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First Fishing Folly – FFF 2005By Jerome Moisand – FFF coordinator |
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First Fishing Folly – FFF 2005By Jerome Moisand – FFF coordinator |
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 So we all went fishing on Jan 1st 2005… 85 crazy anglers across 18 states (MA, CT, IL, OH, IN, MN, MO, SC, NC, CA, AZ, DC, VA, PA, IA, TX, CO, KS). Special thanks to Norm Philips and Neil Stern, as the state chairs who lined up the most guys in their respective states (IL and TX), and to Bill “Phone” Warder who remains a source of inspiration for us all, and who did go fishing on New Years Day. Many of us were really intent in catching a carp in a water temperature less than 50°F, some of us even attempted to catch a carp right after midnight, and all of us were there to prove to the world that carp angling is their very first activity of choice for the New Year! As Colleen Gorecki put it: “I can't think of a better way to spend the first of the year.” 
FFF Final Results
FFF Hall of FameAs stated in the FFF rules: Anybody crazy enough and skilled enough to catch a carp of any size on Jan 1st before 6AM (local time zone) will be entered in the very select FFF Hall of Fame. The FFF Hall of Fame is dedicated to Frank Walters, who caught the First Carp of the 3rd Millennium, on Jan 1st, 2001. 
In 2004, nobody made it... But in 2005, quite a few brave souls tried, and some of them did succeed! In addition, we decided to extend the definition of the Hall of Fame to include individuals with extraordinary achievements related to the FFF. All winners will receive a framed certificate based on a fantastic drawing from our great artist Monty Mittleman, and some additional design work from my wife Edith. With our Webmaster’s help, we will also create a Web page recording for history and posterity the members of this very select club. First and foremost, Dean Hill caught the very first carp of the year in Arizona right after midnight! In addition of being the winner of the First Carp award, he's also the first individual to enter the Hall of Fame! A few minutes later, Bill Hodge caught two carp in a row in Illinois. It took a few more hours for the next carp to be caught in North Carolina by John Bailey (4:15AM). Finally, back to Illinois, where Skip Orenstein caught his first carp of the day at 5:40 AM. That's it for carp caught before 6AM... Now, as to extraordinary achievements, here are the most remarkable stories: Amber Anderson: FFF Hero of the DayIt all started with Amber Anderson who sent me an apologetic me ssage indicating that she couldn’t fish Lockport (IL) as she had originally planned because her parents wanted to spend Jan 1st in the family summer house. Here is Amber’s recount of what happened next… "My first First Fish Folly has been quite an eventful one. I arrived at my summer house in Monticello, IN to find that the lake in front of my house was frozen. So my dad and I cut a little hole and chummed it a little bit in hopes that if all else failed we could resort back to it. So after being a little torn about that my dad and I went out scouting for a new site. After a couple of hours we settled on a plan. We started fishing the Tippecanoe River at 12. It was a bit chilly but we built a fire and had blankets. We stayed there for a couple of hours. We had no luck there, not even a bite. So then we packed up and decided we'd give that hole back at my house a shot. Well after sitting out in the cold for some time I didn't feel too well. So we went in my house for a bit. By this time it's morning and my mom was making breakfast. All of the sudden she's screaming about a dog. It turns out my neighbors dog fell through the ice and was trapped under the ice and drowning. My dad took an axe and tried breaking the around it but it kept swimming around looking for away to get out and my mom ran to get the neighbor. After a couple of minutes (I think; everything happened so fast) the dog was starting to go under. By that time, I was fed up with trying to break the ice, so I slid through the hole we made before. I swam underneath the ice and got the dog. My dad picked him up from me and tried working on him while I got out of the water. Well turns out being a lifeguard has its benefits. As soon as I got out I started CPR on the dog. After working with the dog for awhile I brought him back. I had my dad get blankets and I wrapped the dog up. After making sure she was doing ok my neighbor took her back home and I told him she should probably go to the vet. Which they did shortly after. I am glad to say that the dog is still alive, but that was the end of my fishing. My mom was too worried about me getting sick that I wasn't allowed to outside. So sadly I wasn't very successful, catching nothing, but at least I saved the dogs life." Sadly we learned that the dog ended up not surviving, but this was an incredibly brave attempt, so we decided to make Amber the FFF Hero of the Day and give her a special entry to the FFF Hall of Fame. Sure, in retrospect, this stunt could be qualified as very risky, but bravery isn’t about making reasonable moves, is it? 
Terence Mardell: FFF Doctor Honoris CausaTerry fished on Jan 1st, doing pretty good with 4 carp up to 19lb and a half. Terry really stunned me when he explained why the FFF is really a special event for him. Here is the explanation: I especially like the FFF event 'coz I've always fished Jan 1st since I first started fishing in 1961. By the way, I've never worked on my birthday and always gone fishing on that day too since 1961. Jan 1st & Nov 4th are the 2 days I always go fishing and will continue to do so even if I end up in a wheelchair. Now do some math… the guy has been fishing every year on Jan 1st for the past 45 years! Isn’t that amazing? So we decided to make Terry the “FFF Doctor Honoris Causa” and to give him a special entry ticket to the FFF Hall of Fame. 
