Having missed the 1997 Chicago Carp Classic (CCC) I was eagerly anticipating attending this years event. I started making plans to attend as far back as April with John Jennings, a.k.a. CarpFvr, another CAG member from Colorado. Unfortunately, John hit a spot of bad luck in the weeks leading up to the Classic and was unable to attend. Having booked my flight through Denver, however, I was able to meet this charming gentleman and his wife Lorna, if only briefly during my layover. John was kind enough to pass me a packet of Solar back lead clips which would later prove to be essential. Thanks John, we'll have to get together soon.

On to Chicago. I arrived Thursday afternoon and soon found myself crawling through heavy traffic in my rental car. The long trek from the airport to the hotel was rewarded, however, by finding Jack Rowe sitting in the hotel lobby. Jack immediately recognized me as the "U-boat Capt'n", a moniker he had bestowed upon me at the Oklahoma Fish-in back in April, presumably due to my habit of placing my sunglasses above the bill of my cap when not in use. Anyway by the time I checked in, several CAG stalwarts had arrived including, Pres. Bud Yancey and the famous Nigel Griffin.


Next stop was Paul's woodshop for a hospitable corn boil and social. CCC founder Warren Bird and several other travelers were present. It was great meeting so many people every bit as addicted to carp angling as myself. The night went without a hitch, great food, great company, great boiled maize. Well almost without a hitch, I managed to lock the rental car keys in the trunk of the locked rental. Paul was more than gracious in giving me and my passengers a lift back to the hotel. Thanks again Paul.






Friday dawned, and after retrieving the rental car, I made my way to the Lincoln Park Lagoon, sight of the pre-Classic fish-in. What a beautiful venue with a nice view or the Chicago skyline to the south. While no carp were caught this day, many friendships were struck and several very informative demonstrations were given. Nigel gave a talk on advanced carp rigs, Jack Rowe showed how to make and fish floats, Tom Conner demonstrated his famous carp flies, and Bob Williamson of the Illinois DNR gave a talk on the biology of our favorite quarry. All in all it was a fun day. The highlight of the afternoon was Lloyd Wolverton’s steelhead or salmon that hit a boilie of all things, made a few lightning fast jumps, and pulled the hook.


Friday evening saw the annual CAG business meeting. Among other things, the prizes were displayed. Warren told us all about what we could expect at the event. Among other things, he mentioned that if past Classics were any guide, the big fish would likely come during the first few minutes of the event. Various administrative issues were discussed and at the end, Max Cottis of Fox Tackle from England gave a talk and showed clips from a three video set which he starred in. Talk around the hotel bar following the meeting, focused on renewed acquaintances and tactics for the following day's tournament. Through a chance set of circumstances, Nigel ended up rooming with me in order to make room for Quid. Little did we know what the next day would hold.







Saturday morning dawned. The day of the Classic had finally arrived. I had yet to even see the venue but had thoroughly quizzed as many of the locals and previous contestants as possible. By the time I saw the venue, I pretty much knew what to expect. The venue is smack dab in the middle of downtown Chicago. There are skyscrapers all around and city streets flow over bridges crossing the river. The bank was about 8 ft down the wall to water level. Just inches from the wall the water was about 10 ft deep. The depth sloped gradually deeper toward the middle channel and then back shallower to where it met with the far wall on the river. I'd guess that the width varied from 50 to 90 yards along the stretch the tourney was to be held.








As the time for the Peg Draw drew nearer, more and more carp anglers began to arrive. By the time the drawing was underway, 100 anglers were awaiting their peg assignments. As each contestants name was called, he or she would head off to the assigned stretch of shore line to set up and bait up. Rumor had it that the lower #'d pegs were the place to be so everyone hoped for an early draw. Nigel didn't have to wait long as he was drawn for peg #2. As the first 19 pegs were assigned, I began to hope my name would be called soon. At long last, "Peg 20, Brian Nordberg" was announced and off I headed to find what hand I had been dealt.

