Does the carp like French fries?
In the fall of the year, usually the last week of September, my son, my brother, myself, and a friend take a 3-hour trip to McConnelsville, Ohio. This is a fall fishing trip where we usually stay for about three days. We fish an area owned by AEP (America Electric Power Company) this area is open to the public; all you need is a permit that you can print from your website. AEP has around 300 lakes to fish, some are very small, while others are over a mile long. But this is not a story about fishing in the AEP area, it is a story about carp and catfish from the Muskingum River.
Every day we tour the AEP area and then at night we return to our hotel, the Three Sisters Inn at NW 60. That’s the highlight of our trip; We fish for sea bass all day and then around 4:00 pm or so we go back to the hotel to clean up a bit and then eat something. Due to the time it takes to get back to the lakes and the fact that across the road from the hotel is the Muskingum River and the hotel has its own piers, we had to try some river fishing. Usually we never fish for carp, but we think “hey, why not?” I didn’t come on this trip to sit in my hotel room and watch TV, I can do it at home.
This is where it gets interesting, but I need to give you the layout of the area. The hotel is on the main road and next to the hotel there is a small restaurant; There is no big chain, just a small town restaurant, but very good food. Within walking distance of the restaurant there is a McDonald’s restaurant. I know you are telling yourself what this has to do with carp and catfish fishing; Wait and I’ll tie it all together.
Well, this is when I decided to cross the street and try carp and catfish fishing. The others in my group were less enthusiastic about carp fishing or cat fishing. You can tell that they were a bit picky about fishing for anything other than sea bass. I was looking at my fishing gear and chose the heaviest rod and line that I had with me. I made a Kentucky rig with a single hook. But here’s the part of the story that was a little hard for people to believe. While I was gathering my fishing gear, one of the sisters at the Three Sister Hotel tells me the best bait to use for McDonald’s fries; yes you read this correctly, McDonald’s fries. So, having never fished carp before, I listened to any advice I might get. So I go down to the restaurant and buy my bait; by the way, this is the first time I was able to eat my fishing bait.
So here I am at the docks with my fries, my rod, and my reel, and ready to try my luck. When I got ready to cast, the others got bored and came to watch me fish and make fun of my bait. Well in a couple of minutes I was pulling out a 5 pound carp which gave me a great fight and cleaned the water a couple of times like a bass. I reloaded my hook with my special bait and it wasn’t long before I was attracting another fish, but this time it was a catfish. Well, it wasn’t long before the dock had four lines with the special bait and we were all fishing. My brother, who never fishes carp, became a real fan in no time and got more fish than the rest of us. We had a brilliant ideal to try the fries that are served in the little restaurant that I mentioned; but I couldn’t eat anything. Fish know what they like and closure doesn’t count.
The moral of this story is that old dogs can learn new tricks that we sure did.