Monty Mittleman: FFF Creative ArtistLast but not least, Monty Mittleman fantastic drawings were a really unique contribution to the FFF 2004 and the FFF 2005. Monty, your artistic skills and sense of humor never cease to delight us, and you undoubtedly deserve an entry to the FFF Hall of Fame. to end it:My own FFF in MassachusettsI went to bed around midnight after too much food and Champaign, couldn’t sleep and decided that I was really a wimp to not try myself to fish after midnight. So here I was on the Charles River at 1AM, fishing a new spot that Dom Mariano had identified the day before, lying in the snow on my unhooking mat... Although I didn’t catch anything until I finally decided to wrap up at 3AM, this was definitely a pleasant experience. End of the morning, I joined the other MA anglers who were fishing at our favorite water discharge in Cambridge, MA. Although we were lucky enough to have a very nice weather, none of us could catch a fish and moral was slowly getting a bit lower. Dom and myself decided to shake participants and move to another where we did real good a few weeks earlier. Only problem, it was frozen on New Years Eve… So we moved, and found a couple of tiny water openings in the ice. I threw a line, not believing one second this would work. And a few minutes later, I was rewarded by the biggest fish of the day, a nice 13lb carp. And the madness began, all of us catching nicely, Scott Osmond ending up the day with 12 carp, Dom Mariano catching his very first mirror, an amazing fully scaled beauty, and to really make his point, he caught a second mirror! Vinny Jeffreys made a nice attempt at catching a Baby Carp (3lb 6oz), Bill Anderson took his time to get started but did finish the day with 4 carp and even a crappie angler caught a nice 6lb with a jig! What a great time this was, smiles on all faces, 30 carp total in a few hours, all of this in a water temp of 36°F… Plus a great dinner afterwards organized by my super-wife Edith. What a day to remember. FFF quotes and short storiesDean Hill (AZ) comment’s on his first carp: Like a dream on the time! I was just telling the person who took the pic about the FFF contest and was walking back to camp when some people yelled Happy New Years when the run came, this was a 13.3 my first fish of the year." Bill Hodge (IL) moved to Lockport after his successful midnight session, and found an interesting way to get a reliable witness for his numerous catches (12 carp!): The Lockport Police Officer even got out of his squad car and helped me a couple of times." Michael Eicker (IL) witnessed: Felix Garcia (not a member yet) with a beautiful 24 pounder! Caught around 11:30 am and witnessed by Bill and Cory." Way to go Felix, now join the CAG!! Lowell King (PA): The highlight was the last fish of the morning, a beautiful mirror (just under 5 lbs.) caught on free lined maggots. What a great way to start the New Year!" 
Louis Cook and his girlfriend Becky traveled all the way to Austin, Texas and had a rather special session: I managed to land 3 ducks from a water depth of over 20 feet using specially prepared maize for bait. Each bird was hooked flawlessly in the lower bill, showing the true versatility of a correctly proportioned bolt rig. They were all kept for several minutes for observation, and released in good health. Just after dusk at 6:15, Becky leapt to attend our only run and quickly showed that fish the bank." John Bailey (NC) caught the greatest number of carp, his son Clint caught a fully scaled mirror, but he was still not satisfied: I fished 14 hours and caught 15 fish, with the largest only 8 pounds. I tried everything I could think of to try and catch more and bigger fish but nothing worked. I got no idea why the fish were so small and so few. The fishing is usually much better this time of year." Samuel Snow (who with such a last name had to fish on Jan 1st!) gave me a good laugh with these statements: "Yes, my son Sam J. came with me on the first. He thinks I am nuttier than the tourists that were taking pictures. I am getting a knee replacement in the next couple of weeks, and I told him that if he did not escort me on these expeditions I would start charging him rent to live in my house." In the same vein, Dave Barker (IA) about “spouse management”: "Yes, I am going to force my spouse to come with me. I am not freezing to death all on my own.....who's bright idea was fishing New Years Day anyway? "Rosie Barker was nice enough to actually do it! You have a great wife, David, you know that? As to whose idea is that, well somebody called Iain Murray is definitely guilty as charged… Steve Lojek (PA) has a special theory on cold water fishing: "Only managed to get 2 carp and they both hung themselves while I was napping. Ended up landing both at 9:15am (so I got a two-fer) with a water temp of 45°F. Since carp don't feed below a water temp of 50°F, they must have just been in the mood for a lip piercing!" Finally, here is what Scott Osmond had to say after our session in MA: "A couple thoughts... It is definitely doable to ice fish for carp. What we did today was ice-fishing, minus the traps. It goes to show, after 6 hours of nothingness, once found in winter, you really can catch them well..." FFF Sponsors
This year even was marked by quite a few nice prizes, notably thanks to our sponsors:
ConclusionI can now tell you afterwards that I wasn’t entirely sure this 2nd edition of the event would be enough of a success to make this event a classic that we would repeat every year. But 85 participants all over North America, who succeeded to catch 124 carp on New Year’s Day (more than 1100 pounds)? Many great stories? Enthusiasm expressed through numerous e-mails and Internet posts on the forum? Very experienced anglers who suddenly discovered winter carp fishing? I think we will do it again… One final word for Dale Willis, who initiated a great effort to line up many paylakers on Jan 1st, but couldn’t make it out there due to a severe pneumonia. I couldn’t account for the 18 paylakers who did show up because no CAG member was present, but I’d like to wish good health to Dale, and next year, paylakers will rock on Jan 1st, no doubts.  |