As luck would have it, my peg was located right in front of a city sewer runoff pipe vent. Cool mists gently rose from the vent and served as an oddly scented air conditioner. I began by baiting up with maize along the near wall. I then began to lay out a line of maize from the center of my peg to the center of the river. Finally, I tried using my catapult to make a line of maize parallel to the flow of the river out in the center channel. I hoped that this capital "I" shaped pattern would intercept cruising fish on the near half of the river. I planned to start with hookbaits at the near and far intercepts. Despite some concerns about "overfeeding" from a contestant in an adjacent peg, I baited quite heavily using about half of the 3 gallons of maize I had with me.

While I waited for the start, I busied myself preparing the baits I was to use. The maize had been flavored with Scopex and sweetened with molasses. I planned to use Pescaviva Strawberry sweetcorn in close and maize at a distance. Quid Blankley had been kind enough to contribute about a quart of breadcrumb and sweet corn groundbait. I planned to mold a bit of this light groundbait around my sinker with each cast. I hoped that any current present would wash a trail of goodies downstream and allow the carp to home in on my hookbait. As for rigs, short 6 to 8 inch braided bolt/hair rigs were to be used with the maize. The hair was long enough to place 3 grains of maize and two discs of pop-up foam in an alternating pattern. To extend the attraction principle, the foam was used to absorb Scopex and corn juice as well as to pop up the rig. Finally, the hookbait was to be dipped in a molasses/Scopex mixture between each cast. Aside from the foam, the same tactics were used with the side hooked sweetcorn. In hind sight, I see I went all out to make high attraction hookbaits.

Finally the water cannon indicating the start of the match fired and I lobbed my baits into place. With the rods on the pod, I set about organizing my tackle so that any re-rigging or changes could be accomplished quickly and efficiently. My third rod stood against a tree behind me rigged and baited should I need it at a moments notice. Off to my right I could see that another contestant was into the first fish of the match along my stretch of the river. I watched intently, as the angler recast and made a mental note of the distance. I turned my attention back to my swim and was pondering the play of the shadows on the water when I noticed my left dangler slowly begin to rise!

It wasn't a screamer or a twitch but just a slow steady rise. I lifted the rod from the pod just as the line pulled straight. The first moments following the pick up continued the slow steady take. After I disengaged the baitrunner with a turn of the handle, the line slowly pulled tighter and tighter until the drag began to slowly give line. The fish seemed to be cruising along nearly unaware it had been hooked. Then it turned and swam straight toward me only turning when it neared the wall beneath my feet. Having the fish on such a short leash, I loosened the drag a click or two. Now the fish was off with a burst, line pouring off my reel. It didn't stop until it had nearly regained all the line it had given up. The rest of the battle consisted of mostly side to side wanderings.

I knew from the pace of the battle and the solid feel that this would turn out to be a nice fish. The steward had arrived, alerted I'm sure by my frantic gestures and word of mouth passed from peg to peg. He arrived just as the fish surfaced an rolled on its side. Of course once the net reached the water, the fish found its last measure of strength and did its best to dodge the net a couple of times. By the third or fourth pass the fish relented and allowed itself to be netted. I see and feel as I hoisted it up the wall that I'd caught a whacker. It looked every bit of 20 lb. and went nearly that high on the competition scales at 18.9 lb. Having only been fishing for less than half an hour, my adrenaline was pumping. The fish was quickly taken to the display tank by the steward and I refocused on getting my line back in the water.





As the morning drifted on, I managed a couple small fish of about 3.5 and 6 lb. Of course by now, news of the big one had spread and the stewards were kind enough to report back to me the progress of the others. Nigel had already caught 4 or 5 fish and the total weight of his 4 best fish outweighed my 3 fish by about 5 lb. I knew I was still in the hunt if I could just manage a decent fourth fish. Around 1 PM I lost a fish almost immediately after the hook-up due to a hook pull. Then things went quite for me. I continued to watch and noticed that Walt Matan was still pulling in fish from just past mid channel on out to the far wall. After seeing him catch a couple of fish this way, and recalling a similar location from the early fish I had observed, I decided it was time to make a change.


