Asian Carp Redneck Touney Heat 1

Howdy fellow Rednecks and the other reader too-- you know who you are!  :)

This weekend was a fun one, I went south to Merom, Indiana to compete in a Asian Carp Redneck Tourney.  I was told it would be similar to this one, a few hours north east, in Bath, Illinois:

In order to prepare for such a tournament, I packed all the usual, life jackets, extra clothes, snacks, cooler full of pop and water.  Plus, for this tourney, I had gathered helmets and extra fishing nets. 

You see, I was told that the flying carp in the Wabash are big.  They have reputations for knocking folk's out, as in out of the boat and out cold.

So, me and the kiddos were planning to protect our brain box and our important parts with helmets and thick padded life vests. 

I had been making plans for the past several weeks to meet a buddy, Mike, and his friends.

The tournament was conducted in two heats.  The first heat, had six registered teams.  Fully Kraeusened is Mike's team, and Illini is the team I was with.

 The day was beautiful weather, a bit on the warm side, but not bad for swimming.

I kept looking out at the water expecting to see jumping fish.  I never did spot any jumping fish from shore.

The only thing jumping on the shore was a toad that Gladdie caught.

I was keeping an eye on the weather and noticed reports of dangerously high water levels on the Wabash. 

The levels didn't seem to be too extremely high, but then again I am a newbie to that area.

I was able to find Mike and his boat right away; it's the only one I've seen with shark teeth.  :)

Gladys found half a fish petrified in the mud-- BLAH!

 The high water levels and faster than usual current were big reasons why the carp were not very jumpy.

We had a little bit of time before we went out on the river, so we went for a tractor ride to check out the Chautauqua Festival.

The tractor ride went up to the top of the hill stopped, went and back down.

The river bluff trail was very beautiful:

And it felt like it was air conditioned.

Did I ever mention my husband, Glenn, does not care for fishing?  Yes, well that is indeed the case.

He tells me it's too barbaric and disgusting for him.  Now please keep in mind, 98% if the time I successfully practice catch and release.  Also, I tend to use my fly rod almost exclusively during open water.  Thus, I generally avoid live bait and anything gross as much as possible.

Soooo, when Glenn told me he was coming with to the Asian Carp Redneck Tourney, I was quite surprised!

 

After picking my jaw up,  I kindly explained that out of all the fishing events I attend, this one may not be for him.

From what I understand, Asian Carp, being a highly invasive species, are not welcomed in our waters.  Thus, when they are caught, they are not to be released.

Also, they tend to bleed rather easy.  Asian Carp are a slimy, stinky fish.
 

In fact, the man that gave us a ride on his air boat, would not even allow Asian Carp inside his vessel.

That should indicate the grossness factor of those fish.

To be grossed out by catching a few gills and bass is nothing in comparison to catching Asian Carp. 

I even showed him the helmets!  :)

I gotta say, Glenn was a good sport for the entire day.

In the video at the beginning of this post, the teams caught 300-500 Asian Carp during the 2-hour heat.  Matt, a seasoned veteran of this sport, and his team brought in 4 Asian Carp, plus a basketball, at the end of the first heat.

Some teams did not bring in any fish.  The team with the most fish from the first heat had a total of eight Asian Carp.

Mike pointed out the fishes filtering system.  Do you see it?

After the first heat ended, we had an hour before we went out for the second heat.  I'll be posting about that soon!  :)