Brown Trout Fly Fishing Guide JEREMY EDGE Wins the 3 Rivers Carp Cup!!
By Jeremy Edge
July 30 marked this year’s annual Carp Cup in Knoxville, TN, hosted by 3 Rivers Angler. If you have ever been to any kind of fishing tournament in your life, this one is a one of a kind experience. Allen Gillespie puts this event on with the help of Outdoor Knoxille as a benefit for the Legacy Parks Foundation, and it always draws a pretty fun crowd! This year’s event was my third carp cup. I won the 2014 Individual class, came up short in 2015 and had a good feeling about 2016. Check-in started 8am and due to weather rolling in I showed up, got my carp cup ruler and rolled out to the French Broad. Just outside of Knoxville is the Douglas and Cherokee Reservoir. Below Douglas is the French Broad and below Cherokee is the Holston River; both being tail waters they offer a very rich ecosystem for fish to thrive in, and with reasonable flows can offer top notch sight fishing to multiple species such as small mouth, carp, gar, and drum.
I had fished the FB in weeks past and knew what I had to do and where to hopefully find fish. I wasn’t on the water twenty minutes before I had my first carp and I was off and rolling…or so I thought.
I had fished the FB in weeks past and knew what I had to do and where to hopefully find fish. I wasn’t on the water twenty minutes before I had my first carp and I was off and rolling…or so I thought.
In my experience, if you catch a nice fish within the first hour, it’s usually the kiss of death, and this time it took shape in the form of a rain storm. The storm rolled on for about an hour as I laid up under a tree in my kayak trying to stay as dry as I could, watching fish tails pop out of the water every now and then. When the heavens parted and the rain stopped, it provided that “Good God it’s Hot!” type humidity for a few hours, then the fish began to move and eat.
The afternoon brought hungry fish and awesome weather! I netted three more common carp and my very first mirror carp
that afternoon. After a day of paddling, fishing, cursing, laughing, more cursing, and five carp, I called it a day and rolled back to Outdoor Knoxville Adventure Center for weigh-in at 6pm. The tournament is judged on the five largest carp a team/solo can catch with 1 in = 1 point, and whoever has the most points wins their division. Anglers rolled in over the next hour and I always love the fish stories, horror stories, and Cinderella stories that come with it. The award ceremony started at 7 pm and I wasn’t sure how I fared against the competition, but felt I had a good shot. After all was said and done, I won the Individual/Kayak class with five fish totaling 122 inches.
Prizes were awesome, good times were had by all and I thank all the sponsors that helped put this event on. If you’re looking for something fishy to do come next July, I highly recommend driving yourself to Knoxville, TN, and come check out the best carp fishing in the southeast. Thanks again to 3 Rivers Angler, Outdoor Knoxville, and all the Knoxville anglers for making this an awesome event.
Prizes were awesome, good times were had by all and I thank all the sponsors that helped put this event on. If you’re looking for something fishy to do come next July, I highly recommend driving yourself to Knoxville, TN, and come check out the best carp fishing in the southeast. Thanks again to 3 Rivers Angler, Outdoor Knoxville, and all the Knoxville anglers for making this an awesome event.To book a trip with Jeremy Edge call us at 803-431-9437