Off came the third rig, and on went the spod. I began baiting the far wall with spod after spod of maize. As it was nearing 2 PM, I knew and I knew time was running out as the 4 PM cut off was fast approaching. I retrieved the Solar back lead clips that John had given me in Denver and prepared to make the approx. 75 yd cast across the river. No sooner had I made my first cast than along came a big tour boat. I hurriedly clipped the back lead on just ahead of the rod tip and dropped the lead into the water. As I reached for the reel handle to wind in the slack, the line tightened and began to pour off the spool. The tour boat had caught my line and there was nothing left to do but clamp down on the spool and pull for a break. !@#$%$#

As I reeled in the limp broken line, I turned to look for my third baited rod. Alas, I had removed the rig to tie on the spod and had no back up. I sat the rigless rod back on the pod and retrieved the second rod which had since been rebaited with maize due to my success with the earlier fish. After looking both ways and timing the passage of the tour boats I cast to the far wall amongst the bait I had spodded. After clipping on the back lead and pulling the slack out of the line, I feverishly tied up another rig on the rod that had been snapped off. It too was placed at distance about 3/4 of the way across and back leaded. At last, within 15 min. of repositioning the baits I landed a fourth fish. It weighed just shy of 5 lb.

Doing the math, I realized that these four fish were not enough to edge past Nigel. I knew that during the last hour of the match I needed to catch a larger fish to cull the dinky 3.5 lber. As fate would have it, my next fish was bigger, nearly 7 lb. Now I was feeling flush, that feeling lasted about a minute. That’s when the steward told me that Nigel had not become a stationary target but rather had increased the total weight of his four best fish. At this point I knew he was slightly ahead but I did not know the exact margin of his lead. I fished feverishly through the last 45 minutes hoping and searching for one last double. However, it was not to be as I finished the match without another touch.

In my haste to pack my gear and return to the judges tables I managed to lose my score card. In a panic I retraced my steps back to my peg. Frantically I searched with the assistance of the steward which had covered my section. It was imperative that I find the card which had been firmly planted in by back pocket most of the day because the last two fish (my fourth and the one that replaced the dink) had not yet been recorded at the judges table. After what seemed hours, but was only minutes, I found the card lying on the ground beneath my vehicle. It must have slipped out as I stowed my gear. With great relief, I took my card to the scorer’s table and entered my results.


As the crowd gathered for the announcement of the results, I learned that my big fish from early in the day had managed to hold on as the largest of the day. That knowledge put a smile on my face as I looked forward to receiving the beautiful silver and gold "Chicago Carp King" belt buckle. What I didn't know was where the total weight of my four best fish would place me. Nigel was in first place, but after that it was hard to tell. Walt Matan after all, seemed to have a fish on just about every time I looked his direction and who knows what the others caught in distant pegs. Once the order of finish had been announced I was pleasantly surprised. My four largest carp managed 36.4 lb. and placed me second to North American Carp Champion Nigel Griffin who's top four reached 37.7 lb. With the additional recognition of taking the Michigan Ave. section trophy I had quite an armful of booty for the days efforts.


Back at the hotel, I felt almost guilty seeing Nigel's giant silver North American Carp Cup, his First place trophy, my Chicago Carp King buckle and Michigan Ave trophy all in the same room. With 100 contestants participating, what are the odds of that much hardware ending up in a single room? I guess the odds go up if you room with Nigel. In addition to the awards, I also received a Krafty Katcher rod and the three video set, "Fox Guide to Advanced Carp Fishing." This last prize is the one I had my eye on from the first day. In the two days following the Classic, I had the privilege of fishing with the star of these videos, Max Cottis of Fox Tackle who was kind enough to autograph one of the videos. In fact, we found fantastic action in the local harbors of Lake Michigan. Max caught twenty after twenty and even I managed a few past the twenty pound mark. In terms of numbers and size of fish present, the harbors are not to be missed.

Alas, all good things come to an end. My Monday afternoon flight came all too quickly. After seeing off Max and his wife at the airport, I too boarded my plane. As I flew home, I couldn't help but wonder when I could return. The people, the city, the friendly competition, and the fish all came together in a perfect blend to make this Classic one to remember.

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Last modified July 1999 Oat

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