Carptorious: Winter throws a punch, I am still standing (Barely)

 The weather was tough today.  Somebody at Weather.com was delusional.  Their prediction?  49 and partly sunny.  Reality?  Most of the time I fished it was probably at least a couple degrees south or 40, completely overcast with snow flurries.  My goals for the day?  Get some outside time, maybe catch a fish and try not to kill myself slipping in the snow.  I was not very optimistic on all counts.  

To my surprise in the first 10 minutes I found 2 pods of 3 fish in a side channel.  Because of the lack of sun they were really hard to see but my impression was that the were at least neutral.  Possibly actively feeding. 

I had on the same lightly weighed Egan's Headstand I ended with last weekend.  It was too light for the current they were in, but my hands were too cold to re-tie so I cast well ahead of the fish and went with an extended dead-drift to reach bottom.  I am not a fan or particularly good at dead-drifting for carp but it is effective sometimes.  This morning it was golden as I hooked and landed 2 fish in about 15 minutes.  Dumb luck really but I am still amazingly un-skunked in 2011 and I will take it.

I was pretty much done fishing at that point.  I couldn't find any more fish, my hands were freezing and I was over it.  Eventually I gave up and went to a different section where I knew a friend and some of his buddies might be.  They had also written off the rest of the day and were chilling (literally) on the bank and practicing spey-casting of all things.  After putzing around for carp briefly I joined them.  All three are members of the cross-species revolution and it was great to just hang out, BS, and meet some new people.  Great guys.

They even gave me the chance to try and throw what felt like a thousand pound skagitt line that they were throwing into the next county.  Fortunately nobody was badly hurt.  Actually I don't know that for sure.  If there were any fish sitting 5 feet in front of me I either brained them or they died laughing.