I think this is the craziest thing I've ever done fishing...

Dave ( front) and Clay ( if Dave's in front I assume you know where Clay is) trying desperately for a carp 

Clay, Dave, myself, Todd all smiles before our trip

Today I went up to New Hampshire carp fishing with my friends Clay and Dave from Catch-them -all ( see link to the side). They had not caught a carp yet in there quest to catch and eat every species in New Hampshire. Since I do a lot of carp fishing, it was hoped that I could come through and help them catch a carp. Unfortunately, it is late December, so like my chances of catching a salmon last week, chances were slim.

We met at a boat ramp below a power plant in Bow, NH.
We met just after 8 am. This meant I had to get out of my perfectly warm bed to drive an hour and a half to paddle upstream on deadly cold water in thirty degree temps at 5:30 AM!!! I hope this is telling you that I knew it was absolutely nuts to go!!! Besides myself, Clay and Dave, we met Todd. Todd also has his own blog www.nhundiscoveredtrout.blogspot.com. His blog is about fishing remote trout ponds with two of his sons. I had never met him before. Since I am very interested in remote trout ponds, as usual I asked a million questions. Luckily, Todd is a firefighter so it was nice to know someone knew CPR if we fell out of the canoe and there was an emergency.

I had tried to tell these guys that our chances of catching a carp in late December were slim. Also there was no way to prebait the area since it was so far from all of our homes and a ten minute paddle upstream. However Clay is such a ridiculous optimist, I got excited about the warm water and in my mind I our chances improved exponentially

I was pleasantly surprised that the thirty degree temps did not feel bad at all. There wasn't any wind so I only needed the sweatpants I was wearing and didn't have to sissy up and rip out my ski pants I brought with me. Remember I was fishing with New Hampshire guys. These dudes don't wear gloves after putting there hand in a hole when ice fishing. I had to look tough for I was representing all the Massholes south of the border. Like I said though, either I am toughening up to the cold myself, or it really wasn't that bad. The only thing that got cold was my left foot. I spilled coffee on my sneaker while paddling upstream. That felt nice at first until the cold set in. Because I packed everything except the kitchen sink, I had toe warmers with me, so I put them on and my coffee soaked foot got toasty warm.

After a 10 minute paddle we came to a small cove that is fed by a warm water discharge from the powerplant. As we were finding a place to anchor up, Todd saw a carp. I saw the bubble trail. That was great news, carp were in the area. We baited up, I showed Clay how to use a hair rig and method mix. Within minutes Dave got a smallmouth on a lure while Clay and myself carp fished. Todd fly-fished. Dave's smallmouth was the only fish we caught in FOUR HOURS. The only other fish we saw was a sunfish near shore.

After four hours of this nonsense we went below a dam in Hookset and tried the oxygenated water there. In an hour our results were the same.  The only thing I can say is time went by quickly. There were a lot of laughs. It was the first time I met Dave and Todd. I reminded Clay and Dave I would love to go up to the white perch spawn and fish for rock bass next spring.After nearly seven hours of fishing and paddling, we packed up, did the ceremonial hand shake, and went in separate directions to our homes with the heater on high in all our vehicles.

  I wish we could have caught a carp, so they could have added it to the quest. Since we only needed to catch one between us, it was disappointing not to hook up with one.So I tried to look at it this way, it was a bad day fishing but if you looked at it as just hanging out with friends for a few hours, it was a good time.

After Clay puts up a web album I will steal some pictures and add them to the blog. Also, check back often the next few days, I am doing my end of the year review in three parts.