A review of the five straight Thanksgiving weekend carp tournaments held at Joliet’s Bicentennial Park since 2007 shows that records were set at the November 26, 2011 version of the event. Unfortunately, the 2011 Turkey Trot Carp Tournament set records for lowest ever total weight caught by all anglers, lowest ever number of fish captured for the day, lowest ever total weight recorded by the winner, lowest ever weight for the big fish of the day, etc., etc.

A recent shift in weather patterns and a constant, miserable rain throughout most of the day evidently had the fish feeling miserable as well and without the appetite that is typical of the Joliet carp at this time of year. At the November 2010 Turkey Trot Tournament, 117 carp, weighing 882 pounds were recorded. The 2011 totals show that only 28 carp, weighing a paltry 189 pounds graced our weigh-slings.

Nevertheless, credit is due to the fearless anglers who met the weather head-on while fishing hard throughout the day. Frank Rink drew a lucky peg and won this year’s tournament with 13 fish, weighing 66 pounds, 1 ounce. Ioan “Jacob” Iacob caught two fish, but both were of decent size, making Jacob the second place finisher with 26 pounds, 2 ounces. Jacob also took big fish honors and won the $100 big fish pot with a 14-4. Cory Bohmann weighed four fish totaling 23-10 for third place honors. (Winners pictured at right.)

In addition to the 50%-30%-20% split of entry fees for the top three finishers, Mihai Aciu of Extreme Carpfishing graciously procured $50-$25-$25-$25 gift certificates generously donated by Anglers International Resources of Palatine for the first place, second place, third place, and big fish winners. Mihai also donated award certificates for the tournament winners. Thanks to Mihai, Extreme Carpfishing and Anglers International Resources!

Larry Kirchner from Fighting Roughfish/Carpfishing Now generously donated a $30.00 Bait/Gear package for last place in total weight “won” from difficult pegs by Istvan Gyori and Paul Dinea; a $20.00 Bait/Gear Package for heaviest catfish won by Frank Rink (1 lb., 14 oz.); and a $10.00 Bait/Gear Package for smallest carp won by Frank Rink (1 lb., 0 oz.). Thanks to Larry for his support!

Trophies have also been ordered and will be distributed to the winners at a later date.

Special thanks to those who attended the event and handled the difficult weather/conditions:

(Name of angler followed by peg number; weight of each individual fish; number of fish caught; and total weight)
Mihai Aciu (peg 5; 10-6, 7-13; two fish caught; 18-3 total weight)
Cory Bohmann (peg 4; 3-10, 8-14, 6-8, 4-10; four fish caught; 23-10 total weight)
Bogdan Bucur (peg 14; 7-14; one fish caught; 7-14 total weight)
Paul Dinea (peg 2; 0-0; no fish caught; 0-0 total weight)
Istvan Gyori (peg 6; 0-0; no fish caught; 0-0 total weight)
Ioan “Jacob” Iacob (pictured right) (peg 8; 14-4, 11-14; two fish caught; 26-2 total weight)
Tracy Jourdan (peg 1; 9-1, 12-6; two fish caught; 21-7 total weight)
Mike Olinger (peg 13; 7-6, 9-11, 2-11; three fish caught; 19-12 total weight)
Frank Rink (peg 7; 5-14, 3-7, 6-4, 9-10, 1-13, 3-1, 1-0, 11-1, 5-6, 2-8, 10-13, 2-11, 2-9; thirteen fish caught; 66-1 total weight)
Tony Sladek (peg 3; 6-10, one fish caught; 6-10 total weight)

Thanks, also, to those who had the courtesy to let us know that they would be unable to attend for weather-related or other reasons.

A few more pictures (Thanks to Mike Olinger and Cory Bohmann):

Cory Bohmann with one of four from peg 4	Tony Sladek at peg 3
Nice venue at rarely used east side	7:00 a.m. - Ready for draw
Rainy venue	Peg draw "central"

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