Competing in the FFF Tournament

The national CAG organization runs a popular tournament every year on Jan.1.  It is called the FFF, or First Fishing Folly.  The idea is to get members all over the country to go out on Jan. 1 and try to catch a carp. There are prizes for the first carp caught, the biggest common, the most, the smallest, the biggest mirror, etc.  There is also a sunrise photo contest.  It is no easy task to catch a carp at this cold time of year, but you would be surprised to find entries from such cold weather spots as Canada, inland NY, and the upper Midwest to name just a few. Hundreds of carp fishermen from all over North America will go out and fish this tournament on this day. Yes, we even try here in New England.  In all the past years I have tried to fish in this contest there was only one year in which I was able to land one common.  Today I surpassed my previous best Jan.1.
Today was a particularly cold morning.  When I got to my spot the temperature was in the upper teens but it was sunny and I was dressed for it.  Many of my winter places were frozen solid so I had to fish a moving water spot where I met up with my friend and fellow RI CAGer Todd Richer.  I was using sweet corn on the hair rig and taking a "delicate" approach as I had described in the previous post.  After about half an hour of nothing one alarm suddenly sounded and within minutes I had a 7 lb. common on the shore.  Fifteen minutes later, it was an 8 lb. mirror in the net.  Fifteen minutes after that it was a 6 lb., 8 oz mirror.  And, that was it.  The action died and I got nothing for another hour and a half before calling it quits. Considering the air temperature and the rapid water temperature decline in the last three days (not a good thing), I was pleased with the results.  See photos of the two mirrors.