch. A bit later, another young angler (Brendan) showed up with a crazy long fish, recorded at 28 pounds. Dave came to chat a bit and reported than he was hauling too, right close to Austin, using his heavy baiting tactics. Dan and myself looked at each other, rolled our eyes, and pondered fishing retirement for a minute... Nah, just a few seconds, no more. I landed another small fish mid-afternoon, and that was it. I was rooting for Jathan who did amazing during the first day (he was in the lead), and did ok in the morning, so he was in good shape, but needed to log a few more fish, and the afternoon was slooow for him. He did get a last minute run, then lost it, that was a bummer. Some rumors were circling about Andy and Nikki having caught 40 fish from the area where Dave and myself were fishing on Saturday, but this didn't seem believable?

Finally we reached the 4pm deadline, and wrapped up our gear. Jen and Dave were busy entering results on a laptop. It turned out that the stories about Andy and Nikki were true, except that Andy was catching catfish while Nikki was hauling carp! Nikki actually hauled so much (including upper 20s) that she ended up beating everybody and winning the tournament and the famed wooden shoes. While her daughter Maddie got a special prize with custom made wooden kid shoes (I suspect Jen spent quite some time getting those done while we were fishing), plus a golden rod from the man from the moon (that would be me - I made her believe that my strange accent was due to me coming from the moon - after all, I am an alien!). Overall, this was a VERY WELL run event, this top-8-as-you-go formula is really cool, we collectively caught a lot of fish, including real biggies, this was just terrific. Kudos to the organizers (Dave & Jen), this sounds like a classic event in the making.

When driving back to the hotel, I took a few pictures of all the tulips decorating the town. Definitely a strong Dutch heritage!

Crazy Monday

The alarm clock was set at 6am. I had a plan. Fish the same venue, all alone, with all the fish to myself. Preferably carp. Prebait a lot (I had learned my lesson - many thanks to Dan Ramir who left me a nice mix of particles to which I added a secret ingredient - I'll say no more!), and fish hard. I was still a tiny bit skeptical, so after a good deal of spodding, I cast one rod in the heavily baited area, one rod in a more lightly baited area, and one rod on the side. I quickly got a run on the latter rod, and... this was my fourth mirror! Incredible. Then to my amazement, I got a run on the heavily baited area. 10/15 minutes after I finished chumming. Really? I landed the carp, recast, and them all mayhem broke loose. Two simultaneous runs, and the 3rd rod got in motion while I was netting the first fish. Now with this railing and the long-handled net, getting a fish in the net while you're alone with your long carp rod isn't exactly easy. I got quite a workout, and finally sat down panting with 3 carp on the bank. Foolish me, I recast them all. Landed a couple of more fish, and then again... Triple run! I only got two of them, an improvised helper horsed and lost the 3rd fish, no big deal. 

This was just too much, so I decided to scale back to two rods. Ok, then, double run. And another double run. Ah come on. So I scaled back to a single rod, barely finding enough time to spod more bait between runs. Dave and Jen came to check on me, asking their ritual question 'was the trip worth it?' and I pretended that everything was (almost) normal... By lunch time, I had landed more than 20 carp, including a 24 pounder and a 28 pounder, and two more mirrors. One of the mirrors was (again) a fully scaled which gave me incredible grief, this fish just didn't want to go in the net while my arms and back were loudly complaining. More runs, more fish... I was never so happy to see my method mix run out and give me an excuse to stop for a rest. Still, just out of curiosity, I cast a rod with two kernels of corn, no method mix, in the middle of nowhere. Sat down. For a minute and a half. Got a run. Sheer insanity. There was only one way to get lunch and a quiet nap, all rods out... 

Two hours later, I had recovered some stamina, and resumed chumming. I was fearing that the school of fish had moved, I cast one rod, turned around to set up another rod and... got a run. Wicked. The afternoon was slightly less hectic than the morning, I tried using two rods, of course, I got a double run (one was a catfish - I only got a couple that day)... After a while, I was getting close to 30 carp landed, which is an absolutely insane number I never reached in one single day. I had decided to fish till I had 32. Or maybe 35. I moved past fish #30, stopped adding chum, and... landed my 7th mirror of the trip! Then quickly landed one more fish. By then, action was a tad slower, I had two rods in the water. And got a double run. The first one seemed real heavy, so I just let the other fish run its heart content. When I saw the first fish close to shore, I missed a heartbeat or two. It was massive. Luckily, a passerby helped (I almost begged him!), we netted the fish, and he was kind enough to lift the beast out of the water. I quickly played the other fish, a respectable upper teen, although puny compared to the 34 pounds monster I had on the mat (well, the mat was a tad small for such a fish, actually!). With my arms burning and stars in my eyes, I decided that I had to stop fishing at this point. Yes, Dave and Jen, it was more than worth it to come and fish the Michigan waters, going from salmon to catfish to mirrors and big carp... 

I painfully dragged myself to go clean up the extremely slimed net and landing mat and rods, had a quick dinner, then crashed in bed. 12 hours (well 10 hours plus nap time) of fishing, 34 carp landed... Incredible.

Tuesday

I had originally planned to fish on Tue morning, but wised up and just returned the gear to its rightful owner and went for a long walk along the sandy shore of Lake Michigan. This mighty body of water that I can see from the plane as I am writing those words, 10,000 feet in the air. Can't cast from here. Good, my back couldn't take it anymore...