The first time for the Chicago Carp Classic on the Chicago lakefront was surprisingly tough Saturday.
There was a lot of looking at rods on the south bank of Montrose Harbor.
It is one of my favorite views in Chicago, but a view of a fish would have added to the total picture.
Amos Behanna earned the Chicago Carp King belt buckle when he landed a 22.7-pound common carp just before noon.
The Indianapolis man is a quick learner. He fished Chicago for the first time Friday and learned that zebra mussels do a number on fishing line, so he put what is in essence a 4-foot leader of Leadcore on his line.
More another day.
I figured the six days of northeast winds would make fishing tough, and it did. But there were fish caught in the Carp Anglers Group key event.
CCC was born in Chicago on the Chicago River downtown in the 1990s, but then it wandered around North America to various sites. But it returned this year to Chicago, and it was the first time where the main event was held on the lakefront.
There will be more fun fishing today on both the lakefront and the Chicago River.
The full results of the 2011 CCC are:
Peg 37 Bogdan Tarean 9-9, 19-8 Total 29-1. North American Carp Champion, 2nd Biggest Fish, Wacker Baits Most Fish Winner
Peg 3 Amos Bahanna 22-7 Big Fish , Section Winner
Peg 39 Larry Semmens 6-1, 17-9 Total 23-10 Section Winner and Wacker Baits Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts Award for Creative Carp Gear
Peg 20 Paul Dinea 8-11, 14-4 Total 22-15 Westside Baits First Fish Winner and Section Winner
Peg 54 Dan Rooze 9-6 Section Winner
Peg 6 Mike Olinger 17-8
Peg 36 Mihai Aciu 13-3
Peg 12 Cory Bohmann 11-9
Peg 19 Ion Iacob 7-11
49 anglers participated.
As Dale noted, fishing was tough. Many more fish were hooked but lost due to cutoffs on the rocks or zebra mussels.